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[52:13] Behold, My servant will succeed; he will be exalted and become high and exceedingly lofty. [14] Just as multitudes were astonished over you, [saying,] ‘His appearance is too marred to be a man’s, and his visage to be human,’ [15] so will the many nations exclaim about him, and kings will shut their mouths [in amazement], for they will see that which had never been told to them, and will perceive things they had never heard. [53:1] Who would believe what we have heard! For whom has the arm of HASHEM been revealed! [2] Formerly he grew like a sapling or like a root from arid ground; he had neither form nor grandeur; we saw him, but without such visage that we could desire. [3] He was despised and isolated from men, a man of pains and accustomed to illness. As one from whom we would hide our faces; he was despised, and we had no regard for him. [4] But in truth, it was our ills that he bore, and our pains that he carried – but we had regarded him diseased, stricken by G-d, and afflicted! [5] He was pained because of our rebellious sins and oppressed through our iniquities; the chastisement upon him was for our benefit, and through his wounds, we were healed. [6] We have all strayed like sheep, each of us turning his own way, and HASHEM inflicted upon him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was persecuted and afflicted, but he did not open his mouth; like a sheep being led to the slaughter or a ewe that is silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. [8] Now that he had been released from captivity and judgment, who could have imagined such a generation? For he had been removed from the land of the living, an affliction upon them that was my people’s sin. [9] He submitted himself to his grave like wicked men; and the wealthy [submitted] to his executions, for committing no crime and with no deceit in his mouth. [10] HASHEM desired to oppress him and afflicted him; if his soul would acknowledge guilt, he would see offspring and live long days and the desire of HASHEM would succeed in his hand. [11] He would see [the purpose] and be satisfied with his soul’s distress. With his knowledge My servant will vindicate the Righteous One to multitudes; it is their iniquities that he will carry. [12] Therefore, I will assign him a portion from the multitudes and he will divide the mighty as spoils – in return for having poured out his soul for death and being counted among the wicked for he bore the sin of the multitudes and prayed for the wicked. |
[52:13] Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. [14] As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: [15] So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for [that] which had not been told them shall they see; and [that] which they had not heard shall they consider.[53:1] Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of G-d, and afflicted. [5] 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. [6] 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. [7] 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. [8] 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. [9] 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. [10] Yet 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. [11] 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. [12] 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. |
It’s always interesting when we compare translations side by side, which is why Christian publishers have put ont he market Bibles that include four translations side by side in one volume.
The first thing that must be established when examining this portion of scripture is the identity of the narrator. If we don't know who is speaking, then this chapter can be twisted by anyone for any reason. For this reason, we cannot begin to analyze this portion with the first verse of chapter 53, but with the last portion of chapter 52.
Isaiah 52:15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for [that] which had not been told them shall they see; and [that] which they had not heard shall they consider. (KJV)
This is the last verse of chapter 52, and sets the stage for chapter 53. The kings of the gentile nations collectively, are the narrators of chapter 53. Chapter 53 is about gentile nations exclaiming their shock over how they had treated G-d's servant, Israel. Who else could it be? Christians would have me believe that it is the Jews who are proclaiming shock. However, this does not ring true. While the shock of the gentiles is a common theme in scripture that foretells the future, the Jews admitting that we are wrong in the end of days is not found anywhere in the Bible. Scripture tells us quite the opposite.
Zechariah 8:23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days [it shall come to pass], that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard [that] G-d [is] with you. (KJV)
This verse always throws Christians for a loop. They always struggle to find some way to make it fit within Christology, but there's no way to do it.
Let us now break down each verse of the chapter:
| Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? | This verse introduces the narrative of the shock that the gentile kings of nations will be proclaiming at the dawn of the Messianic era, when the Jewish people are vindicated. |
| Isaiah 53:2 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. | This translation does not make sense. Isaiah 52:15 makes it perfectly clear that this chapter is being spoken from a past-tense perspective from the End of Days. Thus, the translation of this narrative should reflect that.
The King James Bible and other Christian translations do not render it in the past tense, however, because the intent of their translations is specifically to lead the reader to believe in Jesus. Translations like this one from Artscroll’s Tanach is correct, and thus makes much more sense based on context (not to mention the Hebrew text itself) because it is in the past tense: “Formerly he grew like a sapling or like a root from arid ground; he had neither form nor grandeur; we saw him, but without such visage that we could desire.” |
| Isaiah 53:3 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. | Again, here we have the same problem of changed tenses that we saw with our previous verse. It is puzzling how this change would help an evangelical in slanting the passage towards Jesus. "He IS despised?" According to the New Testament, Jesus was quite popular, as a number of verses quoted below will show. Also, notice how the tense changed in KJV’s rendering from "he IS despised" to "we HID," in the past tense. The errors in this translation plainly give themselves away. |
Was Jesus really despised?
Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. [15] And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.This is but a small sampling of a long list. The servant is characterized as one who is despised. Jesus is not one who fits that bill. However, when you take a look at the history of Jews, you’ll find that the Jewish people fit into that description seamlessly.Luke 8:19 Then came to him [his] mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press.
