Isaiah 53:1-6

New International Reader's Version

53 Who has believed what we’ve been saying?
    Who has seen the Lord’s saving power?
² His servant grew up like a tender young plant.
    He grew like a root coming up out of dry ground.
He didn’t have any beauty or majesty that made us notice him.
    There wasn’t anything special about the way he looked that drew us to him.
³ People looked down on him. They didn’t accept him.
    He knew all about pain and suffering.
He was like someone people turn their faces away from.
    We looked down on him. We didn’t have any respect for him.

⁴ He suffered the things we should have suffered.
    He took on himself the pain that should have been ours.
But we thought God was punishing him.
    We thought God was wounding him and making him suffer.
⁵ But the servant was pierced because we had sinned.
    He was crushed because we had done what was evil.
He was punished to make us whole again.
    His wounds have healed us.
⁶ All of us are like sheep. We have wandered away from God.
    All of us have turned to our own way.
And the Lord has placed on his servant
    the sins of all of us.