The Suffering Servant Bears Sin and Is Vindicated by the Lord

Isa 53:6 Thus does the whole body of the restored Israel confess with penitence, that it has so long mistaken Him whom Jehovah, as is now distinctly affirmed, had made a curse for their good, when they had gone astray to their own ruin. “All we like sheep went astray; we had turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

” It is the state of exile, upon which the penitent Israel is here looking back; but exile as being, in the prophet’s view, the final state of punishment before the final deliverance. Israel in its exile resembled a scattered flock without a shepherd; it had lost the way of Jehovah (Isa 63:17), and every one had turned to his own way, in utter selfishness and estrangement from God (Isa 56:11).

But whereas Israel thus heaped up guilt upon guilt, the Servant of Jehovah was He upon whom Jehovah Himself caused the punishment of their guilt to fall, that He might make atonement for it through His own suffering. Many of the more modern expositors endeavour to set aside the paena vicaria here, by giving to הפגּיע a meaning which it never has. Thus Stier renders it, “Jehovah caused the iniquity of all to strike or break upon Him.

” Others, again, give a meaning to the statement which is directly at variance with the words themselves. Thus Hahn renders it: Jehovah took the guilt of the whole into His service, causing Him to die a violent death through their crime. Hofmann very properly rejects both explanations, and holds fast to the fact that בּ הפגּיע, regarded as a causative of בּ פּגע, signifies “to cause anything to strike or fall upon a person,” which is the rendering adopted by Symmachus: κύριος καταντήσαι ἐποίησεν εἰς αὐτὸν τὴν ἀνομίαν πάντων ἡμῶν.

“Just as the blood of a murdered man comes upon the murderer, when the bloody deed committed comes back upon him in the form of blood-guiltiness inflicting vengeance; so does sin come upon, overtake (Psa 40:13), or meet with the sinner. It went forth from him as his own act; it returns with destructive effect, as a fact by which he is condemned. But in this case God does not suffer those who have sinned to be overtaken by the sin they have committed; but it falls upon His servant, the righteous One.

” These are Hofmann’s words. But if the sin turns back upon the sinner in the shape of punishment, why should the sin of all men, which the Servant of God has taken upon Himself as His own, overtake Him in the form of an evil, which, even it if be a punishment, is not punishment inflicted upon Him? For this is just the characteristic of Hofmann’s doctrine of the atonement, that it altogether eliminates from the atoning work the reconciliation of the purposes of love with the demands of righteousness.

Now it is indeed perfectly true, that the Servant of God cannot become the object of punishment, either as a servant of God or as an atoning Saviour; for as servant of God He is the beloved of God, and as atoning Saviour He undertakes a work which is well pleasing to God, and ordained in God’s eternal counsel. So that the wrath which pours out upon Him is not meant for Him as the righteous One who voluntarily offers up Himself but indirectly it relates to Him, so far as He has vicariously identified Himself with sinners, who are deserving of wrath.

How could He have made expiation for sin, if He had simply subjected Himself to its cosmical effects, and not directly subjected Himself to that wrath which is the invariable divine correlative of human sin? And what other reason could there be for God’s not rescuing Him from this the bitterest cup of death, than the ethical impossibility of acknowledging the atonement as really made, without having left the representative of the guilty, who had presented Himself to Him as though guilty Himself, to taste of the punishment which they had deserved?

It is true that vicarious expiation and paena vicaria are not coincident ideas. The punishment is but one element in the expiation, and it derives a peculiar character from the fact that one innocent person voluntarily submits to it in His own person. It does not stand in a thoroughly external relation of identity to that deserved by the many who are guilty; but the latter cannot be set aside without the atoning individual enduring an intensive equivalent to it, and that in such a manner, that this endurance is no less a self-cancelling of wrath on the part of God, than an absorption of wrath on the part of the Mediator; and in this central point of the atoning work, the voluntarily forgiving love of God and the voluntarily self-sacrificing love of the Mediator meet together, like hands stretched out grasp one another from the midst of a dark cloud.

Hermann Schultz also maintains that the suffering, which was the consequence of sin and therefore punishment to the guilty, is borne by the Redeemer as suffering, without being punishment. But in this way the true mystery is wiped out of the heart of the atoning work; and this explanation is also at variance with the expression “the chastisement of our peace” in Isa 53:5 , and the equally distinct statement in Isa 53:6 , “He hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

” It was the sin of all Israel, as the palindromically repeated kullânū emphatically declares, which pressed upon Him with such force when His atoning work was about to be decided, but עון is used to denote not only the transgression itself, but also the guilt incurred thereby, and the punishment to which it gives rise. All this great multitude of sins, and mass of guilt, and weight of punishment, came upon the Servant of Jehovah according to the appointment of the God of salvation, who is gracious in holiness.

The third turn ends here. It was our sins that He bore, and for our salvation that God caused Him to suffer on our account.

Isa 53:7 The fourth turn describes how He suffered and died and was buried. “He was ill treated; whilst He suffered willingly, and opened not His mouth, like the sheep that is led to the slaughter-bench, and like a lamb that is dumb before its shearers, and opened not His mouth. ” The third pers. niphal stands first in a passive sense: He has been hard pressed (1Sa 13:6): He is driven, or hunted (1Sa 14:24), treated tyrannically and unsparingly; in a word, plagued ( vexatus ; compare the niphal in a reciprocal sense in Isa 3:5, and according to the reading נגשׂ in Isa 29:13 in a reflective sense, to torment one’s self).

Hitzig renders the next clause, “and although tormented, He opened not His mouth. ” But although an explanatory subordinate clause may precede the principal clause which it more fully explains, not example can be found of such a clause with (a retrospective) והוּא explaining what follows; for in Job 2:8 the circumstantial clause, “sitting down among the ashes,” belongs to the principal fact which stands before.

And so here, where נענה (from which comes the participle נענה, usually met with in circumstantial clauses) has not a passive, but a reflective meaning, as in Exo 10:3 : “He was ill treated, whilst He bowed Himself (= suffered voluntarily), and opened not His mouth” (the regular leap from the participle to the finite). The voluntary endurance is then explained by the simile “like a sheep that is led to the slaughter” (an attributive clause, like Jer 11:19); and the submissive quiet bearing, by the simile “like a lamb that is dumb before its shearers.

