Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
delighteth
רָצְתָ֣הra.tze.Tah
H7521
to be pleased with · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
put
נָתַ֤תִּיna.Ta.ti
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
spirit
רוּחִי֙ru.Chi
H7307
wind · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 1st person feminine singular
forth
יוֹצִֽיאyo.Tzi'
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
judgment
מִשְׁפָּ֖טmish.Pat
H4941
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Gentiles
לַגּוֹיִ֥םla.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 12:18-21 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 shew judgmen…
Luke 3:22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in t…
Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up th…
Isaiah 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before…
Philippians 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Matthew 17:5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in wh…
Matthew 3:16-17 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of G…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 42:1-4
We are sure that these verses are to be understood of Christ, for the evangelist tells us expressly that in him this prophecy was fulfilled, Mat 12:17-21. Behold with an eye of faith, behold and observe, behold and admire, my servant, whom I uphold. Let the Old Testament saints behold and remember him. Now what must we behold and consider concerning him?
I. The Father's concern for him and relation to him, the confidence he put and the complacency he took in him. This put an honour upon him, and made him remarkable, above any other circumstance, Isa 42:1. 1. God owns him as one employed for him: He is my servant. Though he was a Son, yet, as a Mediator, he took upon him the form of a servant…
Behold my servant, whom I uphold,.... The Targum is,
"behold my servant the Messiah;''
and Kimchi on the place says, this is the King Messiah; and so Abarbinel (f) interprets it of him, and other Jewish writers, and which is right; for the prophet speaks not of himself, as Aben Ezra thinks; nor of Cyrus, as Saadiah Gaon; nor of the people of Israel, as Jarchi; but of Christ, as it is applied, Matthew 12:17 who is spoken of under the character of a "servant", as he is; not as a divine Person, for as such he is the Son of God; but as man, and in his office as Mediator; a servant of the Lord, not of angels, or men, but of his divine Father; who chose him, called and sent him, and assigned him…
Behold my servant. The Prophet appears to break off abruptly to speak of Christ, but we ought to remember what we mentioned formerly [150] in expounding another passage, (Isaiah 7:14,) that the prophets, when they promise anything hard to be believed, are wont immediately afterwards to mention Christ; for in him are ratified all the promises which would otherwise have been doubtful and uncertain. "In Christ," says Paul, "is Yea and Amen." (2 Corinthians 1:20.) For what intercourse can we have with God, unless the Mediator come between us? We undoubtedly are too far alienated from his majesty, and therefore could not be partakers either of salvation or of any other blessing, but through the k…
The Church Fathers
It is possible, with the help of God, easily to distinguish the presence of the good and the bad; a vision of the holy ones is not agitated. "He shall not protest and cry out; none will hear his voice." It occurs so quietly and gently that joy and gladness and confidence are at once born in the soul.… The soul's thoughts remain untroubled and calm, so that, enlightened of itself, it contemplates those who appear. LIFE OF ST.
The passage reads, "Jacob, my son, I will uphold him; Israel, my elect, my soul has assumed him." … It is true, indeed, that the Vulgate text has "my servant" in place of "Jacob" and "Israel," but the Septuagint translators preferred to make the meaning more explicit, namely, that the prophecy concerns the "Highest" insofar as he became the "lowliest," in the form of a servant. Hence they placed the name of that man from whose stock the "form of a servant" was assumed. It was to him that the Holy Spirit was given.
The goodness of the Deity has endless love for humanity and never ceased from benignly pouring out on us its providential gifts. … It made it possible for us to escape from the domain of the rebellious, and it did this not through overwhelming force, but, as Scripture mysteriously tells us, by an act of judgment accomplished in all righteousness. Beneficently God's goodness wrought a complete change in our nature. It filled our shadowed and unshaped minds with a kindly, divine light and adorned them with loveliness suitable to their divinized state. It saved our nature from almost complete wreckage and delivered the dwelling place of our soul from the most accursed passion and from destructive defilement. Finally, it showed us a supramundane uplifting and an inspired way of life in shaping ourselves to it as fully as lay in our power. - "Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 3.3.11"
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Chosen — Spoken of warriors (Ex. 15:4; Judg. 20:16), of the Hebrew nation (Ps. 105:43; Deut. 7:7), of Jerusalem as the seat of the temple (1 Kings 11:13). Christ is the “chosen” of God (Isa. 42:1); and the…
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Christ, The Prophet · Anointed with the Holy Spirit — Anointed with the Holy Spirit
Election · .Of Christ as Messiah — .Of Christ as Messiah
Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
Holy Spirit · 31:3;35:31; — 31:3;35:31;
Meekness · OF JESUS — OF JESUS
Prophecies Respecting Christ · The conversion of the Gentiles to him — The conversion of the Gentiles to him
Quotations And Allusions · with — with
Titles And Names Of Christ · Elect of God — Elect of God
Trinity · THE HOLY — THE HOLY
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The servant here is not the people Israel (as in 41:8-28 and elsewhere in chs 41–48; see 49:5-6) but is a royal figure who accomplishes his mission with care for people, especially for those who are hurting. The passage is the first of four songs about this servant (42:1-4; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13–53:12). He brings in an era of universal justice. For the connection of the servant with Jesus Christ, see Matt 12:18-21.
42:1 who pleases me: God used similar language at Jesus’ baptism (Matt 3:17). • I have put my Spirit upon him: Any leader might be called a servant, but the presence of the Spirit suggests a king of David’s line or a prophet like Moses (see Num 11:17, 24-29). • Establishing jus…
Behold My servant, I will support him Behold My servant Jacob is not like you, for I will support him.
My chosen one Israel is called ‘My chosen one’ ([mss.:] His chosen one) (Ps. 135:4) “For the Eternal chose Jacob for Himself.” Scripture states also (infra 45:4): “For the sake of My servant Jacob and Israel My chosen one.”
whom My soul desires; I have placed My spirit upon him to let his prophets know My secret, and his end will be that ‘he shall promulgate justice to the nations,’ as it is stated (supra 2:3): “And let Him teach us of His ways etc.”
