This is the sec­ond part of the post. Here Rabbi Moshe Schul­man gives his own com­men­tary on the pas­sage in ques­tion. Hope you are mature enough to read it, for there is much gold in it. The Jews know their Scrip­tures very well. In the third post I will show you how Jesus could still ful­fill it.

My com­ments are in [***…***] brack­ets, except when I expand J. to J[esus].

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ISAIAH 53

II. Who does Isa­iah 53 refer to?

the other hand, Isa­iah 11 is a Mes­sianic prophecy, that ALSO describes what­Be­fore we can dis­cuss intel­li­gently the mean­ing of this prophecy we must clar­ify the dif­fer­ence between a Mes­sianic prophecy and a prophecy about the Mes­siah. Although many think they are the same, they are not. A Mes­sianic prophecy describes what will occur in the Mes­sianic period and what it will look like. This does not mean that the Mes­siah, him­self, is described. For exam­ple, Ezekiel chap­ters 40 through 48 are clearly Mes­sianic. They describe the tem­ple that shall be built, the redis­tri­b­u­tion of the land and a num­ber of other events. But we do not see any descrip­tion of the Mes­siah him­self. On the Mes­siah will be like. We shall see that Isa­iah 53 is a Mes­sianic prophecy of the first type (Ezekiel 40–48) and that there is almost no dis­agree­ment among Jew­ish and Chris­t­ian schol­ars as to it’s being Mes­sianic. (There are two major excep­tions among Jew­ish com­men­ta­tors, one refers it to the prophet Jere­miah and the other to the King Josiah).

To under­stand this prophecy is not really dif­fi­cult. The prob­lem is: how to approach it so that the true mean­ing of the prophet appears. While a good trans­la­tion or a knowl­edge of Hebrew is needed, the ONLY way of under­stand­ing the prophecy is by try­ing to under­stand the con­text. What is the con­text of this pas­sage? You have read it once and seen that it can­not refer to J[esus].

Con­sider it again. Do you know who is the speaker? The speaker(s) tells us much. Look it over again to see who is speak­ing. Actu­ally if you noticed there are a num­ber of speak­ers. Did you notice that the speaker of 52:13 is NOT the speaker of 53:1? Did you see the change from the sin­gu­lar of 52:13 to the plural of 53:1? It can’t be the same per­son, since the last verses of Isa­iah 52 are sin­gu­lar and the first verses of Isa­iah 53 are plural. If it is plural it can­not be Isa­iah. Since it dis­cusses the speak­ers sins it can­not be G-d. Do you notice that verses 10, 11 and 12 do not appear to be spo­ken by the same per­sons as 1–9? These facts must be con­sid­ered to under­stand the con­text and the speaker.

The main por­tion of this prophecy is verses 1–9 of chap­ter 53. Let’s look at this pas­sage for a moment and try and see who the speaker is. Verse 1 of 53 has the speaker show­ing aston­ish­ment, it is in the first per­son plural. Who is aston­ished in the first verses of Isa­iah 53? Who are they aston­ished at? Let’s look at the con­text. In verse 52:14, we see that many peo­ple are aston­ished at the ser­vant. In verse 15 we see that the kings are taken with shock. Accord­ing to the con­text who is aston­ished: the kings and the peo­ple! Are there other prophets who have described this same type of event? YES!! Let’s exam­ine a few other Mes­sianic prophe­cies that relate the same ideas.

Micah 7:15–16: ‘Just as in the days of your com­ing out of Egypt, will I show him mar­velous things (lit. won­ders). The NATIONS shall see and be put to shame for all their might, THEY SHALL PUT THEIR HANDS ON THEIR MOUTHS, their ears shall be deaf.’

Here we see again that the nations, when the mes­sianic period comes, will cover their mouths with won­der. What does Isa­iah say here?

Isa­iah 52:15 “…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.”

Who is bewil­dered? Who cov­ers his mouth in won­der? The NATIONS OF THE WORLD. These are the peo­ple meant here.

In another Mes­sianic prophecy we read: Isa­iah 41:11 ‘All those who incensed against you shall be ASHAMED and CONFOUNDED…’ Who is con­founded? Who is ashamed? The NATIONS OF THE WORLD. Yes, the nations, the gen­tiles (and specif­i­cally their lead­ers who rep­re­sent them) are the ones speak­ing here. They have just seen some­thing they would never have imag­ined. They are the ones astonished.

Now that we know who is aston­ished, we must ask: who is the ser­vant that they are aston­ished at? This is a Mes­sianic prophecy, that is clear. Who is going to be the cause of aston­ish­ment to the gen­tiles? Let’s see what the Tenach says. Who is Isa­iah 41:11 talk­ing about? Look at verse 14: “Fear not worm of Jacob, men of Israel.” The same appears in verse 8 “But you, ISRAEL, are My ser­vant, Jacob whom I have cho­sen, the SEED of Abra­ham My friend.” Look at Micah 5:6 which is a lit­tle before the above pas­sage: The REMNANT OF JACOB; verse 7: The REMNANT OF JACOB. The nations as described in Micah are sur­prised at the great mir­a­cles that will occur with the com­ing of the Mes­sianic age to the rem­nant of Jacob.