” The commentators regard נאלמה as a participle; but this would have the tone upon the last syllable (see Isa 1:21, Isa 1:26; Nah 3:11; cf. , Comm. on Job , at Job 20:27, note). The tone shows it to be the pausal form for נאלרמה, and so we have rendered it; and, indeed, as the interchange of the perfect with the future in the attributive clause must be intentional, not quae obmutescit , but obmutuit .

The following words, פּיו יפתּח ולא, do not form part of the simile, which would require tiphtach , for nothing but absolute necessity would warrant us in assuming that it points back beyond רחל to שׂה, as Rashi and others suppose. The palindromical repetition also favours the unity of the subject with that of the previous יפתח and the correctness of the delicate accentuation, with which the rendering in the lxx and Act 8:32 coincides.

All the references in the New Testament to the Lamb of God (with which the corresponding allusions to the passover are interwoven) spring from this passage in the book of Isaiah.

Isa 53:8 The description of the closing portion of the life of the Servant of Jehovah is continued in Isa 53:8. “He has been taken away from prison and from judgment; and of His generation who considered: 'He was snatched away out of the land of the living; for the wickedness of my people punishment fell upon Him'? ” The principal emphasis is not laid upon the fact that He was taken away from suffering, but that it was out of the midst of suffering that He was carried off.

The idea that is most prominent in luqqâch (with â in half pause) is not that of being translated (as in the accounts of Enoch and Elijah), but of being snatched or hurried away ( abreptus est , Isa 52:5; Eze 33:4, etc.) The parallel is abscissus (cf. , nikhrath , Jer 11:19) a terra viventium , for which נגזר by itself is supposed to be used in the sense of carried away (i.

e. , out of the sphere of the living into that of the dead, Lam 3:54; cf. , Eze 37:11, “It is all over with us”). עצר (from עצר, compescere ) is a violent constraint; here, as in Psa 107:39, it signifies a persecuting treatment which restrains by outward force, such as that of prison or bonds; and mishpât refers to the judicial proceedings, in which He was put upon His trial, accused and convicted as worthy of death - in other words, to His unjust judgment.

The min might indeed be understood, as in Isa 53:5 , not as referring to the persons who swept Him away (= ὑπὸ), but, as in Psa 107:39, as relating to the ground and cause of the sweeping away. But the local sense, which is the one most naturally suggested by luqqach (e. g. , Isa 49:24), is to be preferred: hostile oppression and judicial persecution were the circumstances out of which He was carried away by death.

With regard to what follows, we must in any case adhere to the ordinary usage, according to which dōr (= Arab. daur , dahr , a revolution or period of time) signifies an age, or the men living in a particular age; also, in an ethical sense, the entire body of those who are connected together by similarity of disposition (see, for example, Psa 14:5); or again (= Arab.

dâr ) a dwelling, as in Isa 38:12, and possibly also (of the grave) in Psa 49:20. Such meanings as length of life (Luther and Grotius), course of life (Vitringa), or fate (Hitzig), it is impossible to sustain. Hence the Sept. rendering, τὴν γενεὰν αὐτοῦ τίς διηγήσεται, which Jerome also adopts, can only mean, so far as the usage of the language is concerned, “who can declare the number of His generation” (i.

e. , of those inspire by His spirit,or filled with His life); but in this connection such a thought would be premature. Moreover, the generation intended would be called זרעו rather than דורו, as springing from Him. Still less can we adopt the meaning “dwelling,” as Knobel does, who explains the passage thus: “who considers how little the grave becomes Him, which He has received as His dwelling-place.

” The words do not admit of this explanation. Hofmann formerly explained the passage as meaning, “No one takes His dwelling-place into his mind or mouth, so as even to think of it, or inquire what had become of Him;” but in His Schriftbeweis he has decided in favour of the meaning, His contemporaries, or the men of His generation. It is only with this rendering that we obtain a thought at all suitable to the picture of suffering given here, or to the words which follow (compare Jer 2:31, O ye men of this generation).

ואת־דּורו in that case is not the object to ישׂוחח, the real object to which is rather the clause introduced by כּי, but an adverbial accusative, which may serve to give emphatic prominence to the subject, as we may see from Isa 57:12; Eze 17:21; Neh 9:34 (Ges §117, Anm.) ; for את cannot be a preposition, since inter aequales ejus would not be expressed in Hebrew by את־דרור, but by בדורו.

The pilel sōchēăch with be signifies in Psa 143:5 a thoughtful consideration or deliberation, in a word, meditationem alicujus rei (compare the kal with the accusative, Psa 145:5). The following kı̄ is an explanatory quod : with regard to His contemporaries, who considered that, etc. The words introduced with kı̄ are spoken, as it were, out of the heart of His contemporaries, who ought to have considered, but did not.

We may see from עמּי that it is intended to introduce a direct address; and again, if we leave kı̄ untranslated, like ὃτι recitativum (see, for example, Jos 2:24; compare di , Dan 2:25), we can understand why the address, which has been carried on thus far in such general terms, assumes all at once an individual form. It cannot be denied, indeed, that we obtain a suitable object for the missing consideration, if we adopt this rendering: “He was torn away ( 3rd praet.

) out of the land of the living, through ( min denoting the mediating cause) the wicked conduct of my people (in bringing Him to death), to their own punishment; i. e. , none of the men of His age (like mı̄ in Isa 53:1, no one = only a very few) discerned what had befallen them on account of their sin, in ridding themselves of Him by a violent death. ” Hofmann and V.

F. Oehler both adopt this explanation, saying, “Can the prophet have had the person of the Ecce Homo before his eye, without intimating that his people called down judgment upon themselves, by laying violent hands upon the Servant of God? ” We cannot, however, decide in favour of this explanation; since the impression produced by this למו נגע עמּי מפּשׁע is, that it is intended to be taken as a rectification of נגוע חשׁבנהו ואנחנו in Isa 53:4 , to which it stands in a reciprocal relation.

This reciprocal relation is brought out more fully, if we regard the force of the min as still continued ( ob plagam quae illis debebatur , Seb. Schmid, Kleinert, etc.) ; though not in the sense of “through the stroke proceeding from them, my people” (Hahn), which would be opposed to the general usage of נגע; or taking למו נגע as a relative clause, populi mei quibus plaga debebatur (Hengstenberg, Hävernick).

