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From: Isaiah 42:1-7

First Song of the Servant of the Lord

(Thus says the Lord,)
[1] “Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him,
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
[2] He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
[3] a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
[4] He will not fail or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
[5] Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread forth the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
[6] “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
[7] to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

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Commentary:

42:1-9. The Lord, who revealed his power by creating the world (40:12-31) and
showed his determination to save mankind by his intervention in history (41:1-29),
now announces a new stage in his plans (v. 9). To advance them he will give a
special mission to the “servant of the Lord”; in the prophetic text, this personage
plays the key role in making known and putting into effect the salvific plans of
God. Four passages over the course of chapters 42-55 speak of the servant and
his mission; these passages may originally have made up a poem of their own.
These oracles are usually called the “Songs of the Servant”. Most biblical scho-
lars see 42:1-9 as being the first song or, rather, the first stanza of that poem.
The other three passages are: 49:1-6; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12. They combine
to make a very beautiful poem, but they raise difficult questions as to style and
content. They have been the subject of a great deal of commentary, and the i-
dentity of the “servant” is still a matter of debate. Those who consider the four
passages to be parts of the one poem take it that the “servant” in each is one
and the same person and has one and the same mission. Scholars who do not
regard the four passages as originally part of a single poem interpret the person
and mission of the servant as being different in each.

There are basically three theories as to who the servant is. One theory is that he
is a particular individual — a king of the house of Judah, or the prophet himself or,
of course, a future Messiah, who will redeem Israel. The second theory is that
the servant is a collectivity: he stands for Israel, or for some group within Israel.
The third theory argues that the servant is meant to be depicted ambiguously —
that is in a way that allows him to be interpreted in both of the ways mentioned
previously — as a person of significance but someone who can symbolize all Is-
rael.

In this first song (vv. 1-9) the servant certainly comes across as a figure of mys-
tery: v. 1 gives him very special universal transcendental attributes, Verses 2-3a
show his humility, but they are followed immediately by verses saying that he is
someone able to “establish justice in the earth”, to be “a light to the nations”,
someone who can “bring light to the nations” and “open the eyes that are blind
and set captives free...”. The “servant” can do all this because the Lord has “put
his Spirit on him” (cf. v. 1), that is, he is someone chosen by God and he has
the help of the Spirit of the Lord to carry out his mission to teach his Law to the
very ends of the earth. So, these words could be describing the prophet’s own
conviction that he has a mission to perform—to proclaim the word of God; a mis-
sion that he did not seek but, rather, had given to him. But the servant could al-
so stand for the whole people of Israel (cf. 41:8)—for in the same way were the
people chosen by God to bear witness to him before all mankind concerning
the Law they had received from the Lord.

The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles without attempting to discover exact-
ly who this servant was originally (or whom he was meant to stand for) interpre-
ted the main features of the servant as being a prophecy about Jesus, in whom
the Father is most pleased, and who, in the unity of the Holy Spirit is truly the
light for all nations and the liberation of all the oppressed. For example, in the
accounts of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan and of the Transfiguration, the
voice of the Father refers to those features: This is my beloved Son with whom
I am well pleased (Mt 3:17); “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” (Lk
9:35).

The Gospel of Matthew, which makes a point of showing that the Scriptures find
fulfillment in Jesus, explicitly quotes vv. 2-4 of this oracle of Isaiah to show that
in Jesus is fulfilled the prophecy of the servant, who was rejected by the leaders
of the people and whose quiet and kindly teaching would bring the light of truth
to the world (Mt 12:15-21). And later in his Gospel, when St Matthew recounts
the passion and death of our Lord (cf. Mt 27:30), he again makes the link be-
tween Christ and the servant.

The expression “light to the nations” (v. 6) seems to find an echo in what Jesus
says about his being the light of the world (Jn 8:12; 9:5) and also in the “Bene-
dictus” of Zechariah (Lk 1:78-79). There is an evocation of v. 7 in Jesus’ reply to
the messengers from John the Baptist who ask him whether he is he who is to
come (cf. Mt 11:4-6: Lk 7:18-22); cf. the note on 29:15-24. And so St Justin will
say, commenting on vv. 6-7: “Everything that is said here, my friends, refers to
Christ and to the peoples who have been enlightened by his presence” (”Dialo-
gus Cum Tryphone”, 122, 2).

The Church in the Second Vatican Council acknowledges her duty to strive to
use every opportunity to show that Christ is truly the “light of the nations” (v. 6):
“Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so, this Sacred Synod gathered
together in the Holy Spirit eagerly desires, by proclaiming the Gospel to every
creature, to bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the coun-
tenance of the Church” (”Lumen Gentium”, 1).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.