¹⁸ ‘Hear, you deaf;
    look, you blind, and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
    and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
    your ears are open, but you do not listen.’
²¹ It pleased the Lord
    for the sake of his righteousness
    to make his law great and glorious.
²² But this is a people plundered and looted,
    all of them trapped in pits
    or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
    with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
    with no one to say, ‘Send them back.’

43 But now, this is what the Lord says –
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
    Cush^[a] and Seba in your stead.
⁴ Since you are precious and honoured in my sight,
    and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
    nations in exchange for your life.
⁵ Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
    I will bring your children from the east
    and gather you from the west.
⁶ I will say to the north, “Give them up!”
    and to the south, “Do not hold them back.”
Bring my sons from afar
    and my daughters from the ends of the earth –
⁷ everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made.’