Matthew 12:18

12:18 This quotation parallels Jesus’ baptism (3:13-17). • Justice (or judgment) can have positive or negative implications; the context here favors a positive meaning (12:20; cp. 23:23).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 12:18. Ἰδοὺ ὁ Παῖς Μου, ὃν ᾑρέτισα· ὁ ἀγαπητός Μου, εἰς ὃν εὐδόκησεν ἡ ψυχή Μου· θήσω τὸ πνεῦμά Μου ἐπʼ Αὐτὸν, καὶ κρίσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀπαγγελεῖ· οὐκ ἐρίσει οὐδὲ κραυγάσει, οὐδὲ ἀκούσει τὶς ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις τὴν φωνὴν Αὐτοῦ· κάλαμον συντετριμμένον οὐ κατεάξει, καὶ λίνον τυφόμενον οὐ σβέσει· ἓως ἂν ἐκβάλῃ εἰς νῖκος τὴν κρίσιν· καὶ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Αὐτοῦ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσι,—Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen; My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall announce judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory. And, in His name shall the Gentiles trust. The LXX. thus render Isa 42:1-4,—Ἰακὼβ ὁ παῖς Μου, ἀντιλήψομαι αὖτοῦ· Ἰσραὴλ ὁ ἐκλεκτός Μου, προσεδέξατο αὐτὸν ἡ ψυχή Μου, ἔδωκα τὸ πνεῦμά Μου ἐπʼ αὐτὸν, κρίσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐξοίσει· οὐ κράξεται, οὐδὲ ἀνήσει, οὐδὲ ἀκουσθήσεται ἔξω ἡ φωνὴ αὐτοῦ· κάλαμον συντεθλασμένον οὐ συντρίψει, καὶ λίνον καπνιζόμενον οὐ σβέσει, ἀλλὰ εἰς ἀλήθειαν ἐξοίσει κρίσιν, κ.τ.λ.[559] Jacob is My servant; I will defend him. Israel is my chosen; My soul has accepted him: I have given my Spirit upon him; he shall bear forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up [his voice]; nor shall his voice be heard without. A bruised reed shall he not crush, and smoking flax shall he not quench; but he shall bear forth judgment unto truth.—ὁ παῖς μου, my servant = the Hebrew עבדי,[560] in Isa 42:1. And the LXX. frequently express that Hebrew word[561] by παῖς,[562] e.g. where Moses, or even the Messiah, is spoken of. Cf. Act 3:13; Act 3:26; Act 4:27; Act 4:30. For it is not again repeated in the New Testament concerning the Messiah, either because neither the Greek παῖς, or any other word, corresponds sufficiently to that Hebrew word, which the apostles also used in the beginning, or else because neither of them is suitable to our Lord’s state of glorification. The words, servant and beloved, are parallel; and also, I have chosen, and I am well pleased.—ᾑρέτισα, I have chosen—αἱρετίζειν = αἱρετὸν ὁρίζειν, to set apart as chosen.—εἰς ὅν, towards whom) The preposition εἰς denotes the perpetual tendency of the Father’s mind towards His Beloved [Son]. See 2Pe 1:17.—κρίσιν, judgment) salutary to men. See Mat 12:20, and Joh 16:11.—κρίσις, judgment, is the separation of sin and righteousness.—τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, to the Gentiles) when He shall have departed from the Jews.—ἀπαγγελεῖ, He shall announce) He both performed and announced it. The future tense is employed here; but the past afterwards by St Paul, Eph 2:17 [with reference to the same matter].

[559] In E. V. it stands thus—“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”—(I. B.)

[560] Sc. עבד servant, with the pronominal suffix é, my.—(I. B.)

[561] עֶבֶד, i.e. a servant: the minister or ambassador sent by God for accomplishing some service: also a familiar servant chosen and beloved of God on account of his piety and approved fidelity; also a term especially applied to the Messiah. See GESENIUS, etc.—(I. B.)

[562] παῖς. According to Schleusner, (1) a child in age; (2) a child in relation to its parents; (3) one pre-eminently beloved; (4) a servant; (5) the minister of a king, etc. According to Liddel and Scott, (1) a child in relation to its parents; (2) a child in age; (3) a servant. The passages, however, in these writers are too long for insertion, and cannot be adequately abridged.—(I. B.)

