Isaiah53
New International Version
1Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Isaiah 53.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The person. (1-3). sufferings. (4-9). humiliation, and exaltation of Christ, are minutely described; with the blessings to mankind from his death. (10-12).
vv1-3
No where in all the Old Testament is it so plainly and fully prophesied, that Christ ought to suffer, and then to enter into his glory, as in this chapter. But to this day few discern, or will acknowledge, that Divine power which goes with the word. The authentic and most important report of salvation for sinners, through the Son of God, is disregarded. The low condition he submitted to, and his appearance in the world, were not agreeable to the ideas the Jews had formed of the Messiah. It was expected that he should come in pomp; instead of that, he grew up as a plant, silently, and insensibly. He had nothing of the glory which one might have thought to meet with him. His whole life was not only humble as to outward condition, but also sorrowful. Being made sin for us, he underwent the sentence sin had exposed us to. Carnal hearts see nothing in the Lord Jesus to desire an interest in him. Alas! by how many is he still despised in his people, and rejected as to his doctrine and authority!
vv4-9
In these verses is an account of the sufferings of Christ; also of the design of his sufferings. It was for our sins, and in our stead, that our Lord Jesus suffered. We have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God. Sinners have their beloved sin, their own evil way, of which they are fond. Our sins deserve all griefs and sorrows, even the most severe. We are saved from the ruin, to which by sin we become liable, by laying our sins on Christ. This atonement was to be made for our sins. And this is the only way of salvation. Our sins were the thorns in Christ's head, the nails in his hands and feet, the spear in his side. He was delivered to death for our offences. By his sufferings he purchased for us the Spirit and grace of God, to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our souls. We may well endure our lighter sufferings, if He has taught us to esteem all things but loss for him, and to love him who has first loved us.
vv10-12
Come, and see how Christ loved us! We could not put him in our stead, but he put himself. Thus he took away the sin of the world, by taking it on himself. He made himself subject to death, which to us is the wages of sin. Observe the graces and glories of his state of exaltation. Christ will not commit the care of his family to any other. God's purposes shall take effect. And whatever is undertaken according to God's pleasure shall prosper. He shall see it accomplished in the conversion and salvation of sinners. There are many whom Christ justifies, even as many as he gave his life a ransom for. By faith we are justified; thus God is most glorified, free grace most advanced, self most abased, and our happiness secured. We must know him, and believe in him, as one that bore our sins, and saved us from sinking under the load, by taking it upon himself. Sin and Satan, death and hell, the world and the flesh, are the strong foes he has vanquished. What God designed for the Redeemer he shall certainly possess. When he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men, that he might give gifts to men. While we survey the sufferings of the Son of God, let us remember our long catalogue of transgressions, and consider him as suffering under the load of our guilt. Here is laid a firm foundation for the trembling sinner to rest his soul upon. We are the purchase of his blood, and the monuments of his grace; for this he continually pleads and prevails, destroying the works of the devil.
Key Words
מִי: who? (occasionally, by a peculiar idiom, of things); also (indefinitely) whoever; often used in oblique construction with prefix or suffix
אָמַן: properly, to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse; figuratively to render (or be) firm or faithful, to trust or believe, to be permanent or quiet; morally to be true or certain;
שְׁמוּעָה: something heard, i.e. an announcement
עַל: above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications
זְרוֹעַ: the arm (as stretched out), or (of animals) the foreleg; figuratively, force
גָּלָה: to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense); by implication, to exile (captives being usually stripped); figuratively, to reveal
עָלָה: to ascend, intransitively (be high) or actively (mount); used in a great variety of senses, primary and secondary, literal and figurative
פָּנִים: the face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.)
יוֹנֵק: a sucker; hence, a twig (of a tree felled and sprouting)
שֶׁרֶשׁ: a root (literally or figuratively)
Cross References
Isaiah 53Explicitly quoted by John as the fulfillment of the Jews' rejection of Christ's report and signs.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Quoted by Paul to explain the partial rejection of the Gospel report by Israel.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Directly echoes 'by whose stripes ye were healed' and bearing sins in His body.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The exact passage read and explained by Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch as referring to Jesus.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Jesus explicitly quotes 'And he was reckoned among the transgressors' as being fulfilled in Him.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Quoted as fulfilled in Jesus' ministry of physical healing and taking away infirmities.
Supported by JFB
Fulfillment of making His grave with the rich, through Joseph of Arimathea.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Parallels the 'tender plant' and 'root out of a dry ground' from Jesse's stem.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Jesus silences Himself before the high priest, fulfilling 'he opened not his mouth'.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Jesus remains silent before Pilate's questioning, fulfilling the silent lamb metaphor.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Directly echoes 'neither was any deceit in his mouth' to describe Christ's sinless suffering.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Theological parallel of Christ made to be sin (an offering) for us, though sinless.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Parallels how by the obedience of the One, 'many' shall be made righteous.
Supported by John Calvin
Fulfills 'made intercession for the transgressors' by praying for His crucifiers on the cross.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin
Matches the theme of the Messiah being despised and abhorred by the nation.
Supported by JFB
The scapegoat bearing away the iniquities of Israel typifies Christ bearing the sins of many.
Supported by Matthew Henry