Isaiah 42

Thomson(i) 1 [J] JACOB is my servant, I will uphold him, Israel is my chosen one, my soul hath embraced him; I have put my spirit upon him; he will publish judgment to the nations. [[J] Jehovah, [p] the prophet] 2 He will not scream, nor urge with vehemence: nor will his voice be heard abroad in the streets. 3 A bruised reed he will not break, nor extinguish a dimly burning taper; but will publish judgment to establish truth. 4 He will shine out, and shall not be broken until he hath established judgment on the earth. In his name therefore let the nations trust. 5 Thus saith the Lord, the God who made the heaven and fixed it; who established the earth and the things therein and who giveth vital air to the people on it, and breath to them who tread thereon; 6 I the Lord God have called thee for saving mercy, and I will take hold of thy hand and strengthen thee; for I have given thee for the covenant of a race; for the light of nations: 7 to open the eyes of the blind; to lead out from chains them who are bound, and out of prison, them who are sitting in darkness. 8 I am the Lord God; this is my name: this glory of mine I will not give to another, nor these powers of mine to the graven idols. 9 With regard to the former predictions, behold they are come to pass; and these are new things which I now declare; and before their promulgation, they are revealed to you. 10 [p] Sing to the Lord a new song, ye, his government! Praise his name, ye from the utmost border of the earth, ye who go clown on the sea and navigate it, ye islands, and ye who dwell therein. 11 Let the desert be glad and the villages thereof; the folds for flocks and them who inhabit Kedar: let the inhabitants of Petra rejoice; let them shout from the top of the mountains: 12 to this God let them ascribe glory; let them proclaim his powers among the isles. 13 The Lord God of Hosts will come forth and tread down battle; he will rouse up his zeal, and shout against his enemies with majesty. 14 [J] I have been silent; but shall I always keep silence and forbear? Like a woman in travail I have endured suffering; I will strike with astonishment and wither at once. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all the herbage on them. I will make rivers islands and dry up pools, 16 and lead the blind in a way which they know not, and cause them to walk in paths which they have not known. For them I will make the darkness light, and the crooked ways a straight road. These things 1 will do, and I will not forsake them: 17 but as for them they have turned backwards! be whelmed in shame, ye who trust in graven images; who say to the molten images, ye are our gods. 18 [p] Hear, ye deaf; and ye blind, look up that you may see: 19 [J] Who indeed is blind but my servants? And deaf, but those who rule over them? Even the servants of God are become blind. 20 You have seen again and again but have not regarded: your ears have been opened, but you did not hear. 21 [p] The Lord God came to a determination, that he might be justified and might magnify praise. 22 Whereupon I beheld and the people were plundered and dispersed: for the snare was every where in the private chambers, and in the houses also where they had hidden themselves. They were for a prey and there was no rescuer; for a spoil; and there was none who said, Restore. 23 Who is there among you who will give ear to these things? Attend to those leading causes, 24 for which he hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to them who plundered him. Hath not God, against whom they sinned, and in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey; 25 hath not he brought upon them his fierce anger? [J] Though war prevailed over them, and they who were burning them up were all around, yet they did not, any of them know, nor lay it to heart.