Who and what has con­founded the nations? Israel and their redemp­tion from the exile in the Mes­sianic period has caused this aston­ish­ment and con­fu­sion. The ser­vant is Israel, and specif­i­cally the right­eous rem­nant of Israel and the nations are con­fused. Why should they be con­fused? Imag­ine what it will be like when the Mes­siah comes. How will the Chris­tians and Mus­lims react when they will see that the Mes­siah has come, and it is not J[esus]. [*** How will Jews react when they will see that it is Jesus? ***] It is some Ultra Ortho­dox Rabbi with a long beard! A funny look­ing per­son who, until very recently, was the butt of their jokes and deri­sion. As the prophet predicted:

Jere­miah 16:19: “The NATIONS shall come to you from the ends of the earth and shall say, ‘SURELY OUR FATHERS HAVE INHERITED LIES, VANITY, AND THINGS WHEREIN THERE IS NO BENEFIT.’”

It is inter­est­ing to note that in the Tenach there is one place where the same theme of this prophecy appears. It is in Psalm 44:9–26 which par­al­lels the main ideas of this prophecy. It should be kept in mind while you look at each of the verses: “9 But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. 10 Thou mak­est us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for them­selves. 11 Thou hast given us like sheep [appointed] for meat; and hast scat­tered us among the hea­then. 12 Thou sell­est thy peo­ple for nought, and dost not increase [thy wealth] by their price. 13 Thou mak­est us a reproach to our neigh­bours, a scorn and a deri­sion to them that are round about us. 14 Thou mak­est us a byword among the hea­then, a shak­ing of the head among the peo­ple. 15 My con­fu­sion [is] con­tin­u­ally before me, and the shame of my face hath cov­ered me, 16 For the voice of him that reproa­cheth and blas­phemeth; by rea­son of the enemy and avenger. 17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not for­got­ten thee, nei­ther have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. 18 Our heart is not turned back, nei­ther have our steps declined from thy way; 19 Though thou hast sore bro­ken us in the place of drag­ons, and cov­ered us with the shadow of death. 20 If we have for­got­ten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; 21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. 22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaugh­ter. 23 Awake, why sleep­est thou, O Lord? arise, cast [us] not off for ever. 24 Where­fore hidest thou thy face, [and] for­gettest our afflic­tion and our oppres­sion? 25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. 26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mer­cies’ sake.”

Let’s now exam­ine this impor­tant prophecy verse by verse. I will com­pare the verses to many par­al­lel prophe­cies in the Tenach and some exam­ples of his­tor­i­cal ful­fill­ment. The main text here is from the KJV, with notes from the Darby and KJV between “(“ and ”)”. My notes on the Hebrew lan­guage are between “{“ and ”}”. When we look at the first verse we can see clearly that G-d is the one talking:

Is. 52:13: “Behold, my ser­vant shall deal pru­dently (KJV: alt. shall pros­per), {Heb: be suc­cess­ful or be wise} he shall be exalted and extolled (D: be lifted up) {alt: raised up}, and be very high. ”

In verse 52:13 and again in 53:11 the sub­ject is called ‘my ser­vant’. Who is called ‘my ser­vant’? Who does Isa­iah call the ser­vant of G-d? Let us look at

Isa­iah 41:8–9: “But you, ISRAEL, are My ser­vant, Jacob whom I have cho­sen, the SEED of Abra­ham My friend. Whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and from the nobles I called you, and I said to you, ‘You are my ser­vant’, I chose you and I did not despise you.”

It is clear from this: ISRAEL IS THE SERVANT OF G-D! This is repeated many times in Isaiah:

Isa­iah 44:1 “Yet now hear, O Jacob my ser­vant; and Israel, whom I have cho­sen:
2 Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, [which] will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my ser­vant; and thou, Jesu­run, whom I have chosen.”

Isa­iah 44:21 “Remem­ber these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou [art] my ser­vant: I have formed thee; thou [art] my ser­vant: O Israel, thou shalt not be for­got­ten of me.”

Isa­iah 45:4 “For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have sur­named thee, though thou hast not known me.”

Isa­iah 48:20 “Go ye forth of Baby­lon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it [even] to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his ser­vant Jacob.”

Isa­iah 49:3 “And said unto me, Thou [art] my ser­vant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

Not just here, but through­out the Tenach ‘my ser­vant’ is com­monly used for
Israel. It is well known, in schol­arly cir­cles, that this pas­sage Isa­iah 53, is called the fourth of the ser­vant songs. Each of which is about Israel and G-d’s rela­tion­ship to her.

One of the main objec­tions to say­ing that the ser­vant is Israel is that the pas­sage is in the SINGULAR and not the plural. How can it refer to Israel in the sin­gu­lar? (Actu­ally, as we shall see, verses 8 and 9 have plural ref­er­ences so this is not such a strong ques­tion, but let us exam­ine it any­way). To answer this we need only look at

Is. 43:10: “You are my WITNESSES (plural) says the L-rd, and My SERVANT (sin­gu­lar) whom I have chosen…”

Here we see that Isa­iah refers to the wit­nesses, Israel, both in the sin­gu­lar and the plural IN THE SAME VERSE. In the pas­sage just prior to Is. 53 (52:1–2) and just after Is. 53 (54:1) Israel is also referred to in the sin­gu­lar. I have pre­vi­ously men­tioned a num­ber of verses where Israel is referred to as G-d’s ser­vant, and they are ALL in the sin­gu­lar. The truth is that through­out the Tenach Israel is referred to more often in the sin­gu­lar than the plural. The TEN COMMANDMENTS them­selves, were spo­ken to Israel in the sin­gu­lar!!! This objec­tion is no prob­lem at all!! In fact, the ques­tion shows an igno­rance of the lan­guage used in the Tenach where Israel as a whole are con­tin­u­ally referred to in the singular.

