Isaiah 53 - Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

The questions are asked by the prophet, and the implied answer is 'No one.' None or few received the divine message, or recognised the working of Jehovah's power in His Servant.

Arm] cp. Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 52:10.

1-3. The tenses are past (prophetic perfect), the future being viewed as already accomplished.

The people here speak. There was nothing in the servant's appearance to attract them. Shall grow] RV 'grew.' Before him] i.e. before God. Tender plant, etc.] not like a stately tree, but like a lowly plant, struggling in arid soil. So the human life of the Messiah was one of obscurity and humility.

Sorrows.. grief] lit. 'pains.. sickness.' He was despised, etc.] literally fulfilled in the attitude of His contemporaries generally towards our Lord: cp. John 1:10-11; John 8:48; John 9:24; John 10:20.

4-6. Though they thought him the object of Jehovah's wrath, he was in truth afflicted that they might be delivered; the penalty of their sin fell on him, instead of recoiling upon the transgressors. A remarkable prophecy of Christ, Himself sinless, suffering that men might be delivered from their sins and the penalty due to them.

Chastisement of our peace] i.e. resulting ia our peace.

The v. expressively sets forth the meekness of the Messiah under persecution. See the literal fulfilment recorded in Matthew 26:63; Matthew 27:12; Matthew 27:14 and parallel passages.

Read, 'By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who among them considered that he was cut off,' etc. (RV); i.e. his persecution ended in death, but his contemporaries did not understand that this was for his peopled transgressions, not for his own. The ignorance of those who crucified Christ (Acts 3:17; Acts 13:27; 1 Corinthians 2:8) is here foreshadowed.

He made.. because] RV 'they made.. although.' Though himself guiltless, he was, in his end, associated with malefactors. Rich is parallel to wicked, and stands for the wrong-fully rich (Psalms 49:6; Proverbs 11:16). The words received their fulfilment in detail in the crucifixion of Christ between two robbers.

Yet it pleased] His sufferings were in accordance with the divine purpose (cp. Acts 2:23; Acts 4:28). Offering for sin] lit. 'trespass-offering' (Leviticus 5:14.). Sin is an infringement of God's honour and rights, and the life of the Servant is the satisfaction paid for it. This sacrifice of the Servant is the condition (a) of spiritual parentage, (b) of continued life after death, and (c) of the fulfilment of his divine mission (Isaiah 49:5-6). The prophet here plainly teaches the atoning efficacy of the death of the Messiah, the accomplishment of His work through His sacrifice and His glorious after-life.

His knowledge] i.e. either (a) the knowledge which he possesses (cp. John 17:25), or (b) knowledge of him (cp. John 17:3). Justify many] RV 'make many righteous,' by delivering them from the guilt and consequences of their sins.

Jehovah gives him victory as a great ruler of mankind because of his willing selfsacrifice.

The Suffering of Jehovah's Servant: Its Meaning and Results

See introductory note to Chapter s

49-57.

Isaiah 52:13-15. The contrast between the Servant's humiliation and exaltation; its effect upon the world.

Isaiah 53:1-12. The import of the Servant's sufferingnot understood. The vicarious nature and triumphant issue of the Servant's suffering.

This section is not so argumentative in tone as the last. Its distinguishing feature is the development of the prophet's teaching concerning the Servant of Jehovah. The conception seems to arise, as has been noted, with the nation considered collectively as a Servant of God (Isaiah 41:8-9; Isaiah 44:1-2; Isaiah 44:21; Isaiah 45:4). So long as the attitude and work of God in relation to the nation are solely in view, there is no limitation of the idea; but when the nation's work and attitude to Him and the fulfilment of His purposes come to be considered, the Servant of God seems to take on a narrower sense. The actual Israel, with its many shortcomings—its blindness to the truth, its deafness to God's message—gives way to those more select souls—a part only of the people—through whom the duties and destiny of the nation will be fulfilled. At the same time, it is clear that the idea passes on to an individual distinct from the nation (Isaiah 49:5-6), in whom are concentrated all the attributes of the ideal nation, and who shall realise all that Israel was intended to be. His character and office are thus delineated: (a) He is prepared by Jehovah from the womb for His lifework (Isaiah 49:1-2); (b) He is endowed with the Divine Spirit (Isaiah 42:1); (c) He is not ostentatious or unduly severe (Isaiah 42:2-3); (d) He is to be the embodiment of a New Covenant between Jehovah and His people (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:8); (e) and to teach all nations true religion (Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6); (f) but most remarkable of all, and especially characteristic of this division of the book, are the passages which intimate that this great work is only to be accomplished through humiliation, suffering, and death, issuing in a new and glorious life. The first hint that the Servant's work is to be carried on in face of difficulty and discouragement is found in Isaiah 42:4. His exposure to insult and contumely in the exercise of His mission is expressly indicated in Isaiah 50:6 then follows (Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53) a section entirely devoted to the subject, in which the prominent features are the Servant's gentleness and patience under affliction, the vicarious nature of His sufferings, which are not endured on His own account, but for the sins of His people, and the intimation that after pain and death there awaits Him new life full of joy in the contemplation of the success of His work. The correspondence, even in detail, with the Passion of Jesus Christ cannot fail to arrest attention. The way in which the Servant is despised and misunderstood by His contemporaries (Isaiah 53:3), His patience and silence before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7), and His association with malefactors in His death (Isaiah 53:9): these read like a description of what happened in the case of our Lord. How far the prophet understood the meaning of his own words it is difficult to say. No doubt he was thinking at the outset of the faithful core of Israel as being Jehovah's Servant with a great mission to accomplish, and the experience of the exile showed him that this great work for the whole world was only to be wrought through contumely and suffering; yet Jehovah sometimes spake 'with a strong hand' (Ezekiel 3:14), and we can scarcely doubt that the Divine Spirit in these wonderful passages through the prophet foreshadowed the things that should be suffered and accomplished by the perfect Servant of God, the embodiment of Israel's splendid ideal, our Lord Jesus Christ.