Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 42

Behold - This word is designed to call attention to the person who is immediately referred to. It is an intimation that the subject is of importance and should command their regard.

My servant - This phrase properly denotes anyone who acknowledges or worships God; anyone who is regarded as serving or obeying Him. It is a term that may be applied to anyone who is esteemed to be a pious man, or who is obedient to the commands of God, and is often applied to the people of God (Genesis 50:17; 1 Chronicles 6:49; 2 Chronicles 24:9; Daniel 6:20; Daniel 9:2; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; 1 Peter 2:16; Revelation 7:3; Revelation 15:3).

The word ‘servant’ may be applied either to Isaiah, Cyrus, or the Messiah. The question of to whom it refers here is to be decided not by the mere use of the term, but by the connection and by the characteristics that are ascribed to him who is here designated as the ‘servant’ of Yahweh. There have been no less than five different views regarding the personage referred to here. Since everything in the interpretation of the whole prophecy in this chapter depends on this question, it is important to briefly examine the opinions that have been entertained.

1. One view has been that it refers to the Jewish people. The translators of the Septuagint evidently regarded it this way. They render it, Ἰακώβ ὁ παῖς μοῦ, κ.τ.λ. (Iakōb ho pais mou, etc.) – ‘Jacob is my servant, I will uphold him; Israel is my chosen one, my soul has embraced him.’

   Jarchi also interprets the passage this way, but modifies it to understand by it ‘the righteous in Israel.’ Among modern interpreters, Rosenmuller, Paulus, and some others adopt this interpretation. The principal reason alleged for this view is that the phrase ‘servant of Yahweh’ is used elsewhere in a collective sense and applied to the Jewish people.

   Rosenmuller appeals particularly to Isaiah 41:8-9, Isaiah 42:19, Isaiah 44:21, Isaiah 45:4, and Isaiah 48:20. He argues that it is to be presumed that the prophet used the phrase in a uniform manner and must therefore be supposed here also to refer to the Jewish people. However, the objections are insuperable.

   1. In Isaiah 42:6, the servant of Yahweh referred to here is plainly distinguished from the people, where God says, ‘I will give you for a covenant of (with) the people.’

   2. The description that the prophet gives here of the character of the ‘servant’ of Yahweh, as meek, mild, gentle, quiet, and humble (Isaiah 42:2–3), is remarkably unlike the character that the prophet elsewhere gives of the people, and is just as remarkably like the character that is everywhere given of the Messiah.

   3. It was not true of the Jewish people that they were appointed, as is said here of the ‘servant’ of God (Isaiah 42:7), to ‘open the blind eyes, and to bring the prisoners out of prison.’ This is evidently applicable only to a teacher, a deliverer, or a guide; and in no sense can it be applied to the collective Jewish people.

2. A second opinion has been that Cyrus was intended by the ‘servant of Yahweh.’ Many Jewish interpreters and not a few German critics have adopted this view. The principal argument for this opinion is that what precedes and what follows relates particularly to Cyrus. An appeal is made particularly to Isaiah 45:1, where he is called the Anointed, and to Isaiah 44:28, where he is called the Shepherd. However, the objections to this view are also obvious.

   1. The name ‘servant of Yahweh,’ it is believed, is nowhere given to Cyrus.

   2. The description here by no means agrees with Cyrus. That he was distinguished for justice and equity is admitted (see the note at Isaiah 41:2), but the expressions used here, that God would ‘put His Spirit upon him, that he should not cry, nor lift up his voice, so that it should be heard in the streets,’ is one that is by no means applicable to a man whose life was spent mainly in the tumults of war, and in the pomp and carnage of battle and conquest. How can this description be applied to a man who trod down nations, subdued kings, and shed rivers of blood?

3. Others suppose that the prophet refers to himself. Among the Jews, Aben Ezra, and among others, Grotius and Döderlein held this opinion. The only reason for this is that in Isaiah 20:3, the name ‘servant of Yahweh’ is given to Isaiah. But the objections to this are plain and insuperable.

   1. Nothing can be urged, as we have seen, from the mere use of the word ‘servant.’

   2. It is inconceivable that a humble prophet like Isaiah should have applied to himself a description expressive of so much importance as is attributed here to the servant of God. How could the establishment of a new covenant with the people of God and the conversion of the pagan nations (Isaiah 42:6–7) be ascribed to Isaiah? And in what sense is it true that he was appointed to open the eyes of the blind and to lead the prisoners from the prison?

