to be weak · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
discouraged
יָר֔וּץya.Rutz
H7533
to crack in pieces · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
set
יָשִׂ֥יםya.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
judgment
מִשְׁפָּ֑טmish.Pat
H4941
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
earth
בָּאָ֖רֶץba.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
isles
אִיִּ֥ים'i.Yim
H339
properly · noun, common masculine plural absolute
wait
יְיַחֵֽילוּye.ya.Chei.lu
H3176
to wait · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
law
וּלְתוֹרָת֖וֹu.le.to.ra.To
H8451
a precept or statute · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Genesis 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the pe…
Isaiah 53:2-12 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see…
Isaiah 55:5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and…
Psalms 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
Isaiah 52:13-15 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to estab…
Matthew 12:21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Psalms 72:8-11 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
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…
fail--faint; man in religion may become as the almost expiring flax-wick (Isa 42:3), but not so He in His purposes of grace.
discouraged--literally, "broken," that is, checked in zeal by discouragements (compare Isa 49:4-5). ROSENMULLER not so well translates, "He shall not be too slow on the one hand, nor run too hastily on the other."
judgment--His true religion, the canon of His judgments and righteous reign.
isles . . . wait, &c.--The distant lands beyond sea shall put their trust in His gospel way of salvation. Mat 12:21 virtually gives the sense, with the inspired addition of another aspect of the same thing, "In his name shall the Gentiles trust" (as "wait for" here means, Isa 3…
He shall not fail,.... For want of strength to go through the work of redemption: or, "grow dim" (i) and dark, as a lamp for want of oil, or as the wick of a candle ready to go out. Hence the Septuagint version, "he shall shine (k)"; in the glory of his person, as the Son of God; in the fulness of his grace, as Mediator, which shall never fail; and in the hearts of his people by his Spirit; and in his Gospel published to the world:
nor be discouraged; at the number, power, and menaces of his enemies, he had to grapple with, sin, Satan, the world, and death: or,
nor be broken (l); with the weight of all the sins of his people upon him; and with a sense of divine wrath; and with the whole pu…
The Church Fathers
With truth and boldness to all, he proclaims the judgment of God, which has not ceased to operate. Rather, God's judgment is like light shining through the resurrection of the dead, which the prophetic word announced, saying, "He will give light and not be crushed." For those who planned Christ's death tried to crush him and extinguish him. For it is the nature of all mortal species to be crushed by death. But it did not crush him. Christ was the only person of all time who was shown to be stronger than death.
(Verse 4) He will not be sad or discouraged, until he establishes justice on earth: and the coastlands will wait for his law. LXX: he will shine and not be broken, until he establishes justice upon the earth: and the nations will hope in his name. But what follows: It will shine, and will not be crushed, until He establishes judgment upon the Earth, the Evangelist Matthew did not include (Mat. XII): or perhaps between judgment and judgment, they were omitted due to an error by the writer. But it signifies that, rising from the dead, he enlightened all, and was not crushed by death, until he placed judgment upon the earth: of whom it is spoken in the Gospel: I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John 9:39). Concerning which we have interpreted: He will not be sad, nor troubled; but will always maintain an equal countenance: which they falsely boast about Socrates the Philosopher, that he was never, more than usual, either sad or joyful. For which reason Aquila and Theodotius are interpreted: It will not hide, and it will not run, until it establishes judgment on earth. And the meaning is: no sadness will deter the face, nor will it hurry to punishment, who has reserved the truth of judgment for the last time. What follows: and the law of that island they will expect, the nations, clearly, put hope in its name: which in the Scriptures are called islands, because they are open to incursions of persecutors from every side. But let us understand his law, not the one given through Moses, but the Gospel: For from Zion a law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (see above, II). Concerning this law, Jeremiah also prophesies: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will establish a new covenant, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (Jeremiah 31:31, 32).
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
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…
Island — (Heb. ‘i, “dry land,” as opposed to water) occurs in its usual signification (Isa. 42:4, 10, 12, 15, comp. Jer. 47:4), but more frequently simply denotes a maritime region or sea-coast (Isa. 20:6,…
Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
Meekness · OF JESUS — OF JESUS
Quotations And Allusions · with — with
Waiting Upon God · Predicted of the Gentiles — Predicted of the Gentiles
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).
He shall not faint, nor be discouraged. The Prophet alludes to the preceding verse, and confirms what he formerly said, that Christ will indeed be mild and gentle towards the weak, but that he will have no softness or effeminacy; for he will manfully execute the commission which he has received from the Father. This is what he means when he says that "he shall not faint;" and in this verb ykhh (yichheh) there is an allusion to a former verse, in which he spoke of "smoking flax." Now, he shews what is the true moderation of meekness, not to turn aside to excessive indulgence; for we ought to use it in such a manner as not to swerve from our duty. Many persons wish to profit by the name of gen…
The figures in Isa 42:3 now lead to the thought that the servant of God will never be extinguished or become broken Himself. "He will not become faint or broken, till He establish right upon earth, and the islands wait for His instruction." As יכהה (become faint) points back to כהה פשׁתה (the finat or glimmering wick), so ירּוץ must point back to רצוּץ קנה (the bruised or broken reed); it cannot therefore be derived from רוּץ (to run) in the sense of "He will not be rash or impetuous, but execute His calling with wise moderation," as Hengstenberg supposes, but as in Ecc 12:6, from רצץ = ירץ (Ges. 67, Anm. 9), in the neuter sense of infringetur (will break). His zeal will not be extinguished,…
distant lands: The nations long for justice and for instruction on bringing it about. In this regard the servant is like Moses, to whom the law was given. However, the servant is greater in that he extends justice beyond Israel to all the nations.
Rashi on Isaiah 42:4
Neither shall he weaken nor shall he be broken Heb. וְלֹא יָרוּץ, like לֹא יֵרָצֵץ, he shall not be broken, “for the earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord as water covers the seabed” (supra 11:9). And they shall obey them, as the matter is stated (Zeph. 3:9): “For then I will make the nations pure of speech etc.” That is what follows: And for his instruction islands shall long. They shall all obey his instruction.