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.

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2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
    a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
    nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on him, on him.

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For He grew up before Him like a (A)tender [a]shoot,
And like a root out of dry ground;
He has (B)no stately form or majesty
That we would look at Him,
Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 53:2 Lit suckling

He grew up like a ·small plant [young plant; tender shoot; 11:1] before ·the Lord [L him],
    like a root growing in a ·dry land [parched soil].
He had no special beauty or ·form [majesty] to make us notice him;
    there was nothing in his appearance to make us desire him.

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