4. A fourth opinion, which it may be proper just to notice, is that advocated by Gesenius: that the phrase here refers to the prophets taken collectively. But this opinion is one that scarcely deserves a serious refutation. For:

   1. The name ‘servant of Yahweh’ is never given to any collection of the prophets.

   2. Any such collection of the prophets is a mere creature of the fancy. When did they exist? Who composed the collection? And how could the name ‘servant’ designate them?

   3. Of what collection of people could it be imagined that the description given here could be applied: that such a collection should not strive, nor cry; that it should be a covenant of the people; and that it should be the means of the conversion of the Gentile world?

5. The fifth opinion, therefore, is that it refers to the Messiah. The direct arguments in favor of this, independent of the fact that it is applicable to no other, are so strong as to put it beyond debate. A few of them may be referred to.

   1. This is the interpretation of the Chaldee Paraphrase, which has retained the exposition of the ancient and early Jews: ‘Behold my servant, the Messiah (משׁיתא עבדי – ‛abeddı̂y meshı̂ythâ') I will cause him to come near; my chosen.’

   2. There are such applications of the passage in the New Testament to the Lord Jesus as to leave no room for doubt that, in the view of the sacred writers, the passage had this reference.

      Thus, in Luke 2:32, He is spoken of as ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles’ . In Acts 26:18, Paul speaks of Him as given to the Gentiles, ‘to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light’ .

      In Matthew 3:17, God says of the Redeemer, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,’ – language remarkably similar to the passage before us (Isaiah 42:1), where He says, ‘mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.’ And the whole inquiry is put to rest by the fact that Matthew (Matthew 12:17–21) expressly and directly applies the passage to the Lord Jesus, and says that it was fulfilled in Him.

   3. It may be added that the entire description is one that is exactly and entirely applicable to the Lord Jesus. It is as applicable as if it had been made after He had appeared among people, and as if it were the language of biography and not of prophecy. It is an exceedingly beautiful and tender description of the Son of God; nor can there be any objection to its application to Him, except what arises from a general purpose not to apply any part of the Old Testament to Him, if it can be avoided.

      I shall regard the passage, therefore, as applicable to Him, and Him alone. I suppose that the design of the Spirit here in introducing this reference to the Messiah is to comfort the hearts of the exiled Jews with the assurance that they must be restored to their own land, because it was from them that the Messiah was to proceed, and from them that the true religion was to be spread around the world.

Whom I uphold - Whom I sustain or protect; that is, who is the object of My affection and care. In Matthew 3:17, the expression is, ‘in whom I am well pleased.’ And so in Matthew 12:18, it is rendered, ‘my servant, whom I have chosen.’

Mine elect - My chosen one; or the one whom I have selected to accomplish My great purposes. It implies that God had designated or appointed Him for the purpose. In Matthew 12:18, it is rendered ‘my beloved.’ It implies that He was the object of divine favor and that God had chosen or appointed Him to perform the work of a Messiah.

In whom My soul delighteth - This language is applied to the Lord Jesus in Matthew 3:17 and Matthew 12:18. God regarded Him as qualified for His work: He approved of what He did; He was well pleased with all His words, thoughts, and plans. The word ‘soul’ here is equivalent to ‘I Myself’ – in whom I delight.

I have put My Spirit upon Him - : ‘For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.’ The Lord Jesus was divine, yet as Mediator He is everywhere represented as ‘the anointed’ of God, or as endowed with the influences of the Holy Spirit (compare the note at Isaiah 11:2). See also Isaiah 61:1, where the Messiah says of Himself, ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because He hath anointed me’ . Before He entered upon His public ministry, the Spirit of God descended on Him at His baptism (Matthew 3:17), and in all His work He showed that He was endowed abundantly with that Spirit.

He shall bring forth judgment - The word ‘judgment’ (משפט – mishpâṭ) is used in a great variety of significations.

It properly means judgment, that is, the act of judging (Leviticus 19:15); the place of judgment (Ecclesiastes 3:16); a cause, or suit before a judge (Numbers 28:5); a sentence of a judge (1 Kings 3:28); and from there, guilt or crime for which one is judged (Jeremiah 51:9).

It also means right, rectitude, justice; a law or statute; a claim, privilege, or due; also manner, custom, or fashion; or an ordinance or institution.

Here it is used, probably, in the sense of the order or institution that would be introduced under the Messiah; and it means that He would set up or establish the true religion among the Gentiles.

