Who has believed our message?
To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?
My servant grew up in the LORD’S presence
like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or
majestic about his presence,
nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected - -
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and
looked the other way.
He was despised and we did not care.
Yet it was our weakness he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a
punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole,
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s path to follow our own.
Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
Unjustly condemned he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.
But it was the LORD’S good plan to
crush him and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the LORD’S good plan will
prosper in his hands.
When he sees all that is accomplished
by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted as righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and
interceded for rebels.
Isaiah 53 (NLT)
