Exile · c. 540 BC
Chapter 14
The Servant of the Lord
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How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,who publishes peace,who brings good news,who proclaims salvation,who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
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Isaiah 50:6 speaks of someone who is beaten, has his hair pulled out and is spat on. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 speaks of a servant who is despised, pierced, crushed and led like a lamb to the slaughter, and of his death and his grave with the wicked; it is quoted in full, with no explanation.
The book of goes on:
Listen to me, you islands!Listen, you peoples in faraway lands!The Lord called me from the womb.He spoke my name when I was inside my mother.He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.He has made me a polished arrowand kept me close in his .
He said to me, “You are my servant,Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”But I said, “I have worked for nothing.I have spent my strength, and all for nothing.Yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord,and my reward with my God.”
Now the Lord,the one who formed me from the womb to be his servant,says to bring back to himand to gather Israel to him,for in the Lord’s eyes I am honored,and my God has become my strength.
He says, “Raising up the tribes of Jacoband bringing back those of Israel who were kept safeis too small a thing for you as my servant.I will also give you as a light to the nations,so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
Further on:
Sing, you heavens! Be joyful, earth!Break out singing, you mountains,because the Lord has comforted his peopleand will have compassion on his people who are suffering.
But said, “The Lord has abandoned me,and the Lord has forgotten me.”“Can a woman forget her nursing childand have no compassion on the son she carried?Yes, even mothers may forget,but I will not forget you!Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.Your walls are always in front of me.”
Later in the book, someone says:
The Lord God has taught me what to say,so that I know how to keep a weary person going with words.Morning after morning he wakes my earto listen like one who is being taught.The Lord God has opened my ear.I did not rebel.I did not turn back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,and my cheeks to those who plucked out the hair.I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
The Lord God will help me,so I have not been put to shame.That is why I have made my face as hard as ,and I know I won’t be let down.The one who proves me right is near.Who will bring charges against me?Let us stand face to face.Who is against me?Let him come near me.Look, the Lord God will help me!Who will say I am guilty?Look, they will all wear out like old clothes.The moths will eat them up.
The book goes on:
The Lord has comforted Zion.He has comforted all her ruined places.He has made her wilderness like ,and her desert like the garden of the Lord.Joy and gladness will be found in them,thanksgiving, and the sound of music.
A little further on:
Those the Lord has will come back.They will come to Zion singing.Everlasting joy will be on their heads.They will have gladness and joy,and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Then:
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,who proclaims peace,who brings good news,who proclaims salvation,who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Your watchmen lift up their voices.They sing together,because they will see it clearly when the Lord returns to Zion.Break out into joy!Sing together, you ruined places of ,because the Lord has comforted his people.He has Jerusalem.The Lord has made his holy arm barefor all the nations to see.All the ends of the earth have seenthe salvation of our God.
Then come these words:
Look, my servant will deal wisely.He will be exalted and lifted up,and will be very high.Just as many were astonished at you—his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—so he will cleanse many nations.Kings will shut their mouths at him;for they will see that which had not been told them,and they will understand that which they had not heard.
Who has believed our message?To whom has the Lord’s arm been revealed?For he grew up before him as a tender plant,and as a root out of dry ground.He has no good looks or majesty.When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.He was despisedand rejected by men,a man of sufferingand acquainted with disease.He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;and we didn’t respect him.
Surely he has borne our sicknessand carried our suffering;yet we considered him plagued,struck by God, and afflicted.But he was pierced for our transgressions.He was crushed for our iniquities.The punishment that brought our peace was on him;and by his wounds we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray.Everyone has turned to his own way;and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed,yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth.As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,so he didn’t open his mouth.He was taken away by oppression and judgment.As for his generation,who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the livingand stricken for the disobedience of my people?They made his grave with the wicked,and with a rich man in his death,although he had done no violence,nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.He has caused him to suffer.When you make his soul an offering for sin,he will see his offspring.He will prolong his daysand the Lord’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.After the suffering of his soul,he will see the light and be satisfied.My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;and he will bear their iniquities.Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.He will divide the plunder with the strong,because he poured out his soul to deathand was counted with the transgressors;yet he bore the sins of manyand made intercession for the transgressors.
Next come these words:
“Sing, you who could have no children, you who never gave birth!Break out singing and shout, you who never went into labor!Because the woman left alone has more childrenthan the married wife,” says the Lord.
“Make the place of your tent larger.Let them stretch out the curtains of your home.Don’t hold back. Make your ropes longer and your tent pegs stronger,because you will spread out on the right and on the left.Your offspring will possess the nationsand settle in empty cities.
“Don’t be afraid, because you will not be ashamed.Don’t feel disgraced, because you will not be let down.You will forget the shame of your youth.You will no longer remember the scorn of being a widow,because your Maker is your husband.The Lord of Armies is his name.The is your Redeemer.He will be called the God of the whole earth.
“The Lord has called you like a wife abandoned and grieving,like the wife a man married when he was young,when she is sent away,” says your God.
“For a short moment I left you,but I will gather you with great mercy.When my anger overflowed, I hid my face from you for a moment,but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,”says the Lord your Redeemer.
“This is like the waters of to me.Just as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will never again cover the earth,so I have sworn not to be angry with you or scold you.For the mountains may depart,and the hills be removed,but my loving kindness will not depart from you,and my of peace will not be removed,”says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
And then:
“Hey! Everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters!Come, you who have no money, buy and eat!Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.Why do you spend money on something that isn’t bread,and your work on something that doesn’t satisfy?Listen closely to me and eat what is good.Let yourselves enjoy the richest food.
“Pay attention, and come to me.Listen, and you will live.I will make an everlasting covenant with you,the sure mercies of .
“Look, I have given him as a witness to the peoples,a leader and commander to the peoples.Look, you will call a nation that you don’t know,and a nation that didn’t know you will run to you,because of the Lord your God,and for the Holy One of Israel,because he has glorified you.”
Seek the Lord while he may be found.Call on him while he is near.Let the wicked give up his way,and the man who does wrong give up his thoughts.Let him come back to the Lord, and the Lord will have mercy on him.Let him come back to our God, because he will forgive freely.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,and your ways are not my ways,” says the Lord.“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways,and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“Just as the rain and the snow come down from the skyand don’t go back there, but water the earthand make it grow and bud,and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,so it is with my word that goes out of my mouth.It will not come back to me empty.It will do what I please,and it will succeed in the thing I sent it to do.
“You will go out with joyand be led out in peace.The mountains and the hills will break out singing in front of you,and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.Instead of the thorn, the tree will come up.Instead of the brier, the tree will come up.This will make a name for the Lord,a sign that lasts forever and will not be cut off.”