Isaiah 42

Behold My Servant

The first Servant Song introduces a gentle chosen one who brings justice to the nations, while Israel, the Lord’s other servant, remains blind and deaf.

Addressed to the exiles, c. 550–540 BC Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Verses 1–4 are the first of the four Servant Songs, poems about a servant of the Lord who has a mission to Israel and to the nations and who, in the later songs, suffers for others.

Verses 1–4 are the first of the four Servant Songs, poems about a servant of the Lord who has a mission to Israel and to the nations and who, in the later songs, suffers for others. The Servant Songs page traces all four and the long debate over who the servant is.

The tension at the center of that debate is already visible here. In chapter 41 the servant was plainly Israel (Isa. 41:8), and the Greek Septuagint makes 42:1 say the same: “Jacob my servant… Israel my chosen.” But the servant of 42:1–7 is given a mission to Israel, to be “a covenant of the people” (verse 6), and by the end of the chapter the servant Israel is blind and deaf (verse 19). Matthew applies the song to Jesus (Matt. 12:15–21).

The thread through the chapter

Isaiah 42 is a portrait of two servants. The first appears in verses 1–9.

Isaiah 42 is a portrait of two servants.

The first appears in verses 1–9. He is chosen, upheld, and filled with the Spirit. His mission is enormous: to bring justice (mišpāṭ) to the nations, to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open blind eyes and free prisoners. But his manner is astonishingly gentle. He doesn’t shout in the streets. He won’t break a bent reed or snuff out a flickering wick. And he won’t be broken or snuffed out himself until justice is established (verses 2–4).

The chapter then bursts into a hymn of praise (verses 10–12), and the Lord steps forward as a warrior, and in the next breath, as a woman in labor, crying out after long silence (verses 13–14). He will lead the blind by roads they don’t know (verse 16).

And then the second servant appears: “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?” (verse 19). This servant is Israel, which has seen much and noticed nothing, been plundered and imprisoned, and still “laid it not to heart” (verse 25).

The juxtaposition is the chapter’s message. The Lord’s servant was supposed to open blind eyes, and the servant people is blind. The rest of Isaiah 40–55 works out how that paradox is resolved: through a Servant who does for Israel what Israel could not do, and so restores Israel to its calling.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–4

The gentle servant

In plain words

“Here is My servant, whom I support, My chosen one, in whom I delight. I have put My Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or raise his voice or make it heard in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick. He will faithfully bring justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice on earth. The distant coastlands wait for his teaching.”

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

Witness of Christ #

“In whom my soul delighteth”

When Jesus was baptized, the voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).

When Jesus was baptized, the voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). The words echo two Old Testament passages at once: “Thou art my Son” from Ps. 2:7, a royal coronation psalm, and “mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth” from this verse. At the Jordan the Spirit also descended on Jesus, just as Isaiah says: “I have put my spirit upon him.” Many scholars see the Father’s words at the baptism as announcing that Jesus is both the royal Son and the Servant.

Matthew makes the connection explicit. After Jesus heals many and tells them not to make Him known, Matthew quotes verses 1–4 in full as fulfilled in Him (Matt. 12:15–21). Matthew’s wording doesn’t follow either the Hebrew or the Greek exactly; he seems to have made his own translation, which shows how carefully the early Christians read this passage.

The Aramaic Targum of Isaiah, a Jewish paraphrase from the early centuries AD, renders the verse “Behold my servant the Messiah.” Christian and Jewish readers have disagreed about the servant’s identity for two thousand years, but a messianic reading is not a Christian invention.

Sources: Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia, Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892. Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001. Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.

2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

Witness of Christ #

The bruised reed and the smoking wick

A reed (qāneh) that is “bruised” (rāṣûṣ, cracked or bent) is useless as a measuring rod or a pen.

A reed (qāneh) that is “bruised” (rāṣûṣ, cracked or bent) is useless as a measuring rod or a pen. The normal thing is to snap it and throw it away. “Smoking flax” is a linen lamp wick (pištâ kēhâ) that is barely burning, sputtering and smoky. The normal thing is to pinch it out and trim a new one.

