Chapter 42

¹ Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. ² He shall not cry, nor lift up [his voice], nor shall his voice be heard without. ³ A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench; but he shall bring forth judgment to truth. ⁴ He shall shine out, and shall not be discouraged, until he have set judgment on the earth: and in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

Isa 42:1-4

⁵ Thus saith the Lord God, who made the heaven, and established it; who settled the earth, and the things in it, and gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to them that tread on it: ⁶ I the Lord God have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will strengthen thee: and I have given thee for the covenant of a race, for a light of the Gentiles; ⁷ to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the bound and them that sit in darkness out of bonds and the prison house.

Isa 42:5-7

⁸ I am the Lord God: that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praises to graven images. ⁹ Behold, the ancient things have come to pass, and [so will] the new things which I tell you: yea, before I tell [them] they are made known to you.

Isa 42:8-9

¹⁰ Sing a new hymn to the Lord: ye [who are] his dominion, glorify his name from the end of the earth: ye that go down to the sea, and sail upon it; the islands, and they that dwell in them. ¹¹ Rejoice, thou wilderness, and the villages thereof, the hamlets, and the dwellers in Kedar: the inhabitants of the rock shall rejoice, they shall shout from the top of the mountains. ¹² They shall give glory to God, [and] shall proclaim his praises in the islands.

Isa 42:10-12

¹³ The Lord God of hosts shall go forth, and crush the war: he shall stir up jealousy, and shall shout mightily against his enemies. ¹⁴ I have been silent: shall I also always be silent and forbear? I have endured like a travailing [woman]: I will [now] amaze and wither at once. ¹⁵ I will make desolate mountains and hills, and will dry up all their grass; and I will make the rivers islands, and dry up the pools. ¹⁶ And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, and I will cause them to tread paths which they have not known: I will turn darkness into light for them, and crooked things into straight. These things will I do, and will not forsake them. ¹⁷ But they are turned back: be ye utterly ashamed that trust in graven [images], who say to the molten [images], Ye are our gods.

Isa 42:13-17

¹⁸ Hear, ye deaf, and look up, ye blind, to see. ¹⁹ And who is blind, but my servants? and deaf, but they that rule over them? yea, the servants of God have been made blind. ²⁰ Ye have often seen, and have not taken heed; [your] ears have been opened, and ye have not heard. ²¹ The Lord God has taken counsel that he might be justified, and might magnify [his] praise. ²² And I beheld, and the people were spoiled and plundered: for [there is] a snare in the secret chambers everywhere, and in the houses also, where they have hidden them: they became a spoil, and there was no one that delivered the prey, and there was none who said, Restore.

Isa 42:18-22

²³ Who [is there] among you that will give ear to these things? hearken ye to the things which are coming to pass. ²⁴ For what did he give Jacob up to spoil, and Israel to them that plundered him? Did not God [do it] against whom they sinned? [and] they would not walk in his ways, nor hearken to his law. ²⁵ So he brought upon them the fury of his wrath; and the war, and those that burned round about them, prevailed against them; yet no one of them knew [it], neither did they lay [it] to heart.

Isa 42:23-25