Isaiah 30
Isaiah 30 is set in a moment of real political panic. The armies of Assyria are pressing down on the small kingdom of Judah, and her leaders have settled on a way out: an alliance with Egypt, the other great power of the age. Caravans laden with treasure are already winding south through the desert to purchase Pharaoh's help. The trouble, in the prophet's eyes, is not that they have made a plan; it is that they have made it without God - Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me… that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth (vv. 1-2). They are trusting the shadow of Egypt instead of the LORD who has the outcome in His hand, and Isaiah tells them plainly that the shadow will fail: the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose (v. 7).3
At the center of the chapter stands one of the most quietly radical sentences in all of Scripture: In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength (v. 15). It is the exact reverse of what a frightened people want to hear. Salvation will not come through faster horses or stronger allies or cleverer strategy, but through turning back to God and resting in His care - through a settled, quiet trust. And then comes the line that gives the whole chapter its ache: and ye would not. The word was spoken; the help was offered; and they refused it, choosing instead to flee upon horses (v. 16). It is a portrait of the human heart preferring its own frantic rescue to God's offered rest.
Yet the refusal does not have the last word. The hinge of the chapter is verse 18, where the God who has just been spurned is revealed as a God who waits - therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you… blessed are all they that wait for him. What follows is pure promise: a Teacher who will no longer hide, a voice that comes behind the wanderer saying This is the way, walk ye in it (v. 21), rain for the seed and bread from the ground, and a day when the light of the sun shall be sevenfold and the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound (v. 26). The chapter that opens in panic closes in healing light - and the difference between the two is whether a people will return and rest, or run.2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Isaiah 30:1-7Woe to the Rebellious Children
1Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. 5They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. 6The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. 7For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
The chapter opens with a cry of grief, not just anger: Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me (v. 1). The word for the people is tender even as it indicts them - children - but they are children in rebellion, and the heart of that rebellion is named at once: they take counsel, but not of me. They are making plans, and the plans are not the sin; the sin is that God has been left out of them entirely. The specific plan is spelled out in verse 2: they walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth. Hemmed in by the rising threat of Assyria, Judah has decided to buy her safety from the other superpower of the age, Egypt - to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Notice the phrase have not asked at my mouth. The whole tragedy is contained in it. There was a mouth they could have asked at; there was a counsel available; and they walked right past it to negotiate with Pharaoh instead. It is the picture of a people reaching for the strongest thing they can see while ignoring the One who actually holds the outcome.3
The prophet does not leave the outcome in doubt: Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion (v. 3). The very thing they ran to for protection will become their humiliation. Verses 4 through 6 sketch the cost and the futility of the venture. Judah's envoys have already reached the Egyptian cities - his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes (v. 4) - and the verdict on the whole exchange is bleak: they were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them (v. 5). Then verse 6 paints the caravan itself, crossing a wilderness of danger: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, the messengers carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. Picture it - the wealth of Judah loaded onto pack animals, hauled through a desert full of lions and serpents, at great risk and greater expense, to purchase help from a nation that will give them nothing in return. The image exposes the absurdity of misplaced trust: enormous effort and treasure poured into a rescue that was never going to come.
Verse 7 delivers the divine summary of the whole Egyptian gambit, and it lands with a striking phrase: For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. The first half is blunt - Egypt's help will be in vain, empty, accomplishing nothing. But the closing words turn the indictment into an invitation. Their strength is to sit still. For all Egypt's reputation and might, the truest thing that could be said of this alliance is that its real strength would have been to do nothing at all - to stop the frantic activity, to cease the diplomacy and the caravans, to be still. There is a deep paradox here that the whole chapter will unfold. The people are convinced that safety lies in doing - in securing allies, in marshaling resources, in motion. God tells them the opposite: their strength would have been in stillness, in ceasing from their own works long enough to trust His. It is the same truth pressed elsewhere in Scripture, Be still, and know that I am God. Restless striving feels like strength and is often weakness; quiet trust feels like weakness and is often the only real strength there is.
