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He grew up like a sapling before him,(A)
    like a shoot from the parched earth;
He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye,
    no beauty to draw us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by men,
    a man of suffering, knowing pain,
Like one from whom you turn your face,
    spurned, and we held him in no esteem.(B)

Yet it was our pain that he bore,
    our sufferings he endured.
We thought of him as stricken,
    struck down by God[a] and afflicted,(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 53:4 Struck down by God: the Bible often sees suffering as a punishment for sin (e.g., Ps 6:2; 32:1–5), yet sin sometimes appears to go unpunished and the innocent often suffer (cf. Ps 73; the Book of Job). In the case of the servant, the onlookers initially judge him guilty because of his suffering but, in some way not explained, they come to understand that his sufferings are for the sins of others. One notes the element of surprise, for such vicarious suffering, in the form described here, is without parallel in the Old Testament.

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)

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