But the most natural course is to take lâmō as referring to the Servant of God, more especially as our prophet uses lâmō pathetically for lō , as Isa 54:15 unquestionably shows (notwithstanding the remonstrance of Stier, who renders the passage, “He was all plague, or smiting, for them”). נגע always signifies suffering as a calamity proceeding from Go (e. g.

, Exo 11:1; Psa 39:11, and in every other passage in which it does not occur in the special sense of leprosy, which also points back, however, to the generic idea of a plague divinely sent); hence Jerome renders it, “for the sin of my people have I smitten Him. ” The text does not read so; but the smiter is really Jehovah. Men looked upon His Servant as a נגוע; and so He really was, but not in the sense of which men regarded Him as such.

Yet, even if they had been mistaken concerning His during His lifetime; now that He no longer dwelt among the living, they ought to see, as they looked back upon His actions and His sufferings, that it was not for His own wickedness, but for that of Israel, viz. , to make atonement for it, that such a visitation from God had fallen upon Him (ל as in Isa 24:16 and Isa 26:16, where the sentence is in the same logical subordination to the previous one as it is here, where Dachselt gives this interpretation, which is logically quite correct: propter praevaricationem populi mei plaga ei contingente ).

Isa 53:9 After this description in Isa 53:7 of the patience with which He suffered, and in Isa 53:8 of the manner in which He died, there follows a retrospective glance at His burial. “And they assigned Him His grave with sinners, and with a rich man in His martyrdom, because He had done no wrong, and there was no deceit in His mouth. ” The subject to ויּתּן (assigned) is not Jehovah, although this would not be impossible, since נגע has Jehovah as the latent subject; but it would be irreconcilable with Isa 53:10, where Jehovah is introduced as the subject with antithetical prominence.

It would be better to assume that “my people” is the subject; but as this would make it appear as if the statement introduced in Isa 53:8 with kı̄ (for) were continued here, we seem compelled to refer it to dōrō (His generation), which occurs in the principal clause. No objection could be offered to our regarding “His own generation” as the subject; but dōrō is somewhat too far removed for this; and if the prophet had had the contemporaries of the sufferer in his mind, he would most likely have used a plural verb ( vayyittenū ).

Some, therefore, supply a personal subject of the most general kind to yittēn (which occurs even with a neuter subject, like the German es gibt , Fr. il y a , Eng. “there is;” cf. , Pro 13:10): “they ( on ) gave;” and looking at the history of the fulfilment, we confess that this is the rendering we prefer. In fact, without the commentary supplied by the fulfilment, it would be impossible to understand Isa 53:9 at all.

The earlier translators did great violence to the text, and yet failed to bring out any admissible thought. And the explanation which is most generally adopted now, viz. , that עשׁיר is the synonymous parallel to רשׁעי (as even Luther rendered it, “and died like a rich man,” with the marginal gloss, “a rich man who sets all his heart upon riches, i. e. , a wicked man”), is also untenable; for even granting that ‛âshīr could be proved by examples to be sometimes used as synonymous with רשׁע, as עני and אביון are as synonyms of צדּיק, this would be just the passage in which it would be least possible to sustain any such use of the word; since he who finds his grave with rich men, whether with the godly or the ungodly, would thereby have received a decent, and even honourable burial.

This is so thoroughly sustained by experience, as to need no confirmation from such passages as Job 21:32. Hitzig has very good ground, therefore, for opposing this “synonymous” explanation; but when he adopts the rendering lapsator , after the Arabic ‛tūr , this is quite as much in opposition to Arabic usage (according to which this word merely signifies a person who falls into error, and makes a mistake in speaking), as it is to the Hebrew.

Ewald changes עשׁיר into עשּׁהיק (a word which has no existence); and Böttcher alters it into רע עשׂי, which is comparatively the best suggestion of all. Hofmann connects the two words בּמותיו עשׁיר, “men who have become rich through the murders that they have treacherously caused” (though without being able to adduce any proof that mōth is ever applied to the death which one person inflicts upon another).

At any rate, all these attempts spring from the indisputable assumption, that to be rich is not in itself a sin which deserves a dishonourable burial, to say nothing of its receiving one. If, therefore, רשׁיעם and עשׁיר are not kindred ideas, they must be antithetical; but it is no easier to establish a purely ethical antithesis than an ethical coincidence. If, however, we take the word רשׁעים as suggesting the idea of persons found guilty, or criminals (an explanation which the juridical context of the passage well sustains; see at Isa 50:9), we get a contrast which our own usage of speech also draws between a rich man who is living in the enjoyment of his own possessions, and a delinquent who has become impoverished to the utmost, through hatred, condemnation, ruin.

And if we reflect that the Jewish rulers would have given to Jesus the same dishonourable burial as to the two thieves, but that the Roman authorities handed over the body to Joseph the Arimathaean, a “rich man” (Mat 27:57), who placed it in the sepulchre in his own garden, we see an agreement at once between the gospel history and the prophetic words, which could only be the work of the God of both the prophecy and its fulfilment, inasmuch as no suspicion could possibly arise of there having been any human design of bringing the former into conformity with the latter. But if it be objected, that according to the parallel the ‛âshı̄r must be regarded as dead, quite as much as the reshâ‛ı̄m , we admit the force of this objection, and should explain it in this way: “They assigned Him His grave with criminals, and after He had actually died a martyr’s death, with a rich man;” i.

e. , He was to have lain where the bodies of criminals lie, but He was really laid in a grave that was intended for the corpse of a rich man. The rendering adopted by Vitringa and others, “and He was with a rich man in his death,” is open to this objection, that such a clause, to be quite free from ambiguity, would require במויתו הוּא ואת־עשׁיר. Hengstenberg and Stier very properly refer both ויתן and קברו, which must be repeated in thought, to the second clause as well as the first.

The rendering tumulum ejus must be rejected, since bâmâh never has this meaning; and בּמתיו, which is the pointing sustained by three Codd . , would not be mausolea , but a lofty burial-hill, after the fashion of the Hünengräber (certain “giants’ graves,” or barrows, in Holstein and Saxony). מותי is a plur. exaggerativus here, as in Eze 28:10 (compare memōthē in Eze 28:8 and Jer 16:4); it is applied to a violent death, the very pain of which makes it like dying again and again.