With regards to the pros­per­ity and exal­ta­tion of the Jew­ish peo­ple in the Mes­sianic times we need only look into the Tenach which is filled with prophe­cies on that sub­ject. Just look at the fol­low­ing prophecies:

Isa­iah 48:15 “I, [even] I, have spo­ken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.”

Jere­miah 30:10 “There­fore fear thou not, O my ser­vant Jacob, saith the LORD; nei­ther be dis­mayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their cap­tiv­ity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make [him] afraid.”

Jere­miah 46:27 “But fear not thou, O my ser­vant Jacob, and be not dis­mayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their cap­tiv­ity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make [him] afraid. 28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my ser­vant, saith the LORD: for I [am] with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have dri­ven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but cor­rect thee in mea­sure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpun­ished.” The exalted nature of Israel in the Mes­sianic age is one of the clear mes­sages of the Tenach.

Isa­iah 52:14: “As many were astonied (D: were aston­ished) {alt: won­dered} at thee {you}; his vis­age was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men (D: chil­dren of men).”

Can this verse be said to apply to Israel? Unfor­tu­nately from his­tory we have seen that it is true. Those who have hated Jews have always referred to them exter­mi­nated. (The use of gas was com­pared to exter­mi­nat­ing ver­min) As Isa­iah as if they were not human. The Evan Ezra points out that in Edom (Europe) and Ish­mael (the Arab lands) many of the gen­tiles con­sid­ered the fea­tures of Jews dif­fer­ent from all other humans. In Der Struer­mer from Dec. 29, 1942 we read “The scholar Dar­win said, in 1859, that man is descended from the ape. Whether this is cor­rect or not, we do not wish to decide. Per­haps the reader will take the trou­ble to com­pare the fea­tures of the ape from the New York Zoo and the face of the Jew­ish old-clothes dealer from the New York ghetto and draw his own con­clu­sions.” The Nazis con­sid­ered the Jews ver­min to be says here the nations won­dered about Israel: “How marred his appear­ance from that of man, and his fea­tures from that of peo­ple.” Isn’t the prophet remind­ing us of that? The Islamic Jihad put out a pam­phlet in Oct. 1988 that stated the Jews were ‘the broth­ers of mon­keys.’ Arafat on Jan 30, 1992 called Jews, ‘The dogs. Filth and Dirt.’ Yes, this verse tes­ti­fies about the right­eous of Israel: “How mar­ried his appear­ance from man and his fea­tures from that of peo­ple.” In every gen­er­a­tion anti-semites pic­ture Jews in a sub-human form.

Isa­iah 52:15: “So shall he sprin­kle (D: aston­ish) {alt: cast down see Isa­iah 63:3}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.” The gen­tiles never even con­sid­ered it would be pos­si­ble for Israel to be redeemed from their exile. I men­tioned the verses of Micah 7:14–15 with regards to the kings reac­tions above. Consider

Jere­miah 16:19–20: “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of afflic­tion. The NATIONS shall come to you from the ends of the earth and shall say, ‘SURELY OUR FATHERS HAVE INHERITED LIES, VANITY, AND THINGS WHEREIN THERE IS NO BENEFIT. Shall a man make gods unto him­self, and they are no gods?”

Isa­iah 66:8 “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? [or] shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion tra­vailed, she brought forth her children.”

When Israel will be gath­ered from the exile the NATIONS will come to rec­og­nize that for all these years THEY have made a mis­take. All of what they have been taught was only LIES. This ends the words of G-d about Israel and how the nations will react when the Mes­sianic age comes. The next verse goes to the plural and the NATIONS start to speak and give wit­ness of their reac­tions to the com­ing Mes­sianic age and the end of the exile of the Jew­ish people.

Isa­iah 53:1: “Who hath believed our report? (KJV: Heb. hear­ing) and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” (D: been revealed)

Now, what does it mean the ‘arm of the Lord’? The ‘arm of the Lord’ refers to when G-d shows his power to redeem Israel from phys­i­cal trou­bles and exile.

Exo­dus 14:31 “And Israel saw that great work {heb. great hand} which the LORD did upon the Egyp­tians: and the peo­ple feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his ser­vant Moses.”

Exo­dus 15:6 “Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glo­ri­ous in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.”

Deuteron­omy 7:19 “The great temp­ta­tions which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the won­ders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the peo­ple of whom thou art afraid.”

If you exam­ine Scrip­ture you will find that it does not mean a small act but a great sal­va­tion or vic­tory for the Jew­ish people:

Isa­iah 40:10 “Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong [hand], and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him. 11 He shall feed his flock like a shep­herd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry [them] in his bosom, [and] shall gen­tly lead those that are with young.”

Isa­iah 63:11 “Then he remem­bered the days of old, Moses, [and] his peo­ple, [say­ing], Where [is] he that brought them up out of the sea with the shep­herd of his flock? where [is] he that put his holy Spirit within him? 12 That led [them] by the right hand of Moses with his glo­ri­ous arm, divid­ing the water before them, to make him­self an ever­last­ing name?”

Is. 52:9–12 (The intro­duc­tory verses to Isa­iah 53). “Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has COMFORTED HIS PEOPLE, He has REDEEMED JERUSALEM. The Lord HAS MADE BARE HIS HOLY ARM IN THE EYES OF THE NATIONS and all the ends of the earth shall see the SALVATION OF ISRAEL.”