To the Gentiles - This is one of the many declarations that occur in Isaiah that the Messiah would extend the true religion to pagan nations and that they should be brought to participate in its privileges.

He shall not cry — He will not make a clamor or noise; he will not be boisterous, in the manner of a man of strife and contention.

Nor lift up — That is, his voice.

Nor cause his voice to be heard in the street — He shall not use loud and angry words, as they do who are engaged in conflict, but all his teaching shall be gentle, humble, and mild. How well this agrees with the character of the Lord Jesus it is not necessary to pause to show. He was uniformly unostentatious, modest, and retiring. He did not even desire that his deeds should be blazoned abroad, but sought to be withdrawn from the world, and to pursue his humble path in perfect peace.

A bruised reed - The word ‘reed’ means the cane or calamus which grows up in marshy or wet places (Isaiah 36:6; see the note at Isaiah 43:24).

The word, therefore, literally denotes that which is fragile, weak, easily waved by the wind, or broken down, and stands in contrast with a lofty and firm tree : What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?

The word here, therefore, may be applied to people who are conscious of feebleness and sin, who are moved and broken by calamity, who feel that they have no strength to bear up against the ills of life. The word ‘bruised’ (רצוּץ râtsûts) means that which is broken or crushed, but not entirely broken off. As used here, it may denote those who are in themselves naturally feeble, and who have been crushed or broken down by a sense of sin, by calamity, or by affliction.

We speak familiarly of crushing or breaking down by trials; and the phrase here is intensive and emphatic, denoting those who are at best like a reed - feeble and fragile; and who, in addition to that, have been broken and oppressed by a sense of their sins, or by calamity.

Shall he not break - Shall he not break off. He will not carry on the work of destruction, and entirely crush or break it. And the idea is, that he will not make those already broken down with a sense of sin and with calamity more wretched. He will not deepen their afflictions, or augment their trials, or multiply their sorrows. The sense is, that he will have an affectionate regard for the broken-hearted, the humble, the penitent, and the afflicted.

Luther has well expressed this: ‘He does not cast away, nor crush, nor condemn the wounded in conscience, those who are terrified in view of their sins; the weak in faith and practice, but watches over and cherishes them, makes them whole, and affectionately embraces them.’

The expression is parallel to that which occurs in Isaiah 61:1, where it is said of the Messiah, He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted; and to the declaration in Isaiah 50:4, where it is said, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

The smoking flax - The word used here denotes flax, and then a wick that is made of it. The word rendered ‘smoking’ (כהה kēhâh) means that which is weak, small, thin, feeble; then that which is just ready to go out, or to be extinguished.

The phrase refers literally to the expiring wick of a lamp when the oil is almost consumed, and when it shines with a feeble and dying luster. It may denote here the condition of one who is feeble and disheartened, and whose love to God seems almost ready to expire.

And the promise that he will not extinguish or quench that means that he would cherish, feed, and cultivate it; he would supply it with grace, as with oil to cherish the dying flame, and cause it to be enkindled, and to rise with a high and steady brilliancy.

The whole passage is descriptive of the Redeemer, who nourishes the most feeble piety in the hearts of his people, and who will not suffer true religion in the soul ever to become wholly extinct. It may seem as if the slightest breath of misfortune or opposition would extinguish it forever; it may be like the dying flame that hangs on the point of the wick, but if there is true religion it will not be extinguished, but will be enkindled to a pure and glowing flame, and it will yet rise high, and burn brightly.

He shall bring forth judgment - . The word ‘judgment’ here evidently denotes the true religion; the laws, institutions, and appointments of God.

Unto truth -Matthew 12:29 renders this, ‘unto victory.’ The meaning in Isaiah is, that he shall establish his religion according to truth; he shall faithfully announce the true precepts of religion, and secure their ascendency among mankind.

It shall overcome all falsehood, and all idolatry, and shall obtain a final triumph in all nations. Thus explained, it is clear that Matthew has retained the general idea of the passage, though he has not quoted it literally.

He will not fail - He will not be weak, feeble, or disheartened. Whatever may tend to discourage, yet his purpose is fixed, and he will pursue it with steadiness and ardor until the great work is fully accomplished. There may be an allusion in the Hebrew word here (יכהה yikheh) to that which is applied to the flax (כהה kēhāh); and the idea may be that he will not become in his purposes like the smoking, flickering, dying flame of a lamp.

