World English Bible
- Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?
- For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
- He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
- Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
- But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
- All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.
- He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
- They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
- Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the LORD’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
- After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.
- Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Yesterday, Isaiah announced that the Lord would bare his holy arm before the nations (Isaiah 52:10). Now he asks who has recognized that arm. It appears not as a raised fist, but as a tender plant in dry ground. God’s power has come into view, and we have mistaken it for weakness.
Listen to the voice of the chapter. It does not say, “They despised him.” It says, “We didn’t respect him.” The witnesses confess that they saw his suffering and made it a verdict: “We considered him plagued, struck by God.” In a world where public shame could drive people to hide their faces from someone, they turned away before they understood what they were seeing.
This is more than an ancient error. When another person’s life falls apart, how quickly do we search for the fault that would make their pain seem fair? Job’s friends did it. Jesus’ disciples did it when they asked whose sin had caused a man’s blindness (John 9:1–3). Isaiah draws us into the confession: we are not always good judges of where God is at work.
Then the poem reverses the verdict. The wounds were real, but our explanation was wrong. He bore what belonged to us. In verse 10, the Hebrew word asham can name a guilt offering, often linked in Israel’s law with making amends for harm done. God does not make peace by calling evil harmless. The servant carries its cost. Yet he is not merely acted upon: he “poured out his soul to death.” His gift is willing.
Notice, too, where his silence leads. Before those who oppress him, he does not plead his own case. But the chapter ends with him making intercession for transgressors. His silence is not the final word; his prayer is. This is no command for wounded people to endure abuse without speaking. It is the astonishing choice of the righteous servant to use his voice for the guilty.
The World English Bible says that after his suffering “he will see the light.” That word light appears in the ancient Great Isaiah Scroll found near Qumran, though it is absent from some later Hebrew manuscripts. After being cut off from the living, he has a future—and “offspring.” In the very next chapter, the barren woman is told to sing (Isaiah 54:1). His life given away becomes a people brought home.
Today, ask Christ not only to forgive your sins, but to correct your sight. Where have you hidden your face from someone he is drawing near?
For reflection: John 9:1–3; Hebrews 7:25; Isaiah 54:1.
Hymn: “My Song Is Love Unknown.”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive the judgments I have made too quickly. Teach me to see your mercy where I expected only shame. Make me truthful about sin, gentle toward the suffering, and grateful that you still intercede for us. Amen.