I Will Give You as a Light of the Nations
Listen to Me, O acoastlands,
And pay attention, you peoples from afar.
bYahweh called Me from the womb;
From the body of My mother He made My name to be remembered.
2 He has set My amouth like a sharp sword;
In the bshadow of His hand He has concealed Me;
And He has also set Me as a select carrow;
He has hidden Me in His quiver.
3 He said to Me, “aYou are My Servant, Israel,
bIn Whom I will show forth My beautiful glory.”
4 But I said, “I have atoiled in vain;
I have spent My might for nothing and vanity;
Yet surely the justice due to Me is with Yahweh,
And My breward with My God.”
5 So now says aYahweh, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To return Jacob back to Him, so that bIsrael might be gathered to Him
(For I am cglorified in the sight of Yahweh,
And My God is My dstrength),
6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to cause the apreserved ones of Israel to return;
I will also give You as a blight of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the cend of the earth.”
7 Thus says Yahweh, the aRedeemer of Israel and its Holy One,
To the bdespised One,
To the One abhorred by the nation,
To the Servant of rulers,
“cKings will see and arise,
Princes will also dbow down,
Because of Yahweh who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”
8 Thus says Yahweh,
“In an aacceptable time I have answered You,
And in a day of salvation I have helped You;
And I will bguard You and cgive You for a covenant of the people,
To destablish the land, to make them inherit the desolate inheritance;
9 Saying to those who are abound, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
Along the roads they will feed,
And their pasture will be on all bbare heights.