The suffering servant, "wounded for our transgressions"
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52:13Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
52:14As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
52:15So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
53:1Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
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2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
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10The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
52:13Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
52:14As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
52:15So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
53:1Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
53:2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
53:3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
53:4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
53:5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
53:6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
53:7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
53:8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
53:9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
53:10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
53:11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
53:12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
32The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
33In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
34And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
35Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
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29Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
30And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
31And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
32The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
33In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
34And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
35Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
36And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
37And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
38And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
Isaiah 53 is the one Hebrew Bible text in which an individual dies for others and is then vindicated. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities" (); "he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken" (); yet afterwards "he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days" (). Though the servant is called "Israel" (), he is sent "to bring Jacob again to him" (), so he is more than the nation; the purely national reading is first attested in Origen. Jewish tradition itself later read the song of the Messiah: the Targum (the Aramaic paraphrase) has "my servant the Messiah", and the Talmud calls the Messiah "the leper", drawing on . Justin Martyr's Jewish dialogue partner Trypho concedes that "Christ had to suffer", rejecting only crucifixion. The earliest Christian creed already said that "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" ().
Whether the servant is an individual or a collective figure is a genuinely open question, and the song's distinction is real: no other pre-Christian text has one person die for others and be vindicated, and the earliest Christian tradition read Jesus' death through it. That is evidence of how the first Christians understood the cross. It is not independent confirmation of a prediction, because no fulfilment detail is attested outside the Gospels. Jesus' crucifixion is assessed elsewhere on the site, and his vindication belongs with the resurrection questions.
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No pre-Christian reading of a suffering Messiah is known. Daniel 12 reuses the song's language, "they that turn many to righteousness" (), for the martyred teachers as a group, around 165 BCE; Wisdom 2-5 has a persecuted righteous man as a type; and the Qumran text 4Q541 describes a priestly figure who does not die, with its sense disputed. The Targum, while naming the servant the Messiah, moves the suffering onto Israel and the nations, and Trypho's dialogue is a literary work written after Christianity began. The fulfilment details are found only in the Gospels: Jesus' silence before his judges, and his death between two bandits, which is plausible but generic (Mark does not cite Isaiah there; is a later scribal addition). Matthew's "rich man" () is his change to Mark's "honourable counsellor" (), and Isaiah's grave is "with the wicked" (). Early Christian use of the song shows interpretation, not fulfilment.