World English Bible
- “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.
- He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.
- He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.
- He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands wait for his law.”
- God the LORD, 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:
- “I, the LORD, 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,
- to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
- “I am the LORD. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.
- Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”
- Sing to the LORD 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.
- Let 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!
- Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.
- The LORD 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.
- “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.
- I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.
- I 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.
- “Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.
- “Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.
- Who 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 the LORD’s servant?
- You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
- It pleased the LORD, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable.
- But 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!’
- Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
- Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.
- Therefore 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.”
Isaiah’s opening lines contain a quiet wordplay. The servant will not break a bruised reed or put out a dim wick. Then, in verse 4, the same Hebrew roots return: the servant himself will not be crushed or grow dim. He guards in others what God will not let perish in him. His gentleness is not a pause in his work of justice. It is part of that work.
But who is this servant? Isaiah has already called Israel God’s servant (Isaiah 41:8), and later in this chapter calls that servant blind (42:19). The people meant to bear God’s light cannot see clearly themselves. Their captivity is not only a picture of inward struggle: Isaiah describes a people robbed, imprisoned, and exposed to conquest. Yet God promises a Spirit-filled servant who will bring light and become a covenant for the people. Christians recognize Jesus in this portrait (Matthew 12:18–21), the faithful servant who opens the eyes of a people who cannot heal their own blindness.
Notice how far that light must travel. The Hebrew torah awaited by the coastlands means “instruction,” not simply a set of laws. Kedar’s desert settlements and Sela’s rocky heights join the sea peoples in song. To hear these places named is to hear praise rising beyond Jerusalem’s familiar world. God’s justice is not private comfort for those already near him.
Then the chapter startles us. The servant does not shout in the street, but the Lord shouts like a warrior—and cries out like a woman in labor. God’s long silence was not indifference. His cry announces that the world as it stands cannot remain as it is. He is gentle with the damaged and fierce against what destroys them.
The chapter ends with an unsettling question for God’s people: how can fire surround them and they still fail to take it to heart? We must not use Israel’s story to blame every sufferer for their pain. We should let it search those of us who know the Scriptures well enough to speak of justice, yet can pass a bruised neighbor without seeing.
Still, God promises to lead the blind along roads they do not know (verse 16). We need not pretend to see before we take his hand.
Suggested reading: Isaiah 49:3–6; Matthew 12:15–21. Hymn: “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed.”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, open our eyes to the people we have overlooked. Keep their small flames burning, and teach us to trust your hand where we cannot yet see the road. Amen.