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53 Who has believed our message?
    To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
    like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
    nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected—
    a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
    He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
    it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly,
    yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
    And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
Unjustly condemned,
    he was led away.[b]
No one cared that he died without descendants,
    that his life was cut short in midstream.[c]
But he was struck down
    for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong
    and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
    he was put in a rich man’s grave.

10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
    and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
    he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
    and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
    he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
    my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
    for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
    because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
    He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

Footnotes

  1. 53:4 Or Yet it was our sicknesses he carried; / it was our diseases.
  2. 53:8a Greek version reads He was humiliated and received no justice. Compare Acts 8:33.
  3. 53:8b Or As for his contemporaries, / who cared that his life was cut short in midstream? Greek version reads Who can speak of his descendants? / For his life was taken from the earth. Compare Acts 8:33.

53 Who has believed our message,
    and to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
For[a] he went[b] up like a shoot before him,
    and like a root from dry ground.
He had no form and no majesty that[c] we should see him,
    and no appearance that[d] we should take pleasure in him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of suffering, and acquainted with[e] sickness,
and like one from whom others hide their faces,[f] he was despised,
    and we did not hold him in high regard.
However, he was the one who lifted up our sicknesses,
    and he carried our pain,
yet[g] we ourselves assumed him stricken,
    struck down by God and afflicted.
But[h] he was pierced[i] because of our transgressions,
    crushed because of our iniquities;
the chastisement for[j] our peace[k] was upon him,
    and by his wounds[l] we were healed.[m]
All of us have wandered about like sheep;
    we each have turned to his own way;
and Yahweh let fall on him
    the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet[n] he did not open his mouth;
he was brought like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep is dumb before its shearers,
so[o] he did not open his mouth.
He was taken by restraint of justice,
    and who concerned himself with his generation?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    he received a blow because of the transgression of my people.
He made[p] his grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet[q] Yahweh was pleased to crush him;
    he made him sick.[r]
If she[s] places[t] his life a guilt offering,[u]
    he will see offspring.
He will prolong days,
    and the will of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.
11 From the trouble of his life[v] he will see;[w]
    he will be satisfied.
In his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, shall declare many righteous,[x]
    and he is the one who will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will divide to him a portion among the many,[y]
    and with the strong ones he will divide bounty,
because[z] he poured his life out to death
    and was counted with the transgressors;
and[aa] he was the one who bore the sin of many
    and will intercede for the transgressors.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 53:2 Or “And”
  2. Isaiah 53:2 Or “grew”
  3. Isaiah 53:2 Or “and”
  4. Isaiah 53:2 Or “and”
  5. Isaiah 53:3 Or “knowledgeable of”
  6. Isaiah 53:3 Literally “hiding of face from him”
  7. Isaiah 53:4 Or “and”
  8. Isaiah 53:5 Or “And”
  9. Isaiah 53:5 Or “wounded”
  10. Isaiah 53:5 Or “of”
  11. Isaiah 53:5 Or “healing”
  12. Isaiah 53:5 Hebrew “wound”
  13. Isaiah 53:5 Literally “it was healed for us”
  14. Isaiah 53:7 Or “and”
  15. Isaiah 53:7 Or “and”
  16. Isaiah 53:9 Or “gave”
  17. Isaiah 53:10 Or “And”
  18. Isaiah 53:10 Literally “he made sick”
  19. Isaiah 53:10 Or “you”
  20. Isaiah 53:10 Or “makes”
  21. Isaiah 53:10 Or “compensation”
  22. Isaiah 53:11 Or “soul”
  23. Isaiah 53:11 Dead Sea Scrolls add “light”
  24. Isaiah 53:11 Or “right”
  25. Isaiah 53:12 Or “great”
  26. Isaiah 53:12 Literally “Instead of that”
  27. Isaiah 53:12 Or “yet”