There will never be any indication, even amidst all embarrassments, that it is his intention to abandon his plan of extending the true religion throughout all the world. Such also should be the fixed and determined purposes of his people. Their zeal should never fail; their ardor should never grow languid.

Nor be discouraged - Margin, ‘Broken.’ The Hebrew word ירוּץ yārûts may be derived either from רצץ rātsats—to break, to break in pieces; or from רוץ rûts—to run, to move hastily, to rush upon anyone. Our translators have adopted the former. Gesenius also supposes that this is the true interpretation of the word, and that it means that he would not be broken, that is, checked in his zeal, or discouraged by any opposition. The latter interpretation is preferred by Vitringa, Rosenmuller, Hengstenberg, and others.

The Chaldee renders it, ‘Shall not labor,’ that is, shall not be fatigued, or discouraged. The Septuagint renders it, ‘He shall shine out, and not be broken.’ The connection seems to require the sense which our translators have given to it. According to this, the meaning is, ‘he will not become broken in spirit, or discouraged; he will persevere amidst all opposition and embarrassment, until he accomplishes his purposes.’ We have a similar phraseology when we speak of a man’s being heart-broken.

Till he has set judgment - Until he has secured the prevalence of the true religion in all the world.

And the isles - Distant nations (see the note at Isaiah 41:1); the pagan nations. The expression is equivalent to saying that the Gentiles would be desirous of receiving the religion of the Messiah, and would wait for it (see the notes at Isaiah 2:3).

Shall wait - They will be dissatisfied with their own religions, and see that their idol-gods are unable to aid them; and they will be in a posture of waiting for some new religion that will meet their needs. It cannot mean that they will wait for it, in the sense of their already having a knowledge of it. Instead, their being sensible that their own religions cannot save them may be represented as a condition of waiting for some better system.

It has been true, as in the Sandwich Islands, that the pagan have been so dissatisfied with their own religion as to cast away their idols, and to be without any religion, and thus to be in a waiting posture for some new and better system. And it may be true yet that the pagan will become extensively dissatisfied with their idolatry; that they will be convinced that some better system is necessary, and that they may thus be prepared to welcome the gospel when it is proposed to them.

It may be that in this manner God intends to remove the now apparently insuperable obstacles to the spread of the gospel in the pagan world. The Septuagint renders this, And in his name shall the Gentiles trust, which form has been retained by Matthew (Matthew 12:21).

His law - His commands, the institutions of his religion. The word ‘law’ is often used in the Scriptures to denote the whole of religion.

Thus saith God the Lord - This verse begins a new form of discourse. It is still Yahweh who speaks; but in the previous verses he had spoken of the Messiah in the third person; here he is introduced as speaking to him directly.

He introduces the discourse by showing that he is the Creator and Lord of all things. The object of his dwelling on this seems to have been to show that he had power to sustain the Messiah in the work to which he had called him, and to secure for him respect as having been commissioned by him who had formed the heavens and the earth, and who ruled over all.

He shows that he had power to accomplish all that he had promised. He seeks in this way to elevate and confirm the hopes of the people with the assurance of their deliverance and salvation.

And stretched them out - The heavens are often represented as stretched out as a veil (Genesis 1:6, Hebrew) or as an expanse that can be rolled up (see the note at Isaiah 34:4), or as a tent for the appropriate dwelling-place of God (see the note at Isaiah 40:22). His great power and glory are indicated by the fact that he has stretched out what to us appears a vast expanse over our heads. On the grammatical construction of the word that occurs here in the Hebrew, see Rosenmuller on this passage.

He that spread forth the earth - He stretched it out as a plain—retaining the idea that was so common among the ancients that the earth was a vast plain, reaching from one end of the heavens to the other. The words, however, that are used here are not inconsistent with the idea that the earth is a sphere, since it may still be represented as stretched out, or expanded to a vast extent. The main idea in the passage is not to teach the form in which the earth is made, but to show that it has been made by God.

And that which cometh out of it - The productions of the earth—the trees, shrubs, grain, etc. As the verb “to stretch out” cannot be applied to these, some verb must be understood, such as “he produced,” or “caused to grow.”

He that giveth breath and spirit to them - This refers, doubtless, to beasts as well as to people; and the idea is that God is the source of life to all the creatures that live and move on the earth. The argument in the passage is that since God is the creator and upholder of all, has given life to all, and has the universe entirely under his control, he has the right to appoint whomever he wills to be the medium of his favors to people. Furthermore, he has the right to demand that suitable respect be shown to the Messiah whom he has designated for this work.