Isaiah 53:11

‘From the travail of his soul he shall see (light) and shall be satisfied.

By his humiliation shall my righteous servant make many to be accounted righteous,

And he will bear their iniquities.'

This is summarising what has gone before in the last verse, and reminding us of the great travail through which the Servant must go. The travail of His soul is described in Isaiah 52:14; Isaiah 53:3; Isaiah 53:7. He will be in great travail, but from that travail He will see success (or fruit) as described and will be satisfied. And this will result because through His humiliation (a significance of yatha‘ found at Ugarit) God's righteous Servant will make many to be accounted righteous (‘cause to be righteous in the eyes of the Law and of the Judge'). Here ‘many' unquestionably means the ‘saved'. And they will be accounted righteous before God because He has borne their iniquities. Here then at last is the means by which the faithful in Israel, and world believers, can get right with God and be provided with sufficient righteousness before a holy God. It is what all has been leading up to. He has undergone His suffering so that this might be possible.

If we translate ‘by His knowledge' rather than ‘by His humiliation' we must see it as indicating that He acts on the basis of what He knows are God's requirements. But ‘by His humiliation' is well authenticated.

‘From the travail of His soul He shall see, and shall be satisfied.' From the midst of His sufferings the Servant will look forward and ‘see'. But what will He see? Clearly we could put in ‘what results', and as He is satisfied by it we could expand it to, ‘a satisfactory conclusion resulting from His sufferings'. He will have accomplished what He came to do. His work will have been completely successful, and with deep satisfaction He will see what He has accomplished and rejoice in it. (We should note that the Hebrew really demands the translation ‘from the travail of His soul --.' ‘of the travail of His soul' is incorrect as a translation).

However, after ‘He shall see' the noun ‘light' is found, not only in LXX and Qa, but also in Qb (MSS at Qumran) which is in most respects almost identical with MT. These make a strong combination textually speaking and may even suggest that ‘light' has dropped out of the text. On the other hand copyists knew the text by heart so that we need to be wary of adding in what is not there. But it is certainly strong evidence of what future generations saw as needing to be supplied. Either way, as some idea needs to be added to give significant meaning, ‘light' is a reasonable surmise, for the constant promise of Isaiah is that through the darkness ahead, light is coming. The point then is still that from the midst of His soul-travail the Servant will see a satisfactory result, He will see ‘the light of Yahweh' (Isaiah 2:5), He will see the light which was to result from His coming and was to be made available to the world (Isaiah 9:2). He would be satisfied that the light for which His people were seeking would now shine on them (Isaiah 42:16; Isaiah 60:1), the light which would shine on the Gentiles through Him (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6). When men now looked towards God through the Servant, instead of the darkness of His anger because of sin, they would see the light of His pardon and forgiveness made available through the Servant's work. He would make many to be accounted righteous. So we can reasonably see it in this way whether we put the noun ‘light' in or not. For the coming of that light alone could satisfy Him. The reading ‘light' would indicate that He will see hope ahead at the end of the dark tunnel through which He is going, the glorious light of the fulfilment of God's purposes dawning on His soul. At the end of His darkness will come light, the light of life.

‘By His humiliation shall my righteous servant make many to be accounted righteous, and He will bear their iniquities.' We can compare here ‘being accounted righteous freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus' (Romans 3:24). This is the message of the Gospel. Through what He has undergone He has borne their iniquities, and therefore those who believe can now be counted as righteous before God through His sacrifice of Himself, all their guilt can now be removed. The ‘many' in this passage are those who see Him and respond to Him (Isaiah 52:14; Isaiah 53:12 (twice); compare Isaiah 2:3). The idea appears a number of times in the New Testament (see especially Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; Romans 5:15; Romans 5:19; Hebrews 9:28; see also Matthew 8:11; Matthew 26:28; Luke 1:14; John 7:31; John 8:30; John 10:42; John 12:11; Acts 17:12; Acts 19:18; Acts 28:23; 1 Corinthians 10:17; Hebrews 2:10).