Isaiah · Literal Standard Version
Isaiah 42 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Behold, My servant, I take hold on Him, || My Chosen One—My soul has accepted, I have put My Spirit on Him, || He brings forth judgment to nations.
1 “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He does not cry, nor lift up, || Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
2 He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He does not break, || And faded flax He does not quench, || He brings forth judgment to truth.
3 He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.
4 He does not become weak nor bruised, || Until He sets judgment in the earth, || And islands wait with hope for His law.
4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice on the earth, and the islands wait for his law.”
5 Thus said God, YHWH, || Creating the heavens, and stretching them out, || Spreading out the earth and its productions, || Giving breath to the people on it, || And spirit to those walking in it.
5 God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:
6 I, YHWH, called you in righteousness, || And I lay hold on your hand, and keep you, || And I give you for a covenant of a people, || And a light of nations.
6 “I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness. I will hold your hand. I will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations,
7 To open the eyes of the blind, || To bring forth the bound one from prison, || Those sitting in darkness from the house of restraint.
7 to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
8 I [am] YHWH, this [is] My Name, || And I do not give My glory to another, || Nor My praise to carved images.
8 “I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.
9 The former things, behold, have come, || And I am declaring new things, || Before they spring up I cause you to hear.
9 Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”
10 Sing a new song to YHWH, || His praise from the end of the earth, || You who are going down to the sea, and its fullness, || Islands, and their inhabitants.
10 Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.
11 The wilderness and its cities lift up [their voice], || Kedar inhabits the villages, || The inhabitants of Sela sing, || They cry from the top of mountains.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains!
12 They ascribe to YHWH glory, || And they declare His praise in the islands.
12 Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands.
13 YHWH goes forth as a mighty one. He stirs up zeal as a man of war, || He cries, indeed, He shrieks, || He shows Himself mighty against His enemies.
13 Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.
14 I have kept silent from of old, || I keep silent, I refrain Myself, || I cry out as a travailing woman, || I desolate and swallow up together.
14 “I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
15 I make desolate mountains and hills, || And I dry up all their herbs, || And I have made rivers become islands, || And I dry up ponds.
15 I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.
16 And I have caused the blind to go, || In a way they have not known, || I cause them to tread in paths they have not known, || I make a dark place become light before them, || And unleveled places become a plain, || These [are] the things I have done to them, || And I have not forsaken them.
16 I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.
17 Removed backward—utterly ashamed, || Are those trusting in a carved image, || Those saying to a molten image, “You [are] our gods.”
17 “Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.
18 You deaf, hear; and you blind, look to see.
18 “Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.
19 Who [is] blind but My servant? And deaf as My messenger I send? Who [is] blind as he who is at peace, || Indeed, blind, as the servant of YHWH?
19 Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?
20 Seeing many things, and you do not observe, || Opening ears, and he does not hear.
20 You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
21 YHWH has delight for the sake of His righteousness, || He magnifies law, and makes honorable.
21 It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable.
22 And this [is] a people seized and spoiled, || Snared in holes—all of them, || And they were hidden in houses of restraint, || They have been for a prey, || And there is no deliverer, || A spoil, and none is saying, “Restore.”
22 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers, and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
23 Who among you gives ear [to] this? Attends, and hears afterward?
23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24 Who has given Jacob for a spoil, || And Israel to the spoilers? Is it not YHWH—He against whom we sinned? Indeed, they have not been willing to walk in His ways, || Nor have they listened to His law.
24 Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.
25 And He pours fury on him, || His anger, and the strength of battle, || And it sets him on fire all around, || And he has not known, || And it burns against him, and he does not lay it to heart!
