1 Listen, islands, to me.Listen, you peoples, from afar:the Lord has called me from the womb;from the inside of my mother he has mentioned my name.
2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.He has made me a polished shaft.He has kept me close in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant;Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain.I have spent my strength in vain for nothing;yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord,and my reward with my God.”
5 Now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,to bring Jacob again to him,and to gather Israel to him,for I am honorable in the Lord’s eyes,and my God has become my strength.
6 Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,and to restore the preserved of Israel?I will also give you as a light to the nations,that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7 the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers:“Kings shall see and rise up;princes, and they shall worship;because of the Lord who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”