Isaiah

Isaiah 42

25 verses · Major Prophets · Old Testament

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. 2He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. 3He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice. 4He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands wait for his law.”
5God 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, 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, 7to 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 Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images. 9Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”
10Sing 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. 11Let 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! 12Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands. 13Yahweh 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 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. 15I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. 16I 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“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.
18“Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. 19Who 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? 20You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen. 21It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable. 22But 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!’
23Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? 24Who 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. 25Therefore 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.”

Commentary

No commentary on this chapter yet.

What others are saying

4 commentators · 68 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17144

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–4

We are sure that these verses are to be understood of Christ, for the evangelist tells us expressly that in him this prophecy was fulfilled, Mat 12:17-21. Behold with an eye of faith, behold and observe, behold and admire, my servant, whom I uphold. Let the…

v. 5–12

Here is I. The covenant God made with and the commission he gave to the Messiah, Isa 42:5-7, which are an exposition of Isa 42:1, Behold my servant, whom I uphold. 1. The royal titles by which the great God here makes himself known, and distinguishes himself…

v. 13–17

It comes all to one whether we make these verses (as some do) the song itself that is to be sung by the Gentile world or a prophecy of what God will do to make way for the singing of that song, that evangelical new song. I. He will appear in his power and…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176325

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,.... The Targum is, "behold my servant the Messiah;'' and Kimchi on the place says, this is the King Messiah; and so Abarbinel (f) interprets it of him, and other Jewish writers, and which is right; for the prophet speaks not…

v. 2

He shall not cry,..... According to Aben Ezra and Kimchi, as a judge in court is obliged to extend his voice that he may be heard: the Evangelist Matthew renders it, "he shall not strive"; or contend in a disputatious way, about mere words and things to no…

v. 3

A bruised reed shall not break,.... The tenderness of Christ to weak and ignorant persons is here and in the next clause expressed; by whom young converts or weak believers seem to be designed; who are compared to a "reed", because worthless with respect to…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–187515

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 2

The prophet then proceeds to describe how the servant of Jehovah will manifest Himself in the world outside Israel by the promulgation of this right. "He will not cry, nor lift up, nor cause to be heard in the street, His voice." "His voice" is the object of…

v. 3

With this unassuming appearance there is associated a tender pastoral care. "A bruised reed He does not break, and a glimmering wick He does not put out: according to truth He brings out right." "Bruised:" râtsūts signifies here, as in Isa 36:6, what is…

v. 4

The figures in Isa 42:3 now lead to the thought that the servant of God will never be extinguished or become broken Himself. "He will not become faint or broken, till He establish right upon earth, and the islands wait for His instruction." As יכהה (become…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187124

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

Matthew (Mat 12:19) marks the kind of "cry" as that of altercation by quoting it, "He shall not strive" (Isa 53:7). street--the Septuagint translates "outside." An image from an altercation in a house, loud enough to be heard in the street outside…

v. 3

bruised--"It pleased the Lord to bruise Him" (Isa 53:5, Isa 53:10; Gen 3:15); so He can feel for the bruised. As Isa 42:2 described His unturbulent spirit towards His violent enemies (Mat 12:14-16), and His utter freedom from love of notoriety, so Isa 42:3…

v. 4

fail--faint; man in religion may become as the almost expiring flax-wick (Isa 42:3), but not so He in His purposes of grace. discouraged--literally, "broken," that is, checked in zeal by discouragements (compare Isa 49:4-5). ROSENMULLER not so well…

World English Bible — Public domain