Isaiah · chapter 53 of 66
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Isaiah 53 is the continuation and center of the fourth Servant song: a Servant despised and rejected who bears our griefs, is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, and suffers like a lamb led to slaughter. The Lord lays on him the iniquity of us all; after he makes his life an offering for guilt, he will see offspring, prolong his days and make many righteous.
Isaiah 53 completes the poem that began in 52:13 and is one of the best-known passages of the Old Testament. In Isaiah's context the Servant of the Lord has been presented as a light to the nations and an obedient disciple; here it is revealed why his path passes through suffering. The New Testament cites this chapter many times to explain the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The poem begins with a question: who has believed what we have heard, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The Servant grew up before God like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; like one from whom men hide their faces, we esteemed him not.
Verses 4 through 6 are the heart of the chapter. Surely he has borne our griefs, yet we esteemed him stricken by God. But he was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
In verses 7 through 9 the Servant is oppressed and afflicted, yet he does not open his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Verses 10 through 12 show the outcome. It was the will of the Lord to crush him, and his life is made an offering for guilt; he will see offspring, prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. He will see the fruit of his affliction and be satisfied, and my righteous servant will make many righteous, bearing their iniquities. Therefore the Lord will give him a portion with the great, because he poured out his soul to death, was numbered with the transgressors, bore the sin of many and made intercession for them.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Servant was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The people hid their faces from him, not understanding that his suffering had a purpose.
The Servant was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brings our peace fell on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Peter quotes this verse in 1 Peter 2:24 to speak of Christ on the cross.
All of us have gone astray like sheep, each to his own way, and the Lord laid on the Servant the iniquity of us all. Sin is universal, and so is God's answer: a substitute who bears the guilt.
The Servant is oppressed and afflicted, yet he does not open his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter. In Acts 8:32-35 the Ethiopian eunuch reads this passage and Philip tells him about Jesus beginning from it.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: With no form or majesty that would attract; despised and rejected, a man of sorrows. — Isaiah 53:2-3
Answer: That he was stricken, struck down and afflicted by God. — Isaiah 53:4
Answer: For our transgressions and our iniquities. — Isaiah 53:5
Answer: To a lamb led to the slaughter and a sheep that is silent before its shearers. — Isaiah 53:7
Answer: He had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. — Isaiah 53:9
Answer: He will make them righteous by bearing their iniquities. — Isaiah 53:11
Isaiah 53 invites us to contemplate the Servant with gratitude and humility. Recognizing that we were like wandering sheep is not an exercise in self-punishment but the basis for receiving a forgiveness we have not earned. In a class or small group you can read the chapter aloud, slowly, and pause on the words our and for us.
The chapter also teaches us to look at others' suffering without judging. The people thought the Servant was being punished by God, and they were wrong. We are sometimes quick to explain someone else's pain. And finally, the Servant's silence in the face of injustice invites us to ask how we respond when we are treated badly: with retaliation or by trusting that God will do justice.
Isaiah 53 shows the Servant who bore the guilt of many and who, after his death, will see the fruit of his affliction. Chapter 54 responds with a song of joy for the barren woman, a picture of the community that receives the fruit of his work.
Several passages do so explicitly: Matthew 8:17 applies verse 4 to Jesus' healings, Luke 22:37 quotes verse 12 about being numbered with the transgressors, Acts 8:32-35 connects verses 7 and 8 to Jesus, and 1 Peter 2:22-25 uses verses 4 through 9 to speak of his death. Christians see in the chapter a foreshadowing of Christ's work on the cross.
Some Jewish interpreters have understood the Servant as the people of Israel suffering among the nations, and others as a righteous person or a prophet. Christians read the song as a prophecy of the Messiah. The text itself does not name the Servant in this chapter, and the discussion continues.
It means that his suffering was in our place, not because of his own guilt. The language is one of substitution: he bears what was due to us, and the result is that we receive peace and healing. It is the basis of the Christian doctrine of atonement.