Isaiah 42

Isaiah 42, verse 1. ¹“Jacob is My Servant; I will help Him. Israel is My chosen; My soul accepts Him. I put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Isaiah 42, verse 2. ²He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard outside. Isaiah 42, verse 3. ³A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; but He will bring forth judgment in truth. Isaiah 42, verse 4. ⁴He will shine forth and not be broken until He establishes judgment in the earth; and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” Isaiah 42, verse 5. ⁵Thus says the Lord God, who made heaven and established it, who made firm the earth and the things in it, and who gives breath to the people in it, and spirit to those who walk on it: Isaiah 42, verse 6. ⁶“I, the Lord God, called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand. I will strengthen You, and give You as the covenant of a race, as the light of the Gentiles, Isaiah 42, verse 7. ⁷to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners who are bound, and those who sit in darkness from the prison house. Isaiah 42, verse 8. ⁸I am the Lord God; this is My name. I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to carved images. Isaiah 42, verse 9. ⁹Behold, things from of old came to pass, and new things I will declare. Before they spring forth, I will tell you of them.” Isaiah 42, verse 10. ¹⁰Sing to the Lord a new song, you His realm. Glorify His name from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and sail on it, you coastlands and you who inhabit them. Isaiah 42, verse 11. ¹¹Be glad, O desert and its villages, the homesteads and those inhabiting Kedar. Those who dwell in Petra shall be glad; they shall shout from the tops of the mountains. Isaiah 42, verse 12. ¹²They will give glory to God and declare His virtues in the coastlands. Isaiah 42, verse 13. ¹³The Lord God of powers shall go forth and crush war. He shall stir up His zeal, and cry out against His enemies with strength. Isaiah 42, verse 14. ¹⁴I held My peace, and I will not always be silent and restrain Myself. Now I will be steadfast, like a woman in labor. I shall amaze and dry up together. Isaiah 42, verse 15. ¹⁵I will make the rivers into coastlands and dry up marsh-meadows. Isaiah 42, verse 16. ¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way they did not know, and will cause them to tread paths they have not known. I will turn darkness into light for them, and make crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them. Isaiah 42, verse 17. ¹⁷But they turned back. You be greatly ashamed who trust in carved images, who say to the molded images, “You are our gods.” Isaiah 42, verse 18. ¹⁸Hear, you deaf; and look up, you blind, that you may see. Isaiah 42, verse 19. ¹⁹Who is blind but My servants, or deaf but those who rule over them? The servants of God are blind. Isaiah 42, verse 20. ²⁰You often see, but do not take heed. Your ears were opened, but you do not listen. Isaiah 42, verse 21. ²¹The Lord God wished to show His righteousness and to magnify His praise. Isaiah 42, verse 22. ²²But I saw the people robbed and plundered, for there was a snare in the secret chambers everywhere, and in the houses at the same time, where they hid them. They became as plunder, and there was no one to rescue the prey, and no one who said, “Restore them.” Isaiah 42, verse 23. ²³Who among you will give ear to these things? Who will listen and hear what is coming? Isaiah 42, verse 24. ²⁴Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to those who plunder him? Was it not God, against whom they sinned? For they would not walk in His ways nor heed His law. Isaiah 42, verse 25. ²⁵So He brought upon them the fury of His wrath, and war overpowered them. They set them on fire all around, yet none of them knew or took it to heart.