Isaiah 42

The Mission of Yahweh’s Servant

1 Look! [here is] my servant; I hold him, my chosen one, [in whom] my soul delights. I have {put} my spirit on him; he will bring justice forth to the nations.

2 He will not cry out and lift up and make his voice heard in the street.

3 He will not break a broken reed, and he not will extinguish a dim wick. He will bring justice forth in faithfulness.

4 He will not grow faint, and he will not be broken until he has established justice in the earth. And [the] coastlands wait for his teaching.

5 Thus says the God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it.

6 "I [am] Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness, and I have grasped your hand and watched over you; and I have given you as a covenant of [the] people, as a light of [the] nations,

7 to open [the] blind eyes, to bring [the] prisoner out from [the] dungeon, those who sit [in] darkness from [the] house of imprisonment.

8 I [am] Yahweh; that [is] my name, and I do not give my glory to another, nor my praise to the idols.

9 Look! the former things have come, and I declare new things. I {announce} [them] to you before they sprout up."

A Song of Praise to Yahweh

10 Sing a new song to Yahweh; praise him from the end of the earth, you who go down [to] the sea and that which fills it, [the] coastlands and their inhabitants.

11 Let [the] desert and its towns lift up their voice, [the] villages [that] Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy; let them shout loudly from [the] {top} of [the] mountains.

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

13 Yahweh goes forth like a mighty warrior; he stirs up zeal like a man of war. He raises the war cry, indeed he raises the battle shout; he prevails against his foes.

14 I have been silent for a long time; I have kept silent; I have restrained myself like one giving birth; I will moan, pant, and gasp together.

15 I will cause mountains and hills to dry up, and I will cause all their herbage to wither; and I will make rivers like islands, and I will cause pools to dry up.

16 And I will lead the blind by a road they do not know; I will cause [them] to tread on paths they have not known. I will make darkness {in their presence} into light and rough places into level ground. These [are] the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.

17 They shall turn back; they shall be {greatly ashamed}, those who trust in an image, who say to a cast image, "You [are] our gods."

Blind and Deaf Israel

18 Deaf people, listen! And blind people, look to see!

19 Who [is] blind but my servant or deaf like my messenger [whom] I sent? Who [is] blind like the one who is repaid or blind like the servant of Yahweh?

20 You see many [things], but you do not observe. [His] ears are open, but he does not hear.

21 Yahweh was willing for the sake of his righteousness; he showed [his] teaching to be great and proved [it] to be glorious.

22 But this [is] a people plundered and looted; all of them are trapped in holes, and they are kept hidden in houses of imprisonment. They have become like plunder, and there is no one who saves; [like] booty, and there is no one who says, "Restore!"

23 Who among you will heed this, will listen attentively and listen, for {the time to come}?

24 Who gave Jacob to a plunderer and Israel to those who plunder? [Was it] not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned? And they were not willing to walk in his ways, and they would not {obey} his law.

25 So he poured [the] wrath [of] his anger upon him and [the] strength of war. And it set him afire all around, but he did not understand; and it burned him, but he did not take [it] to heart.

Isaiah 42 Commentary

Chapter 42

The character and coming of Christ. (1-4) The blessings of his kingdom. (5-12) The prevalence of true religion. (13-17) Unbelief and blindness reproved. (18-25)

Verses 1-4 This prophecy was fulfilled in Christ, ( Matthew 12:17 ) . Let our souls rely on him, and rejoice in him; then, for his sake, the Father will be well-pleased with us. The Holy Spirit not only came, but rested upon him, and without measure. He patiently bore the contradiction of sinners. His kingdom is spiritual; he was not to appear with earthly honours. He is tender of those oppressed with doubts and fears, as a bruised reed; those who are as smoking flax, as the wick of a lamp newly lighted, which is ready to go out again. He will not despise them, nor lay upon them more work or more suffering than they can bear. By a long course of miracles and his resurrection, he fully showed the truth of his holy religion. By the power of his gospel and grace he fixes principles in the minds of men, which tend to make them wise and just. The most distant nations wait for his law, wait for his gospel, and shall welcome it. If we would make our calling and election sure, and have the Father delight over us for good, we must behold, hear, believe in, and obey Christ.