The first clause states with whom they at first assigned Him His grave; the second with whom it was assigned Him, after He had really died a painful death. “Of course,” as F. Philippi observes, “this was not a thorough compensation for the ignominy of having died the death of a criminal; but the honourable burial, granted to one who had been ignominiously put to death, showed that there must be something very remarkable about Him.

It was the beginning of the glorification which commenced with His death. ” If we have correctly interpreted the second clause, there can be no doubt in our minds, since we cannot shake the word of God like a kaleidoscope, and multiply the sensus complex , as Stier does, that לא על (= לא על־אשׁר) does not mean “notwithstanding that not,” as in Job 16:17, but “because not,” like על־בּלי in Gen 31:20.

The reason why the Servant of God received such honourable treatment immediately after His ignominious martyrdom, was to be found in His freedom from sin, in the fact that He had done no wrong, and there was no deceit in His mouth (lxx and 1Pe 2:22, where the clause is correctly rendered οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῶ στόματι αὐτοῦ). His actions were invariably prompted by pure love, and His speech consisted of unclouded sincerity and truth.

Isa 53:10 The last turn in the prophecy, which commences here, carries out Isa 53:6 still further, and opens up the background of His fate. The gracious counsel of God for our salvation was accomplished thus. “And it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, to afflict Him with disease; if His soul would pay a trespass-offering, He should see posterity, should live long days, and the purpose of Jehovah should prosper through His hand.

” החלי cannot possibly be equivalent to החלי, as Hitzig supposes. An article appended to a noun never obliterates the fundamental character of its form (not even in הארץ). Nor does Böttcher’s suggestion, that we should read החלי as an accusative of more precise definition, commend itself; for what would the article do in that case? It is the hiphil of חלה, like the Syriac agil from gelo ; or rather, as even in Syriac this אגלי is equivalent to אגליא, of חלא, 2Ch 16:12 (cf.

, תּחלוּאים), like החטי in 2Ki 13:6 and Jer 32:35, from חטא. דּכּאו is placed under דּכא) (= דּכאו with Dag. dirimens ) in Gesenius’ Lexicon; but this substantive is a needless fiction. דכאו is an inf. piel : conterere eum (Jerome), not καθαρίσαι αὐτόν (lxx from דּכא) = זכה). According to Mic 6:13 (הכּותך החליתי, I hurt to smite thee, i. e. , I smite thee with a painful blow), החלי דכּאו are apparently connected, in the sense of “And it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him painfully.

” But both logically and syntactically this would require the opposite construction, viz. , דכאו החלי. דּכּאו must therefore be an infinitive, depending upon חפץ, according to Job 33:32 (= εὐδόκησε; the lxx thoughtlessly renders it βούλεται). The infinitive construction is then changed into the finite; for even החלי is subordinate to חפץ, as in Hos 5:11 (cf.

, Isa 42:21; Ges. §142, 3); “he would, made ill,” being equivalent to “he would make ill,” i. e. , he would plunge into distress. There is no necessity to repeat דכאו after החלי, in the sense of “he caused sore evil therewith,” viz. , with the דכאו. It was men who inflicted upon the Servant of God such crushing suffering, such deep sorrow; but the supreme causa efficiens in the whole was God , who made the sin of men subservient to His pleasure, His will, and predetermined counsel.

The suffering of His Servant was to be to Him the way to glory, and this way of His through suffering to glory was to lead to the establishment of a church of the redeemed, which would spring from Him; in other words, it would become the commencement of that fulfilment of the divine plan of salvation which He, the ever-living, ever-working One, would carry out to completion. We give up the idea that תּשׂים is to be taken as addressed by Jehovah to “His Servant.

” The person acting is the Servant, and it is to Jehovah that the action refers. But Hofmann’s present view, viz. , that tâsı̄m is addressed to the people, is still less admissible. It is the people who are speaking here; and although the confession of the penitent Israel runs on from Isa 53:11 (where the confessing retrospective view of the past becomes prospective and prophetic glance at the future) in a direct prophetic tone, and Isa 53:10 might form the transition to this; yet, if the people were addressed in this word tâsı̄m , it would be absolutely necessary that it should be distinctly mentioned in this connection.

And is it really Israel which makes the soul of the Servant an 'âshâm , and not rather the Servant Himself? No doubt it is true, that if nothing further were stated here than that “the people made the life of the Servant of God an 'âshâm , inasmuch as it treated Him just as if it had a pricking in its conscience so long as it suffered Him to live,” - which is a natural sequel in Hofmann’s case to his false assumption, that the passion described in Isa 53:1-12 was merely the culminating point in the sufferings which the Servant was called to endure as a prophet , whereas the prophet falls into the background here behind the sacrifice and the priest - we should no doubt have one scriptural testimony less to support the satisfactio vicaria .

But if we adopt the following rendering, which is the simplest, and the one least open to exception: if His soul offered (placed, i. e. , should have placed; cf. , Job 14:14, si mortuus fuerit ) an 'âshâm - it is evident that 'âshâm has here a sacrificial meaning, and indeed a very definite one, inasmuch as the 'âshâm (the trespass-offering) was a sacrifice, the character of which was very sharply defined.

It is self-evident, however, that the 'âshâm paid by the soul of the Servant must consist in the sacrifice of itself, since He pays it by submitting to a violent death; and a sacrifice presented by the nephesh (the soul, the life, the very self) must be not only one which proceeds from itself, but one which consists in itself. If, then, we would understand the point of view in which the self-sacrifice of the Servant of God is placed when it is called an 'âshâm , we must notice very clearly the characteristic distinction between this kind of sacrifice and every other.

Many of the ritual distinctions, however, may be indicated superficially, inasmuch as they have no bearing upon the present subject, where we have to do with an antitypical and personal sacrifice, and not with a typical and animal one. The 'âshâm was a sanctissimum , like that of the sin-offering (Lev 6:10, Lev 6:17, and Lev 14:13), and according to Lev 7:7 there was “one law” for them both.

This similarity in the treatment was restricted simply to the fact, that the fat portions of the trespass-offering, as well as of the sin-offering, were placed upon the altar, and that the remainder, as in the case of those sin-offerings the blood of which was not taken into the interior of the holy place, was assigned to the priests and to the male members of the priestly families (see Lev 6:22; Lev 7:6). There were the following points of contrast, however, between these two kinds of sacrifice: (1.)

