Isaiah 53

The Suffering Servant

1Who has believed what we have heard?
To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?

2He grew before him like a tender shoot,
like a root from dry ground.
He had no fine form or splendor to draw our gaze,
no appearance to make us desire him.

3Despised and abandoned by people,
a man of pains, acquainted with sickness,
like someone from whom faces turn away—
he was despised, and we gave him no regard.

4Yet it was our sicknesses he carried,
our pains he bore.
We thought him stricken,
struck by God and afflicted.

5But he was pierced because of our rebellions,
crushed because of our offenses.
The discipline that brought us peace was upon him;
by his wound we were healed.

6All of us wandered like sheep;
each of us turned to our own way.
The LORD made the guilt of us all
fall upon him.

7He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to slaughter,
like a ewe silent before her shearers,
he did not open his mouth.

8Through oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Who considered his generation?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
because of my people’s rebellion, the blow fell on him.

9They assigned his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death,
though he had done no violence
and no deceit was in his mouth.

10Yet the LORD desired to crush him and make him sick.
If you make his life a reparation offering,
he will see offspring and prolong his days,
and the LORD’s purpose will prosper in his hand.

11After his life’s anguish he will see and be satisfied.
By his knowledge my righteous servant
will bring righteousness to many,
and he will bear their offenses.

12So I will give him a share among the many,
and he will divide plunder with the strong,
because he poured out his life to death
and was counted among rebels.
Yet he carried the sin of many
and interceded for rebels.