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_12:18. Isa_40:1 ff., a very free rendering of the original Hebrew text, yet not without some reminiscences of the LXX. For the עֶבֶר יְהֹוָה, which the LXX. (Ἰακὼβ ὁ παῖς μου) and modern expositors interpret as applying to Israel as a nation, or the ideal Israel of the prophets, see, besides, the commentaries on Isaiah; Drechsler and Delitzsch in Rudelbachs Zeitschr. 1852, 2, p. 258 ff.; Tholuck, d. Propheten u. ihre Weissag. p. 158 ff.; Kleinert in the Stud. u. Krit. 1862, p. 699 ff.; F. Philippi in the Mecklenb. Zeitschr. 1864, 5, and 6. Matthew understands it as referring to the Messiah. Similarly the Chaldee paraphrasts and Kimchi, in which they are justified by the Messianic idea, as fulfilled in Christ, running through the whole passage. See Act_3:13; Act_3:26; Act_4:27; Act_4:30; Hengstenberg, Christol. II. p. 216 ff., compared with Kleinert, l.c.

εἰς ὅν] in regard to whom. Direction of the approbation. Comp. 2Pe_1:17. The aorists, as in Mat_3:17.

θήσω τὸ πνεῦμα] i.e. I will make Him the possessor and the bearer of my Holy Spirit, by whose power He is to work, Isa_11:2; Isa_61:1; Mat_3:16; Act_4:27.

κρίσιν] not: quod fieri par est (Fritzsche); not: justice and righteousness (Bleek); the good cause (Schegg); or the cause of God (Baumgarten-Crusius); not: recta cultus divini ratio (Gerhard); nor: doctrina divina (Kuinoel),which interpretations have been given in view of the משׁפט of the original (where it denotes the right, i.e. what is right and matter of duty in the true theocracy. Comp. Ewald on Isaiah, l.c.; Hengstenberg, p. 233; and see in general, Gesenius, Thes. III. p. 1464). But in the New Testament κρίσις has no other meaning but that of final sentence, judgment (also in Mat_23:23); and this, in fact, is the sense in which the Hebrew was understood by the LXX. Matthews Greek expression is doubtless to be understood no less in the sense of a judicial sentence, i.e. the Messianic judgment, for which the Messiah is preparing the way through His whole ministry, and which is to be consummated at the last day.

τοῖς ἔθνεσιν] not: the nations, generally, but the heathen. Similarly also in Mat_12:21. The point of fulfilment in the prediction here quoted lies simply in its serving to describe, as it does in Mat_12:19 f., the unostentatious, meek, and gentle nature of Christs ministry (Mat_12:16), so that it is unnecessary to look to what precedes in order to find something corresponding to τοῖς ἔθνεσι (some finding it in the multitudes that followed Jesus). Jesus did not preach to the heathen till He did it through the apostles, Eph_2:17, a matter altogether beyond the scope of the present passage. It should be observed generally, and especially in the case of somewhat lengthened quotations from the Old Testament, that it is not intended that every detail is to find its corresponding fulfilment, but that such fulfilment is to be looked for only in connection with that which the connection shows to be the main subject under consideration.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By judgment is meant a settled state because Christ was to publish true religion among the Gentiles, and to cast out superstition, which thing wheresoever it is done, the Lord is said to reign and judge there, that is to say, to govern and rule matters.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Behold my servant] This title was given to our blessed Lord in several prophecies. See Isa 42:1; Isa 53:2. Christ assumes it, Ps 40:7-9. Compare these with Joh 17:4, and Php 2:7. God required an acceptable and perfect service from man; but man, being sinful, could not perform it. Jesus, taking upon him the nature of man, fully performed the whole will of God, and communicates grace to all his followers, to enable them perfectly to love and worthily to magnify their Maker.

And he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.] That is, He will publish the Gospel to the heathens; for the word κρισιν here answers to the word משפט mishpat of the prophet, and it is used among the Hebrews to signify laws, precepts, and a whole system or body of doctrine. See Ps 19:9; Ps 119:30; Ps 119:39; Isa 58:2.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) Behold my servant.—The mysterious “servant of the Lord,” who is the central figure of the last part of Isaiah’s prophecies, appears sometimes as the representative of Israel’s righteousness, sometimes of its sins, now as one who bore his witness as a prophet and messenger of God, now as standing apart from all others in solitary greatness, or yet more solitary suffering. In each of these aspects the words of Isaiah found their highest fulfilment in the Son of Man. In referring these words to the Messiah, the Evangelist was following in the footsteps of the Chaldee Paraphrase, but we must remember also that the words recorded as heard at the Baptism of Jesus (almost verbally identical with those of the prophecy now cited) must also have suggested the application, especially as connected with the promise, “I will put My Spirit upon Him,” which had then received its fulfilment.

He shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.—The word “judgment” has a wide range of meaning in the Hebrew of Isaiah, and includes the work of a king, as teaching, no less than as executing, righteousness. As yet, of course, the work of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles had not begun, but St. Matthew notes, as it were, by anticipation, the spirit of love and gentleness which, when he wrote his Gospel, had brought them also within the range of the judgments—i.e., of the life-giving truths—of the righteous Judge. It is one of the many instances in which his record, though obviously written for Jews, is yet emphatically a Gospel for the Gentiles.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. my servant] Israel as a nation is called the servant of Jehovah, Isa_41:8. Here the same title is given to Jesus, as the representative of the nation.

judgment] The Hebrew word is used in a wider sense to denote “religion as the rule of life;” hence judgment may mean (1) “the law of Christ,” “the Gospel,” or (2) adhering to the strict meaning of the Greek word, “the divine sentence or decree.”

to the Gentiles] Possibly our Lord in His retirement addressed Himself more especially to the Gentiles—the Greeks, Phœnicians, and others, settled near the Lake. “They about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, … came unto him,” Mar_3:8.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And all the people were amazed,.... At the cure; it was such an instance of divine power, and so glaring a proof, that the person who wrought it was more than a man, and must be the Messiah. This is to be understood of the greater part of the people, not of every individual, and of the common people only; for it had a different effect upon the Pharisees, as hereafter appears; but in these it not only produced admiration, but conviction, faith, and confession:

and said, is not this the son of David? or the Messiah; for , "the son of David", is a character of the Messiah, well known among the Jews; See Gill on Mat 1:1 because he was promised to David, was to be raised up of his seed, and to spring from his loins. This question they put, not as doubting of it, but as inclining, at least, to believe it, if not as expressing their certainty of it: and is, as if they had said, who can this person be but the true Messiah, that has wrought such a miracle as this? for from his miracles they rightly concluded who he was; though the Jews since, in order to deprive Jesus of this true characteristic of the Messiah, deny that miracles are to be performed by him (n).

(n) Maimon. Hilch. Melacim, c. 11. sect. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.

Ver. 18. Behold my servant] My servant the Messias, as the Chaldee Paraphrast renders and expounds it. The Septuagint somewhat obscure the text by adding to it, "Behold my servant Jacob, and mine elect Israel." They are said to have translated against their wills; no wonder then they deal not so faithfully. Sure it is, that they have perverted various clear prophecies concerning Christ; as this, for instance; which therefore our evangelist and the rest of the apostles allege not out of their translation but out of the Hebrew verity. The Latins drink of the puddles, the Greeks of the rivers, but the Hebrews of the fountains, said Johan. Reuchlin.

Whom I have chosen, my beloved, &c.] Ecce electum, dilectum. The Latins have a proverb, Deligas quem diligas. Choose for thy love, and then love for thy choice. God hath also chosen us in the Beloved, Eph 1:6, that we should be the beloved of his soul, or as the Septuagint there emphatically render it, "his beloved soul," Jer 12:7; εδωκα την ηγαπημενην ψυχην μου, Dilectam animam meam, Vulgate.

And he shall show judgment] That is the doctrine of the gospel (whereby is conveyed into the heart that spirit of judgment and of burning, Isa 4:4), or the sweet effect of it, true grace, which is called judgment, a little below, Mat 12:20.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Behold my servant, &c. The words are out of the prophet Isaias, Chap. xli. 1. And it is observed that the Jews, before the coming of Jesus, used to expound them of their Messias. (Witham) --- Our Lord Jesus Christ may be called the Servant of the Almighty, because, as himself assures us, he came down not to be served, but to serve; or, as St. Remigius says, not on account of his divinity, but on account of his humanity, which he received from the pure flesh and blood of the immaculate Virgin. (in St. Thomas Aquinas) There is some difference in the text of Isaias, whence this is taken. The apostles and evangelists did not confine themselves to cite the very words of the text, but only the sense. (Bible de Vence)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The alteration is very little, and we must not expect to meet with quotations out of the Old Testament verbatim: it is enough that the sense is the same.

Behold my servant, whom I have chosen. The word indifferently signifieth a child or a servant, Christ is called the Lord’s servant, because he took upon him the form of a servant, and became obedient even to death, Phi 2:7,8;

Whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: in Isaiah it is, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. Matthew seems to have left out whom I uphold, and to have taken the next words, mine elect, and to have translated them, whom I have chosen, which was all said by the prophet. God chose the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer, and the Head of the elect; hence we are said to be chosen in him, Eph 1:4. Peter saith he was foreordained, 1Pe 1:20; 2:6, he is called a chief Cornerstone, elect. My beloved, in whom my soul

is well pleased: in Isaiah it is, in whom my soul delighteth: the sense is the same.

He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, or to the nations. The words משׁפט, in the Hebrew, κρισις in the Greek, and judgment in the English, are all so variously used, as gives interpreters a great latitude to abound in their senses. The most probable to me is this: Judgment signifies a thing adjudged: all judgment is either of approbation or condemnation.

