The Lord’s Chosen Servant
1 bBehold cmy dservant, whom I uphold,
emy chosen, fin whom my soul delights;
gI have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged1
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
hwho created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am the Lord; I have called you2 in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
iI will give you as a covenant for the people,
a jlight for the nations,
7 kto open the eyes that are blind,
lto bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; mthat is my name;
nmy glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and onew things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”
Sing to the Lord a New Song
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the habitants of Sela sing for joy,
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them pgive glory to the Lord,
and declare his praise in the coastlands.
13 The Lord goes out qlike a mighty man,
like a man of war he stirs up his rzeal;
he cries out, he shouts aloud,
he shows himself mighty against his foes.
14 For a long time sI have held my peace;
I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in labor;
I will gasp and pant.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn the rivers into islands,3
and dry up the pools.
16 And I will lead the blind
in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
tthe rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
and I do not forsake them.
17 They are turned back and utterly uput to shame,
who trust in carved idols,
who say to metal images,
“You are our gods.”
Israel’s Failure to Hear and See
18 Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind, that you may see!
19 Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as my dedicated one,4
or blind as the servant of the Lord?
20 He sees many things, but does not observe them;
his ears are open, but he does not hear.
21 The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,
to magnify his law and make it glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and looted;
they are all of them trapped in holes
and hidden in prisons;
they have become plunder with none to rescue,
spoil with none to say, “Restore!”
23 Who among you will give ear to this,
will attend and listen for the time to come?
24 Who gave up Jacob to the looter,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,
in whose ways they would not walk,
and whose law they would not obey?
25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger
and the might of battle;
it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;
it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star hfallen from heaven to earth, and he was given ithe key to the shaft of jthe bottomless pit.1 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose ksmoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then from the smoke came llocusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told mnot to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but nonly those people who do not have the oseal of God pon their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people qwill seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7 rIn appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and stheir teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was tlike the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is uAbaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.2
12 The first vwoe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.
