The office of Christ. The preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. The
blindness and reprobation of the Jews.
42:1. Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul
delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring
forth judgment to the Gentiles.
My servant.... Christ, who according to his humanity, is the servant of
God.
42:2. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his
voice be heard abroad.
42:3. The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall
not quench, he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
42:4. He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgment in the
earth, and the islands shall wait for his law.
42:5. Thus saith the Lord God that created the heavens, and stretched
them out: that established the earth, and the things that spring out of
it: that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that
tread thereon.
42:6. I the Lord have called thee in justice, and taken thee by the
hand, and preserved thee. And I have given thee for a covenant of the
people, for a light of the Gentiles:
42:7. That thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth
the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the
prison house.
42:8. I the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to graven things.
42:9. The things that were first, behold they are come: and new things
do I declare: before they spring forth, I will make you hear them.
42:10. Sing ye to the Lord a new song, his praise is from the ends of
the earth: you that go down to the sea, and all that are therein: ye
islands, and ye inhabitants of them.
42:11. Let the desert and the cities thereof be exalted: Cedar shall
dwell in houses: ye inhabitants of Petra, give praise, they shall cry
from the top of the mountains.
Petra.... A city that gives name to Arabia Petraea.
42:12. They shall give glory to the Lord, and shall declare his praise
in the islands.
42:13. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, as a man of war shall
he stir up zeal: he shall shout and cry: he shall prevail against his
enemies.
42:14. I have always held my peace, I have kept silence, I have been
patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour: I will destroy, and
swallow up at once.
42:15. I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all
their grass to wither: and I will turn rivers into islands, and will
dry up the standing pools.
42:16. And I will lead the blind into the way which they know not: and
in the paths which they were ignorant of I will make them walk: I will
make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these
things have I done to them, and have not forsaken them.
42:17. They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded, that trust
in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our god.
42:18. Hear, ye deaf, and, ye blind, behold that you may see.
42:19. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to whom I have
sent my messengers? Who is blind, but he that is sold? or who is blind,
but the servant of the Lord?
42:20. Thou that seest many things, wilt thou not observe them? thou
that hast ears open, wilt thou not hear?
42:21. And the Lord was willing to sanctify him, and to magnify the
law, and exalt it.
42:22. But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they are all the
snare of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are
made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is
none that saith: Restore.
42:23. Who is there among you that will give ear to this, that will
attend and hearken for times to come?
42:24. Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? hath
not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they would not
walk in his ways, and they have not hearkened to his law.
42:25. And he hath poured out upon him the indignation of his fury, and
a strong battle, and hath burnt him round about, and he knew not: and
set him on fire, and he understood not.