He shall bring forth, or he shall show, the things which God approveth and judgeth right, both in matters of doctrine, worship, and the government of the church of God, and in matters which concern the government of men’s lives and conversations: and to this end God promises to put his Spirit upon him, so Isa 11:2; 41:1; and John tells us it was not given him by measure, Joh 3:34, which is the same with being anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, Psa 45:7, which the apostle applies to Christ, Heb 1:9.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Behold my servant — Christ, though the Son, humbled himself, and took upon himself the form of a servant. He shall show judgment — That is, he shall reveal the principles of truth and righteousness to the Gentiles. Here the enlargement of the dispensation of the Messiah beyond the limits of Judaism (which was so great a difficulty at first even with our Lord’s apostles and the Apostolic Church) is expressly predicted by the Old Testament prophets.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Behold my servant. Primarily, as would appear, Israel in its ideal, up to which true Israelites came in measure, but only One came fully. Whom I have chosen (on hretisa). The Hebrew denotes "lay hold of" (dmta), i.e. for myself. Bengel has a beautiful note on the eiv on of the Received Text, Eiv , in, denotat perpeluam mentis paternae tendentiam erga dilectum, 2Pe_1:17." According to the LXX of 1Ch_29:1, David"s expression about Solomon affords a curious parallel, O uiov mou eiv on hretiken en autw Kuriov (edit. Dr. Swete). But Lagarde"s edition of the Lucianic text punctuates and accents differently, O uiov mou eiv on hretiken en autw kuriov , and this is much nearer to the Hebrew. My beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: (Mat_3:17, note) I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show (declare, Revised Version) judgment to the Gentiles (kai krisin toiv eynesin apaggelei). Although krisiv usually represents in the New Testament God"s decision as to the character and life of men, it here must be understood, like mishpat in the original, of the Divine right as made known to them for their acceptance and imitation. It is "the true religion viewed on its practical side as a norm and standard for life in all its relations" (Delitzsch). The thought here, therefore, is not of Christ"s power to punish and avenge (though he refused to use it as yet), but of his bringing a revelation which should eventually spread, not only to the Jews who now rejected him, but to the Gentiles whom they despised.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He shall show judgment to the heathens - That is, he shall publish the merciful Gospel to them also: the Hebrew word signifies either mercy or justice. Isaiah xlii, 1, &c.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Gentiles

This too is most significant. The rejected King of Israel will turn to the Gentiles (cf.) Mat 10:5; Mat 10:6. In fulfilment this awaited the official rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ, and the final rejection of the risen Christ.; Luk 24:46; Luk 24:47; Act 9:15; Act 13:46; Act 28:25-28; Rom 11:11.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. Behold my servant. Christ took the form of a servant. I will put my spirit upon him. Compare Matt. 3:17. He shall shew justice to the Gentiles. Announce himself as judge of the Gentiles. Compare Mark 3:8.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Here Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah to show that Jesus' ministry fulfilled scripture.

See

"Look" or "Listen" or "Pay attention to what I am about to tell you"

my ... I

All occurrences of these words refer to God. Isaiah is quoting what God said to him.

my beloved one, in whom my soul is well pleased

"he is my beloved one, and I am very pleased with him"

in whom my soul is well pleased

Here "soul" refers to the whole person. AT: "with whom I am very pleased" (See: Synecdoche)

he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles

The means that God's servant will tell the Gentiles that there will be justice. It can be stated clearly that God is the one who will bring about justice, and the abstract noun "justice" can be expressed as "what is right." AT: "he will announce to the nations that God will do for them what is right" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Abstract Nouns)

translationWords

servant

chosen one

beloved

soul

Holy Spirit

judge

Gentile

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

18. ὁ παῖς μου. ‘My servant.’ In Isaiah’s prophecy, either (1) ‘the chosen one,’ whom Jehovah raised ‘from the north’ (Isa 41:25) to do his will, and bring about His people’s deliverance from the Babylonish Captivity, or (2) the nation of Israel the worker out of Jehovah’s purposes, in either case in an ultimate sense the Messiah.

κρίσιν. The Hebrew word (mishpat) is used in a wider sense than κρίσις denoting ‘rule,’ ‘plan,’ ‘ordinance,’ &c. Adhering, however, to the strict force of the Greek, we may regard κρίσις as the ‘divine sentence or decree,’ so the ‘purpose’ of God in the Gospel.

τοῖς ἔθνεσιν. Possibly our Lord in His retirement addressed Himself more especially to the Gentiles—the Greeks, Phœnicians, and others, settled near the lake. ‘They about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, … came unto Him,’ Mar 3:8.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. κρίσιν τ. ἔθν. ἀπ.] He shall announce judgment to the Gentiles, viz. in his office as Messiah and Judge. In these words the majesty of his future glory is contrasted with the meekness about to be spoken of: q. d. ‘And yet He shall not,’ &c.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.