Isaiah 42

1. “Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold; My Elect, in Whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

2. He shall not cry out, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

3. A bruised reed He shall not break, and a smoking wick He shall not quench; in truth He shall bring forth justice.

4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged until He has set justice in the earth; and the isles shall wait for His law.”

5. Thus says the LORD God, He who created the heavens and stretched them out, spreading forth the earth and its offspring; He Who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it.

6. “I the LORD have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a Light to the Gentiles;

7. To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness out of the prison house.

8. I am the LORD; that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.

9. Behold, the former things have come to pass. And new things I declare; before they happen, I tell you of them.”

10. Sing to the LORD a new song; His praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and its fullness; the isles and their people.

11. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages where Kedar dwells. Let the dwellers of the rock sing, let them shout from the mountain tops.

12. Give glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the isles.

13. The LORD shall go forth as a warrior, He stirs up zeal like a man of war; He shouts, yea, roars; He overcomes His enemies.

14. “I have held My peace for a long time; I have been still and refrained Myself. Now I will cry like a woman in pangs of labor, I will pant and gasp at once.

15. I will make waste the mountains and hills, and dry up all their plants. And I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

16. And I will bring the blind by a way they knew not; I will lead them in paths they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and rugged places plain. I will do these things to them, and not forsake them.

17. They are turned back, they are greatly ashamed, those who trust in graven images and who say to the images, ‘You are our gods.’

18. Hear, you deaf ones; and you blind ones look to see.

19. Who is blind but My servant? Or deaf, as My messenger whom I sent? Who is blind as he who is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?

20. You see many things, but do not pay attention. Your ears are open, but no one hears.”

21. The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will magnify the Law and make it glorious.

22. But this is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivers them; for a spoil, and none says, “Give back.”

23. Who among you will hear this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

24. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? Did not the LORD, against Whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, nor did they obey His law.

25. Therefore He has poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle. And it has set him on fire all around, yet he did not know; and it burned him, yet he did not lay it to heart.