The material of the sin-offerings varied considerably, consisting sometimes of a bullock, sometimes of a pair of doves, and even of meal without oil or incense; whereas the trespass-offering always consisted of a ram, or at any rate of a male sheep. (2.) The choice of the victim, and the course adopted with its blood, was regulated in the case of the sin-offering according to the condition of the offerer; but in the case of the trespass-offering they were neither of them affected by this in the slightest degree.

(3.) Sin-offerings were presented by the congregation, and upon holy days, whereas trespass-offerings were only presented by individuals, and never upon holy days. (4.) In connection with the trespass-offering there was none of the smearing of the blood ( nethı̄nâh ) or of the sprinkling of the blood ( hazzâ'âh ) connected with the sin-offering, and the pouring out of the blood at the foot of the altar ( shephı̄khâh ) is never mentioned.

The ritual for the blood consisted purely in the swinging out of the blood ( zerı̄qâh ), as in the case of the whole offering and of the peace-offerings. There is only one instance in which the blood of the trespass-offering is ordered to be smeared, viz. , upon certain portions of the body of the leper (Lev 14:14), for which the blood of the sin-offering that was to be applied exclusively to the altar could not be used.

And in general we find that, in the case of the trespass-offering, instead of the altar-ritual, concerning which the law is very brief (Lev 7:1-7), other acts that are altogether peculiar to it are brought prominently into the foreground (Lev 5:14. ; Num 5:5-8). These are all to be accounted for from the fact that a trespass-offering was to be presented by the man who had unintentionally laid hands upon anything holy, e.

g. , the tithes or first-fruits, or who had broken any commandment of God “in ignorance” (if indeed this is to be taken as the meaning of the expression “and wist it not” in Lev 5:17-19); also by the man who had in any way defrauded his neighbour (which was regarded as unfaithfulness towards Jehovah), provided he anticipated it by a voluntary confession - this included the violation of another’s conjugal rights in the case of a bondmaid (Lev 19:20-22); also by a leper or a Nazarite defiled by contact with a corpse, at the time of their purification, because their uncleanness involved the neglect and interruption of the duties of worship which they were bound to observe.

Wherever a material restitution was possible, it was to be made with the addition of a fifth; and in the one case mentioned in Lev 19:20-22, the trespass-offerings was admissible even after a judicial punishment had been inflicted. But in every case the guilty person had to present the animal of the trespass-offering “according to thy valuation, O priest, in silver shekels,” i.

e. , according to the priests’ taxation, and in holy coin. Such was the prominence given to the person of the priest in the ritual of the trespass-offering. In the sin-offering the priest is always the representative of the offerer; but in the trespass-offering he is generally the representative of God. The trespass-offering was a restitution or compensation made to God in the person of the priest, a payment or penance which made amends for the wrong done, a satisfactio in a disciplinary sense.

And this is implied in the name; for just as חטּאת denotes first the sin, then the punishment of the sin and the expiation of the sin, and hence the sacrifice which cancels the sin; so 'âshâm signifies first the guilt or debt, then the compensation or penance, and hence (cf. , Lev 5:15) the sacrifice which discharges the debt or guilt, and sets the man free.

Every species of sacrifice had its own primary idea. The fundamental idea of the ‛ōlâh (burnt-offering) was oblatio , or the offering of worship; that of the shelâmı̄m (peace-offerings), conciliatio , or the knitting of fellowship that of the minchâh (meat-offering), donatio , or sanctifying consecration; that of the chattâ'th (sin-offering), expiatio , or atonement; that of the 'âshâm (trespass-offering), mulcta ( satisfactio ), or a compensatory payment.

The self-sacrifice of the Servant of Jehovah may be presented under all these points of view. It is the complete antitype, the truth, the object, and the end of all the sacrifices. So far as it is the antitype of the “whole offering,” the central point in its antitypical character is to be found in the offering of His entire personality (προσφορὰ τοῦ σώματος, Heb 10:10) to God for a sweet smelling savour (Eph 5:2); so far as it is the antitype of the sin-offering, in the shedding of His blood (Heb 9:13-14), the “blood of sprinkling” (Heb 12:24; 1Pe 1:2); so far as it is the antitype of the shelâmı̄m , and especially of the passover, in the sacramental participation in His one self-sacrifice, which He grants to us in His courts, thus applying to us His own redeeming work, and confirming our fellowship of peace with God (Heb 13:10; 1Co 5:7), since the shelâmı̄m derive their name from shâlōm , pax, communio ; so far as it is the antitype of the trespass-offering, in the equivalent rendered to the justice of God for the sacrileges of our sins.

The idea of compensatory payment, which Hofmann extends to the whole sacrifice, understanding by kipper the covering of the guilt in the sense of a debt ( debitum ), is peculiar to the 'âshâm ; and at the same time an idea, which Hofmann cannot find in the sacrifices, is expressed here in the most specific manner, viz. , that of satisfaction demanded by the justice of God, and of paena outweighing the guilt contracted (cf.

, nirtsâh , Isa 40:2); in other words, the idea of satisfactio vicaria in the sense of Anselm is brought out most distinctly here, where the soul of the Servant of God is said to present such an atoning sacrifice for the whole, that is to say, where He offers Himself as such a sacrifice by laying down the life so highly valued by God (Isa 42:1; Isa 49:5). As the verb most suitable to the idea of the 'âshâm the writer selects the verb sı̄m , which is generally used to denote the giving of a pledge (Job 17:3), and is therefore the most suitable word for every kind of satisfactio that represents a direct solutio .

The apodoses to “if His soul shall have paid the penalty ( paenam or mulctam )” are expressed in the future, and therefore state what would take place when the former should have been done. He should see posterity (vid. , Gen 50:23; Job 42:16), i. e. , should become possessed of a large family of descendants stretching far and wide. The reference here is to the new “seed of Israel,” the people redeemed by Him, the church of the redeemed out of Israel and all nations, of which He would lay the foundation.

Again, He should live long days, as He says in Rev 1:18, “I was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore. ” Thirdly, the pleasure of Jehovah should prosper “in His hand,” i. e. , through the service of His mediation, or (according to the primary meaning of tsâlach ) should go on advancing incessantly, and pressing on to the final goal. His self-sacrifice, therefore, merely lays the foundation for a progressively self-realizing “pleasure of the Lord,” i.

e. , (cf. , Isa 44:28) for the realization of the purpose of God according to His determinate counsel, the fuller description of which we had in chapters 42 and 49, where it was stated that He should be the mediator of a new covenant, and the restorer of Israel, the light of the Gentiles and salvation of Jehovah even to the ends of the earth.