What is the ‘arm of the Lord’? The prophet is telling us about the reac­tion of the gen­tiles to the redeem­ing of Israel from Exile. Who sees it? The NATIONS OF THE WORLD. Two verses later it starts, ‘Behold My Ser­vant shall pros­per.…’ In this verse we see the reac­tion of the nations, G-d has redeemed His peo­ple from the exile and the Nations are shocked beyond belief. This is fur­ther stated in the prophet:

Habakkuk 1:5 “Behold ye among the hea­then, and regard, and won­der mar­vel­lously: for [I] will work a work in your days, [which] ye will not believe, though it be told [you].”

Isa­iah 53:2: “For he shall grow up before him {alt. he came up} as a ten­der plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor come­li­ness (D: lord­li­ness); and when we shall see (D: we see) him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.”

Who is to sprout as a tree from dry land where it was never expected to? Israel. Look at what the prophet says:

Isa­iah 27:6 “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blos­som and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”

Israel shall blossom!!

Hosea 14:6–7: “I will be as dew for ISRAEL; he shall grow as a lily, and CAST FORTH HIS ROOTS as Lebanon. HIS BRANCHES SHALL SPREAD, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon.”

Isa­iah 66:8 “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? [or] shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion tra­vailed, she brought forth her children.”

When the Mes­sianic time comes Israel will sprout and grow as never before. How was Israel treated by the nations? Here is what the prophet said:

Isa­iah 42:22 “But this [is] a peo­ple robbed and spoiled; [they are] all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none deliv­ereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.”

What have the nations said about the ‘form’ Israel while she was in the exile? Voltaire said “the most imbe­cile peo­ple on the face of the earth”, “most obtuse, cruel and absurd”, “dis­gust­ing and abom­inable”. As the prophet said, “he had nei­ther form nor come­li­ness”. Kant said “The euthana­sia of Judaism can only be achieved by means of a pure and moral reli­gion, and the aban­don­ment of all its old legal reg­u­la­tions.” Again the words of the prophet, “we saw him that he had no appear­ance that we should have desired him” St. Gre­gory of Nyssa referred to the Jews as, “haters of grace, ene­mies of their fathers reli­gion, advo­cates of the devil, brood of vipers, slan­der­ers, scoffers, men of dark­ened minds, leaven of the Phar­isees, con­gre­ga­tion of demons, sin­ners, wicked men, ston­ers, and haters of good­ness.” As the prophet said “he had no appear­ance that we should have desired him.” That is the tes­ti­mony of the Nations. “Who would have believed it?”

Isa­iah 53:3: “He is despised and rejected of men (D: left alone of men); a man of sor­rows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him (D: like one from whom [men] hide their faces); he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Who is the one who has been ashamed and despised? In the pas­sage RIGHT AFTER THIS ONE:

Is 54:4–17: “Fear not, for you shall not be ASHAMED and not EMBARRASSED, for you shall not be put to shame; for the SHAME OF YOUR YOUTH you shall for­get; and for the humil­i­a­tion of your wid­ow­hood you shall no longer remem­ber. For your maker is your hus­band, the Lord of Hosts is his name… 6 For like a wife who was FORSAKEN AND AFFLICTED in spirit has the Lord called you, and a wife of one’s youth who was REJECTED, said your G-d. 11 Oh thou AFFLICTED who was not con­soled… 14 With right­eous­ness shall you be estab­lished, for you will be far from oppres­sion… 17 No weapon that is formed against you will pros­per, and any tongue that raises against you in judge­ment, you shall not con­demn; this is the her­itage of the SERVANTS OF THE
LORD and their right­eous­ness is from me, says the Lord.”

Who has despised Israel, THE NATIONS. As the prophet says “despised and we esteemed him not.” Again from

Isa­iah 49:7–15: “For so said the Lord, the redeemer of ISRAEL, his Holy One about him who is DESPISED OF MEN, about him whom the nation ABHORS, about a SLAVE OF RULERS. Kings shall see and rise, princes, and they shall pros­trate them­selves, (see Micah 7:15–17), for the sake of the Lord who is faith­ful, the Holy One of Israel, and He chose you. 13 Sing O Heav­ens and rejoice O earth, and moun­tains burst out in song for the Lord has con­soled His peo­ple, and he shall have mercy on His AFFLICTED. 14 But Zion said ‘The Lord has FORSAKEN ME, and the Lord has for­got­ten me.’ 15 Shall a women for­get her suck­ling child, from hav­ing mercy on the child of her womb? These too shall for­get, but I will not for­get you.”

A mother will for­get her baby who she nurses. BUT G-d will not for­get Israel!!!

Isa­iah 60:14 “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bend­ing unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow them­selves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 15 Whereas thou hast been for­saken and hated, so that no man went through [thee], I will make thee an eter­nal excel­lency, a joy of many generations.”

Isa­iah 62:4 “Thou shalt no more be termed For­saken; nei­ther shall thy land any more be termed Des­o­late: but thou shalt be called Hep­hz­ibah, and thy land Beu­lah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.”

How have the nations reacted to the Jew­ish peo­ple? St. John Chrysostam referred to the Jews as: “most mis­er­able of all men.” “debauch­ery and drunk­en­ness have given them the man­ners of the pig and the lusty goat.” “They have sur­passed the feroc­ity of wild beasts, for they mur­der their off­spring and immo­late them to the devil.” Just as Isa­iah said would hap­pen: “He is despised and rejected of men” St. Thomas Aquinas: ‘It would be licit, accord­ing to cus­tom, to hold Jews , because of their crime, in per­pet­ual SERVITUDE, and the princes may regard the pos­ses­sions of Jews as belong­ing to the State.’ As Isa­iah said, “a SLAVE OF RULERS” and “despised and we esteemed him not.”

