Isaiah 42

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¹“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations. ✦ ²He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. ✦ ³A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. ✦ ⁴He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established justice on the earth. In His law the islands will put their hope.” ✦ ⁵This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it: ✦ ⁶“I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, ✦ ⁷to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house. ✦ ⁸I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols. ✦ ⁹Behold, the former things have happened, and now I declare new things. Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.” ✦ ¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song—His praise from the ends of the earth—you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who dwell in them. ✦ ¹¹Let the desert and its cities raise their voices; let the villages of Kedar cry aloud. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them cry out from the mountaintops. ✦ ¹²Let them give glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the islands. ✦ ¹³The LORD goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars in triumph over His enemies: ✦ ¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant. ✦ ¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes. ✦ ¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them. ✦ ¹⁷But those who trust in idols and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’ will be turned back in utter shame. ✦ ¹⁸Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see! ✦ ¹⁹Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD? ✦ ²⁰Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch. Though your ears are open, you do not hear.” ✦ ²¹The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness, to magnify His law and make it glorious. ✦ ²²But this is a people plundered and looted, all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!” ✦ ²³Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen and obey hereafter? ✦ ²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law. ✦ ²⁵So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Isa 49 ·10 Isa 42 ·8 Isa 35 ·7 Isa 45 ·7 Isa 41 ·7 Isa 40 ·7 Isa 44 ·7 Isa 29 ·6

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 42 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 42YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 42David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 42Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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