Isa 53:11 This great work of salvation lies as the great object of His calling in the hand of the deceased and yet eternally living One, and goes on victoriously through His mediation. He now reaps the fruit of His self-sacrifice in a continuous priestly course. “Because of the travail of His soul, He will see, and be refreshed; through His knowledge will He procure justice, my righteous servant, for the many, and will take their iniquities upon Himself.

” The prophecy now leaves the standpoint of Israel’s retrospective acknowledgment of the long rejected Servant of God, and becomes once more the prophetic organ of God Himself, who acknowledges the servant as His own. The min of מעמל might be used here in its primary local signification, “far away from the trouble” (as in Job 21:9, for example); or the temporal meaning which is derived from the local would be also admissible, viz.

, “from the time of the trouble,” i. e. , immediately after it (as in Psa 73:20); but the causal sense is the most natural, viz. , on account of, in consequence of (as in Exo 2:23), which not only separates locally and links together temporarily, but brings into intimate connection. The meaning therefore is, “In consequence of the trouble of His soul (i. e. , trouble experienced not only in His body, but into the inmost recesses of His soul), He will see, satisfy Himself.

” Hitzig supplies בּטּוב (Jer 29:32); Knobel connects בדעתּו, in opposition to the accents (like A. S. Th. ἐμπλησθήσεται ἐν τῇ γνώσει αὐτοῦ), thus: “He looks at His prudent work, and has full satisfaction therewith. ” But there is nothing to supply, and no necessity to alter the existing punctuation. The second verb receives its colouring from the first; the expression “He will see, will satisfy Himself,” being equivalent to “He will enjoy a satisfying or pleasing sight” (cf.

, Psa 17:15), which will consist, as Isa 53:10 clearly shows, in the successful progress of the divine work of salvation, of which He is the Mediator. בדעתו belongs to יצדּיק as the medium of setting right (cf. , Pro 11:9). This is connected with ḻ in the sense of “procure justice,” like ל רפא (Isa 6:10); ל הניח in Isa 14:3; Isa 28:12 (cf. , Dan 11:33, ל הבין, to procure intelligence; Gen 45:7, ל החיה, to prolong life - a usage which leads on to the Aramaean combination of the dative with the accusative, e.

g. , Job 37:18, compare Job 5:2). Tsaddı̄q ‛abhdı̄ do not stand to one another in the relation of a proper name and a noun in apposition, as Hofmann thinks, nor is this expression to be interpreted according to דּוד המּלך (Ges. §113); but “a righteous man, my servant,” with the emphatic prominence given to the attribute (cf. , Isa 10:30; Isa 23:12; Psa 89:51), is equivalent to “my righteous servant.'

But does בדעתו mean per cognitionem sui , or per cognitionem suam ? The former gives a sense which is both doctrinally satisfying and practically correct: the Righteous One makes others partakers of righteousness, through their knowledge of Him, His person, and His work, and (as the biblical ידע, which has reference not only to the understanding, but to personal experience also, clearly signifies) through their entrance into living fellowship with Him.

Nearly all the commentators, who understand by the servant of God the Divine Redeemer, give the preference to this explanation (e. g. , Vitringa, Hengstenberg, and Stier). But the meaning preferred is not always the correct one. The subjective rendering of the suffix (cf. , Pro 22:17) is favoured by Mal 2:7, where it is said that “the priest’s lips should keep da‛ath (knowledge);” by Dan 12:3, where faithful teachers are called matsdı̄qē hârabbı̄m (they that turn many to righteousness); and by Isa 11:2, according to which “the spirit of knowledge” ( rūăch da‛ath ) is one of the seven spirits that descend upon the sprout of Jesse; so that “knowledge” ( da‛ath ) is represented as equally the qualification for the priestly, the prophetic, and the regal calling.

It is a very unseemly remark, therefore, on the part of a modern commentator, when he speaks of the subjective knowledge of the Servant as “halting weakly behind in the picture, after His sacrificial death has already been described. ” We need only recall to mind the words of the Lord in Mat 11:27, which are not only recorded both by the synoptists and by John, but supported by testimony outside the Gospels also: “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.

” Let us remember also, that the Servant of Jehovah, whose priestly mediatorial work is unfolded before us here in chapter 53, upon the ground of which He rises to more than regal glory (Isa 52:15, compare Isa 53:12), is no other than He to whom His God has given the tongue of the learned, “to know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary, i. e. , to raise up the wary and heavy laden” (Isa 50:4).

He knows God, with whom He stands in loving fellowship; He knows the counsels of His love and the will of His grace, in the fulfilment of which His own life ascends, after having gone down into death and come forth from death; and by virtue of this knowledge, which rests upon His own truest and most direct experience, He, the righteous One, will help “the many,” i. e.

, the great mass ( hârabbı̄m as in Dan 9:27; Dan 11:33, Dan 11:39; Dan 12:3; cf. , Exo 23:2, where rabbı̄m is used in the same sense without the article), hence all His own nation, and beyond that, all mankind (so far as they were susceptible of salvation = τοῖς πολλοῖς, Rom 5:19, cf. , πολλῶν, Mat 26:28), to a right state of life and conduct, and one that should be well-pleasing to God.

The primary reference is to the righteousness of faith, which is the consequence of justification on the ground of His atoning work, when this is believingly appropriated; but the expression also includes that righteousness of life, which springs by an inward necessity out of those sanctifying powers, that are bound up with the atoning work which we have made our own (see Dan 9:24). The ancients recognised this connection between the justitia fidei et vitae better than many of the moderns, who look askance at the Romish justitia infusa , and therewith boast of advancing knowledge.

Because our righteousness has its roots in the forgiveness of sins, as an absolutely unmerited gift of grace without works, the prophecy returns once more from the justifying work of the Servant of God to His sin-expunging work as the basis of all righteousness: “He shall bear their iniquities. ” This yisbōl (He shall bear), which stands along with futures, and therefore, being also future itself, refers to something to be done after the completion of the work to which He is called in this life (with which Hofmann connects it), denotes the continued operation of His sebhâlâm (Isa 53:4), through His own active mediation.

