Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 is the last and greatest of the four songs about the LORD's Servant, and it actually begins three verses earlier, at the end of chapter 52: Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high (52:13) - followed at once by the shock that His face and form would be marred more than any man (52:14). The chapter proper opens not with an announcement but with a stunned question: Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (v. 1). The message that follows runs against everything the world expects of power. The arm of the LORD - His saving strength - is revealed in One with no form nor comeliness, One the world looks at and turns away from.
What the prophet sets down next is a portrait so precise that it reads like an eyewitness account written after the fact rather than centuries before it. A Servant despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (v. 3). One who bears our griefs and carries our sorrows, who is wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities (vv. 4-5). One on whom the LORD hath laid… the iniquity of us all (v. 6); who goes silent as a lamb to the slaughter (v. 7); who is cut off out of the land of the living and buried with both the wicked and the rich (vv. 8-9). The thread through all of it is substitution stated in the plainest words: His suffering is for ours, His wounds are for our healing.3
And the chapter does not end at the grave. When the Servant's soul is made an offering for sin, the prophet says, He shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand (v. 10). He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many (v. 11). This is the passage a man from Ethiopia was reading on the Gaza road when Philip began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus (Acts 8:35) - and it is the passage the apostles return to again and again to say what the cross means. Few chapters in all of Scripture are quoted so often in the New Testament, and none more openly applied to Christ.2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Isaiah 53:1-3Who Hath Believed Our Report?
1Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
The song opens with a question that already grieves over its own answer: Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (v. 1). A report is something heard, a message passed on; the prophet has been given news to announce, and he knows in advance how few will receive it. And the arm of the LORD is, all through Isaiah, the image of God's saving power put forth to rescue - the strong arm that brought Israel out of Egypt, that nothing can shorten. The shock of the question is that this mighty arm is about to be revealed in a form no one is looking for. People scan the horizon for power dressed as power: a conqueror, a force, a throne. The arm of the LORD is going to appear instead in a despised and suffering man. That is why the report is so hard to believe - not because it is unclear, but because it overturns every assumption about how God saves. The verse is honest about the cost of that overturning: the message will be true, and most will pass it by.3
Now the prophet sketches the Servant's appearance, and every line subtracts what the world would want: For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him (v. 2). He comes up like a tender plant - small, easily overlooked, easily crushed - and like a root out of a dry ground, life pushing up where nothing should grow, in unpromising soil and obscure circumstances. He has no form nor comeliness, nothing in His bearing to command a crowd; no beauty that we should desire him, nothing to make people want Him at first sight. This is deliberate and pointed. The salvation of God does not arrive trailing the splendor people expect of it. The Servant's glory is real, but it is hidden from those who measure by the eye. He grows before him - before the LORD, watched and tended by God even while the world sees nothing worth a second look. The whole verse is a quiet rebuke to the way we appraise worth, choosing by appearance and missing what God has planted.
The portrait deepens into open rejection: He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not (v. 3). Twice in one verse the word despised falls, framing the whole line like a refrain of contempt. The Servant is not merely ignored; He is actively scorned, rejected of men, treated as having no value. He is a man of sorrows - sorrow is the very thing He is known by - and acquainted with grief, on close and constant terms with pain, the way a person knows a familiar companion. And notice the response He draws: we hid as it were our faces from him. People look away, as from something they would rather not see, as one turns from the sufferer whose pain is unbearable to witness. Then the prophet says the most exposing thing of all: we esteemed him not. The fault is placed squarely on us. The failure to see His worth was never in Him; it was in the eyes that looked at Him and turned away. The verse holds up a mirror before it ever holds up a cross.1
Isaiah 53:4-6He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The chapter now turns on a single word: Surely. Everything before was how the Servant looked to us; now the prophet tells us what was actually happening. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted (v. 4). The verbs are the language of bearing a load - He bore and He carried, taking a weight upon Himself and hauling it. And the weight is named with two small, devastating words: our griefs, our sorrows. The very sorrows that made Him a man of sorrows in verse 3 turn out to be ours, lifted off us and onto Him. Against this stands our blindness: we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Watching Him suffer, the onlookers drew the natural conclusion - surely God is punishing this man for some fault of his own. They had the suffering right and the reason exactly backward. He was indeed stricken, but not for Himself; He was bearing what belonged to them. The whole tragedy of misunderstanding is here: the crowd looked at the most selfless act in history and read it as a man getting what he deserved.