***

The next verses are the hard­est ones for Chris­tians to under­stand and to see their rela­tion­ship to Israel. To under­stand them we must con­sider: If you ask a Chris­t­ian why are the Jews suf­fer­ing so much in their exile? What would he answer? He would say, ‘the Jews are pun­ished because they rejected their Mes­siah’. (I have heard this myself many times). As I quoted above from Thomas Aquinas, it was the rea­son that Jews could be kept as serfs of the state, and all their pos­ses­sions held by the crown. Because of their crime, all of the per­se­cu­tion was jus­ti­fied. This has been the the­ol­ogy of the Church from the start. BUT NOW when the Mes­siah comes and he is not J[esus] but the true royal descen­dant of David, and the Jew­ish peo­ple are returned to their king­dom. When all the nations see that the Jews were right in reject­ing J[esus], what are the nations going to say about their per­se­cu­tion of the Jews? What are they going to say about all the suf­fer­ing they caused Israel? If J[esus] isn’t the Mes­siah, the actions of the nations toward the Jews are SINS.

[*** the per­se­cu­tion of the Jews was sin no mat­ter what ***]

The nations are going to see they were wrong, and all these years the Jews suf­fered from their sins. Look at Gen­e­sis 31:36, after Laban had per­se­cuted Jacob, Jacob asked him, “What is my tres­pass, what is my sin”. He asked, ‘how have I sinned against you?’ When a per­son treats another incor­rectly it is called sin­ning against him. The nations are going to say ‘we have sinned against Israel by per­se­cut­ing them all these years’. This con­cept was clearly acknowl­edged by Pope John XXIII when he said: “We real­ize now that many, many cen­turies of blind­ness have dimmed our eyes, so that we no longer see the beauty of Thy Cho­sen Peo­ple and no longer rec­og­nize in their faces the fea­tures of our first­born brother. We real­ize that our brows are branded with mark of Cain…” The mark of Cain. The sign of evil and sin! The gen­tile nations will see that THEY were truly sin­ners in all their per­se­cu­tions of the Jew­ish people.

***

Isa­iah 53:4–5: “Surely he hath borne our griefs {alt: ill­nesses}, and car­ried our sor­rows {alt: pains}: yet we did esteem him stricken, smit­ten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he [was] wounded {alt: pained} for our trans­gres­sions, [he was] bruised for our iniq­ui­ties: the chas­tise­ment of our peace {alt: wel­fare} [was] upon him; and with his stripes (KJV: Heb: bruise) {alt: wounds} we are {alt: were} healed.”

Who did the gen­tiles think were smit­ten of G-d? Israel:

Jere­miah 50:7 “All that found them have devoured them: and their adver­saries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habi­ta­tion of jus­tice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.”

The nations will look at what they have done to the Jews and say, they have suf­fered because we have sinned in not rec­og­niz­ing who they really were. We have sinned and acted shame­fully. Israel has suf­fered the shame­ful and sin­ful actions of the nations. This is echoed in the words of the prophet:

Ezekiel 36: 6–7,15 “In My jeal­ousy and in my anger I have spo­ken, because the shame of the nations you have borne. 7 There­fore, thus says my Lord, G-d: I have lifted My hand in an oath. Surely the nations which sur­round you will bear their shame. 15 And I shall no longer cause the ridicule of nations to be heard about you, and the shame of the nations you shall no longer bear.…”

The nations will admit their sin. How have the nations acted toward Israel? Look what it says in the Koran (Sura 2.61) “And humil­i­a­tion and wretched­ness were stamped upon them and they were vis­ited with wrath from Allah. That was because they dis­be­lieved in Allah’s rev­e­la­tions and slew the prophets wrong­fully. That was for their dis­obe­di­ence and trans­gres­sion.” As the prophet says, ‘we accounted him as plagued, smit­ten by G-d’. Luther asked, “What shall we do with this rejected and con­demned peo­ple, the Jews” His pro­gram included: Burn­ing syn­a­gogues and houses, con­fis­cat­ing Jew­ish Holy books, for­bid­ding Rab­bis to teach, Jews to travel or give loans at inter­est, forc­ing Jews to do hard labor, and expelling them from Chris­t­ian coun­tries. ‘He was pained because of OUR trans­gres­sion, crushed because of OUR iniq­ui­ties.’ In the fall of 1944 when the depor­ta­tions from Slo­va­kia to Auschwitz were going on, Rabbi Weiss­man­del approached the papal nun­cio on a Sun­day and asked him to inter­vene with Pres­i­dent Tiso (a Catholic priest). He was told, “This, being a Sun­day, is a holy day for us. Nei­ther I nor Father Tiso occupy our­selves with pro­fane mat­ters on this day”. When the Rabbi reminded him that there were inno­cent women and chil­dren being sent to Auschwitz, he replied, “There is no inno­cent blood of Jew­ish chil­dren in the world. All Jew­ish blood is guilty. You have to die. This is the pun­ish­ment that has been await­ing you because of that sin (the death of J[esus]).” “we accounted him plagued, smit­ten of G-d and oppressed.… crushed because of OUR iniquities…”

Isa­iah 53:6–7: “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 {alt. Heb. the Lord accepted his prayer for our iniq­ui­ties. The Hebrew word Hif­giah the root of which means also to entreat or inter­cede as in verse 12}. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought (D: led) as a lamb to the slaugh­ter, and [D: was] as a sheep before her shear­ers is dumb {alt: mute}, so (D: and) he openeth not his mouth.”

