Isaiah 42

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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 will wait for his law.” ✦ ⁵Thus says 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. ✦ ⁶“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and 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; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.” ✦

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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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