Father Peter Schegg's Commentary on Isaiah 42:1-7

The Spiritual Vocation of the Servant of God: Through Him the Eternal Divine Decrees Concerning Israel Are Fulfilled, Just as They Had Been Announced Through the Mouth of the Prophets

Is 42:1

"Behold my servant, I will uphold him..."

God speaks to the prophet. Suscipere (to uphold): the Hebrew tēmāk (תמך) means to support, to hold upright, not to let something fall. Complacuit ("is well pleased") explains why God does not let him go. Judicium proferet ("he shall bring forth judgment") designates in general the task of the Servant of God: judgment—either according to its foundation, will, and law, or according to its consequence: decision, judicial sentence, separation.

Our Vulgate does not mean "to hold judgment" [i.e., to preside over a court]; neither the Latin expression proferre nor the Hebrew yōṣī (יוציא) fits that meaning, but rather "to bring forth, to communicate" something which one does not have or which is hidden. The entire messianic activity is called a "judgment" by the prophets and the evangelists: a separation with its consequences, an inwardly ordered state in which the power of evil is broken.

Is 4:2

Just as verse 1 describes the working, the vocation of the Messiah, so verses 2-4 describe the manner of working. First negatively: he loves a quiet, hidden life; he avoids all ostentation and therefore takes no party; he does not seek to acquire followers for himself. Precisely this was made a reproach against Christ: that he did not join himself to the Pharisees, did not seek to win them over, but rather preferred to associate with sinners and tax collectors. Therefore Matthew saw himself compelled to refer to our prophetic passage and to demonstrate therein a messianic characteristic.

"Neque accipiet personam" ("nor will he show partiality"): Jerome supplied yiśśā' pānīm (ישא פנים) according to the well-known expression "to look upon someone's face," i.e., to be partial, πρόσωπον λαμβάνειν; therefore he added explanatorily in his Commentary: in judicio ("in judgment"). At present, one supplies qōl (קול): "his voice"—he will lift up his voice, synonymous with "he will not make an uproar." Jerome also knew this translation: non accipiet personam, non levabit [subauditur vocem suam] ("he will not show partiality, he will not lift up" [understood: his voice]).

Is 42:3

His appearance is, however, not merely unassuming—thus gentle in one respect—but also full of love. His withdrawal from the world is not perhaps the consequence of an inner stern nature with which he repels the world from himself, but on the contrary, the consequence of his most devoted love. He came "to seek and to save that which was lost" [Luke 19:10], or as the prophet says: "to set upright the bruised reed and to rekindle the smoking wick."

An image with a double meaning. One can understand under this, in particular, a person who has preserved within himself a weak remnant of good will, but who would be utterly discouraged by harsh treatment or strict demands; or, in general, the whole human race, which, through the consciousness of sin and the misery under which it languishes, resembles a bruised reed. The latter corresponds more to the vocation of Christ as physician and savior of mankind; the former, to his love which seeks to win all and excludes none.

"Educet judicium" ("he shall bring forth judgment"): see verse 1. In veritate ("in truth"): truly he will bring forth; it is initially only an emphatic, affirming repetition of verse 1.

Is 42:4

This love does not, however, hinder him from an ever-consistent, resolute activity. Tristis ("sad"): sorrowful and in consequence hesitating, lax, despondent. Turbulentus: not the opposite of tristis, but synonymous, so that we must take turb. in the passive sense: troubled, confused, inwardly crushed.

For if we compare verses 3 and 4: "bruised" rāṣūṣ (רצוץ), quassatum—a reed he does not break; and "smoking" kēhēh (כהה), fumigans—a wick he does not extinguish; non erit tristis ("he shall not be sad"), nor crushed yārūṣ (ירוץ), turbulentus—then we see that fumigans and tristis, quassatum and turbulentus are respectively one and the same word in the original text.

Judicium is explained by the following lex. Judicium means the entire New Testament institution, the Church, because to her is entrusted not only a teaching authority but also the power of the keys; she has a jurisdiction and truly exercises judgment over mankind; she binds and looses.

"Et legem ejus exspectabunt" ("and the coastlands shall wait for his law"): is connected by modern interpreters with donec ponat ("until he establishes"); by Jerome—as we already see from ponat and exspectabunt—and in agreement with the Masoretes, it is separated from it, which also deserves preference. For our verse forms the conclusion to the entire preceding discourse from verse 1 onward, since with Is 42:5 a new strophe begins.

It contains the reason why God does not abandon his Servant, and why the Servant himself perseveres with such faithfulness: namely, because all the islands, the whole of humanity, await the fulfillment of his work, await his law. In all of paganism there gradually awakened a great longing for a renewal of things, which connected itself with dark messianic expectations, so that the prophets could say: the whole world waits for him. The feeling of ancient guilt, not yet atoned for, and the cry for help for redemption, penetrates the whole ancient world and becomes ever louder and more urgent the nearer the time of fulfillment approached.

Well known are the often-cited passages from Suetonius and Tacitus: even if they betray the influence of Jews living in the Diaspora, nevertheless such a close adherence to Jewish expectations could scarcely be imagined had not the innermost need of mankind itself corresponded to them.

Exspecto is often taken for confidere ("to trust"), especially by those who connect it with ponat: "he does not rest until the islands trust in his law," i.e., accept it and place their full confidence in it. However, in and of itself, exspectare, like yiḥēl (יחל) in the underlying Hebrew, means nothing other than "to await, to wait for."

Is 42:6

"In justitia" ("in righteousness"): namely, my righteousness, according to my righteousness—yet not in the narrower sense of punitive justice, but in the broader sense of faithfulness to his promises. When God promises a Redeemer, this promise is a work of his grace; but when he then actually sends him, this is a work of his righteousness, his faithfulness and truth.

"I have called you, and in consequence of this calling I have protected and preserved you, so that on my part nothing is lacking for the execution of the work." This work is a new covenant for Israel and light and salvation for the Gentiles.

"In foedus populi" ("as a covenant to the people"): literally "for the covenant of the people," i.e., as mediator of the covenant; the abstract is used for the concrete: "the one who binds the people." The Servant of God is placed on one level with Moses, but his activity is simultaneously extended to the Gentiles.

The highest thing that the Messiah could bring to the people of Israel was a new covenant; the most necessary thing that he might bring to the Gentiles was light. Both concepts, however, do not stand opposed to one another, but mutually complement each other. The covenant is founded upon sanctification; light, upon knowledge and doctrine, upon preaching. But to enlighten in the full sense means not merely to instruct, but also to sanctify—to remove symbolically the entire old state of sin, ignorance, and misery, which is darkness.

Is 42:7

In our verse two states are depicted from which the Messiah is to liberate mankind—Jews and Gentiles, for he has a mission for both: blindness and captivity. The first image refers to knowledge; the second, to the will. The former is called blind; the latter, captive.

To open the eyes of humanity and to break the fetters of the will was properly the task of the Messiah. Fetters of the will are evil desire, the world, the flesh; he breaks these fetters through grace, which grants to man true freedom. Blindness is the deficient, confused, comfortless knowledge of man in divine things. This blindness he removes through preaching, through the Gospel.

But even these concepts we must not sharply separate. Faith comes from hearing [Romans 10:17]; yet hearing alone does not make one believe. Preceding it and ever accompanying it is grace.

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