Who Is Blind but My Servant?
10 Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants. 11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains! 12 Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands. 13 Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies. 14 “I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant. 15 I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. 16 I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them. 17 “Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed. 18 “Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. 19 Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant? 20 You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen. 21 It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable. 22 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers, and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’ 23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? 24 Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law. 25 Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
God compares himself to a woman in labor after a long silence, and then asks who is blinder than his own servant.
Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.
The response to the Servant Song is a hymn, and its geography runs to the edges — sailors, islands, the desert villages of Kedar, the rock city of Sela. The people asked to sing are the ones furthest from Jerusalem.
Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.
The servant who would not raise his voice is followed immediately by a God who shouts. The book puts the two together without comment.
“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
The most startling self-description in Scripture. God compares himself to a woman in labor — and the comparison is about the silence as much as the noise. What is being described is a long, deliberate restraint that ends in something that cannot be held in any longer, and the sound it makes is not a war cry after all.
The divine silence that the exiles experienced as absence is here named as self-control, with a term on it.
I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.
Four promises and every one assumes the blindness rather than curing it first. They are led on unfamiliar roads without being given sight for the journey.
Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?
And then the turn that makes this section difficult and honest. The servant of verse one brought justice to the nations; the servant here is the blindest man in the passage. Israel is the servant in both places, and cannot do what the servant is described as doing.
The book never resolves this by choosing. It states both, and the four songs run through the same tension until the last one, where the servant does for the people what the people could not do.
You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
The organs work. It is chapter six's diagnosis restated Isaiah 6:9, and the failure is located after the senses.
Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.
The exile is not attributed to Babylon's strength.
Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
A man on fire who has not noticed. It is the chapter's last word on the blindness, and it explains why the comfort of chapter forty had to be announced twice.
settled What this mark means