This third Servant song is unexpected, yet it is not abruptly introduced either; not only does it offer the voice of an obedient disciple of the Lord who responds to the Lord’s overtures, in contrast to the no man…no one
of Isaiah 50:1–3,1 but it also bears the theme of hearing and knowing, whose antecedent is found in passages like Isaiah 40:21 and Isaiah 42:23–25 (which note Israel’s lack thereof), and Isaiah 48:6–8.2
4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.