Isaiah 42
42
Chapter 42
The Lord's special Servant #42:1 There are four parts of Isaiah's book which have ‘Songs about the Servant’. In these songs, the Servant is God's special Messiah. The songs are in Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13—53:12.
1‘Here is my servant.
I give him strength.
I have chosen him.
He makes me very happy.
I have put my Spirit on him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2He will not cry out.
He will not shout.
He will not speak loudly in the streets.
3He will not hurt weak people,
like someone who breaks a weak reed.
He will not destroy helpless people,
like someone who puts out a weak flame.
He will be kind to people,
and he will judge them in a fair way.
4He will remain strong and brave,
until he brings justice to the whole world.
People who are in lands far away
will wait for him to teach them.’
5The Lord is God. He is the God who created the sky. He hung it up like a curtain. He created the earth and everything that lives on it. He gives life and breath to all the people who live on it. The Lord says to his servant:
6‘I have chosen you to bring righteousness.
I will take hold of your hand,
and I will keep you safe.
Through you, I will make a covenant with my people,
and you will bring light to the other nations.
7You will cause blind people to see.
You will cause prisoners to be free.
You will bring out into the open
people who sit in dark prisons.
8I am the Lord. That is my name.
I will not let anyone else share my glory.
I will not let people praise idols.
I am the only one that they must praise.
9Everything that I promised in the past has happened
as I said that it would happen.
Now I will tell you about new things.
Before they start to happen,
I will tell you about them.’
10Sing a new song to the Lord!
All over the earth, people should praise him.
Praise him, you people who travel over the sea
and everything that lives in the sea.
Praise him, you people who live in lands far away.
11People who live in the towns of the desert
should shout aloud to praise him.
Kedar's people should praise him
in the places where they live.
The people who live in Sela should sing aloud with joy.
They should shout from the tops of the mountains.
12They should all honour the Lord
as he deserves.
Those who live in lands far away
should praise him for what he has done.
13The Lord marches out to battle,
like a brave soldier.
He is angry with his enemies,
and he is ready to attack them.
He shouts loudly as he attacks,
and he shows his power over them.
14The Lord says,
‘I have been quiet for a long time.
I have held back my anger.
But now I am ready to deliver!
I will cry out and shout and groan,
like a woman who is ready to give birth.
15I will destroy the mountains and the hills.
I will cause the plants that grow on them to die.
I will cause the rivers to become dry islands.
I will cause the pools of water to become dry.
16I will lead my blind people
along ways that they did not know before.
I will be their guide,
as they walk along paths that are new to them.
I will change the dark places that are in front of them,
so that they become places with light.
And I will cause the rough ground to become flat.
Those are the things that I will do for them.
I will not leave my people alone.
17But I will push away people who trust idols to help them.
Those people will become ashamed.
They say to images that they have made,
“You are our gods.”
18Listen to me, you deaf people!
Look at this, you blind people!
19Who is blind?
Nobody is as blind as my servant. #42:19 Here, God's servant is the Israelite nation. See Isaiah 41:8.
Who is deaf?
Nobody is as deaf as the one who takes my message.
The people that I agreed a covenant with are blind!
Yes, the servant of the Lord is truly blind!
20You Israelites have seen many things,
but you do not understand them.
You have opened your ears to listen,
but you have not really heard anything.’
21The Lord always does what is right. So he has made his law great and important. He is happy when people respect his law.
22But enemies have robbed God's people and they have taken away all their valuable things. Their enemies have caught them in traps and they have made them prisoners. There is nobody who will rescue them. Their enemies have stored them safely, and nobody says, ‘Send them back.’
23Will any of you listen to my message?
Will you think carefully about it in the future?
24Who put Jacob's descendants
under the power of their enemies?
Who gave the Israelites
to people who would rob them?
It was the Lord!
He is the one that we have not obeyed.
His people did not live in the way that he wanted.
They did not obey his law.
25So the Lord was very angry with them.
He punished them with a cruel war.
His anger was like a fire all round them,
but they did not understand what he was doing.
His anger burned them,
but they did not learn their lesson.
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Isaiah 42
42
1 #
Mt 12.18-21. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him,
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4He will not fail#42.4 Or burn dimly or be discouraged#42.4 Or bruised
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
5 #
Acts 17.24-25. Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread forth the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 #
Is 49.6; Lk 2.32; Acts 13.47; 26.23. “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
7 #
Acts 26.18. to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to graven images.
9Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”
10Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth!
Let the sea roar#42.10 Cn Compare Ps 96.11; 98.7: Heb Those who go down to the sea and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.
11Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12Let them give glory to the Lord,
and declare his praise in the coastlands.
13The Lord goes forth like a mighty man,
like a man of war he stirs up his fury;
he cries out, he shouts aloud,
he shows himself mighty against his foes.
14For a long time I have held my peace,
I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in travail,
I will gasp and pant.
15I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their herbage;
I will turn the rivers into islands,
and dry up the pools.
16And I will lead the blind
in a way that they know not,
in paths that they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
and I will not forsake them.
17They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame,
who trust in graven images,
who say to molten images,
“You are our gods.”
18Hear, you deaf;
and look, you blind, that you may see!
19Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as my dedicated one,
or blind as the servant of the Lord?
20He sees#42.20 Heb you see many things, but does not observe them;
his ears are open, but he does not hear.
21The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake,
to magnify his law and make it glorious.
22But this is a people robbed and plundered,
they are all of them trapped in holes
and hidden in prisons;
they have become a prey with none to rescue,
a spoil with none to say, “Restore!”
23Who among you will give ear to this,
will attend and listen for the time to come?
24Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler,
and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,
in whose ways they would not walk,
and whose law they would not obey?
25So he poured upon him the heat of his anger
and the might of battle;
it set him on fire round about, but he did not understand;
it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America