We have already seen from Jere­miah 16:19 how the nations will admit that they have been going in a false way. Remem­ber Psalms 44:12 “You have deliv­ered US like SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER, and among the GENTILES you have scat­tered us. 14 You have made us a dis­grace to our neigh­bors, the mock­ery and scorn of those around us. 22 Because for your sake we are KILLED ALL DAY LONG, we are con­sid­ered as SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER.”

Jere­miah 50:17 “Israel [is] a scat­tered sheep; the lions have dri­ven [him] away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Neb­uchadrez­zar king of Baby­lon hath bro­ken his bones.”

The Jew­ish peo­ple are slaugh­tered in every gen­er­a­tion, qui­etly going to their deaths, for the sake of G– d’s name.

Isa­iah 53:8: “He was taken from prison (D: oppres­sion) and from judg­ment: and who shall declare his gen­er­a­tion? for he was cut off out of the land of the liv­ing {lit: the liv­ing land}: for the trans­gres­sion of my peo­ple was he stricken {Heb. Lawmo. KJV mis­trans­lates ‘was HE stricken’, instead of the cor­rect THEY.}”

Before explain­ing this, let me show the mis­trans­la­tion. The Hebrew word is Lawmo and in it’s other appear­ances in Tenach the KJV is CORRECTLY trans­lated to ‘them’. For exam­ple in Isa­iah 44:7 (unto them) 16:4 (to them). (There are no exam­ples of excep­tions where a plural prepo­si­tional pro­noun is used refer­ring to other than a plural noun). The trans­la­tion is just made to dis­tort the true meaning.

Next the verse uses the expres­sion ‘the land of the liv­ing’ (Heb. Eretz Chaim). This always denotes the land of Israel. The words cut off from the land of the liv­ing refers to the exile from Israel.

Ezekiel 32:23 “Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her com­pany is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused ter­ror in the land of the liv­ing.” (See the full text of Ez. 32:23–27 where the prophet describes the pun­ish­ment for those who ter­ror­ized Israel and calls the land of Israel ‘the land of the liv­ing’). Likewise

Ezekiel 26:20 “When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the peo­ple of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places des­o­late of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhab­ited; and I shall set glory in the land of the liv­ing; 21 I will make thee a ter­ror, and thou [shalt be] no [more]: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD.”

This verse tells us that the Jew­ish peo­ple are being sent into exile from the land of Israel (as every­one knows).

Isa­iah 53:9: “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death (KJV: Heb. deaths) {Heb. BeMosav ‘in his deaths’ plural and not BeMoso ‘in his death’ sin­gu­lar}; because he had done no vio­lence, nei­ther [was any] deceit in his mouth.”

Here again we see that the KJV used sin­gu­lar where there is a plural in the Hebrew. This sig­ni­fies the many per­se­cu­tions and deaths that have fol­lowed the right­eous of Israel through­out the many gen­er­a­tions. It is not just once or twice that evil men have stood up against the Jew­ish peo­ple and oppressed them. But every gen­er­a­tion finds some­one ready to kill Jews. A par­al­lel to this is

that time I will bring them, and at that time I will gather you, for I willZeph. 3:12–20 “And I will leave over in your midst a hum­ble and poor peo­ple, and they shall take shel­ter in the name of the Lord. 13 The rem­nant of ISRAEL shall nei­ther com­mit injus­tice nor SPEAK LIES, NEITHER SHALL DECEITFUL SPEECH BE FOUND IN THEIR MOUTH… 15 The Lord has removed your AFFLICTIONS; He has cast out your enemy… 19 Behold, I wreak destruc­tion upon all those who have AFFLICTED you at that time. And I will save the one who LIMPS, and I will gather the stray one, and I will make them a praise and a name through­out all the land where they SUFFERED SHAME. 20 At make you a name and a praise among all the peo­ples of the earth when I RESTORE your cap­tiv­ity before your eyes, said the Lord.”

The peo­ple who are not deceit­ful, this is G-d’s holy rem­nant. Some have tried to say that this prophecy is ONLY of a future gen­er­a­tion, but look­ing at verse 19 and com­par­ing it to the many other verses I have brought above which tell the same story of the suf­fer­ing of Israel in the exile, makes it impos­si­ble to con­sider this about a future rem­nant, but of the holy rem­nant of the Jew­ish peo­ple that has suf­fered in the exile and held fast to the Torah of G-d.

Isa­iah 53:10: “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put (D: sub­jected) [him] to grief: when {Heb. Im means ‘if’ not ‘when’ as the KJV trans­lates} thou shalt make his soul an offer­ing for sin, he shall see [his] seed {Heb. zarah}, he shall pro­long [his] days, and the plea­sure of the LORD shall pros­per in his hand.”

Who was given the promise of a long life with abun­dant chil­dren and pros­per­ity? The peo­ple of Israel. Look at the words of the prophets:

shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trou­ble; for they [are] the­I­sa­iah 65:20 “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hun­dred years old; but the sin­ner [being] an hun­dred years old shall be accursed. 21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vine­yards, and eat the fruit of them. 22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree [are] the days of my peo­ple, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their off­spring with them.” In the Torah itself we see that at the end of times this is to occur:

Deuteron­omy 30:5 “And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers pos­sessed, and thou shalt pos­sess it; and he will do thee good, and mul­ti­ply thee above thy fathers.”

