Yesaya 42:16

42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ¹ 

I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ² 

I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,

and level out the rough ground. ³ 

This is what I will do for them.

I will not abandon them.

Yesaya 42:18-19

The Lord Reasons with His People

42:18 “Listen, you deaf ones!

Take notice, ⁴  you blind ones!

42:19 My servant is truly blind,

my messenger is truly deaf.

My covenant partner, ⁵  the servant of the Lord, is truly blind. ⁶ 

[42:16]  ¹ tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”

[42:16]  ² tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”

[42:16]  ³ tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”

[42:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “look to see”; NAB, NCV “look and see”; NRSV “look up and see.”

[42:19]  ⁵ tc The precise meaning of מְשֻׁלָּם (mÿshullam) in this context is uncertain. In later biblical Hebrew the form (which appears to be a Pual participle from the root שָׁלַם, shalam) occurs as a proper name, Meshullam. The Pual of שָׁלַם (“be complete”) is attested with the meaning “repaid, requited,” but that makes little sense here. BDB 1023 s.v. שָׁלַם relates the form to the denominative verb שָׁלַם (“be at peace”) and paraphrases “one in a covenant of peace” (J. N. Oswalt suggests “the covenanted one”; Isaiah [NICOT], 2:128, n. 59) Some emend the form to מֹשְׁלָם (moshÿlam, “their ruler”) or to מְשֻׁלָּחִי (mÿshullakhi, “my sent [or “commissioned”] one”), which fits nicely in the parallelism (note “my messenger” in the previous line). The translation above assumes an emendation to כְּמוֹ שֹׁלְמִי (kÿmo sholÿmi, “like my ally”). Isaiah uses כְּמוֹ in 30:22 and perhaps 51:5; for שֹׁלְמי (“my ally”) see Ps 7:5 HT (7:4 ET).

[42:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like my messenger I send? Who is blind like my commissioned one, blind like the servant of the Lord?” The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one is as blind/deaf as this servant. In this context the Lord’s “servant” is exiled Israel (cf. 41:8-9), which is spiritually blind and deaf and has failed to fulfill God’s purpose for it. This servant stands in contrast to the ideal “Israel” of the servant songs.