Luke 8:45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press [thee], and sayest thou, Who touched me? (KJV)
| Isaiah 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of G-d, and afflicted. |
Christians interpret this verse as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ atoning death on the cross. However, the verse does not explicitly mention such a concept, which is completely foreign to the Torah (Exodus 32:33), which tell us that a man cannot make atonement for others. Moses attempted to do so when the Israelites committed the sin of the golden calf. G-d wouldn’t accept Moses’ plea. When you get right down to it, the
only reason to think that Jesus atoned for your sins is because the Christian Bible says so. There’s really no other reason to think so. There are numerous ways in which Jesus could not have possibly been a sin sacrifice, which we explore here, and in countless ways the New Testament has shown itself to be dishonest and unreliable, as we have shown in our other online articles. Throughout the last two thousand years of the Jews' exile from their homeland, a startling pattern emerges. Whenever the people of a gentile country weren't doing well, whether politically or economically, the non-Jews sought to put blame on someone for their ills. Inevitably, that someone was oftentimes the Jews. From the perspective of the gentile kings speaking in this narrative, "he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" refers to blaming the Jews for everything from economic failure to the Black Death. The easily-used excuse made by the Christians and the Muslims was that the Jews were rejected of G-d. This is the view of the gentile kings being expressed by the second half of our verse. |
| Isaiah 53:5 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. |
There are a couple of problems with this verse. Firstly, saying that the servant is wounded "for our
transgressions" can be a little misleading, unless you truly understand the meaning. For this reason, Artscroll’s translation is more accurate in saying, "because of our rebellious sins." One must keep in mind that it is not biblical sound to say that one man can atone for another’s sins. The Torah takes and completely destroys this concept.
Secondly, there is a problem with the end of the verse, "with his stripes we are healed." This is another changing of tense to lead someone away from the true meaning of the chapter, the motive being that the Christian evangelists want you to think the healing is a continuous atonement, when in fact the healing is the end of the sickness of anti-Semitism that the nations will experience when they have this enormous revelation about the Jews at the End of Days. |
| Isaiah 53:6 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. | This verse doesn’t fit with Jesus, because one man is incapable of atoning for the sins of many. This verse is talking about how the gentile nations had laid their problems on the Jewish people. i.e. inciting violence against the Jews with blood libels, ficticious literature like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc. |
| Isaiah 53:7 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. | Does this apply to Jesus? Was Jesus silent and mute before his tormentors? Matthew 26:39 has Jesus praying to G-d to help him avoid his fate (which for some reason doesn’t give Trinitarians pause). While on the cross, Jesus cries out "why have you forsaken me?" (Which is not what "lama sabachtani" means, as we explore in the essay entitled Christian Misinterpretation of Psalms.) |
| Isaiah 53:8 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. |
How does this apply to Jesus? "We," being the gentile narrators, are telling how they had killed Jews over time, and burdened the Jews with the sins of the gentiles. Then we come into the first major issue of mistranslation in Christian renderings of Isaiah 53. The word which KJV translated in the second half of the verse in the singular is the Hebrew word "lamo." In numerous places throughout the Bible, and in Isaiah in particular, you find "lamo" translated as "them." See Isaiah 15:4 ("be thou a covert to them."), 23:1 ("from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them."), 44:7 ("let them show unto them."), and 48:21 ("He caused waters to flow out of the rock for them.") A much more accurate rendering of the last half of that verse is Artscroll’s "an affliction upon them that was my people’s sin." It is a rendering that makes much more sense given the context and based on the text itself. |
| Isaiah 53:9 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. |
Firstly, we have another matter of mistranslation. The word rendered here as "death" should actually read "deaths." The Hebrew word here is "b’motav," which is a conjugated plural word.
See Artscroll’s "He submitted himself to his grave like wicked men; and the wealthy [submitted] to his executions, for committing no crime and with no deceit in his mouth." Secondly, the servant in this verse is characterized as one who had done no violence, and spoken no deceit. This clearly does not fit with the Jesus we see in the Gospels. |
Was Jesus Non-Violent?
Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.John 2:14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: [15] And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
Luke 22:36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. (KJV)
| Isaiah 53:10 Yet 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. | "His soul an offering for sin" is a lot different than his body. I was under the impression that Jesus’ blood was to be the final blood sacrifice. It’s his body that’s the offering, not his soul. Also, a tweaking of words took place here. It says in KJV, "when thou shalt make his soul," and there are two mistranslations that take place here. This rendering makes absolutely no sense when you remember who the narrator is! Keeping in mind who is speaking is vital for understanding this chapter! A proper rendering (and they exist in Christian translations) is "if his soul makes restitution." If he would make restitution, he would see his seed? If Jesus is G-d, is this G-d making a deal with Himself? Jesus had disciples, but no physical seed, and the Hebrew word "zera" can only refer to physical children. The word for "son" can be metaphorical, and if that’s what the prophet meant when he penned this, the word for "son" would have been used. |
| Isaiah 53:11 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. |
By his knowledge the servant shall justify many? Again, this is an instance of word-mangling with the intent of furthering Christianity, leaving enough of a trail to be caught. Where in the New Testament is it told that Jesus’ knowledge vindicated anybody? In all of Paul’s writings, we are told over and over again that it is Jesus' blood that justifies us.
Here the narrator changes from the gentile kings to the Lord Himself. From this point on, the chapter is foretelling the reward the Lord will grant Israel for enduring the exile and never losing faith in the Lord. |
| Isaiah 53:12 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. | The servant is finally vindicated, and will divide the mighty as spoils for his suffering. The righteous of Israel will be exalted in the end. |