Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
The transition is frequent from the glory of Messiah in His advent to reign, to His humiliation in His advent to suffer. Indeed, so are both advents accounted one, that He is not said in His second coming to be about to return, but to come. Here Isaiah 53:1-12 ought to begin, and Isaiah 52:1-15 end with Isaiah 52:12. This section, from here to end of Isaiah 53:1-12, settles the controversy with the Jews, if Messiah be the person meant; and with infidels, if written by Isaiah, or at any time before Christ. The correspondence with the life and death of Jesus Christ is so minute that it could not have resulted from conjecture or accident. An impostor could not have shaped the course of events so as to have made his character and life appear to be a fulfillment of it. The writing is, moreover, declaredly prophetic. The quotations of it in the New Testament (no less than nine direct quotations in different connections: Matthew 8:17; Luke 22:37; John 1:29; John 12:38; Acts 8:28-35; Romans 10:16; 1 Peter 2:21-25; Mark 15:28) show
(1) that it was before the time of Jesus a recognized part of the Old Testament;
(2) that it refers to Messiah.
The indirect allusions to it still more clearly prove the Messianic interpretation: so universal was that The indirect allusions to it still more clearly prove the Messianic interpretation: so universal was that interpretation, that it is simply referred to in connection with the atoning virtue of His death, without being formally quoted (Mark 9:12; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 John 3:5). The genuineness of the passage is certain; because the Jews would not have forged it, since it is opposed to their notion of Messiah, as a triumphant temporal prince. The Christians could not have forged it; because the Jews, the enemies of Christianity, are 'our librarians' (Paley). The Jews try to evade its force by the figment of two Messiahs-one a suffering Messiah (Ben Joseph), the other a triumphant Messiah (Ben David). Hittel maintained that Messiah has 'already come in the person of Hezekiah. Buxtorf states that many of the modern Rabbins believe that He has been come a good while, but will not manifest Himself because of the sins of the Jews.
But the ancient Jews, as the Chaldee paraphrast Jonathan, refer it to Messiah; so the Medrasch Taochuma (a commentary, on the Pentateuch); also Rabbi Moses Hadderschan. Abarbanel says of the non-Messianic interpreters, 'All these interpreters are smitten with blindness.' So Kimchi (see Hengstenberg, Christol). Some explain it of the Jewish people, either in the Babylonian exile, or in their present sufferings and dispersion. Others, the pious portion of the nation taken collectively, whose sufferings made a vicarious satisfaction for the ungodly. Others, Isaiah, or Jeremiah (Gesenius), or the prophets collectively. But an individual is plainly described: he suffers voluntarily, innocent, patiently, and as the efficient cause of the righteousness of His people, which holds good of none other, but Messiah (Isaiah 53:4-6; Isaiah 53:9; Isaiah 53:11: contrast, Jeremiah's impatience in suffering with Messiah's lamb-like meekness, as here foretold, Jeremiah 20:7; Jeremiah 15:10-21: cf. Psalms 137:8-9): Isaiah 53:9 can hold good of none other. The objection that the sufferings (Isaiah 53:1-10) referred to are represented as past, the glorification alone as future (Isaiah 52:13-15; Isaiah 53:11-12) arises from not seeing that the prophet takes his stand in the midst of the scenes which he describes as future. The greater nearness of the first advent, and the interval between it and the second, are implied by the use of the past tense as to the first, the future as to the second.
Verse 13. Behold - awakening attention to the striking picture of Messiah that follows (cf. John 19:5; John 19:14).
My servant - Messiah (Isaiah 42:1).
Shall deal prudently (Hebrew, yaschil) - rather, prosper (Gesenius), as the parallel clause favours (cf. Isaiah 53:10, a different Hebrew word for 'prosper'). Or, uniting both meanings, shall reign well (Hengstenberg). The same Hebrew is translated, "a King shall reign and prosper" (hiskil), in Jeremiah 23:5. The English version is the primary meaning. His prudent dealing, or wisdom, and His prospering are inseparably connected (cf. Isaiah 11:1-5). This verse sets forth in the beginning the ultimate issue of His sufferings, the description of which follows. The conclusion (Isaiah 53:10; Isaiah 53:12) corresponds. The section, Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:10; Isaiah 53:12, begins as it ends, with His final glory.
He shall be exalted and extolled - elevated, (Mark 16:19; Ephesians 1:20-22; 1 Peter 3:22). God's spirit, jealous for the honour of His Son, which might seem to be lowered by His humiliation, prefaces it with the assertion of His glory, which is its inseparable issue and result (1 Peter 1:11). The Midrasha, Tanhuma says on this passage, 'This is King Messiah, who shall be higher than Abraham, more elevated than Moses, and exalted above the ministering angels.