See, my servant will prosper,
he shall be lifted up, exalted, rise to great heights.
As the crowds were appalled on seeing him
– so disfigured did he look
that he seemed no longer human –
so will the crowds be astonished at him,
and kings stand speechless before him;
for they shall see something never told
and witness something never heard before:
‘Who could believe what we have heard,
and to whom has the power of the Lord been revealed?’
Like a sapling he grew up in front of us,
like a root in arid ground.
Without beauty, without majesty we saw him,
no looks to attract our eyes;
a thing despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering,
a man to make people screen their faces;
he was despised and we took no account of him.
And yet ours were the sufferings he bore,
ours the sorrows he carried.
But we, we thought of him as someone punished,
struck by God and brought low.
Yet he was pierced through for our faults,
crushed for our sins.
On him lies a punishment that brings us peace,
and through his wounds we are healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each taking his own way,
and the Lord burdened him
with the sins of all of us.
Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly,
he never opened his mouth,
like a lamb that is led to the slaughterhouse,
like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers,
never opening its mouth.
By force and by law he was taken;
would anyone plead his cause?
Yes, he was torn away from the land of the living;
for our faults struck down in death.
They gave him a grave with the wicked,
a tomb with the rich,
though he had done no wrong
and there had been no perjury in his mouth.
The Lord has been pleased to crush him with suffering.
If he offers his life in atonement,
he shall see his heirs, he shall have a long life
and through him what the Lord wishes will be done.
Because of his affliction
he shall see the light and be content.
By his sufferings shall my servant justify many,
taking their faults on himself.
Hence I will grant whole hordes for his tribute,
he shall divide the spoil with the mighty,
for surrendering himself to death
and letting himself be taken for a sinner,
while he was bearing the faults of many
and praying all the time for sinners.
(Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
This fourth Servant Song, from the Book of Isaiah, follows directly on the announcement of victory and homecoming in Isaiah 52:7‑12. God’s work will be done, but there will be a cost to God’s Servant.
As in the first Servant Song (Isaiah 42:1-9), God first introduces the servant then God returns at the end with an epilogue. Both the beginning and ending verses contain a summary of the entire message: the mystery of one who was marred and unattractive, an unlikely hero who comes to an untimely death, but who surprises kings and gains divine favor because of his message and sacrifice.
We hear different voices in the heart of the song, but it is not always clear who is speaking. In Isaiah 53:1, “we” begin describing the despised and rejected servant, in whom, surprisingly, “has the arm of the Lord been revealed.” If this is a reference back to Isaiah 52:7, then those identified only as “we” might be the nations who see in an apparently defeated Israel (God’s Servant) the unexpected work of God on their behalf. Other readers understand the “we” to be Israel, and the servant to be one among them who suffers for their sins.
In any case, the speakers take no account of the servant because of his appearance and infirmity. Nothing commends him. In the popular theology of the day, someone diseased or disabled would be thought to be rejected by God, no doubt struck down because of his own sins. The voices would be like Job’s friends, eager to point out that this must be his own fault.
There is a sudden turn, however, at Isaiah 53:4 with the recognition that the servant suffers not for his own sins but for “ours”–for the faults of the speakers. This is a remarkable move in biblical theology. Now, suffering can be given positive significance as a service one does for another rather than seen only negatively as the consequences of bad actions. Old Testament tradition had already seen Moses in this role, to some degree, prevented from entering the “Promised Land” because of his own sins, but also the sins of the people (Deuteronomy 4: 21‑24). Since, as we have seen, Isaiah often plays off of themes from the exodus, many over the years have seen Isaiah’s servant, especially in this passage, as a new Moses. This text in Isaiah, however, makes much clearer that the servant suffers not only because of the sins of others but for the sake of their forgiveness and healing. Christian readers are reminded of Jesus’ words, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
According to the text, “the Lord has been pleased to crush him with suffering ” (Isaiah 53:10). What does this mean? Does God delight in pain? One key to understanding this verse is the use throughout Isaiah of the term here translated “will”. More often the word is translated “purpose” or “intention,” and it appears in several key texts, including the reference to God’s word that will not return empty, but will accomplish God’s purpose (Isaiah 55:11). That purpose is clear in these chapters: Cyrus, says God, “shall carry out all my purpose,” namely, that Jerusalem “shall be rebuilt” (Isaiah 44:28) That purpose will be accomplished through God’s servant, even though blind and deaf, for it “pleases” God (using the same Hebrew root) to magnify the servant’s teaching “and make it glorious” (Isaiah 42:19‑21). From beginning to end, it is God’s purpose or intention or pleasure or will to free the captives, bring them home, and rebuild Jerusalem. The surprise of the Servant Songs is how that will occur: not, as we have seen, through the kind of power that destroyed Pharaoh’s armies in the first exodus, but through the servant, whose gentle justice and teaching goes out to all the earth, who brings a light to the nations, and who, finally, in this fourth song gives himself fully for the sake of Israel and the nations. God’s purpose, we learn, leads now to salvation through the path of suffering, rather than through the path of power.
The New Testament refers this passage first to Jesus’ healing ministry, taking seriously the text’s assertion that “by his bruises we are healed” (see Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17‑21). Later, the song is used to describe the atonement won by Jesus at the cross: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). In healing others and suffering for them, Jesus fulfills the “purpose” of God: to save “all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 45:22).
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!