The servant does neither. He doesn’t discard the damaged or the nearly spent. Matthew quotes this verse right after Jesus heals a man’s withered hand and many others (Matt. 12:13–21). The Savior’s ministry was full of people others had written off: lepers, a woman who had bled for twelve years, a thief on a cross.

There is also a beautiful wordplay in the next verse, visible only in Hebrew. The servant “shall not fail” (lōʾ yikheh, “will not grow dim”), the same root as the dimly burning wick, “nor be discouraged” (lōʾ yārûṣ, “will not be crushed”), the same root as the bruised reed. He won’t crush the crushed, and He won’t be crushed Himself. He won’t snuff out the flickering, and He won’t flicker out Himself. Isaiah 53 will show what it cost Him: “he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5).

Sources: Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

Word & Language #

Justice and teaching for the nations

The word mišpāṭ (“judgment”) occurs three times in verses 1–4. It means more than a court verdict.

The word mišpāṭ (“judgment”) occurs three times in verses 1–4. It means more than a court verdict. It is the right order of things, justice as God intends it. The servant’s mission is to establish that order “in the earth,” not just in Israel.

“His law” is tôrâ, which means teaching or instruction before it means a legal code. Isaiah 2 pictured the nations streaming to Zion because “out of Zion shall go forth the law” (Isa. 2:3). Here the servant brings the tôrâ to the nations, and the far-off islands wait for it.

Matthew, following the Greek, renders the last line as “in his name shall the Gentiles trust” (Matt. 12:21). Latter-day Saints see the same universal scope in the Book of Mormon’s promise that the gospel will go “unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” (2 Ne. 26:13).

Verses 5–9

A covenant and a light

In plain words

This is what God, the Lord, says, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and everything that grows from it, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose. I will hold your hand and protect you. I will make you a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison. I am the Lord. That is My name. I will not give My glory to anyone else, or My praise to idols. The earlier predictions have come true, and now I announce new things. Before they spring up, I tell you about them.”

5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

Restoration Insight #

A covenant and a light

The servant doesn’t just make a covenant. He is one: “I will give thee for a covenant of the people.”

The servant doesn’t just make a covenant. He is one: “I will give thee for a covenant of the people.” The phrase is unusual, and interpreters have puzzled over it. The best sense seems to be that the servant embodies the covenant relationship between God and humanity. In him the covenant becomes a person.

“A light of the Gentiles” (or “of the nations,” gôyim) will return in the second Servant Song (Isa. 49:6). When the aged Simeon held the infant Jesus in the temple, he blessed God for “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32).

The Lord uses the same language for the latter-day covenant people. He tells priesthood holders that they are to “continue in my goodness, a light unto the Gentiles, and through this priesthood, a savior unto my people Israel” (D&C 86:11). The servant’s calling is shared with those who take His name.

7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

Restoration Insight #

Freeing the prisoners

In its first setting this verse speaks of exiles, people held captive in a foreign land and sitting in the darkness of dungeons (compare verse 22).

In its first setting this verse speaks of exiles, people held captive in a foreign land and sitting in the darkness of dungeons (compare verse 22). Jesus read a similar passage, Isa. 61:1, in the synagogue at Nazareth as a description of His mission (Luke 4:18).

Early Christians also read the verse as a prophecy of Christ’s ministry to the dead. Peter wrote that Christ “went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Pet. 3:18–19). The Restoration takes that teaching much further. Joseph Smith rejoiced that through temple ordinances for the dead “the prisoners shall go free” (D&C 128:22), and Joseph F. Smith saw the Savior organize His messengers to “carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness” (D&C 138:30). Verse 7 describes a mission that doesn’t stop at the grave.

8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

Word & Language #

“That is my name”

The Hebrew is emphatic: ʾănî YHWH hûʾ šĕmî, “I am YHWH; that is My name.”

The Hebrew is emphatic: ʾănî YHWH hûʾ šĕmî, “I am YHWH; that is My name.” The divine name, which the KJV represents by “LORD” in small capitals, was revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:14–15; Ex. 6:2–3). In Babylon, where every god had a name and an image, the Lord insists that His name belongs to Him alone. He won’t share His glory with idols, and He won’t be represented by one.

