Open English Translation ISA Chapter 42

42 Look, here’s my servant who I support—my chosen one who I’m pleased with.[ref]

≈ I’ve put my spirit onto him. He’ll bring justice to the nations.

2 He won’t cry out or lift up his head.

≈ and he won’t make his voice heard in the streets.

3 He won’t break a crushed reed

≈ and nor will he extinguish a dim oil-lamp.

He will faithfully bring justice to the people.

4 He won’t grow dim or be crushed

before he’s established justice in the world,

and while the islands wait for his instructions.

5 The god Yahweh who created the skies and stretched them out,

≈ who formed the earth and all its produce,

who gives breath to the people on it

≈ and a spirit to those who walk on it, says this:

6 I, Yahweh, have called you my servant for a godly purpose,

and I’ll take hold of your hand and watch over you.

I will make you into a promise for the people—a light for the nations:

7 to open the eyes of the blind—

to bring prisoners out of the dungeon—

≈ to release those who live in dark prisons.

8 I am Yahweh. That’s my name

and I won’t allow anyone else to receive the honour that only I deserve,

≈ and nor will I allow images to receive the praise that should come to me.

9 Listen, things said before have come to pass

and I’m about to reveal new things—

I’ll let you all know about them before they come to be.

10 Sing a new song for Yahweh—praising him from the end of the earth.

Those who go down to the sea and everything that fills it.

You islands and their inhabitants.

11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice—

the villages where the Bedouins live.

Let the inhabitants of Edom’s capital Sela sing.

≈ Let them shout from the mountaintops.

12 Let them honour Yahweh

≈ and praise him from the islands.

13 Yahweh will go ahead like a warrior—

≈ he’ll stir up zeal like a man of war.

He’ll raise a war cry—shouting out loudly,

and then he’ll defeat his enemies.

14 I’ve been silent for a long time now.

≈ I’ve been still—I’ve restrained myself.

Now I’ll cry out like a woman giving birth.

I’ll puff and pant at the same time.

15 I’ll make the mountains and hills dry up

≈ and all their vegetation will wither.

plus I’ll turn the rivers into islands

≈ and dry up the pools.

16 I’ll lead the blind down a path that they don’t know.

≈ I’ll guide them on roads that they’re not familiar with.

I’ll make the dark places in front of them, light,

≈ and the rough places into level ground.

I’ll do those things for them, and I won’t abandon them.

17 Those who trust in idols will be turned back and totally humiliated—

those who tell a cast metal figure, ‘You’re our god.’

18 Listen you deaf people,

and look you blind people and see.

19 Who is blind other than my servant,

or deaf like my messenger who I’ll send?

Who’s blind like my partner in our agreement,

or blind like Yahweh’s servant.

20 You see many things but don’t take any notice.

≈ Your ears are open but you don’t listen.

21 Yahweh was pleased to do what’s right—

≈ he made his instructions honourable and splendid.

22 But this is a people who’ve been robbed and plundered.

≈ They’re all trapped in holes and hidden away in prisons.

They’ve become the spoil, and there’s no one to rescue them.

≈ They’ve become plunder and no one speaks up to help them back.

23 Will any of you take any notice of that?

≈ Will anyone listen or pay attention afterwards?

24 Who gave Yakov (Jacob) to the robbers,

≈ and Yisrael (Israel) to the looters?

→ Wasn’t it Yahweh, the one we disobeyed?

They weren’t willing to do what he wanted,

≈ and they didn’t listen to his instructions.

25 Then he poured out his rage and the violence of war.

The flames burnt all around, yet Yisrael didn’t realise.

≈ They burnt it up, but it didn’t take it to heart.