His continued lading of our trespasses upon Himself is merely the constant presence and presentation of His atonement, which has been offered once for all. The dead yet living One, because of His one self-sacrifice, is an eternal Priest, who now lives to distribute the blessings that He has acquired.

Isa 53:12 The last reward of His thus working after this life for the salvation of sinners, and also of His work in this life upon which the former is founded, is victorious dominion. “Therefore I give Him a portion among the great, and with strong ones will He divide spoil; because He has poured out His soul into death: and He let Himself be reckoned among transgressors; whilst He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

” The promise takes its stand between humiliation and exaltation, and rests partly upon the working of the exalted One, and partly upon the doing and suffering of One who was so ready to sacrifice Himself. Luther follows the lxx and Vulgate, and adopts the rendering, “Therefore will I give Him a great multitude for booty;” and Hävernick, Stier, and others adopt essentially the same rendering, “Therefore will I apportion to Him the many.

” But, as Job 39:17 clearly shows, this clause can only mean, “Therefore will I give Him a portion in the many. ” If, however, chillēq b' means to have a portion in anything, and not to give the thing itself as a portion, it is evident that hârabbı̄m here are not the many, but the great; and this is favoured by the parallel clause. The ideas of greatness and force, both in multitude and might, are bound up together in rabh and ‛âtsūm (see Isa 8:7), and the context only can decide which rendering is to be adopted when these ideas are separated from one another.

What is meant by “giving a portion bârabbı̄m ,” is clearly seen from such passages as Isa 52:15; Isa 49:7, according to which the great ones of the earth will be brought to do homage to Him, or at all events to submit to Him. The second clause is rendered by Luther, “and He shall have the strong for a prey. ” This is at any rate better than the rendering of the lxx and Vulgate, “ et fortium dividet spolia .

” But Pro 16:19 shows that את is a preposition. Strong ones surround Him, and fight along with Him. The reference here is to the people of which it is said in Psa 110:3, “They people are thorough devotion in the day of Thy power;” and this people, which goes with Him to battle, and joins with Him in the conquest of the hostile powers of the world (Rev 19:14), also participates in the enjoyment of the spoils of His victory.

With this victorious sway is He rewarded, because He has poured out His soul unto death, having not only exposed His life to death, but “poured out” ( he‛ĕrâh , to strip or empty, or pour clean out, even to the very last remnant) His life-blood into death ( lammâveth like the Lamed in Psa 22:16), and also because He has suffered Himself to be reckoned with transgressors, i. e.

, numbered among them ( niph. tolerativum ), namely, in the judgment of His countrymen, and in the unjust judgment ( mishpât ) by which He was delivered up to death as a wicked apostate and transgressor of the law. With והוּא there is attached to נמנה ואת־פּשׁעים (He was numbered with the transgressors), if not in a subordinate connection (like והוא) in Isa 53:5; (compare Isa 10:7), the following antithesis: He submitted cheerfully to the death of a sinner, and yet He was no sinner, but “bare the sin of many (cf.

, Heb 9:28), and made intercession for the transgressors. ” Many adopt the rendering, “and He takes away the sin of many, and intervenes on behalf of the transgressors. ” But in this connection the preterite נשׂא) can only relate to something antecedent to the foregoing future, so that יפגּיע denotes a connected past; and thus have the lxx and Vulg. correctly rendered it.

Just as בּ הפגּיע in Isa 53:6 signifies to cause to fall upon a person, so in Jer 15:11 it signifies to make one approach another (in supplication). Here, however, as in Isa 59:16, the hiphil is not a causative, but has the intensive force of the kal , viz. , to press forward with entreaty, hence to intercede (with a Lâmed of the person on whose behalf it occurs).

According to the cons. temporum , the reference is not to the intercession (ἔντευξις) of the glorified One, but to that of the suffering One, on behalf of His foes. Every word stands here as if written beneath the cross on Golgotha. And this is the case with the clause before us, which was fulfilled (though not exclusively) in the prayer of the crucified Saviour: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luk 23:34).

“The prophetic view,” says Oehler, who agrees with us in the general opinion that the idea of the Servant of Jehovah has three distinct stages, “ascends in these discourses step by step, as it were, from the one broad space covered by the foundation-walls of a cathedral up to the very summit with its giddy height, on which the cross is planted; and the nearer it reaches the summit, the more conspicuous do the outlines of the cross itself become, until at last, when the summit is reached, it rests in peace, having attained what it desired when it set its foot upon the first steps of the temple tower. ” There is something very striking in this figure.

Here, in the very centre of this book of consolation, we find the idea of the Servant of Jehovah at the very summit of its ascent. It has reached the goal. The Messianic idea, which was hidden in the general idea of the nation regarded as “the servant of Jehovah,” has gradually risen up in the most magnificent metamorphosis from the depths in which it was thus concealed.

And this fusion has generated what was hitherto altogether strange to the figure of the Messiah, viz. , the unio mystica capitis et corporis . Hitherto Israel has appeared simply as the nation governed by the Messiah, the army which He conducted into battle, the commonwealth ordered by Him. But now, in the person of the Servant of Jehovah, we see Israel itself in personal self-manifestation: the idea of Israel is fully realized, and the true nature of Israel shines forth in all its brilliancy.

Israel is the body, and He the head, towering above it. Another element, with which we found the Messianic idea enriched even before Isa 53:1-12, was the munus triplex . As early as chapters 7-12 the figure of the Messiah stood forth as the figure of a King; but the Prophet like unto Moses, promised in Deu 18:15, was still wanting. But, according to chapters 42, 49, Isa 50:1-11, the servant of Jehovah is first a prophet, and as the proclaimer of a new law, and the mediator of a new covenant, really a second Moses; at the close of the work appointed Him, however, He receives the homage of kings, whilst, as Isa 53:1-12 clearly shows, that self-sacrifice lies between, on the ground of which He rules above as Priest after the order of Melchizedek - in other words, a Priest and also a King.

From this point onward there are added to the Messianic idea the further elements of the status duplex and the satisfactio vicaria . David was indeed the type of the twofold state of his antitype, inasmuch as it was through suffering that he reached the throne; but where have we found, in all the direct Messianic prophecies anterior to this, the suffering path of the Ecce Homo even to the grave?

