Isaiah 42 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh’s Chosen Servant

42“^aBehold, My ^bServant, whom I ¹uphold;My ^cchosen one in whom My ^dsoul is well-pleased.I have put My ^eSpirit upon Him;He will bring forth ^fjustice to the ²nations.²“He will not cry out or raise His voice,Nor make His voice heard in the street.³“A crushed reed He will not breakAnd a faintly burning wick He will not extinguish;He will bring forth ^ajustice in truth.⁴“He will not be ^afaint or crushedUntil He has established justice in the earth;And the ^bcoastlands will wait expectantly for His ¹law.”

⁵Thus says the God, Yahweh, Who ^acreated the heavens and ^bstretched them out,Who spread out the ^cearth and its ¹offspring,Who ^dgives breath to the people on itAnd spirit to those who walk in it,

⁶“I am Yahweh, I have ^acalled You in righteousness;I will also ^btake hold of You by the hand and ^cguard You,And I will give You as a ^dcovenant to the people,As a ^elight to the nations,⁷To ^aopen blind eyes,To ^bbring out prisoners from the dungeonAnd those who inhabit darkness from the prison.⁸“^aI am Yahweh, that is ^bMy name;I will not give My ^cglory to another,Nor My praise to ¹graven images.⁹“Behold, the ^aformer things have come to pass;Now I declare ^bnew things;Before they spring forth I cause you to hear them.”¹⁰Sing to Yahweh a ^anew song,Sing His praise from the ^bend of the earth!^cYou who go down to the sea, ^das well as its fullness.You ^ecoastlands, and those who inhabit them.¹¹Let the ^awilderness and its cities lift up their voices,The villages where ^bKedar inhabits.Let the inhabitants of ^cSela sing aloud,Let them shout for joy from the tops of the ^dmountains.¹²Let them ^agive glory to YahwehAnd declare His praise in the ^bcoastlands.¹³^aYahweh will go forth like a warrior;He will awaken His ^bzeal like a man of war.He will make a loud shout, indeed, He will raise a war cry.He will ^cprevail against His enemies.

Israel’s Blindness and Deafness

¹⁴“^aI have kept silent for a long time;I have kept still and restrained Myself.Now like a woman in labor I will groan;I will both gasp and pant.¹⁵“I will ^alay waste the mountains and hillsAnd dry up all their vegetation;I will ^bmake the rivers into coastlandsAnd dry up the pools of waters.¹⁶“I will ^alead the blind by a way they do not know,In paths they do not know I will guide them.I will ^bmake darkness into light before themAnd ^crugged places into plains.These are the things I will do,And I will ^dnot forsake them.”¹⁷They will be turned back and be ^autterly put to shame,Who trust in graven images,Who say to molten images,“You are our gods.”¹⁸^aHear, you deaf!And look, you blind, that you may see.¹⁹Who is blind but My ^aservant,Or so deaf as My ^bmessenger whom I send?Who is so blind as he that is ¹^,^cat peace with Me,Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh?²⁰^aYou have seen many things, but you do not keep them;Your ears are open, but none hears.²¹Yahweh was pleased for His righteousness’ sakeThat He make the law ^agreat and majestic.²²But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil;All of them are ^atrapped in ¹caves,Or are ^bhidden away in prisons;They have become a plunder with none to deliver them,And a spoil, with none to say, “Have them return!”²³Who among you will give ear to this?Who will give heed and hear hereafter?²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned,And in whose ways they ^awere not willing to walk,And whose law they did not ^bobey?²⁵So He poured out on him the heat of His angerAnd the ^afierceness of battle;And it set him aflame all around,Yet he did not know it;And it burned him, but he did not ^bset it upon his heart.