‘He was oppressed, yet he humbled himself,
And did not open his mouth,
As a lamb who is led to the slaughter,
And as a sheep which before her shearers is dumb,
Yes, he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away,
And as for his generation,
Who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living.
For the transgression of my people was he stricken.'
A fuller explanation is now given of how the Servant would suffer. Not only would He face the woes of this world, He would face oppression from the authorities. The word ‘oppression' has behind it the sense of taskmasters and of pressure. He will be treated roughly by the authorities. Yet He would ‘humble' Himself, He would allow Himself to be afflicted. And He would make no complaint. He would humbly allow them to lead Him off to the slaughter like a lamb, without complaint He would allow them to shear Him like a sheep. That is, whatever He was to face, He would submit to it without argument or protest. He would knowingly submit to the will of Yahweh. ‘Lo, I come to do your will, O my God' (Hebrews 10:7; Hebrews 10:9)
Here was an essential part of the atonement. This was why no animal sacrifice could finally avail for sin. For such sacrifice was involuntary on the part of the victim. But this was to be a voluntary sacrifice, made by One Who knew what was coming and voluntarily went forward to His death. He went forward in obedience (Hebrews 5:8), saying ‘Lo I come to do your will, O my God' (Hebrews 10:4-10) thus becoming the perfect sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 5:9; Hebrews 10:10).
But the purpose of His oppressors was that ‘He might be cut off out of the land of the living'. No more vivid description of death could be given. He would yield His life to death. It is quite clear from Isaiah's emphasis on all this that he too recognised why in the end animal sacrifices could not suffice except as a temporary expedient. They lacked the necessary constituent of the voluntary will.
‘By (or ‘from') oppression and judgment He was taken away.' The idea behind ‘otser (oppression) is forcible enclosure and restraint. Thus in Proverbs 30:16 the womb is ‘enclosed' or ‘restrained' and therefore barren. Compare Genesis 16:2. But the verbal root means to hold back, hinder and therefore detain, imprison, retain, shut up, forcibly restrain. Combined with ‘judgment', which probably has in mind the place of judgment, or those who judge, or the due process of law, it clearly indicates forcible legal restraint of one form or another with a view to trial. In Proverbs 24:11 ‘taken away' means taken away to death (compare Ezekiel 33:4) and this is probably the meaning here especially when related to ‘cut off out of the land of the living'. So the Servant will run foul of the authorities sufficient for them to decide to sentence Him to death.
‘And as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was He stricken.' ‘His generation' here is probably to be taken in the sense of His contemporaries (see Genesis 6:9 b). To the majority of them His death would not be looked on as important. They would move on to another day. Injustice was not uncommon, and it did not directly affect them. But says Isaiah, it did affect them because He was stricken because of the transgressions of these very people (literally ‘because of the transgressions of my people the plague to him.') The word ‘stricken' is read in. But to be stricken with something plague-like outwardly suggests God's anger against the subject. Here the point is that God's antipathy to sin was averted from His people by being directed at the Servant.
All this adds further significance to the ‘lamb led to the slaughter'. While those words did not directly refer to sacrifice that meaning is beginning to be imported. If He was stricken for the transgressions of His people (compare Isaiah 53:5), and all their sins were made to meet on Him (Isaiah 53:6), He is beginning very much to look like a sacrificial offering (see Isaiah 53:10). Furthermore, in Israel any lamb slaughtered within the vicinity of Jerusalem had to be brought as an offering to the Temple.