Isaiah 42

1 Behold, My servant, I take hold on Him, My Chosen One—My soul has accepted, I have put My Spirit on Him, He brings forth judgment to nations.

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

3 A bruised reed He does not break, And faded flax He does not quench, He brings forth judgment to truth.

4 He does not become weak nor bruised, Until He sets judgment in the earth, And islands wait with hope for His law.

5 Thus said God, YHWH, Creating the heavens, and stretching them out, Spreading out the earth and its productions, Giving breath to the people on it, And spirit to those walking in it.

6 I, YHWH, called you in righteousness, And I lay hold on your hand, and keep you, And I give you for a covenant of a people, And a light of nations.

7 To open the eyes of the blind, To bring forth the bound one from prison, Those sitting in darkness from the house of restraint.

8 I [am] YHWH, this [is] My Name, And I do not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to carved images.

9 The former things, behold, have come, And I am declaring new things, Before they spring up I cause you to hear.

10 Sing a new song to YHWH, His praise from the end of the earth, You who are going down to the sea, and its fullness, Islands, and their inhabitants.

11 The wilderness and its cities lift up [their voice], Kedar inhabits the villages, The inhabitants of Sela sing, They cry from the top of mountains.

12 They ascribe to YHWH glory, And they declare His praise in the islands.

13 YHWH goes forth as a mighty one. He stirs up zeal as a man of war, He cries, indeed, He shrieks, He shows Himself mighty against His enemies.

14 I have kept silent from of old, I keep silent, I refrain Myself, I cry out as a travailing woman, I desolate and swallow up together.

15 I make desolate mountains and hills, And I dry up all their herbs, And I have made rivers become islands, And I dry up ponds.

16 And I have caused the blind to go, In a way they have not known, I cause them to tread in paths they have not known, I make a dark place become light before them, And unleveled places become a plain, These [are] the things I have done to them, And I have not forsaken them.

17 Removed backward—utterly ashamed, Are those trusting in a carved image, Those saying to a molten image, “You [are] our gods.”

18 You deaf, hear; and you blind, look to see.

19 Who [is] blind but My servant? And deaf as My messenger I send? Who [is] blind as he who is at peace, Indeed, blind, as the servant of YHWH?

20 Seeing many things, and you do not observe, Opening ears, and he does not hear.

21 YHWH has delight for the sake of His righteousness, He magnifies law, and makes honorable.

22 And this [is] a people seized and spoiled, Snared in holes—all of them, And they were hidden in houses of restraint, They have been for a prey, And there is no deliverer, A spoil, and none is saying, “Restore.”

23 Who among you gives ear [to] this? Attends, and hears afterward?

24 Who has given Jacob for a spoil, And Israel to the spoilers? Is it not YHWH—He against whom we sinned? Indeed, they have not been willing to walk in His ways, Nor have they listened to His law.

25 And He pours fury on him, His anger, and the strength of battle, And it sets him on fire all around, And he has not known, And it burns against him, and he does not lay it to heart!