Bible-Reading.comIsaiah 42
1See my servant, whom I am supporting, my loved one, in whom I take delight: I have put my spirit on him; he will give the knowledge of the true God to the nations.
2He will make no cry, his voice will not be loud: his words will not come to men's ears in the streets.
3He will not let a crushed stem be quite broken, and he will not let a feebly burning light be put out: he will go on sending out the true word to the peoples.
4His light will not be put out, and he will not be crushed, till he has given the knowledge of the true God to the earth, and the sea-lands will be waiting for his teaching.
5God the Lord, even he who made the heavens, measuring them out on high; stretching out the earth, and giving its produce; he who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who go about on it, says:
6I the Lord have made you the vessel of my purpose, I have taken you by the hand, and kept you safe, and I have given you to be an agreement to the people, and a light to the nations:
7To give eyes to the blind, to make free the prisoners from the prison, to let out those who are shut up in the dark.
8I am the Lord; that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, or my praise to pictured images.
9See, the things said before have come about, and now I give word of new things: before they come I give you news of them.
10Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be sounded from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and everything in it, the sea-lands and their people.
11Let the waste land and its flocks be glad, the tent-circles of Kedar; let the people of the rock give a glad cry, from the top of the mountains let them make a sound of joy.
12Let them give glory to the Lord, sounding his praise in the sea-lands.
13The Lord will go out as a man of war, he will be moved to wrath like a fighting-man: his voice will be strong, he will give a loud cry; he will go against his attackers like a man of war.
14I have long been quiet, I have kept myself in and done nothing: now I will make sounds of pain like a woman in childbirth, breathing hard and quickly.
15I will make waste mountains and hills, drying up all their plants; and I will make rivers dry, and pools dry land.
16And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up.
17They will be turned back and be greatly shamed who put their hope in pictured images, who say to metal images, You are our gods.
18Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes be open, you blind, so that you may see.
19Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears stopped, but he whom I send? who is blind as my true one, or who has his ears shut like the Lord's servant?
20Seeing much, but keeping nothing in mind; his ears are open, but there is no hearing.
21It was the Lord's pleasure, because of his righteousness, to make the teaching great and give it honour.
22But this is a people whose property has been taken away from them by force; they are all taken in holes, and shut up in prisons: they are made prisoners, and no one makes them free; they are taken by force and no one says, Give them back.
23Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will give attention to it for the time to come?
24Who gave up Jacob to those who took away his goods, and Israel to his attackers? Did not the Lord? he against whom they did wrong, and in whose ways they would not go, turning away from his teaching.
25For this reason he let loose on him the heat of his wrath, and his strength was like a flame; and it put fire round about him, but he did not see it; he was burned, but did not take it to heart.
Isaiah 43
1But now, says the Lord your Maker, O Jacob, and your life-giver, O Israel: have no fear, for I have taken up your cause; naming you by your name, I have made you mine.
2When you go through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not go over you: when you go through the fire, you will not be burned; and the flame will have no power over you.
3For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your saviour; I have given Egypt as a price for you, Ethiopia and Seba for you.
4Because of your value in my eyes, you have been honoured, and loved by me; so I will give men for you, and peoples for your life.
5Have no fear, for I am with you: I will take your seed from the east, and get you together from the west;
6I will say to the north, Give them up; and to the south, Do not keep them back; send back my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth;
7Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me.
8Send out the blind people who have eyes, and those who have ears, but they are shut.
9Let all the nations come together, and let the peoples be present: who among them is able to make this clear, and give us word of earlier things? let their witnesses come forward, so that they may be seen to be true, and that they may give ear, and say, It is true.
10You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have taken for myself: so that you may see and have faith in me, and that it may be clear to you that I am he; before me there was no God formed, and there will not be after me.
11I, even I, am the Lord; and there is no saviour but me.
12I gave the word, and made it clear, and there was no strange god among you: for this reason you are my witnesses, says the Lord.
13From time long past I am God, and from this day I am he: there is no one who is able to take you out of my hand: when I undertake a thing, by whom will my purpose be changed?
14The Lord, who has taken up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, Because of you I have sent to Babylon, and made all their seers come south, and the Chaldaeans whose cry is in the ships.
15I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Maker of Israel, your King.
16This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters;
17Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out.
18Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds.
19See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country.
20The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself:
21Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise.
22But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you have given no thought to me, O Israel.
23You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make you tired with requests for perfumes.
24You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings.
25I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no longer keep your evil doings in mind.
26Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in the right.
27Your first father was a sinner, and your guides have gone against my word.
28Your chiefs have made my holy place unclean, so I have made Jacob a curse, and Israel a thing of shame.