A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 is the fifty-third chapter of the book of Isaiah and one of the most quoted passages in the entire Bible. The 12-verse chapter is the fourth and most famous of the four "Servant Songs" in Isaiah, describing a suffering figure who bears the sins of others. Christians have read it as a prophecy of Jesus's death since the earliest days of the church.
The chapter actually begins in Isaiah 52:13, where the servant is introduced as one who will be raised up and highly exalted. The reader is warned that his appearance was disfigured beyond that of any human, so that many will be appalled at him.
The chapter itself opens with the famous question: "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" The servant grew up like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract people to him, nothing in his appearance that anyone should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. People hid their faces from him. He was despised, and they esteemed him not.
The center of the chapter contains the famous words about substitution: "Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all."
The chapter then describes the servant's silence under suffering, his death without descendants, and his being numbered with the transgressors. The chapter closes with his vindication: he will see the light of life and be satisfied. Because he poured out his life unto death and bore the sin of many, he will be given a portion among the great.
Verse 1. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Verse 2. He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him.
Verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Verse 4. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
Verse 5. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Verse 6. We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
Verse 7. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
Verse 8. By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.
Verse 9. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Verse 10. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
Verse 11. After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.
Verse 12. Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
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