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The Servant, a Light to the Nations

42 Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.(A)
He will not cry out or lift up his voice
    or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.(B)
He will not grow faint or be crushed
    until he has established justice in the earth,
    and the coastlands wait for his teaching.(C)

Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:(D)
I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,[a]
    a light to the nations,(E)
    to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.(F)
I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to idols.(G)
See, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
    I tell you of them.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 42.6 Meaning of Heb uncertain

The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication

The Lord God has given me
    a trained tongue,[a]
that I may know how to sustain
    the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens,
    wakens my ear
    to listen as those who are taught.(A)
The Lord God has opened my ear,
    and I was not rebellious;
    I did not turn backward.(B)
I gave my back to those who struck me
    and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
    from insult and spitting.(C)

The Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame;(D)
    he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand in court together.
Who are my adversaries?
    Let them confront me.(E)
It is the Lord God who helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up.(F)

10 Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys the voice of his servant,
who walks in darkness
    and has no light,
yet trusts in the name of the Lord
    and relies upon his God?(G)
11 But all of you are kindlers of fire,
    lighters of firebrands.[b]
Walk in the flame of your fire
    and among the brands that you have kindled!
This is what you shall have from my hand:
    you shall lie down in torment.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 50.4 Cn: Heb of those who are taught
  2. 50.11 Syr: Heb you gird yourselves with firebrands

The Suffering Servant

13 See, my servant shall prosper;
    he shall be exalted and lifted up
    and shall be very high.(A)
14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him[a]
    —so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
    and his form beyond that of mortals—(B)
15 so he shall startle[b] many nations;
    kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
    and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.(C)

53 Who has believed what we have heard?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?(D)
For he grew up before him like a young plant
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.(E)
He was despised and rejected by others;
    a man of suffering[c] and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces[d]
    he was despised, and we held him of no account.(F)

Surely he has borne our infirmities
    and carried our diseases,
yet we accounted him stricken,
    struck down by God, and afflicted.(G)
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
    and by his bruises we are healed.(H)
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.(I)

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.(J)
By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
    Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people.(K)
They made his grave with the wicked
    and his tomb[e] with the rich,[f]
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.(L)

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction.
When you make his life an offering for sin,[g]
    he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.(M)
11     Out of his anguish he shall see;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
    The righteous one,[h] my servant, shall make many righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.(N)
12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out himself to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors,
yet he bore the sin of many
    and made intercession for the transgressors.(O)

Footnotes

  1. 52.14 Syr Tg: Heb you
  2. 52.15 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 53.3 Or a man of sorrows
  4. 53.3 Or as one who hides his face from us
  5. 53.9 Q ms: MT and in his death
  6. 53.9 Cn: Heb with a rich person
  7. 53.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  8. 53.11 Or and he shall find satisfaction. Through his knowledge, the righteous one