The Servant of the Lord
1 Here is my servant[a] whom I uphold,
my chosen one with
whom I am pleased.
Upon him I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out, nor shout,
nor make his voice
heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed[b] he will not break,
and a dimly
burning wick he will not quench.
He will faithfully
bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow dim or be bruised
until he
establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands[c]
will wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the
heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the
earth and its produce,
Who gives breath to its people
and spirit to
those who walk on it:
6 I, the Lord, have called you for justice,
I have grasped you
by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant for
the people,
a light for the
nations,
7 To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out
prisoners from confinement,
and from the
dungeon, those who live in darkness.
8 I am the Lord, Lord is my name;
my glory I give to
no other,
nor my praise to
idols.
9 See, the earlier things have come to pass,
new ones I now
declare;
Before they spring forth
I announce them to
you.
The Lord’s Purpose for Israel
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from
the ends of the earth:
Let the sea and what fills it resound,
the coastlands,
and those who dwell in them.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities cry out,
the villages where
Kedar[d] dwells;
Let the inhabitants of Sela exult,
and shout from the
top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to the Lord,
and utter his
praise in the coastlands.
13 The Lord goes forth like a warrior,
like a man of war
he stirs up his fury;
He shouts out his battle cry,
against his
enemies he shows his might:
14 For a long time I have kept silent,
I have said
nothing, holding myself back;
Now I cry out like a woman in labor,
gasping and
panting.
15 [e]I will lay waste mountains and hills,
all their
undergrowth I will dry up;
I will turn the rivers into marshes,
and the marshes I
will dry up.
16 I will lead the blind on a way they do not know;
by paths they do
not know I will guide them.
I will turn darkness into light before them,
and make crooked
ways straight.
These are my promises:
I made them, I will
not forsake them.
17 They shall be turned back in utter shame
who trust in
idols;
Who say to molten images,
“You are our
gods.”
18 You deaf ones, listen,[f]
you blind ones,
look and see!
19 Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf like the
messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one I restore,
blind like the
servant of the Lord?
20 You see many things but do not observe;
ears open, but do
not hear.
21 It was the Lord’s will for the sake of his justice
to make his
teaching great and glorious.
22 This is a people[g] plundered and despoiled,
all of them
trapped in holes,
hidden away in
prisons.
They are taken as plunder, with no one to rescue them,
as spoil, with no
one to say, “Give back!”
23 Who among you will give ear to this,
listen and pay
attention from now on?
24 Who was it that gave Jacob to be despoiled,
Israel to the
plunderers?[h]
Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned?
In his ways they
refused to walk,
his teaching they
would not heed.
25 So he poured out wrath upon them,
his anger, and the
fury of battle;
It blazed all around them, yet they did not realize,
it burned them,
but they did not take it to heart.
NOTES:
(a) 42:1–4 Servant: three other passages have been popularly
called “servant of the Lord” poems: 49:1–7; 50:4–11; 52:13–53:12. Whether the
servant is an individual or a collectivity is not clear (e.g., contrast 49:3
with 49:5). More important is the description of the mission of the servant. In
the early Church and throughout Christian tradition, these poems have been
applied to Christ; cf. Mt 12:18–21.
(b) 42:3 Bruised reed…: images to express the gentle manner of
the servant’s mission.
(c) 42:4 Coastlands: for Israel, the world to the west: the
islands and coastal nations of the Mediterranean.
(d) 42:11 Kedar: cf. note on 21:16. Sela: Petra, the capital of
Edom.
( e) 42:15–16 Active once more, God will remove the obstacles
that hinder the exiles’ return, and will lead them by new roads to Jerusalem;
cf. 40:3–4.
(f) 42:18–20 The Lord rebukes his people for their failures, but
their role and their mission endure: they remain his servant, his messenger to
the nations.
(g) 42:22 A people: Israel in exile.
(h) 42:24 Plunderers: the Assyrians and Babylonians. We…they:
the switch from first- to third-person speech, though puzzling, does not
obscure the fact that “the people” is meant.
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Old Testament Related to the Messiah
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