Dual Panel1BEHOLD MY Servant, Whom I uphold, My elect in Whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice {and} right {and} reveal truth to the nations.
2He will not cry or shout aloud or cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will bring forth justice in truth.
4He will not fail {or} become weak or be crushed {and} discouraged till He has established justice in the earth; and the islands {and} coastal regions shall wait hopefully for Him {and} expect His direction {and} law.
5Thus says God the Lord--He Who created the heavens and stretched them forth, He Who spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it, He Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6I the Lord have called You [the Messiah] for a righteous purpose {and} in righteousness; I will take You by the hand and will keep You; I will give You for a covenant to the people [Israel], for a light to the nations [Gentiles],
7To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness from the prison.
8I am the Lord; that is My name! And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.
9Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.
10Sing 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 in it, the islands {and} coastal regions and the inhabitants of them [sing a song such as has never been heard in the heathen world]!
11Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of the rock [Sela or Petra] sing; let them shout from the tops of the mountains!
12Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the islands {and} coastal regions.
13The Lord will go forth like a mighty man, He will rouse up His zealous indignation {and} vengeance like a warrior; He will cry, yes, He will shout aloud, He will do mightily against His enemies.
14[Thus says the Lord] I have for a long time held My peace, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant together.
15I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness into light before them and make uneven places into a plain. These things I have determined to do [for them]; and I will not leave them forsaken.
17They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, You are our gods.
18Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see!
19Who is blind but My servant [Israel]? Or deaf like My messenger whom I send? Who is blind like the one who is at peace with Me [who has been admitted to covenant relationship with Me]? Yes, who is blind like the Lord's servant?
20You have seen many things, but you do not observe {or} apprehend their true meaning. His ears are open, but he hears not!
21It was the Lord's pleasure for His righteousness' sake [in accordance with a steadfast and consistent purpose] to magnify instruction {and} revelation and glorify them.
22But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes and hidden in houses of bondage. They have become a prey, with no one to deliver them, a spoil, with no one to say, Restore them! [This shows the condition that will ensue as Israel's punishment for not recognizing the Servant of the Lord and the day of His visit among them.] [Luke19:41-44.]
23Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear in the time to come?
24Who gave up Jacob [the kingdom of Judah] for spoil, and [the kingdom of] Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, He against Whom we [of Judah] have sinned and in Whose ways they [of Israel] would not walk, neither were they obedient to His law {or} His teaching?
25Therefore He poured out upon [Israel] the fierceness of His anger and the strength of battle. And it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach]; it burned him, but he did not lay it to heart.