Isaiah 42 is the forty-second chapter of the Book of Isaiah in both the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Old Testament of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

, and is a part of the

Books of the Prophets Nevi'im (; he, נְבִיאִים ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons") is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim (wri ...

.Theodore Hiebert, et al. 1996. ''The New Interpreter's Bible: Volume VI''. Nashville: Abingdon. Chapters 40-55 are known as "Deutero-Isaiah" and date from the time of the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

' exile in Babylon. This chapter contains a poem known as the first of the " Servant songs" about the servant, whom Jewish tradition holds that Isaiah identifies as either the Israelites themselves ( he, אור לגויים, ''or l'goyim'') or Cyrus (in contrast to

Jewish Christian Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus ...

and, thus, later gentile Christian tradition, as well as Islamic tradition). Scholars such as

John Goldingay John Edgar Goldingay (born 20 June 1942 in Birmingham, United Kingdom) is a British Old Testament scholar and translator and Anglican cleric. He is the David Allan Hubbard Professor Emeritus of Old Testament in the School of Theology of Fuller T ...

, John Barton, and John Muddiman also hold the view that the Old Testament identifies the servant of the Servant songs as the Israelites in Is. 41:8-9; Is. 44:1; Is. 44:21; Is. 45:4; Is. 48:20 and Is. 49:3.Barton, John, and John Muddiman, eds. The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press, 2007, 467-477Goldingay, John. The theology of the Book of Isaiah. InterVarsity Press, 2014, 61-74. The latter two write that "The idea of a 'servant' played a small part in the earlier chapters, being used as a designation of the unworthy Eliakim in 22:20 and of the figure of David in 37:35, but it now comes to the fore as a description of major significance, the noun being used more than 20 times in chs. 40-55. Its first usage is obviously important in establishing the sense in which we are to understand it, and here it is clear that the community of Israel/Jacob is so described."

Text

The original text was written in

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. This chapter is divided into 25 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century),

Codex Leningradensis The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...

(1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

(3rd century BC or later): * 1QIsa^a: complete * 4QIsa^g (4Q61): extant verses 14‑25 * 4QIsa^h (4Q62): extant verses 2, 4‑11 * 4QIsaⁱ (4Q62^a): extant verses 4‑11 There is also a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the

version include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century),

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

(S; BHK:

\mathfrak

^S; 4th century),

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q;

\mathfrak

^Q; 6th century).

Parashot

The '' parashah'' sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Isaiah 42 is a part of the ''Consolations (

Isaiah 40 Isaiah 40 is the fortieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, and the first chapter of the section known as "Deutero-Isaiah" (Isaiah 40- 55), dating from the time of the Israelites' ex ...

–66)''. : open ''parashah''; : closed ''parashah''. : 42:1-4 42:5-9 42:10-13 42:14-17 42:18-25 3:1-10

Verse 1

:''"Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,'' :''My Elect One in whom My soul delights!'' :''I have put My Spirit upon Him;'' :''He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles."'' *Cross references: Isaiah 44:1, Jeremiah 30:10, Matthew 12:18 The Synoptic Gospels each allude to verse 1 in their accounts of the

Baptism of Jesus The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is a major event in the life of Jesus which is described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark and Luke). It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghtas (also called Bet ...

, when the Holy Spirit descends like a dove upon Jesus and a "voice from heaven" acclaims Him as "My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." ( Matthew 3:17; ; ).

Verse 3

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

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: or , meaning " Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705BC to his own death in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynas ...

, king of

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...

, had referred to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

as a "broken reed", criticising Israel's dependence on Egypt during the reign of king Hezekiah. *"Smoking" or "dimly burning" *"Quench" or "extinguish" from the Hebrew root: k-b-h (, ''kabah'', "to be quenched or extinguished, to go out"), is also used in Isaiah 1:31 and Isaiah 66:24 for: "the fire that shall not be quenched"; Isaiah 34:10: 'the fire devouring Edom "will not be quenched"'; as well as in 43:17: 'those who oppose the LORD'S path are "quenched like a wick"'.

Verse 4

:''He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.'' *"Be discouraged": from Hebrew: , ',Hebrew Text Analysis: Isaiah 42:4
Biblehub "bruised", from the root word "crushed" (, ''ratsats''), used to describe "crushed reed" (or "bruised reed") and "dim (, ''kahah'') wick" (or "smoking flax") in verse 3, repeated here for rhetorical effect. *"Isles" (

KJV The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

):from Hebrew: , ', "coastlands" ( ESV;

MEV In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV, also written electron-volt and electron volt) is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating from rest through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacu ...

;

NET Net or net may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Net (mathematics), a filter-like topological generalization of a sequence * Net, a linear system of divisors of dimension 2 * Net (polyhedron), an arrangement of polygons that can be folded up ...

;

NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

); "islands" (

NIV Niv may refer to: * Niv, a personal name; for people with the name, see * Niv Art Movies, a film production company of India * Niv Art Centre, in New Delhi, India NIV may refer to: * The New International Version, a translation of the Bible into ...

); NLT: "distant lands beyond the sea." *"His law" (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV): from Hebrew: , ', "his decrees" (NET), "his instruction" (NLT).

Verse 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.'' *"Blind eyes": both physical and spiritual ( Isaiah 29:18; 32:3; 35:5; 42:16, 18, 19; ),Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, Andrew Robert; Brown, David. '' Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary On the Whole Bible''
"Isaiah 42"
1871. here may specially be for spiritual blindness by the comment of verses 16–19Exell, Joseph S.; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice (Editors)

In: ''The Pulpit Commentary''. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890. Accessed 24 April 2019. (cf. Paul's calling in Acts 26:18). Ellicott, C. J. (Ed.) (1905)
''Ellicott's Bible Commentary for English Readers''. Isaiah 42.
London : Cassell and Company, Limited, 905-1906Online version: (OCoLC) 929526708. Accessed 28 April 2019. This is in contrast to Isaiah's own mission (). *"To bring out the prisoners from the prison": cf. Isaiah 61:1- 2. Barnes, Albert
''Notes on the Bible'' - Isaiah 42
James Murphy (ed). London: Blackie & Son, 1884. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998. For different aspects of "prison", see "prisoners of hope" in Zechariah 9:11, and the "spirits in prison" in 1 Peter 3:19.

New Testament

In Matthew 12:17– 21, Isaiah 42:1– 4 is cited as a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies in the life and work of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

: : ''And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:'' ::''"Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen,'' :::''My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!'' ::''I will put My Spirit upon Him,'' :::''And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.'' ::''He will not quarrel nor cry out,'' :::''Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.'' ::''A bruised reed He will not break,'' :::''And smoking flax He will not quench,'' ::''Till He sends forth justice to victory;'' :::''And in His name Gentiles will trust."''

Islamic Interpretation

Muslim tradition holds that Isaiah 42 predicted the coming of a servant associated with Qedar, the second son of Ishmael and who went on to live his life in

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

, and so interpret this passage as a prophecy of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

.Zepp, Ira G. A Muslim Primer: Beginner's Guide to Islam. Vol. 1. University of Arkansas Press, 2000, 50-51Rubin, Uri. The eye of the beholder: the life of Muḥammad as viewed by the early Muslims: a textual analysis. Vol. 5. Darwin Pr, 1995.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Jewish

Isaiah 42: Hebrew with Parallel English

Christian

Isaiah 42 English Translation with Parallel Latin VulgateIsrael, the Suffering Servant
{{Book of Isaiah Old Testament theology 42 Christian messianism