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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Yeshayah (Isaiah) 42
42
1“See, My Servant whom I uphold, My Chosen One My being has delighted in! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He brings forth right-ruling to the nations.
2“He does not cry out, nor lifts up His voice, nor causes His voice to be heard in the street.
3“A crushed reed He does not break, and smoking flax He does not quench. He brings forth right-ruling in accordance with truth.
4“He does not become weak or crushed, until He has established right-ruling in the earth. And the coastlands wait for His Torah.”
5Thus said the Ěl, יהוה, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:
6“I, יהוה, have called You in righteousness, and I strengthen#Commonly understood as “take hold of.” Your hand and guard You, and give You for a covenant to a people, for a light to the nations,
7to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
8“I am יהוה, that is My Name, and My esteem I do not give to another, nor My praise to idols.
9“See, the former predictions have come, and new ones I am declaring; before they spring forth I let you hear them.”
10Sing to יהוה a new song; His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them!
11Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages where Qĕḏar dwells. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12Let them give esteem to יהוה, and declare His praise in the coastlands.
13יהוה goes forth like a mighty man. He stirs up ardour like a fighter. He cries out, yes, shout aloud. Over His enemies He shows Himself mighty.
14“I have kept silent from of old, I have been still and held Myself back. Like a woman in labour I now cry out, I pant and gasp at once.
15“I lay waste mountains and hills, and I dry up all their plants. And I shall make rivers become coastlands, and I dry up pools.
16“And I shall lead the blind by a way they have not known – in paths they have not known I lead them. I make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These matters I shall do for them, and I shall not forsake them.
17“Those who trust in idols, who say to the moulded images, ‘You are our mighty ones,’ shall be turned back, utterly ashamed.
18“Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, and see.
19“Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is at peace, and blind as servant of יהוה?
20“You see much, but do not guard; ears are open, but do not hear.”
21It has delighted יהוה, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and esteemed.
22But this is a people robbed and plundered, all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses. They have become a prey, with no one to deliver – for plunder, and no one to say, “Restore!”
23Who among you gives ear to this, pays attention and hears for the time to come?
24Who gave Ya‛aqoḇ for plunder, and Yisra’ĕl to the robbers? Was it not יהוה, He against whom we sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, and they did not obey His Torah!
25So He has poured on him His burning displeasure and the strength of battle, and it set him on fire all around, yet he did not understand. And it burned against him, yet he did not take it to heart!
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