Isaiah 42

¹Behold my servant , whom I uphold , my chosen , in whom my soul delights ; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations .

²He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice , or make it heard in the street ;

³a bruised reed he will not break , and a faintly burning wick he will not quench ; he will faithfully bring forth justice .

⁴He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth ; and the coastlands wait for his law .

⁵Thus says God , the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out , who spread out the earth and what comes from it , who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

⁶I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness ; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people , a light for the nations ,

⁷to open the eyes that are blind , to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon , from the prison those who sit in darkness .

⁸I am the Lord; that is my name ; my glory I give to no other , nor my praise to carved idols .

⁹Behold , the former things have come to pass , and new things I now declare ; before they spring forth I tell you of them.

¹⁰Sing to the Lord a new song , his praise from the end of the earth , you who go down to the sea , and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants .

¹¹Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits ; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy , let them shout from the top of the mountains .

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands .

¹³The Lord goes out like a mighty man , like a man of war he stirs up his zeal ; he cries out , he shouts aloud , he shows himself mighty against his foes .

¹⁴For a long time I have held my peace ; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor ; I will gasp and pant .

¹⁵I will lay waste mountains and hills , and dry up all their vegetation ; I will turn the rivers into islands , and dry up the pools .

¹⁶And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know , in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light , the rough places into level ground . These are the things I do , and I do not forsake them .

¹⁷They are turned back and utterly put to shame , who trust in carved idols , who say to metal images , You are our gods .

¹⁸Hear , you deaf , and look , you blind , that you may see !

¹⁹Who is blind but my servant , or deaf as my messenger whom I send ? Who is blind as my dedicated one , or blind as the servant of the Lord?

²⁰He sees many things , but does not observe them; his ears are open , but he does not hear .

²¹The Lord was pleased , for his righteousness ’ sake , to magnify his law and make it glorious .

²²But this is a people plundered and looted ; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons ; they have become plunder with none to rescue , spoil with none to say , Restore !

²³Who among you will give ear to this , will attend and listen for the time to come ?

²⁴Who gave up Jacob to the looter , and Israel to the plunderers ? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned , in whose ways they would not walk , and whose law they would not obey ?

²⁵So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle ; it set him on fire all around , but he did not understand ; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart .