Isaiah 42
1Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen one, in him I take delight. 1 I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring justice to the nations. 1
2He will not cry out nor shout, nor make his voice heard in the streets. 1
3A crushed reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench: 1 he will faithfully execute justice. 1
4He will not grow faint nor be discouraged 1 until he has established justice on the earth; 1 and the coastlands wait for his law. 1
5This is what God Yahweh says— 1 the one who created the heavens and stretched them out, the one who made the earth and all that it produces, 1 the one who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who live on it: 1
6“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. 1 I will keep you and set you as a covenant for the people, as a light for the Gentiles, 1
7to open the eyes of the blind, to release the prisoners from the dungeon, 1 and from the house of confinement those who sit in darkness. 1
8I am Yahweh, that is my name; 1 and my glory I will not share with another nor my praise with carved idols. 1
9See, the previous things came to pass, 1 now I am about to declare new events. 1 Before they begin to occur I will tell you about them.” 1
10Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; 1 you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the coastlands, and those who live there. 1
11Let the desert and the cities cry out, the villages where Kedar lives, shout for joy! 1 Let the inhabitants of Sela sing; let them shout from the mountaintops. 1
12Let them give glory to Yahweh and declare his praise in the coastlands. 1
13Yahweh will go out as a warrior; as a man of war he will stir up his zeal. 1 He will shout, yes, he will roar his battle cries; he will show his enemies his power. 1
14I have kept quiet for a long time; I have been still and restrained myself; 1 now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. 1
15I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; 1 and I will turn the rivers into islands and will dry up the marshes. 1
16I will bring the blind by a way that they do not know; in paths that they do not know I will lead them. 1 I will turn the darkness into light before them, and make the crooked places straight. 1 These things I will do, and I will not abandon them. 1
17They will be turned back, they will be completely put to shame, those who trust in carved figures, 1 who say to cast metal figures, “You are our gods.” 1
18Listen, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see. 1
19Who is blind but my servant? Or deaf like my messenger I send? 1 Who is as blind as my covenant partner, or blind as Yahweh's servant? 1
20You see many things, but do not comprehend; ears are open, but no one hears. 1
21It pleased Yahweh to praise his justice and to make his law glorious. 1
22But this is a people robbed and plundered; 1 they are all trapped in pits, held captive in prisons; 1 they have become a plunder with no one to rescue them, and no one says, “Bring them back!” 1
23Who among you will listen to this? Who will listen and hear in the future? 1
24Who gave Jacob over to the robber, and Israel to the looters? 1 Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned, 1 in whose ways they refused to walk, and whose law they refused to obey? 1
25Therefore he poured out on them his fierce anger and the violence of war, 1 Its flames encircled them, yet they did not understand; 1 it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.