Matthew 8:17 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That it might be fulfilled ... - This passage is found in Isaiah 53:4. Our English translation of that important passage is, “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” The Greek in Matthew is an exact translation of the Hebrew, and the same translation should have been made in both places. In Isaiah 53:1-12, Isaiah fully states the doctrine of the atonement, or that the Messiah was to suffer for sin. In the verse quoted here, however, he states the very truth which Matthew declares. The word translated “griefs” in Isaiah, and “infirmities” in Matthew, means properly, in the Hebrew and Greek, “diseases of the body.” In neither does it refer to the disease of the mind, or to sin. To bear those griefs is clearly to bear them away, or to remove them. This was done by his miraculous power in healing the sick. The word rendered “sorrows” in Isaiah, and “sicknesses” in Matthew, means “pain, grief, or anguish of mind.” To “carry” these is to sympathize with the sufferers; to make provision for alleviating those sorrows, and to take them away. This he did by his precepts and by his example; and the cause of all sorrows - “sin” - he removed by the atonement. The passage in Isaiah and Matthew, therefore, mean precisely the same thing. See “Magee on Atonement,” and the notes at Isaiah, Isaiah 53.