Isaiah 30:8-17In Returning and Rest Shall Ye Be Saved
8Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: 9That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 11Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 12Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: 13Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. 14And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
God now tells Isaiah to make the indictment permanent: Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever (v. 8). This is not a passing rebuke to be forgotten; it is to be written down, fixed in a record that will outlast the moment, for ever and ever. Why? Because what it documents is a settled condition of the heart: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD (v. 9). The phrase will not hear is the key. Their problem is not that they cannot understand or have never been told; it is that they refuse to listen. And verses 10 and 11 show the refusal turning aggressive. They actually instruct the prophets what to say and not say: Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. They want the message softened, the hard truth swapped for something comfortable. And further still: cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. They want God Himself out of their sight. It is one of the most honest and chilling self-portraits of the human heart in flight from God - not merely ignoring Him, but actively asking that He be removed.
Because they despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon (v. 12), the prophet announces what such trust comes to. The image in verses 13 and 14 is vivid and frightening. Their iniquity will be as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. Anyone who has seen an old wall begin to bulge knows the picture: a crack appears, the wall bows outward, and for a while it holds - until all at once it collapses, suddenly, without warning. That is what a life built on oppression and perverseness is like. It may look standing and secure, but it is already bulging, and its fall, when it comes, will be instant. Verse 14 presses the ruin further: he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare - and so completely shattered that not even a fragment large enough to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit will remain. A broken pot can sometimes yield a useful shard; this breaking leaves nothing usable at all. The warning is sobering precisely because it is patient: the collapse is not arbitrary. It is the long-delayed but certain end of a structure that was unsound from the start because it was built on the wrong foundation.
15For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. 16But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. 17One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
Now the chapter arrives at its center, and the contrast could not be sharper. After the warning of the bulging wall comes the gentlest, most generous offer in the book: For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength (v. 15). Hear what salvation is said to require - and what it is not said to require. Not horses, not allies, not a better strategy, not more frantic effort. Returning - simply turning back to God - and rest. Strength will come not from striving but from quietness and confidence, a settled, unanxious trust. This is one of the most counter-intuitive sentences in all of Scripture, because it runs against everything a frightened heart believes. Fear says: do more, secure more, move faster. God says: turn back, be still, trust. And then come the four words that turn the whole verse into a lament: and ye would not. The offer was real. The door was open. Salvation was held out on the easiest possible terms. And they refused it. Not could not - would not. It is the saddest line in the chapter, because the help was right there, and they would not have it. The tragedy of Isaiah 30 is not that God withheld rescue; it is that rescue was offered and a people said no.
Verses 16 and 17 show exactly what the refusal chose instead, and the irony is sharp. But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee. They rejected rest in favor of speed - they wanted swift horses to carry them out of danger. So God grants them, with terrible precision, the logic of their own choice: you want to flee on horses? Then flee you shall - not toward safety but in panic. We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. The very speed they trusted in becomes the speed of their pursuers. And verse 17 names the rout: One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee. This is the exact reversal of the covenant blessing, where a few were to chase many; now a single enemy will scatter a thousand. They will be left exposed and alone, as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill - a lone pole on a bare summit, the last forsaken remnant of a great host. It is what always comes of refusing the smooth path of trust for the hard road of self-reliance: the thing relied upon turns against the one who trusted it. The horses meant to save become the means of flight; the strength relied on becomes the measure of the loss.
Isaiah 30:18-26The LORD Waits to Be Gracious
18And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. 19For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 20And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: 21And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. 22Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
After all the rebellion - the Egyptian alliance, the demand for smooth words, the refusal of rest - the chapter pivots on a single, astonishing word: And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you (v. 18). The word therefore is staggering in its context. Therefore - because of all this rebellion - one might expect the next word to be judge or destroy. Instead it is wait. And He waits not to gather His anger but for the opposite reason: that he may be gracious unto you. God is pictured here as One who holds back, who delays, who lingers - not out of distance or reluctance, but out of mercy, waiting for the moment His people will turn so that He can pour out grace. The verse refuses to make God less than just - for the LORD is a God of judgment - but it shows that His justice is wrapped in a patience that aches to be gracious. And then the verse turns the waiting around and offers a beatitude: blessed are all they that wait for him. There is a holy symmetry here too tender to miss. God waits to be gracious to His people; the people are called to wait for Him. The same posture of patient, trusting expectation runs both directions. The God who is awaited is Himself the God who waits.
