Isaiah 42:5-17

This is what God, the Lord, says — who created the heavens and stretched them out,  who spread out the earth and what comes from it,  who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it   — “I am the Lord. I have called you for a righteous purpose,  , and I will hold you by your hand.  I will watch over you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people  and a light to the nations,  in order to open blind eyes,  to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,  and those sitting in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another  or my praise to idols. The past events have indeed happened. Now I declare new events;  I announce them to you before they occur.” Sing a new song to the  Lord;  sing his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea with all that fills it,  you coasts and islands with your   inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities shout, the settlements where Kedar dwells cry aloud.  Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;  let them cry out from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the  Lord and declare his praise in the coasts and islands. The Lord advances like a warrior; he stirs up his zeal like a soldier.  He shouts, he roars aloud, he prevails over his enemies. “I have kept silent from ages past; I have been quiet and restrained myself.  But now, I will groan like a woman in labor,  gasping breathlessly. I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into islands and dry up marshes.  I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;  I will guide them on paths they have not known. I will turn darkness to light in front of them  and rough places into level ground.  This is what I will do for them, and I will not abandon them.  They will be turned back and utterly ashamed — those who trust in an idol and say to a cast image, ‘You are our gods! ’