Isaiah 42

Common English Bible

42 But here is my servant, the one I uphold;
    my chosen, who brings me delight.
I’ve put my spirit upon him;
    he will bring justice to the nations.
² He won’t cry out or shout aloud
    or make his voice heard in public.
³ He won’t break a bruised reed;
    he won’t extinguish a faint wick,
    but he will surely bring justice.
⁴ He won’t be extinguished or broken
    until he has established justice in the land.
The coastlands await his teaching.

¹⁰ Sing to the Lord a new song!
    Sing his praise from the ends of the earth!
You who sail the sea and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and their residents.
¹¹ Let the desert and its towns shout aloud,
    the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the cliff dwellers sing;
    from the top of the mountains let them shout.
¹² Let them give the Lord glory
    and declare God’s praise in the coastlands.
¹³ The Lord will go out like a soldier;
    like a warrior God will stir up rage.
God will shout, will roar;
    over enemies he will prevail.
¹⁴ I’ve kept still for a very long time.
    I’ve been silent and restrained myself.
Like a woman in labor I will moan;
    I will pant, I will gasp.
¹⁵ I will wither mountains and valleys,
    and I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into deserts,^[a]
    and I will dry up pools.
¹⁶ I will make the blind walk a road they don’t know,
    and I will guide them in paths they don’t know.
But I will make darkness before them into light
    and rough places into level ground.
These things I will do;
    I won’t abandon them.

¹⁷ Turned backward, utterly shamed
    are those who trust in idols,
    who say to a cast image,
    “You are our god!”
¹⁸ Hear, deaf ones,
    and blind ones, look and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind if not my servant
    and deaf like my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like the restored one,^[b]
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but don’t keep watch.
    With ears open, you don’t hear.^[c]
21 The Lord desired for the sake of his righteousness
    to expand and glorify the Instruction.
²² But this is a people plundered and looted,
    everyone trapped in holes and hidden in dungeons.
They have become plunder with no one to rescue,
    loot with no one to say, “Give it back.”