Isaiah 49:1-6

Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.  2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me;  he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.  3 And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’  4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;  yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.’  5 And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—  6 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 survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.