Isaiah 42 Study Notes

42:11 The litany of the far-flung participants in the song of praise of God continues. Kedar refers to a desert-dwelling Arabic tribe, while Sela was a major city in Edom, a mountainous region. The two sites thus represent isolated desert and mountain regions.

42:12 On coasts and islands, see note at 41:1.

42:13 The first explicit mention of God as a warrior comes at the time of the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 15:4) when he rescued his helpless people and destroyed Egypt’s elite chariot troops. Earlier anticipations extend back to the stationing of cherubim at the entrance to the garden of Eden (Gn 3:24). When God appears as a warrior, there is no uncertainty about the outcome.

42:14 God has been silent. He has not made an appearance as a warrior for a long time, but that is about to change. He is about to give birth to his righteous anger toward the enemy of his people.

42:15 God’s appearance as a warrior is often described as having catastrophic results for the physical creation. Fertility stops for a time, and water sources go dry (24:4-13; Nah 1:4-6).

42:16-17 God will rescue his people (the blind) and will make their way smooth. Those who trust in an idol will not be helped but will experience shame.

42:18-25 The chapter ends with a pronouncement that explains why God’s people will experience judgment before they receive the deliverance described in the previous hymn (vv. 10-17).

42:18-20 God describes his servant Israel as blind and deaf. These physical disabilities represent spiritual disabilities; they don’t perceive God’s guidance.

42:21 The people’s inability to see and hear God’s instruction was not a failure on God’s part. He magnified his instruction and made it glorious. Only the most spiritually insensitive could miss it. God had even sent the prophets—men like Isaiah and later Jeremiah and Ezekiel—to make his instruction clearer, but still they did not obey.

42:22 God’s people have become plunder, a reference to the judgment he will bring on them with the exile. No one will help them. The reference to holes is to makeshift prisons, similar to the cistern in which Jeremiah was held (Jr 38).

42:23-25 God is the one who has allowed Israel to be the plunder of the nations as punishment for not following his law.