Isaiah 53 explained

The New Testament gives words from this chapter, from its first verse to its last, as it speaks of Jesus: 53:1 in John, 53:4 in Matthew, 53:7-8 in Acts, 53:9 in 1 Peter and 53:12 in Mark. In Hebrew the WEB's "laid on him" (Isaiah 53:6) and "made intercession" (Isaiah 53:12) are one verb, and 53:6 begins and ends with one word, kullanu.

The song starts before the chapter does: "Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high" (Isaiah 52:13). The introduction to Isaiah sets 52:13-53:12 apart as one part, and the chapter on Isaiah 52 has its first three verses. Then, from 53:1, a voice that says we speaks: "Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?" (53:1). Here is what almost everyone misses: that voice keeps going. "When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" (53:2). "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease" (53:3) (tap despised, suffering), "and we didn’t respect him" (53:3). In 53:1-6 the WEB has we, us or our thirteen times. The verses don't say who we are. Of the servant they say, "he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground" (53:2). In Hebrew 53:2's good looks and beauty are to'ar and mar'eh, the words of 52:14's form and appearance, as the chapter on Isaiah 52 notes.

"and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (53:6), and at the chapter's end, "made intercession for the transgressors" (53:12). In Hebrew laid and made intercession are one verb, paga', in the same stem, and these are two of its five uses in Isaiah (tap laid).

Isaiah 53:6 · Isaiah 53:12

Isaiah 53:1→leads toJohn 12:37-38

Isaiah asks, "Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?" (Isaiah 53:1). John writes, after Jesus had spoken to the crowd, "Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid himself from them" (John 12:36). "But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they didn’t believe in him" (John 12:37), "that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”" (John 12:38). John names Isaiah, and gives the words of 53:1 of those who had seen Jesus's signs and didn't believe in him. The WEB words the two differently: our message and the LORD’s arm (Isaiah 53:1), our report and the arm of the Lord (John 12:38); nothing is claimed here about the Greek. The verses that follow in John (John 12:39-41) give words of Isaiah 6, and the chapter on Isaiah 6 draws its line there.

נָשָׂאnasa'say na-SA

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "lift, carry, take". Strong's: "to lift, in a great variety of applications". "Surely he has borne our sickness" (53:4), and "yet he bore the sins of many" (53:12): 53:4 and 53:12 both have this verb. The song's first verse has it too: "He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high" (Isaiah 52:13), where lifted up is nasa'.

In 53:4 the voice says, "we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted" (53:4), and in the next verse, "But he was pierced for our transgressions" (53:5). What difference does that *our* make to how you read the chapter?