Isaiah 42:14-22

English Standard Version

¹⁴For a long time I have held my peace;
    I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out ^(A)like a woman in labor;
    I will gasp and pant.
¹⁵^(B)I will lay waste mountains and hills,
    and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn the rivers into islands,^[a]
    and dry up the pools.
¹⁶^(C)And I will lead the blind
    in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    ^(D)the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
    and I do not forsake them.
¹⁷^(E)They are turned back and utterly put to shame,
    who trust in carved idols,
who say to metal images,
    “You are our gods.”

Israel's Failure to Hear and See

¹⁸Hear, you deaf,
    and look, you blind, that you may see!
¹⁹Who is blind but my servant,
    or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as my dedicated one,^[b]
    or blind as the servant of the Lord?
²⁰^(F)He sees many things, but does not observe them;
    ^(G)his ears are open, but he does not hear.
²¹The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake,
    to magnify his law and make it glorious.
²²But this is a people plundered and looted;
    they are all of them trapped in holes
    ^(H)and hidden in prisons;
they have become plunder with none to rescue,
    spoil with none to say, “Restore!”