The Mission of the Servant of YHWH
Isaiah 42 “Look, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice. He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands wait for his law.”God YHWH, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says: “I, YHWH, have called you in righteousness. I will hold your hand. I will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations, to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
“I am YHWH. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven images. Look, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell y’all about them before they come up.”
Song of Praise to YHWH
Y’all sing to YHWH a new song, and ʜɪꜱ praise from the end of the earth, y’all who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the islands and their inhabitants. Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains! Let them give glory to YHWH, and declare ʜɪꜱ praise in the islands. YHWH will go out like a hero. Hᴇ will stir up zeal like warrior. Hᴇ will raise a war cry. Yes, ʜᴇ will shout aloud. Hᴇ will triumph over ʜɪꜱ enemies.“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant. I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.
“Those who trust in graven images, who tell molten images, ‘Y’all are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.
Israel’s Blindness and Deafness
“Deaf ones, y’all must listen, Blind ones, y’all must look in order to see!, Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the servant YHWH? You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen. It pleased YHWH, for the sake of ʜɪꜱ righteousness, to magnify the law and make it glorious. But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers, and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’Who among y’all will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not YHWH, against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in ʜɪꜱ ways, and they disobeyed ʜɪꜱ law. Therefore ʜᴇ poured the fierceness of his anger on ʜɪᴍ, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”