Appendix B — Isaiah 53: Full Text with Commentary

Note: Appendix B intentionally retains the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) Tanakh translation throughout. This is a strategic apologetic choice: when sitting with a Jewish conversation partner, reading Isaiah 53 in a Jewish translation removes the objection that Christian translations have manipulated the text. All other Scripture in this volume uses the NET Bible. JPS is used here only.

The following is the complete text of Isaiah 52:13–53:12 in the Jewish Publication Society translation, with brief comments on the key verses.

"Indeed, My servant shall prosper, be exalted and raised to great heights. Just as the many were appalled at him — so marred was his appearance, unlike that of man, his form, beyond human semblance — Just so he shall startle many nations." — Isaiah 52:13–15 (JPS)

The servant begins in exaltation — but the path to that exaltation runs through a marring that makes him unrecognizable as human. This opening establishes both the suffering and the ultimate glory.

"Who can believe what we have heard? Upon whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he has grown, by His favor, like a tree trunk out of arid ground. He had no form or beauty, that we should look at him: no charm, that we should find him pleasing." — Isaiah 53:1–2 (JPS)

The speakers express disbelief — the servant's glory was not visible in the ordinary way. He grew in obscurity, without outward attractiveness. Compare with Jesus's upbringing in the insignificant town of Nazareth.

"He was despised, shunned by men, a man of suffering, familiar with disease. As one who hid his face from us, he was despised, we held him of no account." — Isaiah 53:3 (JPS)

Rejection and suffering are central to the servant's experience. This is the verse cited in many Talmudic discussions of the suffering Messiah.

"Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, our suffering that he endured. We accounted him plagued, smitten and afflicted by God. But he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed." — Isaiah 53:4–5 (JPS)

The substitutionary logic is explicit: the servant bears what the speakers owe. The speakers misread the suffering as divine punishment of the servant. In fact, it is vicarious bearing of the speakers' guilt.

"We all went astray like sheep, each going his own way; and the LORD visited upon him the guilt of us all." — Isaiah 53:6 (JPS)

The universal scope: "all of us" went astray, and the LORD laid all of it on the servant. This is the theological center of the passage.

"He was maltreated, yet he was submissive, he did not open his mouth; like a sheep being led to slaughter, like a ewe, dumb before those who shear her, he did not open his mouth." — Isaiah 53:7 (JPS)

The silence before accusers is specific — Jesus fulfilled this literally at His trials before Pilate and Herod.

"He was taken away by oppressive judgment. Who could describe his abode? For he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment. And his grave was set among the wicked, and with the rich, in his death — though he had done no wrong and spoken no deceit." — Isaiah 53:8–9 (JPS)

Death and burial described. Buried with the rich, though executed as a criminal — Jesus was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's new tomb. Sinlessness explicitly stated: "he had done no wrong."

Note the phrase "through the sin of my people" — the servant is cut off for the sake of a people he is distinct from. The grammar distinguishes the servant from the "my people" on whose behalf he is struck down. This is the structural anomaly that the corporate interpretation cannot resolve without circularity.

"But the LORD chose to crush him by disease, that, if he made himself an offering for guilt, he might see offspring and have long life, and that through him the LORD's purpose might prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see it; he shall enjoy it to the full through his devotion. My righteous servant makes the many righteous, it is their punishment that he bears." — Isaiah 53:10–11 (JPS)

After death: he sees offspring and long life. This describes resurrection. The servant who died sees the fruit of his death afterward. "My righteous servant makes the many righteous" — justification through the servant's bearing of punishment.

"Assuredly, I will give him the many as his portion, he shall receive the multitude as his spoil. For he exposed himself to death and was numbered among the sinners, whereas he bore the guilt of the many and made intercession for sinners." — Isaiah 53:12 (JPS)

The servant's reward is described in terms of conquest and abundance. He was "numbered among the sinners" — Jesus was crucified between two criminals. He "made intercession for sinners" — from the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).