Through­out the Tenach, again and again we see prophe­cies of the won­drous things that will hap­pen when Israel leaves the exile.

Isa­iah 66:22 “For as the new heav­ens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.”

Ezekiel 36:37 “Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet [for] this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do [it] for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. 38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.”

Zechariah 10:8 “I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased. 9 And I will sow them among the peo­ple: and they shall remem­ber me in far coun­tries; and they shall live with their chil­dren, and turn again.”

We have seen that in this verse the speaker chang­ing again. The prophet is con­tin­u­ing and say­ing what the pur­pose is of the exile. Every­thing was done so that Israel should be able to have her reward. The promises here are a restate­ment of the promises in the Torah. Deut 30:19–20: “I call Heaven and earth as wit­nesses. Before you I have placed life and death, the bless­ing and the curse. You must choose life, so that YOU AND YOUR SEED WILL SURVIVE. 20 If you choose to love the lord your G-d, to obey Him, and to attach your­self to Him. That is your life and the LENGTH OF YOUR DAYS, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abra­ham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

The choice is given to Israel, if they accept then they will have long life and many descendants.

Isa­iah 53:11–12: “He shall see of the (D: [the fruit of]) tra­vail of his soul {alt: From the toil of his soul he would see}, [and] shall be sat­is­fied: by his knowl­edge shall my right­eous ser­vant jus­tify many (D: instruct many in right­eous­ness); for he shall bear their iniq­ui­ties. 12 There­fore will I divide him (D: assign him) [a por­tion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil {alt: Heb: plun­der} with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was num­bered (D: reck­oned) with the trans­gres­sors; and he bare (D: bore) the sin of many, and made inter­ces­sion {alt: inter­ceded} for the transgressors.

Here we see that G-d again speaks about His ser­vant, and the servant’s reward. Much of this has been men­tioned before let me just add those things not pre­vi­ously cited. First is the point of Israel’s pur­pose in the world, to teach righteousness:

Isa­iah 60:3 “AND THE NATIONS SHALL GO BY YOUR LIGHT and kings by the bril­liance of you shine.”

Isa­iah 42:6 “I the LORD have called thee in right­eous­ness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the peo­ple, for a light of the Gentiles;”

Isa­iah 49:6 “And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my ser­vant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the pre­served of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gen­tiles, that thou mayest be my sal­va­tion unto the end of the earth.”

Zechariah 8:13,23 “And it shall come to pass that as you were a CURSE among the gen­tiles, O house of Judah and House of Israel, so will I save you and you shall be a bless­ing. 23 So said the Lord of Hosts: In those days, ten men of all the lan­guages of the gen­tiles shall take hold of the skirt of a Jew­ish man say­ing, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that G-d is with you.”

The strangest part about this prophecy is the last verse 12. Here the prophet talks about shar­ing por­tions and plun­der. What is this plun­der. The word here, ‘sha­lal’ means phys­i­cal wealth wher­ever it is used. What does it refer to? It is a promise that G-d has made to HIS peo­ple of what will hap­pen in the end of days after the great war of Gog and Magog.

Zechariah 14:14 “And the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gath­ered together, gold and sil­ver and apparel in great abundance.”

What is to hap­pen to this wealth that was gath­ered around Jerusalem?

Ezekiel 39:10: ’”And they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them,” said the Lord’

All the wealth that was stolen from the Jew­ish peo­ple, by all the nations, all the spe­cial taxes, all the houses, all the land every­thing will be returned. This is the plun­der of Is 53:12.

What is the mean­ing of ‘their iniq­ui­ties he would bear’? Examine

Is. 61:6. “And you shall be called ‘The Priests of the Lord’, ‘Ser­vants of Our G-d’ shall be said of you…”

This mir­rors what was said in Exo­dus 19:5–6 “You will be a king­dom of priests”. Now if the Jews are the priests, who are the laity? The gen­tile nations who we have seen will even­tu­ally join the Jews in wor­ship­ping the true G-d. What was the role of the priests? It is described in

Num­bers 18:1 “And G-d said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons, and your father’s house with you, you must BEAR THE INIQUITY against the sanc­tu­ary, and you and your sons must BEAR THE INIQUITY against you priesthood.’”

That is the role of the priest­hood — to bear iniq­uity. They are the ves­sel through which the laity/gentiles will cor­rect themselves.

Next the idea of inter­ced­ing for the nations (men­tioned above in verse 6) appears openly in a prophecy by

Jere­miah 29:7: “And seek the peace of the city where I have exiled you and PRAY FOR IT TO THE LORD, for in its peace you shall have peace.”

A clear indi­ca­tion that Israel inter­cedes for the nations while in exile. In fact, there is a prayer said in many syn­a­gogues, TO THIS DAY, for the well being of the government.

The fol­low­ing prophecy sum­ma­rizes the words of Isa­iah and his mes­sage to us and the whole world:

Joel 2:25–3:2

“25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker­worm, and the cater­piller, and the palmer­worm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be sat­is­fied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt won­drously with you: and my peo­ple shall never be ashamed. 27 And ye shall know that I [am] in the midst of Israel, and [that] I [am] the LORD your God, and none else: and my peo­ple shall never be ashamed. 1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the cap­tiv­ity of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the val­ley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my peo­ple and [for] my her­itage Israel, whom they have scat­tered among the nations, and parted my land.”

Now that I have fin­ished explain­ing the pas­sages, there remains two ques­tions that are asked.

