Isaiah42chapter 42

Isaiah 42:1-2

Behold my servant, whom I uphold: The first servant song opens with a divine presentation, behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, the Spirit placed upon him before a word of his ministry is described. Matthew quotes verses 1 through 4 in full at Matt 12:18-21 and applies them to Jesus after the Pharisees plot against him, the servant's judgment to the Gentiles matched against a Messiah who withdraws from confrontation rather than courting it. The method is stated before the manner, he shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street, a servant whose authority needs no public display.

Isaiah 42:3-4

A bruised reed shall he not break: The gentleness named in verse 2 is given its two most famous pictures, a bruised reed he will not break and smoking flax he will not quench, weakness met with preservation rather than a final blow. Matthew's quotation runs through precisely this line, reading the two images as Christ's refusal to crush the barely faithful or extinguish the barely burning. The song's first movement closes on endurance rather than gentleness alone, he shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law, the same isles summoned to the trial in chapter 41 now waiting for instruction instead of verdict.

Isaiah 42:5-7

he that created the heavens: The song's second movement opens by naming the speaker in full, God the Lord, who created the heavens, spread out the earth, and gives breath to every person walking on it, the creator's own authority behind the commission that follows. The servant is called in righteousness, held by the hand, kept, and given for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, the same phrase Simeon later applies to the infant Christ at Luke 2:32. His work is stated concretely, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house, and Gill reads the darkness and the prison as both literal exile and the deeper bondage the gospel answers.

Isaiah 42:8-9

my glory will I not give to another: The speaker names himself again, I am the Lord, that is my name, and refuses to share his glory with another or his praise with graven images, the idol polemic of chapters 40 and 41 stated now as a matter of the divine name itself. The claim that follows is prophetic rather than merely moral, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare, before they spring forth I tell you of them, the same test of prediction the trial of the gods demanded of the idols in chapter 41. Barnes reads verse 9 as the Lord answering his own challenge, supplying the predictive evidence he had just shown no idol could produce.

Isaiah 42:10-12

Sing unto the Lord a new song: The prediction just given is answered with worship rather than argument, sing unto the Lord a new song, his praise called for from the end of the earth, from those who go down to the sea and the isles and their people. The call widens to include the wilderness and its cities and the villages Kedar inhabits, the rock dwellers singing and shouting from the mountain tops, a desert people named beside the sea traders in one song. Henry notes that the new song answers the new things of verse 9, a fresh act of God calling out a fresh song rather than the repetition of an old one.

Isaiah 42:13-15

The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man: The gentle servant of the opening verses gives way to a warrior figure, the Lord going forth as a mighty man, crying and roaring like one stirred to battle, prevailing against his enemies, a deliberate contrast the bench notes rather than a contradiction to resolve. The Lord describes his own long restraint, I have long time holden my peace, I have been still, and refrained myself, now broken with the violence of a travailing woman's cry. The devastation named is drawn in creation vocabulary, waste mountains and hills, dried herbs, rivers turned to islands and pools dried up, the same terms the chapter opened with turned now to judgment.

Isaiah 42:16-17

I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not: The blind opened at verse 7 return here as a people led rather than merely healed, brought by a way they knew not, paths they had not known, darkness turned to light and crooked things straight before them, with a direct promise appended, these things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. The idol worshippers of the earlier chapters receive the opposite outcome, turned back and greatly ashamed, those who trust in graven images and tell molten images, ye are our gods. Henry reads the pairing as the chapter's summary contrast, the blind led by a God who does not forsake them set against the sighted who trust a god that cannot see them at all.

Isaiah 42:18-20

Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind: The chapter turns its address to Israel directly, hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see, the same blindness named as the servant's mission to heal in verse 7 now diagnosed in the servant's own people. The question that follows is startling, who is blind, but my servant, or deaf, as my messenger that I sent, applying the title servant to a blind and deaf Israel in the same breath the opening verses applied it to a spirit filled deliverer. The bench names the tension honestly rather than resolving it away, the servant of verse 1 who opens blind eyes and the servant of verse 19 who cannot see, two uses of one title within a single song.

Isaiah 42:21-22

The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake: Even the blind servant's failure does not cancel the Lord's purpose, he is well pleased for his righteousness' sake and will magnify the law and make it honourable, an intent that outlasts Israel's present condition. The description that follows is stark, a people robbed and spoiled, snared in holes and hidden in prison houses, taken for a prey with none to deliver and for a spoil with none to say, restore. Barnes reads verse 22 as a picture of the exile itself, a nation plundered and scattered, standing as the direct consequence the next two verses go on to explain.

Isaiah 42:23-25

Who among you will give ear to this?: The chapter closes with a direct question to the reader, who among you will give ear to this, who will hearken and hear for the time to come, before naming the cause of the exile plainly. The answer refuses evasion, who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers, did not the Lord, against whom the people had sinned, unwilling to walk in his ways or obey his law. The final verse states the consequence without softening it, he poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle, and it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not, and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart, Gill reading the closing clause as the deepest indictment of all, judgment endured without being understood.