But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance,(A) but the Lord looks at the heart.”(B)

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He grew up before him like a tender shoot,(A)
    and like a root(B) out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance(C) that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering,(D) and familiar with pain.(E)
Like one from whom people hide(F) their faces
    he was despised,(G) and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,(H)
yet we considered him punished by God,(I)
    stricken by him, and afflicted.(J)
But he was pierced(K) for our transgressions,(L)
    he was crushed(M) for our iniquities;
the punishment(N) that brought us peace(O) was on him,
    and by his wounds(P) we are healed.(Q)
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,(R)
    each of us has turned to our own way;(S)
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity(T) of us all.

He was oppressed(U) and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;(V)
he was led like a lamb(W) to the slaughter,(X)
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression[a] and judgment(Y) he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;(Z)
    for the transgression(AA) of my people he was punished.[b]
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,(AB)
    and with the rich(AC) in his death,
though he had done no violence,(AD)
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.(AE)

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will(AF) to crush(AG) him and cause him to suffer,(AH)
    and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,(AI)
he will see his offspring(AJ) and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper(AK) in his hand.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 53:8 Or From arrest
  2. Isaiah 53:8 Or generation considered / that he was cut off from the land of the living, / that he was punished for the transgression of my people?
  3. Isaiah 53:10 Hebrew though you make

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.(A) Rather, it should be that of your inner self,(B) the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.(C) For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God(D) used to adorn themselves.(E) They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord.(F) You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

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