1. What you say is fine but every­thing that you have said is not the authen­tic ancient tra­di­tional expla­na­tion of the Jews. This was just made up by Rashi in the 11th cen­tury so that Jews shouldn’t con­vert. The Jews before that all knew that it meant the Mes­siah. The answer to this is that it is an out­right lie. First, the Zohar on Exo­dus, and the Midrash Rab­bah on Num­bers both ancient Rab­binic works bring that Is. 53 refers to Israel. Sec­ond, and more impor­tantly than that, one of the old­est ref­er­ences to this chap­ter by a Chris­t­ian source (in Con­tra Cel­sum), has Ori­gin (late 2nd cen­tury) quot­ing the ancient Jew­ish under­stand­ing that this refers to the Jew­ish peo­ple and their suf­fer­ings. “I remem­ber that once in a dis­cus­sion with some whom the Jews regard as learned I used these prophe­cies (Is 53). At this the Jew said that these prophe­cies referred to the whole peo­ple as though of a sin­gle indi­vid­ual…” Even Ori­gin in the sec­ond cen­tury knew that the Jews under­stood Isa­iah 53 as refer­ring to Israel. But even more than that, it can be shown that in the time of J[esus] they NEVER asso­ci­ated this with a dying Mes­siah. How do I know. Look at Matthew 16:16–20 where we see that accord­ing to the NT, Peter cor­rectly under­stood that J[esus] was the Mes­siah, and he is told not to reveal it. But let’s see

Matthew 16:21–22 (right after that) “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his dis­ci­ples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suf­fer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. (22) Then Peter took him and began to REBUKE him say­ing, ‘BE IT FAR FROM THEE, LORD: THIS SHALL NOT BE UNTO THEE!’”

What’s going on here? If it was true that the Jews knew that Is 53 referred to the Mes­siah, Peter should have said ‘Yes Lord we under­stand, that is what it says in Is 53, the Mes­siah has to suf­fer and die.’ But what does he do? He REBUKES J[esus] and tells him, are you crazy? The Mes­siah is not sup­posed to die. Peter never knew, and the Jews never knew, because it never meant the Mes­siah. [I dis­agree with this. per­haps it was not the major­ity view, but some rab­binic writ­ers applied it to the mes­siah in var­i­ous ways]. In the time of J[esus] nobody attached Is. 53 to the Messiah.

2. You might say, lis­ten Moshe. What you say is how Jews under­stand it, but Chris­tians under­stand it another way. Who knows what is right? It just depends on who you are. A Jew says it’s Israel and a Chris­t­ian J[esus]. But that is NOT true. There are a num­ber of Chris­t­ian Bibles, that have been trans­lated with com­men­taries from Chris­t­ian sources. One of the most well known is called the New Eng­lish Bible — Oxford Study Edi­tion. And there we read: “52:13–53:12. Fourth ser­vant song. The suf­fer­ing ser­vant. See 42.1– 4 n. Israel, the ser­vant of G-d, has suf­fered as a humil­i­ated indi­vid­ual. How­ever, the ser­vant endured with­out com­plaint because it is vic­ar­i­ous suf­fer­ing (suf­fer­ing for oth­ers). 13–15: Nations and kings will be sur­prised to see the ser­vant exalted. 53.1: The crowds, pagan nations, among whom the ser­vant (Israel) lived, speak here (through v.9) say­ing that the sig­nif­i­cance of Israel’s humil­i­a­tion and exal­ta­tion is hard to believe. 2: In tra­di­tional Hebrew thought, the good man pros­pers like a tree by water but the wicked is like a plant grow­ing in parched ground: see Ps. 1.3–6. 3: Turn away their eyes; lit. hide their faces, an expres­sion used in rela­tion to lep­ers, whose sick­ness, con­sid­ered a sign of sin, made them despised. 4–5: The vic­ar­i­ous suf­fer­ing expressed here is in con­trast both to the tra­di­tional sol­i­dar­ity of guilt of Exod. 20.5 and to indi­vid­ual respon­si­bil­ity pro­posed by the prophets at the time of the Exile; see Jer. 31.30; Ezek. 18 5: Health for us: lit. “our peace” which means “gen­eral wel­fare” 6–7 The ser­vant is led like a sheep in con­trast to the peo­ples going their own way. 8: Although some legal process seems to be involved, the ser­vant does not receive jus­tice; see Jer. 39:5–6. 9: The death prob­a­bly refers to the destruc­tion and Exile of Israel. Com­pare Ezek. ch 37. 10– 12: The theme of 52:13 is resumed. Israel, which has suf­fered for all mankind, will now be granted her right­ful place. 10: long life and chil­drens chil­dren are the signs of a final vin­di­ca­tion before G-d; see Job 42:16–17. 11: Bathed in light; enjoy­ing G-d’s favor; Ps. 80.3. There you have it, even the Chris­t­ian schol­ars KNOW who Isa­iah 53 refers to. It is ISRAEL, G-d’s SUFFERING SERVANT.” This shows that this is not just a ‘Jew­ish’ idea but one that is sup­ported by Chris­tians also! Like­wise in vol­ume 5 of ‘The Interpreter’s Bible’ pub­lished by Abing­don Press on page 629 we find: “The great sur­prise of the nations reflected in vs 1 and in 52:13 need not imply that an indi­vid­ual is meant: surely the ele­va­tion and “suc­cess” of Israel, con­ceived with great elas­tic­ity and flu­id­ity, would occa­sion a sim­i­lar reac­tion (cf. Ezek. 37:1–14).”