Verses 5-12 The work of redemption brings back man to the obedience he owes to God as his Maker. Christ is the light of the world. And by his grace he opens the understandings Satan has blinded, and sets at liberty from the bondage of sin. The Lord has supported his church. And now he makes new promises, which shall as certainly be fulfilled as the old ones were. When the Gentiles are brought into the church, he is glorified in them and by them. Let us give to God those things which are his, taking heed that we do not serve the creature more than the Creator.

Verses 13-17 The Lord will appear in his power and glory. He shall cry, in the preaching of his word. He shall cry aloud in the gospel woes, which must be preached with gospel blessings, to awaken a sleeping world. He shall conquer by the power of his Spirit. And those that contradict and blaspheme his gospel, he shall put to silence and shame; and that which hinders its progress shall be taken out of the way. To those who by nature were blind, God will show the way to life and happiness by Jesus Christ. They are weak in knowledge, but He will make darkness light. They are weak in duty, but their way shall be plain. Those whom God brings into the right way, he will guide in it. This passage is a prophecy, and is also applicable to every believer; for the Lord will never leave nor forsake them.

Verses 18-25 Observe the call given to this people, and the character given of them. Multitudes are ruined for want of observing that which they cannot but see; they perish, not through ignorance, but carelessness. The Lord is well-pleased in the making known his own righteousness. For their sins they were spoiled of all their possessions. This fully came to pass in the destruction of the Jewish nation. There is no resisting, nor escaping God's anger. See the mischief sin makes; it provokes God to anger. And those not humbled by lesser judgments, must expect greater. Alas! how many professed Christians are blind as the benighted heathen! While the Lord is well-pleased in saving sinners through the righteousness of Christ he will also glorify his justice, by punishing all proud despisers. Seeing God has poured out his wrath on his once-favoured people, because of their sins, let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should be found to come short of it.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "given"
• [b]. Or "to"
• [c]. Literally "cause to hear"
• [d]. Or "those"
• [e]. Literally "head"
• [f]. Or "establish"
• [g]. Literally "before their face"
• [h]. Literally "ashamed with shame"
• [i]. Or "and"
• [j]. Or "and"
• [k]. Or "and"
• [l]. Or "and"
• [m]. Or "And"
• [n]. Literally "later"
• [o]. The reading tradition (Qere) has "as plunder"
• [p]. Or "and"
• [q]. Or "and"
• [r]. Or "did not know"
• [s]. Or "and"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 42

This chapter begins with a prophecy concerning the Messiah, under the character of the servant of the Lord, and his elect, whom he supported, and was well pleased with; whose work is pointed at, and for which he was well qualified with the Spirit without measure, Isa 42:1 and is described by his humility and meekness, Isa 42:2, by his tenderness to weak and ignorant persons, Isa 42:3 and by his courage and resolution, Isa 42:4 then follow his call to his work, and the several parts of it, introduced with setting forth the greatness of God that called him, as the Creator of the heavens and of the earth, and of men upon it, Isa 42:5-7, whose name is Jehovah, and whose glory is incommunicable to a creature, and whose knowledge reaches to future things, which are predicted by him, Isa 42:8,9, and then Gentiles are called upon to praise the Lord, and give glory to him, partly for the above promises concerning the Messiah, Isa 42:10-12, and partly for the destruction of his enemies, Isa 42:13-15, and also for his gracious regard to such who had been blind and ignorant, Isa 42:16, the confusion of idolaters is prophesied of, and an exhortation is given them to make use of the means of light and knowledge, Isa 42:17,18, and the blindness, ignorance, and stupidity of the Jews, are exposed, though there was a remnant among them with whom the Lord was well pleased, for the sake of the righteousness of his Son, Isa 42:19-21, but as for the body of the people, they were to be given up to the spoilers and robbers for their sins and disobedience, and be the butt of the divine wrath and vengeance, Isa 42:22-24.