Isaiah 53:1-9. Having thus indicated the subject of his discourse, the prophet now proceeds to describe the career of the Servant, and the impression he had made on his contemporaries. This is prefaced in Isaiah 53:1 by a confession or complaint of the universal unbelief which had led to his being s... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12. The Servant's Sacrifice and His Reward This is the last and greatest, as well as the most difficult, of the four delineations of the Servant of Jehovah, and in several respects occupies a place apart. In the previous passages the Servant has been described as the ideal... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse should probably be rendered, WHO BELIEVED THAT WHICH WAS REVEALED TO US, AND THE ARM OF JEHOVAH TO (lit. "on") WHOM WAS IT DISCLOSED? The word which E.V. renders "report" is passive in form (lit. "a thing heard"); _our report_, therefore, is not "that which we reported" but -either "the r... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse seems to take us back to the origin of the Servant's career, in order to account for the powerful prejudices with which his contemporaries regarded him. From the first he had been mean and unprepossessing in appearance, like a stunted shrub struggling for existence in an arid soil. To this... [ Continue Reading ]
Not only did the Servant fail to attract his contemporaries (Isaiah 53:2); there was that in his appearance which excited positive aversion. He is represented as one stricken with loathsome and disfiguring disease, probably leprosy (see on Isaiah 53:4), so that men instinctively recoiled from him in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely he hath borne &c_.] Render: SURELY IT WAS OUR SICKNESSES THAT HE BORE and our pains that he carried. The emphasis of contrast lies on the words _our_and _he_in both lines. To "bear" sickness is not to take it away (although that will be the effect of vicarious bearing of it) but simply t... [ Continue Reading ]
While Isaiah 53:2 describe the natural instinctive impressions produced by the Servant's appearance, Isaiah 53:4 reveal incidentally the moral judgement which the people were led to form regarding him. His unparalleled sufferings had seemed to them to mark him out as a special object of Jehovah's an... [ Continue Reading ]
In Isaiah 53:4 the people confess that the Servant was their substitute in his endurance of pains and sicknesses; here they penetrate more deeply into the meaning of his sufferings, perceiving the connexion between his passion and their own sin. The connexion is twofold; in the first place the Serva... [ Continue Reading ]
Looking back on their former irreligious condition the people see that their rejection of the Servant was the natural outcome of the heedless and inconsiderate selfishness in which they were living. For the figure of the strayed sheep, cf. Psalms 119:176; Matthew 9:36; Matthew 10:6; Luke 15:4. For... [ Continue Reading ]
_He was oppressed and he was afflicted_ The first verb ("oppressed") may summarize the preceding account of the Servant's afflictions (Dillmann), but more probably it introduces a feature not previously adverted to, namely, the outrages inflicted on the Servant by his contemporaries, in consequence... [ Continue Reading ]
The narrative of the Servant's sufferings is in these verses brought to its conclusion: after enduring violence and injustice at the hands of men, his life was cut short and he was laid in a dishonoured grave. The passage presents many difficulties, and the details of the picture are somewhat uncert... [ Continue Reading ]
_He was taken from prison and from judgment_ Every word here is ambiguous. The principal interpretations are as follows: (1) "Without hindrance and without right he was taken away," i.e. he was put to death without opposition from any quarter, and in defiance of justice. The only exception that can... [ Continue Reading ]
The unrelenting antipathy which the Servant experienced through life is continued even after his death, and expresses itself in the manner of his burial. _And they_(R.V.) _made his grave with the wicked_ The subject is indefinite, the construction being equivalent to a passive: "And his grave was ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yet it pleased … grief_ The sentence must be a restatement of the fact that the Servant has suffered by the will of Jehovah, this being repeated in order to introduce the explanation of Jehovah's purpose in imposing chastisement upon him. The second clause, _he hath put him to grief_, represents a... [ Continue Reading ]
These difficult verses describe, partly in the prophet's own words and partly in those of Jehovah, the Divine purpose which is realised through the sufferings of the Servant. In Isaiah 53:10 it is impossible to trace a clear connexion of ideas; the grammar also is peculiar, and in all probability th... [ Continue Reading ]
An amplification of the meaning of Isaiah 53:10. _He shall see &c._ Lit. OF THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL HE SHALL SEE, SHALL BE SATISFIED. It is doubtful if the preposition "of" can express _result_, as the E.V. suggests, or can introduce the object of the verb "he shall see." It may be used in its local... [ Continue Reading ]
As the reward of his unmerited sufferings and his mediatorial work, the Servant shall attain an influence equal to that of the great potentates of the world. To "divide spoil" is a figurative and proverbial expression for victory or success; Proverbs 16:19 ("It is better to be of lowly spirit with t... [ Continue Reading ]