What follows the great pivot is a flood of promise to those who turn back. The people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee (v. 19). The weeping will end; the cry will be heard; God will answer. And then comes a remarkable verse about how God teaches His people even through hardship: though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers (v. 20). Affliction is not denied - there is still bread of adversity and water of affliction - but in the midst of it God promises that guidance will no longer be hidden. The teachers who direct the people back to Him will no longer be pushed into a corner and silenced, as the rebellious people had wanted; now they will be seen and heard. And one fruit of this restored hearing is the renunciation of idols in verse 22: Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images… thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. When a people truly turn back and let themselves be taught, the false gods they once trusted become repugnant to them. They throw away what they once clutched, and say to it, Get thee hence.
At the center of these promises is one of the tenderest images in all the prophets: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left (v. 21). Picture the scene. A traveler is walking a road, and from behind comes a voice - the voice of one who can see the whole path the traveler cannot - gently correcting the course: This is the way, walk ye in it. Not a shout, not a blow, but a word at the shoulder, steering with care. And it speaks precisely when the traveler is about to stray, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. The picture is of a God who does not abandon His people to wander, nor stand off at a distance and let them get hopelessly lost, but walks close behind, watching every drift to the side, and speaks just in time to bring them back to the path. There is enormous comfort in the location of that voice - behind thee. It means God's guidance often comes not as a map handed out in advance but as a correction given in the moment, a word that finds you exactly when you are veering off. The promise is not that the road will be obvious, but that the Guide will be present - close enough to whisper, attentive enough to catch every turning, faithful enough to keep saying, This is the way.
23Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. 24The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. 25And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
The promises now widen out into a vision of creation itself renewed. To the people who return there is rain for the seed and abundant harvest - bread of the increase of the earth… fat and plenteous - and cattle grazing in large pastures (v. 23). Even the working animals share in the plenty: the oxen and asses shall eat clean provender (v. 24). Water, the very thing the desert lacks, will run everywhere: upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters (v. 25). And then the vision rises to its climax in verse 26 with one of the most luminous images in the book: Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days. The picture is of light multiplied beyond all natural measure - the moon shining like the sun, the sun shining sevenfold, as if seven days of daylight were poured into one. It is a way of saying that the coming restoration will be so complete, so radiant, that the present world will look dim by comparison. And the verse tells us exactly when this dawns: in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. The flood of light coincides with a healing. The same God who let the wound be felt is the One who binds it up - tenderly, like a physician dressing an injury - and when He does, the very light of the world is multiplied. Restoration, in Isaiah, is never merely the absence of trouble; it is the presence of overwhelming, healing brightness.
Isaiah 30:27-33The Name of the LORD Cometh from Far
27Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: 28And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. 29Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. 30And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. 31For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. 32And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. 33For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
The chapter ends by turning from the people's sin to the oppressor's doom, and the language blazes. Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire (v. 27). The name of the LORD - God Himself in His revealed character and power - is pictured as a storm advancing from a distance, glowing with anger like an approaching wildfire. Verse 28 extends the image to a flood and a sieve: his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity. A river rising to the neck is a picture of overwhelming judgment; the sieve is the image of separation, the shaking that lets the worthless fall away. This is the same God who waited so patiently to be gracious to His own people - and that is the point. His patience toward the penitent is not weakness, and His mercy is not the whole story. The God who longs to heal the wound of His people is also the God before whom proud and cruel powers cannot finally stand. The two faces are not contradictory; they are the same holiness. The One who comes close behind the wanderer to whisper this is the way is the One whose name cometh from far against everything that crushes and oppresses.
