UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

ISA C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52 C53 C54 C55 C56 C57 C58 C59 C60 C61 C62 C63 C64 C65 C66

UST ISA Chapter 42

◄ ISA 42 ► ║ ═ ©

42 Yahweh says, “Here is my servant. I support him.

I have chosen him, and he pleases me.

I have given him my Spirit,

and he will make the people of the nations do what is right.

2 He will not yell at people,

and he will not shout in public places.

3 He will not harm weak people

who are barely surviving.

Instead, he will make sure that judges decide cases in the right way.

4 He will not become tired or lose courage

until he ensures that earthly rulers govern fairly.

People throughout the world will look forward to learning what he decrees.”

5 Yahweh our God created the sky and put it in place.

He also formed the earth and everything that is on it.

He makes the people who live on the earth alive.

This is what he says:

6 “I, Yahweh, have chosen you to do what is right.

I will help you and protect you.

Through you I will fulfill my agreement with my people,

and through you I will reveal my salvation to other nations.

7 You will help people recognize what is true,

and you will free people who are in bad circumstances

because others are holding them as their prisoners.

8 I am Yahweh. That is who I am.

I will not allow anyone else to receive the honor that only I deserve.

I will not allow people to praise wooden idols in the way that they should praise only me.

9 Listen! The events I predicted in the past have happened.

Now I am telling you what is going to happen in the future.

I am telling you about these things before they begin to happen.”

10 People throughout the world should sing a new song to praise Yahweh.

This includes people who sail on the oceans to catch what is in them

and those who live anywhere on the land.

11 People should also sing who live in towns in desolate areas,

such as the villages where the people of Kedar live.

It includes the people who live in the city of Sela.

They should sing joyfully and shout to praise Yahweh

from their city on top of a rocky cliff.

12 People throughout the world should honor Yahweh

and tell about how great he is.

13 Yahweh will go out to fight against his enemies like a warrior champion.

He will be eager to fight.

He will shout his battle cry very loudly,

and he will overpower his enemies.

14 Yahweh says, “I have been quiet for a long time;

I have stayed silent and restrained myself from acting.

But now it is time for me to act, as if I were a woman who was about to have a baby,

and so I will yell, and I will breathe hard and fast.

15 I will destroy mountains and hills

and make the plants on them dry up.

I will cause rivers to become dry land,

and I will also dry up marshes.

16 The Israelites have not understood how they should live,

as if they were blind people who could not see the path they should walk on.

But I will enable them to live properly,

as if I were enabling blind people to see what is in front of them.

It will be as if I am also making smooth the path they should walk on.

I will certainly do these things for them.

I will continually help them.

17 Some people depend on the gods that wooden or metal idols represent.

They even worship them.

But those gods will do nothing to help them,

and this will greatly humiliate them.

18 You Israelites have been disobeying me as if you were deaf and could not hear my commands.

Now you must obey me.

You Israelites have been ignoring my instructions as if you were blind.

Now must recognize what I want you to do, and you must do it.

19 The Israelites are my servants,

but it is as if they are blind.

I want to send them as my messengers,

but it is as if they are deaf.

I made a covenant with them and they are my servants,

but they do not recognize what I want them to do.

20 They actually do see many things,

but they do not understand what those things mean.

They actually are able to hear,

but they do not respond as they should to what they hear.”

21 Yahweh always does what is right.

So it pleased him to show that his law is great and glorious.

22 That is why the Babylonians were able to conquer the Israelites

and take away their valuable possessions.

That is why they took them captive and held them as their prisoners.

No one has rescued them from captivity.

No one has demanded that the Babylonians set these captives free.

23 The Israelites should listen carefully to what I am about to say.

They should consider it in order to understand what they should do in the future.

24 They should recognize who allowed enemies

to conquer the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, and make them prisoners.

It was Yahweh who did this,

because we Israelites sinned against him.

We would not live as he wanted us to live,

and we did not obey his laws.

25 As a result, he became extremely angry with us,

and he allowed powerful enemies to defeat us in war.

It was as if those enemies burned up the Israelites entirely.

But they did not consider what happened

or understand why it happened.