Verse 5 is the center of the chapter, and perhaps of the whole prophetic witness, and it must be read slowly, word by word: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Hear the relentless logic of it. Four times the suffering is His - wounded… bruised… chastisement… stripes - and four times the cause and the benefit are ours: our transgressions, our iniquities, our peace, we are healed. The little word for carries the entire meaning: He was wounded for our transgressions, that is, on account of them, in our place. The wounds were earned by us and absorbed by Him. The chastisement of our peace was upon him - the discipline that secured our peace fell on His shoulders, so that what broke Him made us whole. And the final clause turns the wound itself into medicine: with his stripes we are healed. A stripe is the welt left by a lash; the very marks of His scourging become the source of our healing. The exchange could not be stated more plainly: His pain purchases our peace; His wounds are our cure.
Verse 6 gathers the whole human race into one confession and one mercy: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The image is exact. Sheep do not stampede off a cliff together in one direction; each wanders after its own patch of grass, and the flock scatters by a thousand private detours. So it is with us: we have turned every one to his own way - the trouble is not merely collective but personal, each one charting a course away from the Shepherd. The word all rings out twice and binds the verse together: all we have strayed, and on Him was laid the iniquity of us all. No one stands outside the first all; no one need stand outside the second. And at the dead center of the verse the action shifts to God Himself: it is the LORD who hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The transfer is not an accident, not the mere cruelty of men; it is something God does - gathering up the scattered guilt of a straying race and laying it deliberately upon the one willing Servant. The verse moves from our wandering to His bearing in a single breath, and the bridge between them is the hand of God.
Isaiah 53:7-9As a Lamb to the Slaughter
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
The Servant's suffering now turns to His bearing under it, and what marks Him is silence: He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth (v. 7). The clause he opened not his mouth falls twice, framing the verse the way the double despised framed verse 3 - here, though, the repetition is not contempt but stillness. He is oppressed and afflicted, pressed down and ill-treated, and He does not answer back. The image is the docile animal: a lamb led to slaughter that does not struggle, a ewe under the shearer's hand that makes no sound. This is not the silence of a victim with nothing to say. It is the silence of one who has chosen not to resist - who could call out, defend Himself, indict His accusers, and does not. There is enormous restraint here, and it is the restraint of trust. The Servant entrusts His cause to God rather than fighting to clear Himself before men. The very meekness that looks like weakness is, in fact, the deepest strength in the chapter: a will so set on its purpose that no provocation can turn it aside.
Verse 8 carries the Servant from trial to death, and the language grows tight and grieving: He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. He is taken from prison and from judgment - hurried out of detention and a legal process to His end, the machinery of justice turned to injustice against Him. Who shall declare his generation? - the question mourns that He is cut down without descendants to carry on His name, His life seemingly ended before it could leave anything behind, and perhaps too that no one of His own day will even tell His story rightly. Then the stark verdict: he was cut off out of the land of the living. To be cut off is the language of being severed, removed from among the living - He truly dies. And once more the prophet states the reason, lest anyone miss it even now: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Note the personal word - my people. The speaker counts himself among the very ones whose transgression struck the Servant down. The death is not for any wrong of His own; it is for the sin of the people now confessing it.3
Verse 9 turns to the Servant's burial, and lodges a quiet paradox in the heart of it: And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Two destinations for one death sit side by side. To die with the wicked is to be reckoned among criminals - executed in their company, assigned the disgraced end of the guilty. Yet with the rich in his death points the other way, to an honored resting place such as the poor and condemned would never receive. The line refuses to choose between them, and history would hold both true at once: numbered with criminals at the execution, yet laid in a rich man's tomb. And the prophet attaches the reason for this strange dignity with a pointed because: because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Here is the verse's insistence on the Servant's innocence, set down precisely at the place of His death. He did no violence - no wrong by hand; there was no deceit in his mouth - no wrong by word. He suffers the criminal's death without the criminal's guilt. The grave receives a man entirely innocent, and somehow that innocence presses through even into how He is buried.
Isaiah 53:10-12He Shall See His Seed
10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Verse 10 says something that would be unbearable if the chapter had not already told us why: Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief. The crushing of the Servant was no accident, no mere triumph of wicked men over a good one. Behind it stands the will of God - not a cold delight in suffering, but the settled purpose of a saving plan that the whole chapter has been unfolding. What pleased the LORD was never the pain itself; it was what the pain would accomplish. And the verse names that purpose at once: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Here the language steps fully into the world of sacrifice. The Servant's very life becomes the offering - the gift presented to deal with guilt. And then, astonishingly, the verse turns from death to a future on the far side of it: he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. The One who was cut off out of the land of the living shall yet see his seed and prolong his days. Death is described, and then a life beyond it is promised in the same breath. The Servant who was crushed will live to see offspring and length of days, and the purpose of God will succeed in His hand - the very thing His death seemed to destroy.