25 Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
Cross references (25)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Matthew 12:18–21; Luke 3:22; Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 61:1; Isaiah 43:10
- 2 Matthew 12:16–20; 2 Timothy 2:24; 1 Peter 2:23; Matthew 11:29; Luke 17:20
- 3 Ezekiel 34:16; Jeremiah 31:25; Psalm 147:3; Matthew 11:28; Isaiah 40:11
- 4 Isaiah 53:2–12; Isaiah 55:5; Genesis 49:10; Psalm 22:27; Isaiah 52:13–15
- 5 Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 45:12; Jeremiah 10:12; Zechariah 12:1; Isaiah 48:13
- 6 John 8:12; Luke 2:32; Isaiah 26:3; Acts 13:47; Isaiah 49:8
- 7 Ephesians 1:17–18; Isaiah 61:1; Isaiah 49:9; Isaiah 35:5; 2 Timothy 2:26
- 8 Isaiah 48:11; Isaiah 43:11; Exodus 34:14; Exodus 20:3–5; Psalm 83:18
- 9 Isaiah 43:19; Isaiah 46:9–10; John 13:19; 2 Peter 1:19–21; Isaiah 44:7–8
- 10 Psalm 33:3; Isaiah 42:4; Psalm 40:3; Romans 15:9–11; Psalm 98:1–4
- 11 Isaiah 32:16; Isaiah 60:7; Psalm 72:8–10; Isaiah 41:18–19; Psalm 120:5
- 12 Romans 15:9–11; Psalm 117:1–2; Isaiah 66:18–19; Revelation 7:9–12; Isaiah 42:4
- 13 Exodus 15:1–3; Psalm 78:65; Isaiah 59:16–19; Amos 1:2; Psalm 110:5–6
- 14 Psalm 83:1–2; Luke 18:7; Jeremiah 44:22; 2 Peter 3:9–10; 2 Peter 3:15
- 15 Isaiah 50:2; Nahum 1:4–6; Isaiah 44:27; Isaiah 2:12–16; Revelation 20:11
- 16 Isaiah 30:21; Luke 3:5; Isaiah 35:8; Isaiah 60:19–20; Luke 1:78–79
- 17 Psalm 97:7; Isaiah 1:29; Isaiah 44:11; Isaiah 45:16–17; Isaiah 44:17
- 18 Isaiah 43:8; Mark 7:34–37; Isaiah 29:18; Proverbs 20:12; Isaiah 35:5
- 19 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ezekiel 12:2; Jeremiah 5:21; Romans 2:17–23; Matthew 15:14–16
- 20 Deuteronomy 29:2–4; Acts 28:22–27; Isaiah 1:3; Isaiah 58:2; John 11:37–50
- 21 Hebrews 8:10; Romans 3:31; Romans 7:12; Matthew 5:17–20; Isaiah 42:4
- 22 Psalm 102:20; Jeremiah 50:17; Isaiah 51:23; Isaiah 24:22; Psalm 50:22
- 23 Acts 3:22–23; Isaiah 48:18; Leviticus 26:40–42; Matthew 21:28–31; Deuteronomy 4:29–31
- 24 Isaiah 59:1–2; Judges 10:7; Lamentations 1:14; Jeremiah 25:8–9; Lamentations 1:18
- 25 Isaiah 57:11; Hosea 7:9; Ezekiel 7:8–9; Malachi 2:2; Revelation 16:1–21
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… for the Lord hath spoken." And again: "Thus saith the Lord God, who made the heaven, and stretched it out; who established the earth, and the things in it; and who giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them who walk therein."
He shall shine and shall not be broken, until He sets judgment in the earth: and the nations shall hope in His name." The Hebrew has not "Jacob" and "Israel;" but the Septuagint translators, wishing to show the significance of the expression "my servant," and that it refers to the form of a servant in which the Most High humbled …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust." The prophet celebrates His meekness, and His unspeakable power, and opens to the Gentiles "a great door and effectual;" he foretells also the ills that are to overtake the Jews, and …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… it seeth Him not,...but ye know Him; for he dwelleth with you." And so says Isaiah;--"He that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and Spirit to them that trample on it"; for they that trample down earthly things and rise above them are borne witness …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
… in a more gentle manner; and the Lord's advent as a man was pointed out, that it should be subsequent to that law which was given by Moses, mild and tranquil, in which He would neither break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. The mild and peaceful repose of His kingdom was indicated likewise.