Here Is My Servant
(Matthew 12:15–21)

1“ Behold, My Servant, I take hold of him,

My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights;

I have put My Spirit upon Him,

and He will bring forth justice to the nations.

2He will not cry out, and He will not lift up,

and He will not make heard His voice in the street.

3A bruised reed He will not break,

and smoldering flax He will not quench;

for in faithfulness He will bring forth justice.

4He will not be dimmed and not be crushed,†

until He has established justice on the earth,

and in His law the islands will put their hope.†”

5Thus says God YHWH,

the One creating the heavens

and stretching them out,

spreading out the earth and its offspring,

giving breath to the people on it

and spirit to those walking on it:

6“I, YHWH, have called You in righteousness,

and have taken hold of your hand,

and watched over you and given you

as a covenant to the people,

as a light to the nations—

7to open eyes of the blind,

to bring out the prisoner from the dungeon,

and from the house of confinement

those sitting in darkness.

8I am YHWH—

that is My name!

And My glory I will not give to another,

or My praise to the idols.

9Behold, the former things, they have come,

and new things I am declaring—

before they spring forth,

I proclaim them to you⁺.”

A New Song of Praise
(Psalm 98:1–9; Psalm 149:1–9)

10Sing to YHWH a new song,

His praise from the end of the earth—

those going down to the sea, and all that is in it;

the islands,† and those dwelling in them.

11Let the wilderness and its cities lift up,

the villages where Kedar dwells;

let those dwelling in Sela sing;

let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12Let them give glory to YHWH

and declare His praise in the islands.

13YHWH goes forth like a mighty one;

like a man of war He stirs up zeal.

He shouts, yes, He roars;

over His enemies He will prevail.

14“I have been silent from ages past;

I have been still and restrained Myself;

like a woman in labor I will groan;

I will gasp and pant at once.

15I will lay waste the mountains and hills,

and all their vegetation I will dry up;

and I will turn the rivers into islands,†

and the pools I will dry up.

16And the blind I will bring by a way they did not know;

I will lead them by paths they have not known;

I will turn the darkness before their faces into light,

and the crooked places into level ground.

These are the things I will do for them

and I will not forsake them.

17They will be turned back,

they are utterly put to shame—

those trusting in the idols,

those saying to molten images, ‘You⁺ are are our gods.’

18Listen,

Israel Is Deaf and Blind O deaf ones,

and look O blind ones, in order to see.

19Who is blind, but for My servant,

or deaf like My messenger I am sending?

Who is blind like Meshullam

or blind like the servant of YHWH?

20Seeing many things, you do not keep watch;

opening the ears, and he does not hear.”

21YHWH delights on account of His righteousness,

to magnify the law and make it glorious.

22And it is a people robbed and plundered;

all of them are trapped in holes,

or hidden in houses of prisoners.

They have become a spoil with no rescue,

a plunder and no one is saying, “Send them back!”

23Who among you⁺ will give ear to this?

Who will listen and obey hereafter?

24Who gave Jacob as plunder

and Israel to those plundering?

Was it not YHWH,

against whom we have sinned?

And they were not willing to walk in His ways,

and they would not obey His law.

25And He poured out on him the heat of His nose

and the fierceness of battle;

and it has set him on fire all around,

and he did not know it,

and it burned him,

and he did not set it upon his heart.