Verse 11 lifts the chapter from grief into satisfaction: He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. The word travail pictures the anguish of hard labor - and like a labor it issues in something: He shall see the fruit of His agony and be satisfied, the deep contentment of a purpose accomplished, a price that bought what it was paid for. Then comes one of the great clauses of the Old Testament: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Notice how the LORD now speaks of Him: my righteous servant - the only one in the chapter who is righteous, set against the all who went astray. And what the righteous One does is to justify many: to set right, to bring into a righteous standing, those who had none of their own. The ground of it is given in the same line: for he shall bear their iniquities. The justifying and the bearing are bound together - He can set the many right precisely because He carries what made them wrong. The single righteous Servant takes the iniquities of the many, and the many are justified. This is the verse's quiet center: His righteousness reckoned to them, their iniquity borne by Him.
The chapter closes on victory and reward: Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors (v. 12). That opening Therefore is the hinge of the whole song. Because the Servant went all the way down - poured out his soul unto death, holding nothing back - therefore God lifts Him to the highest place, giving Him a portion with the great and spoil with the strong, the language of a conqueror sharing out the winnings of a decisive victory. The path to exaltation ran straight through the grave. And the verse ends by gathering up four things the Servant did, like a final summary of the whole chapter: He poured out his soul unto death; He was numbered with the transgressors, counted among the lawbreakers though guilty of nothing; He bare the sin of many, lifting their load as His own; and He made intercession for the transgressors, standing in the gap to plead for the very ones who wronged Him. That last clause is the most tender of all. Even at the end, His face is turned toward the guilty - not to condemn them, but to intercede.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Isaiah 53 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for ish makovot (v. 3, the “man of sorrows”), for the verb hiphgia (v. 6, “hath laid on him”), and for asham (v. 10, the guilt offering, “an offering for sin”).
- Isaiah 53 ↔ Acts 8 · 1 Peter 2 · Matthew 8 · John 12Intertextual BibleTraces the dense web of New Testament quotation and allusion tying this chapter to the cross - the unbelieving report (v. 1) cited in John 12:38 and Romans 10:16, the bearing of griefs (v. 4) in Matthew 8:17, the lamb led silent (v. 7) read on the Gaza road in Acts 8:32-35, and the wounds that heal (v. 5) confessed in 1 Peter 2:24.
- Isaiah 53 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Isaiah 53 - the grammar of the substitution in verses 4-6, the difficult clauses in verse 8 (“taken from prison and from judgment”), the burial “with the rich” in verse 9, and the much-discussed terms of verses 10-11 describing the Servant's offering and reward.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Who Hath Believed Our Report?
- John 12:37-38though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled... who hath believed our report?The unbelief of verse 1 quoted by name - applied directly to the rejection of Jesus.
- Romans 10:16they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?Verse 1 again - Paul reads the unbelieved “report” as the gospel itself.
- John 1:11He came unto his own, and his own received him not.The rejection of verse 3 - despised and not esteemed by His own.
- Isaiah 52:13-14Behold, my servant shall deal prudently... his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.The opening of the same Servant Song - the marred form that verse 2 takes up.
- Mark 9:12how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought.Jesus reading His own path in this chapter - the Servant set at nought (v. 3).
He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
- Matthew 8:16-17himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet.Verse 4 quoted by name - the Servant who bears our griefs seen in Jesus.
- 1 Peter 2:24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree... by whose stripes ye were healed.Verse 5 taken up almost word for word and set over the cross.
- 2 Corinthians 5:21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.The exchange of verses 4-6 stated again - our iniquity for His righteousness.
- 1 Peter 2:25For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.The straying flock of verse 6 gathered home to the Shepherd who bore their sin.
- Romans 4:25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.The “for our” of verse 5 in the apostle’s own words - delivered up on account of us.
As a Lamb to the Slaughter
- Acts 8:32-35He was led as a sheep to the slaughter... of whom speaketh the prophet this?... Philip... began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.Verse 7 read on the Gaza road - the chapter Philip used to preach Christ.
- John 1:29Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.The silent lamb of verse 7 named - the Lamb who bears the sin of the world.
- Matthew 27:12-14when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing... he answered him to never a word.The silence of verse 7 at the trial of Jesus - He opened not His mouth.
- Matthew 27:57-60there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph... and laid it in his own new tomb.The grave “with the rich” of verse 9 - the rich man’s tomb that received Him.
- 1 Peter 2:22Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.The innocence of verse 9 - no deceit in His mouth, applied to Christ.
He Shall See His Seed
- Acts 2:24Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.The promise of verse 10 - the Servant who, beyond death, prolongs His days.
- Romans 3:24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.The justifying of verse 11 - the many made righteous through the righteous Servant.
- Romans 5:19as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.The exchange of verse 11 - one Servant bearing iniquity, the many made righteous.
- Luke 23:34Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.The intercession of verse 12 begun at the cross - numbered with transgressors, pleading for them.
- Hebrews 7:25he ever liveth to make intercession for them.The intercession of verse 12 continuing still - the Servant who lives to plead for the guilty.