Latter-day Saints understand YHWH, Jehovah, as the name of the premortal Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon speaks of Him as “Jehovah” (2 Ne. 22:2; Moro. 10:34), and He appeared in the Kirtland Temple and said, “I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:4).

Sources: “Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.

9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Verses 10–12

A new song

In plain words

Sing a new song to the Lord, sing His praise from the ends of the earth, you who sail the sea and everything in it, you coastlands and all who live there. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices, the villages where Kedar lives. Let the people of Sela sing for joy and shout from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands.

10 Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12 Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.

Verses 13–17

The warrior and the woman in labor

In plain words

The Lord goes out like a mighty warrior. Like a soldier He stirs up His zeal. He shouts, He roars, He triumphs over His enemies. “I have kept silent for a long time. I have held Myself back. But now, like a woman in labor, I will cry out, gasping and panting. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into dry land and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by a road they don’t know. I will guide them on paths they have never traveled. I will turn the darkness in front of them into light and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do, and I will not abandon them.” Those who trust in idols and say to metal images, “You are our gods,” will be turned back in shame.

13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.

14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.

Liken It #

The silence of God, and a cry of labor

Verses 13 and 14 put two images side by side that no one would expect together.

Verses 13 and 14 put two images side by side that no one would expect together. First the Lord marches out like a warrior with a battle cry. Then He speaks of Himself as a woman in labor, gasping and panting. Isaiah uses feminine images for God more than any other Old Testament book (compare Isa. 49:15; Isa. 66:13). Here the point of the image is not gentleness but intensity: the cry of someone who has held back as long as possible and now brings something new into the world.

Before the cry comes a confession: “I have long time holden my peace.” The exiles had experienced decades of God’s silence. The Lord doesn’t deny it. He acknowledges that He held back, and He promises that the silence is ending.

Joseph Smith, after months in Liberty Jail, cried, “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?” (D&C 121:1). The Lord’s answer began, “My son, peace be unto thy soul” (D&C 121:7). God’s silence is real, and it is not permanent. Sometimes it is the quiet before a birth.

15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Liken It #

Paths they have not known

The new exodus will not follow a route anyone has mapped. The Lord will lead the blind, people who can’t see the road, and He will make darkness light and the crooked straight in…

The new exodus will not follow a route anyone has mapped. The Lord will lead the blind, people who can’t see the road, and He will make darkness light and the crooked straight in front of them.

Nephi’s family knew what that was like. In the wilderness, the Lord promised: “I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you” (1 Ne. 17:13). They didn’t have a map. They had a Liahona that worked “according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them” (1 Ne. 16:28).

The promise ends, “These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” Most of us walk, at some point, on a road we don’t know. The promise isn’t that we’ll see the road. It’s that He won’t leave us on it.

17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

Verses 18–25

The blind servant

In plain words

“Listen, you deaf! Look, you blind, so you can see! Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I send? Who is as blind as the one I made My own, as blind as the servant of the Lord? You have seen many things, but you pay no attention. Your ears are open, but you don’t listen.” The Lord was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness, to make His teaching great and glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits and hidden in prisons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, loot with no one saying, “Give it back.” Which of you will listen to this, pay attention, and hear from now on? Who handed Jacob over to be plundered, and Israel to robbers? Wasn’t it the Lord, against whom we sinned? They refused to walk in His ways and would not obey His teaching. So He poured out on them His burning anger and the violence of war. It surrounded them with flames, but they didn’t understand. It burned them, but they didn’t take it to heart.

18 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s servant?

Restoration Insight #

The blind servant and the Joseph Smith Translation

This verse is jarring right after the first Servant Song. The servant was supposed “to open the blind eyes” (verse 7).

This verse is jarring right after the first Servant Song. The servant was supposed “to open the blind eyes” (verse 7). Now the Lord says that His servant is blind. In context, the “servant” of verses 18–25 is clearly Israel, the people who “would not walk in his ways” (verse 24).

The Joseph Smith Translation reworks verses 19–23 significantly. Instead of “Who is blind, but my servant?” it reads: “For I will send my servant unto you who are blind; yea, a messenger to open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf; and they shall be made perfect notwithstanding their blindness, if they will hearken unto the messenger, the Lord’s servant” (JST, Isa. 42:19–20). In the JST the blind servant becomes the servant sent to the blind. The JST also changes verse 21 to “The Lord is not well pleased with such a people.”

