World English Bible

Isaiah 42

1 Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

2 He will not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.

3 A bruised reed will he not break, and a dimly burning wick will he not quench: he will bring forth justice in truth.

4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he have set justice in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law.

5 Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he who spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it; he who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk therein:

6 I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

7 to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison-house.

8 I am Yahweh, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to engraved images.

9 Behold, the former things have happened, and new things do I declare. Before they spring forth I tell you of them.

10 Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants of it.

11 Let the wilderness and the cities of it lift up [their voice], the villages that Kedar does inhabit; let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12 Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands.

13 Yahweh will go forth as a mighty man; he will stir up [his] zeal like a man of war: he will cry, yes, he will shout aloud; he will do mightily against his enemies.

14 I have long time held my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: [now] will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together.

15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

16 I will bring the blind by a way that they don't know; in paths that they don't know will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them.

17 They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, You are our gods.

18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may 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 Yahweh's servant?

20 You see many things, but don't observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't hear.

21 It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.

22 But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.

23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will listen and hear for the time to come?

24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Didn't Yahweh? he against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they would not walk, neither were they obedient to his law.

25 Therefore he poured on him the fierceness of his anger, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire round about, yet he didn't know; and it burned him, yet he didn't lay it to heart.