Isaiah 42 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Here is my servant — I hold him close. My chosen one, in whom I take deep delight. I have placed my Breath on him; he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or raise his voice, or make himself heard in the streets.

A cracked reed — he will not snap it. A fading flame — he will not blow it out. He will faithfully bring about justice.

He himself will not fade or be cracked until he has set justice in place across the earth. Even the distant coastlands wait for his teaching.

This is what God — Yahweh — says, the one 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, Yahweh, have called you for a just purpose. I have grasped you by the hand. I have shaped you, and I have set you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations —

to open eyes that are blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon, to free those sitting in darkness from their cells."

"I am Yahweh — that is my name. My glory I will not give to another, or my praise to carved images.

The earlier things — look, they came about. Now I am declaring new things. Before they even sprout, I am letting you hear them."

Sing a new song to Yahweh, his praise from the ends of the earth — you who go down to the sea and everything in it, you coastlands and everyone who lives there.

Let the desert and its towns raise their voices, the settlements where Kedar lives. Let the people of Sela sing out; let them shout from the mountaintops.

Let them give glory to Yahweh and declare his praise in the coastlands.

Yahweh marches out like a warrior. Like a battle-hardened fighter, he stirs up his fury. He roars — yes, he shouts a war cry. He shows himself mighty against his enemies.

"For a long time I have kept silent. I have held myself back and said nothing. Now I cry out like a woman in labor — gasping, panting, all at once."

I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their green growth. I will turn rivers into dry land and drain the pools dry.

I will lead the blind by a road they did not know; down paths they have never traveled, I will guide them. I will turn their darkness into light before them and rough ground into level road. These are the things I will do — I will not leave them undone.

Those who trust in carved images, who say to metal castings, 'You are our gods' — they will be driven back in total shame.

Listen, you who are deaf! Look and see, you who are blind!

Who is blind but my servant? Who is deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one I am committed to, blind like the servant of Yahweh?

You have seen many things but paid no attention. Your ears are open, but you hear nothing.

Yahweh was pleased, for the sake of his own justice, to make his teaching great and glorious.

But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in holes, hidden away in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, loot with no one to say, 'Give it back!'

Who among you will listen to this? Who will pay attention and hear what is coming?

Who handed Jacob over to the looters, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not Yahweh, the one we failed? They refused to walk in his ways; they would not listen to his teaching.

So he poured out burning anger on them, the violence of war. It set them on fire from every side, but they did not understand. It consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.