In the midst of these images of judgment comes a sudden, beautiful turn toward joy - for the same act of God that overthrows the oppressor is deliverance for the oppressed. Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD (v. 29). While judgment falls on the proud, God's people are pictured singing - not a grim survival but the festal gladness of a pilgrim going up to worship, a song like the songs of the night when a holy feast is kept. Then verses 30 through 33 return to the storm of judgment with full force. The LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm… with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones (v. 30). The specific target is named: through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod (v. 31). The very power that had wielded the rod against others is itself broken - and broken not by Judah's horses or Egypt's help, but by the voice of the LORD. The chapter that opened with a people frantically seeking deliverance from Assyria closes by showing that the deliverance was always God's to give. Every caravan to Egypt was unnecessary; the One who could break the oppressor with a word was the One they had walked past. And so the final word, even in these scenes of fire, is that judgment on the cruel is the other side of rescue for the trusting - and the trusting are found singing.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Isaiah 30 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for the paired nouns of verse 15, shuvah (“returning”) and nachat (“rest”), and for the verb chakah (v. 18, “wait”), the same root used of the LORD who waits and of those who wait for Him.
- Isaiah 30 ↔ Matthew 11 · John 14 · 1 Peter 2Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Isaiah 30 to the rest of Scripture - the rest offered in verse 15 read alongside I will give you rest… ye shall find rest unto your souls (Matt. 11:28-29), the guiding voice of verse 21 beside I am the way (John 14:6), and the wound healed in verse 26 beside with his stripes we are healed (1 Pet. 2:24).
- Isaiah 30 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Isaiah 30 - the historical setting of the Egyptian alliance in verses 1-7, the difficult imagery of the swelling wall and the potter's vessel in verses 13-14, and the much-discussed promise of a guiding voice in verse 21.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Woe to the Rebellious Children
- Isaiah 31:1Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses... but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel.The same rebuke as verses 1-7 - trusting Egypt’s strength instead of the LORD who holds the outcome.
- Psalm 20:7Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.The choice Isaiah lays bare - the shadow of Egypt (v. 2) against the name of the LORD.
- Psalm 46:10Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.The strength of stillness that verse 7 commends - ceasing from striving to trust the LORD.
- Matthew 11:28-29Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... ye shall find rest unto your souls.The rest Isaiah points toward, offered in person - the One who saves the labouring and heavy-laden.
- Jeremiah 17:5Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.The warning beneath verses 1-3 - the shame that comes of trusting the arm of flesh.
In Returning and Rest Shall Ye Be Saved
- 2 Timothy 4:3they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.The demand of verse 10 - smooth words preferred to the true ones, in every age.
- Isaiah 28:16Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone... he that believeth shall not make haste.The quiet confidence of verse 15 - the one who trusts the sure foundation need not run.
- Exodus 14:13-14Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD... The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.The rest and stillness of verse 15 enacted - salvation found in trusting, not in fleeing.
- Leviticus 26:8five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight.The covenant blessing reversed in verse 17 - now one enemy scatters a thousand of them.
- Hebrews 4:10-11he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works... Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest.The rest of verse 15 named as salvation itself - ceasing from one’s own works to trust God’s.
The LORD Waits to Be Gracious
- Isaiah 40:31they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.The beatitude of verse 18 lived out - strength renewed in those who wait for Him.
- Luke 15:20when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck.The God who waits to be gracious (v. 18) - pictured as the father who runs to the returning child.
- John 14:6I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.The Way named in person - the fullness of the voice that says “This is the way” in verse 21.
- John 10:27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.The guiding voice of verse 21 - the Shepherd whose sheep know His voice and follow.
- 2 Peter 3:9The Lord is... longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.The waiting of verse 18 explained - God’s patience is mercy, longing for the turn.
The Name of the LORD Cometh from Far
- Isaiah 37:36the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians... and behold, they were all dead corpses.The promise of verse 31 fulfilled - the Assyrian beaten down by the LORD, without Judah’s sword.
- Ephesians 2:8-9by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works.The lesson of the whole chapter - the salvation we strain to earn is the salvation God freely gives.
- Mark 4:39he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.The voice of the LORD that breaks the storm (vv. 30-31) - the same word that stilled the sea.
- Colossians 2:15having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.Judgment on the oppressor as deliverance for the trusting (vv. 29-31) - the powers disarmed at the cross.
- Isaiah 53:5he was wounded for our transgressions... and with his stripes we are healed.The healing of the wound promised in verse 26 - the breach of His people bound up at last.