Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 12:18

"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 shall declare judgment to the Gentiles." — Matthew 12:18 (ASV)

Behold my servant — The mysterious “servant of the Lord,” who is the central figure of the last part of Isaiah’s prophecies, appears sometimes as the representative of Israel’s righteousness, sometimes of its sins; now as one who bore witness as a prophet and messenger of God, now as standing apart from all others in solitary greatness or even more solitary suffering. In each of these aspects, the words of Isaiah found their highest fulfillment in the Son of Man. In referring these words to the Messiah, the Evangelist was following the precedent of the Chaldee Paraphrase, but we must also remember that the words heard at Jesus's baptism (which are almost identical to this prophecy) must have also suggested this application, especially in connection with the promise, I will put My Spirit upon Him, which had then been fulfilled.

He shall show judgment to the Gentiles — The word “judgment” has a wide range of meaning in the Hebrew of Isaiah, and includes the work of a king in teaching righteousness no less than in executing it. At that time, of course, the work of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles had not yet begun, but St. Matthew notes, as it were, in anticipation, the spirit of love and gentleness that, by the time he wrote his Gospel, had also brought them within the reach of these “judgments”—that is, the life-giving truths of the righteous Judge. It is one of the many instances in which his record, though obviously written for Jews, is nevertheless emphatically a Gospel for the Gentiles.