Isaiah 42:5-43:10

New King James Version

⁵Thus says God the Lord,
^(A)Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
^(B)Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
⁶“I,^(C) the Lord, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You ^(D)and give You as a covenant to the people,
As ^(E)a light to the Gentiles,
⁷^(F)To open blind eyes,
To ^(G)bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in ^(H)darkness from the prison house.
⁸I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My ^(I)glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images.
⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Praise to the Lord

¹⁰^(J)Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
^(K)You who go down to the sea, and ^[a]all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!
¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.
¹³The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, ^(L)yes, shout aloud;
He shall prevail against His enemies.

Promise of the Lord’s Help

¹⁴“I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in ^[b]labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.
¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
And dry up all their vegetation;
I will make the rivers coastlands,
And I will dry up the pools.
¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.
¹⁷They shall be ^(M)turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images,
‘You are our gods.’

¹⁸“Hear, you deaf;
And look, you blind, that you may see.
¹⁹^(N)Who is blind but My servant,
Or deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as he who is perfect,
And blind as the Lord’s servant?
²⁰Seeing many things, ^(O)but you do not observe;
Opening the ears, but he does not hear.”

Israel’s Obstinate Disobedience

²¹The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake;
He will exalt the law and make it honorable.
²²But this is a people robbed and plundered;
All of them are ^[c]snared in holes,
And they are hidden in prison houses;
They are for prey, and no one delivers;
For plunder, and no one says, “Restore!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
²⁴Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the Lord,
He against whom we have sinned?
^(P)For they would not walk in His ways,
Nor were they obedient to His law.
²⁵Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger
And the strength of battle;
^(Q)It has set him on fire all around,
^(R)Yet he did not know;
And it burned him,
Yet he did not take it to ^(S)heart.

The Redeemer of Israel

43 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, ^(T)for I have redeemed you;
^(U)I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
²^(V)When you pass through the waters, ^(W)I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you ^(X)walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.
³For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
^(Y)I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
⁴Since you were precious in My sight,
You have been honored,
And I have ^(Z)loved you;
Therefore I will give men for you,
And people for your life.
⁵^(AA)Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
And ^(AB)gather you from the west;
⁶I will say to the ^(AC)north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the ends of the earth—
⁷Everyone who is ^(AD)called by My name,
Whom ^(AE)I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

⁸^(AF)Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
And the ^(AG)deaf who have ears.
⁹Let all the nations be gathered together,
And let the people be assembled.
^(AH)Who among them can declare this,
And show us former things?
Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified;
Or let them hear and say, “It is truth.”
¹⁰“You^(AI) are My witnesses,” says the Lord,
^(AJ)“And My servant whom I have chosen,
That you may know and ^(AK)believe Me,
And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
Nor shall there be after Me.