1Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isa 2:4; Isa 11:2; Isa 41:8; Isa 42:19; Isa 43:10; Isa 52:13; Isa 53:11; Isa 61:1; Eze 34:24; Zec 3:8; Mt 3:17; Mt 12:18; Ac 3:26; Ac 4:27; Php 2:7)2He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;3a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. (Ps 9:8; Isa 57:15)4He will not grow faint or be discouraged[1] till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. (Ge 10:5; Isa 2:3; Isa 60:9; Mt 12:21)5Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: (Isa 44:24; Isa 45:12; Ac 17:25)6“I am the Lord; I have called you[2] in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, (Isa 41:9; Isa 49:6; Isa 49:8; Lu 2:32)7to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. (Isa 35:5; Isa 49:9; Isa 61:1; Lu 1:79; Heb 2:14)8I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. (Isa 48:11)9Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Isa 43:19)
Sing to the Lord a New Song
10Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. (Ps 33:3; Ps 107:23; Isa 42:4)11Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains. (Isa 16:1; Isa 21:16)12Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands. (Isa 42:4)13The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. (Ps 78:65; Isa 9:7; Isa 40:10; Isa 59:17)14For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. (Isa 13:8)15I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands,[3] and dry up the pools. (Isa 50:2)16And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. (Isa 35:5; Isa 35:8; Isa 40:4)17They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, “You are our gods.” (Ps 97:7; Isa 1:29; Isa 44:11; Isa 45:16)
Israel’s Failure to Hear and See
18Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!19Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one,[4] or blind as the servant of the Lord?20He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. (Jer 6:10; Ro 2:21)21The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious.22But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, “Restore!” (Isa 14:17)23Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come?24Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?25So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. (Isa 47:11; Isa 57:1; Isa 57:11; Ho 7:9)