But the Servant of Jehovah goes through shame to glory, and through death to life. He conquers when He falls; He rules after being enslaved; He lives after He has died; He completes His work after He Himself has been apparently cut off. His glory streams upon the dark ground of the deepest humiliation, to set forth which the dark colours were supplied by the pictures of suffering contained in the Psalms and in the book of Job.

And these sufferings of His are not merely the sufferings of a confessor or a martyr, like those of the ecclesia pressa , but a vicarious atoning suffering, a sacrifice for sin. To this the chapter before us returns again and again, being never tired of repeating it. “ Spiritus Sanctus ,” says Brentius, “ non delectatur inani battologi'a, et tamen quum in hoc cap.

videatur βαττολόγος καὶ ταυτολόγος esse, dubium non est, quin tractet rem cognitu maxime necessariam . ” The banner of the cross is here set up. The curtain of the most holy is lifted higher and higher. The blood of the typical sacrifice, which has been hitherto dumb, begins to speak. Faith, which penetrates to the true meaning of the prophecy, hopes on not only for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but also for the Lamb of God, which beareth the sin of the world.

And in prophecy itself we see the after-effect of this gigantic advance. Zechariah no longer prophesies of the Messiah merely as a king (Isa 5:13); He not only rules upon His throne, but is also a priest upon His throne: sovereignty and priesthood go hand in hand, being peacefully united in Him. And in Zec 12:13 the same prophet predicts in Him the good Divine Shepherd, whom His people pierce, though not without thereby fulfilling the counsel of God, and whom they afterwards long for with bitter lamentation and weeping.

The penitential and believing confession which would then be made by Israel is prophetically depicted by Isaiah’s pen - “mourning in bitter sorrow the lateness of its love. ”

Isa 54:1 After the “Servant of God” has expiated the sin of His people by the sacrifice of Himself, and Israel has acknowledged its fault in connection with the rejected One, and entered into the possession and enjoyment of the salvation procured by Him, the glory of the church, which has thus become a partaker of salvation through repentance and faith, is quite ready to burst forth. Hence the prophet can now exclaim, Isa 54:1 : “Exult, O barren one, thou that didst not bear; break forth into exulting, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for there are more children of the solitary one than children of the married wife, saith Jehovah.

” The words are addressed to Jerusalem, which was a counterpart of Sarah in her barrenness at first, and her fruitfulness afterwards (Isa 41:1-3). She is not תלד לא עקרה (Job 24:21), but ילדה לא עקרה (Jdg 13:2); not indeed that she had never had any children, but during her captivity and exile she had been robbed of her children, and as a holy city had given birth to no more (Isa 49:21).

She was shōmēmâh , rendered solitary (2Sa 13:20; the allusion is to her depopulation as a city), whereas formerly she was בּעוּלה, i. e. , enjoyed the fellowship of Jehovah her husband ( ba‛al ). But this condition would not last (for Jehovah had not given her a divorce): she was therefore to exult and shout, since the number of children which she would now have, as one desolate and solitary, would be greater than the number of those which she had as a married wife.

Isa 54:2 With this prospect before her, even her dwelling-place would need enlarging. “Enlarge the space of thy tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of thy habitations; forbid not! lengthen thy cords, and fasten thy plugs. ” She is to widen out the space inside her tent, and they (יטּוּ has no definite subject, which is often the case where some subordinate servant is to be thought of) are to spread out far and wide the coverings of the framework of her dwelling, which is called mishkenōth (in the plural) on account of its roominess and magnificence: she is not to forbid it, thinking in her weakness of faith, “It is good enough as it is; it would be too large.

” The cords which hold up the walls, she is to lengthen; and the plugs, to which the cords are fastened, she is to ram fast into the earth: the former because the tent (i. e. , the holy city, Jer 31:38-40, and the dwelling-place of the church generally, Isa 26:15) has to receive a large number of inhabitants; the latter because it will not be broken up so soon again (Isa 33:20).

Isa 54:3 The reason why the tent is to be so large and strong is given in Isa 54:3 : “For thou wilt break forth on the right and on the left; and thy seed will take possession of nations, and they will people desolate cities. ” “On the right and on the left” is equivalent to “on the south and north” (Psa 89:13, the speaker being supposed to have his face turned towards the east: compare the Sanscrit apân , situated at the back, i.

e. , towards the west). We must supply both west and east, since the promises contained in such passages as Gen 15:18-21 remained unfulfilled even in the age of David and Solomon. Jerusalem will now spread out, and break through all her former bounds ( pârats is used in the same sense in Gen 28:14); and her seed (i. e. , the seed acquired by the Servant of Jehovah, the dead yet eternally living One, the σπέρμα, whose σπέρμα He Himself is) will take possession of nations ( yârash , yârēsh , capessere , occupare ; more especially κληρονομεῖν, syn.

nâchal ); and they (i. e. , the children born to her) will people desolate cities ( hōshı̄bh , the causative of yâshabh , to be inhabited, Isa 14:20). Thus will the promise be fulfilled, that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” - a promise not confined to the Preacher on the mount, but found also in Psa 37:9-11, and uttered by our own prophet in Isa 60:21; Isa 65:9.

Isa 54:4 The encouraging promise is continued in Isa 54:4 : “Fear not, for thou wilt not be put to shame; and bid defiance to reproach, for thou wilt not blush: no, thou wilt forget the shame of thy youth, and wilt no more remember the reproach of thy widowhood. ” Now that redemption was before the door, Israel was not to fear any more, or to be overcome (as the niphal nikhlam implies) by a felling of the shame consequent upon her state of punishment, or so to behave herself as to leave no room for hope.

For a state of things was about to commence, in which she would have no need to be ashamed (on bōsh and châphēr or hechpı̄r ), but which, on the contrary (כּי, imo , as in Isa 10:7; Isa 55:9), would be so glorious that she would forget the shame of her youth, i. e. , of the Egyptian bondage, in which the national community of Israel was still but like a virgin ( ‛almâh ), who entered into a betrothal when redeemed by Jehovah, and became His youthful wife through a covenant of love ( ehe = berı̄th ) when the law was given at Sinai (Jer 2:2; Eze 16:60); so glorious indeed, that she would never again remember the shame of her widowhood, i.

e. , of the Babylonian captivity, in which she, the wife whom Jehovah had taken to Himself, was like a widow whose husband had died.