Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 42:3

"A bruised reed will he not break, and a dimly burning wick will he not quench: he will bring forth justice in truth." — Isaiah 42:3 (ASV)

A bruised reed shall he not break ... — Physical, moral, and spiritual weakness are all brought under the same likeness. In another context, we have encountered this image in Isaiah 36:6. The simple negative “he shall not break” implies, as in the rhetoric of all times, the opposite extreme: the tender care that props and supports.

The humanity of the servant of the Lord was to embody what had already been declared concerning the Divine will (Psalms 51:17). The dimly burning flax, the wick of a lamp nearly out, He will foster, cherish, and feed the spiritual life, almost extinguished, with oil until it burns brightly again. In Matthew 25:1-13, we have to deal with lamps that are going out, and these not even He could light again unless the bearers of the lamps “bought oil” for themselves.

Judgment unto truth — that is, according to the perfect standard of truth, with something of the sense of St. John’s “true” in the sense of representing the ideal (John 1:9; John 15:1).