How should we understand such changes? Latter-day Saint scholars, following Robert J. Matthews, have described JST changes as falling into several kinds: restorations of original text, inspired clarifications or commentary, and harmonizations with other scripture. No ancient manuscript supports this particular JST reading. It reads best as inspired commentary that brings the passage into harmony with verses 1–7. The Masoretic reading also makes good sense on its own terms: Israel was called to be a servant and a light, and failed. The JST and the Hebrew together show both halves of the story, the servant Israel that was blind and the Servant who comes to heal the blind.

Sources: Joseph Smith Translation, Isaiah 42, Gospel Library. “Joseph Smith Translation (JST)”, Bible Dictionary. Robert J. Matthews, “A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, a History and Commentary, Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1975.

20 Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.

21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.

25 Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Liken It #

Burned, and still not learning

The chapter ends with an image of someone standing in a fire and not noticing.

The chapter ends with an image of someone standing in a fire and not noticing. Israel had suffered invasion, siege, and exile, and had not “laid it to heart,” that is, had not reflected on why.

Verse 24 is candid about the cause. It was not that Babylon’s gods were stronger. “Did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned?” Notice the shift to “we.” The speaker includes himself among the guilty, as Isaiah did in the temple: “I am a man of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5).

The Book of Mormon describes the same pattern, suffering that doesn’t produce reflection, and its opposite. After terrible war, Mormon notes, “many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions” (Alma 62:41). Pain doesn’t automatically teach. Whether it softens or hardens depends on whether we lay it to heart.

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 42

The New Testament identifies the servant of Isaiah 42 with Jesus, first at His baptism, when the Father’s voice echoed verse 1 and the Spirit descended on Him, and then explicitly in Matt. 12:15–21. The Savior’s ministry matched the song’s surprising gentleness: He healed quietly, told people not to publicize it, and never discarded the bruised reed or the smoldering wick. He was “a covenant of the people” and “a light of the Gentiles,” and He opened blind eyes literally and spiritually (John 9).

Isaiah 42 also sets up the logic of the Atonement. Israel, the servant people, was blind and failed its mission. The Servant who is Israel’s perfect representative takes up that mission and completes it, and by doing so opens the eyes of the blind servant. The wordplay of verses 3–4 points ahead to Isaiah 53: He will not be crushed until justice is established, and yet “he was bruised for our iniquities.”

Liken it to yourself

Am I a bruised reed or a smoldering wick right now? Can I believe the Savior won’t discard me?
Who in my life looks like a bruised reed to others? How can I treat them the way the Servant would?
The servant “shall not cry, nor lift up.” Do I try to do good loudly or quietly?
Where have I experienced God’s silence? What would it mean to see it as something other than absence?
Is there a “fire round about” me that I haven’t yet laid to heart?

Worth exploring next

The four Servant Songs. Read them side by side on The Servant Songs page and trace how the servant’s suffering grows.
The servant in the New Testament. Compare Matt. 3:16–17, Matt. 12:15–21, Luke 2:25–32, and Acts 13:47.
The Joseph Smith Translation. Read JST, Isa. 42:19–23 alongside the KJV and ask what each emphasizes.
God as a woman in labor. Compare Isa. 42:14, Isa. 49:15, Isa. 66:7–13, and Matt. 23:37.
Redemption of the dead. Read 1 Pet. 3:18–20, 1 Pet. 4:6, D&C 128:22, and D&C 138:29–37.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Matt. 12:15–21 — Matthew quotes verses 1–4 as fulfilled in Jesus.
JST, Isa. 42:19–23 — Joseph Smith’s revision of the blind-servant passage.
Luke 2:25–32 — Simeon calls the infant Jesus “a light to lighten the Gentiles.”

Sources & further reading

Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia, Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892.
Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.
Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.
Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012.
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.
Joseph Smith Translation, Isaiah 42, Gospel Library.
“Joseph Smith Translation (JST)”, Bible Dictionary.
Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
Chapter 16: The God of Israel and the Nations (Isaiah 36–47), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

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