Isaiah 53:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 53:10
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
וַיהוָ֞הva.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · conjunction + proper noun, a title
bruise
דַּכְּאוֹ֙da.ke.'O
H1792
to crumble · verb, piel infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
grief
הֶֽחֱלִ֔יhe.che.Li
H2470
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
make
תָּשִׂ֤יםta.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
soul
נַפְשׁ֔וֹnaf.Sho
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
sin
אָשָׁם֙'a.Sham
H817
guilt · noun, common masculine singular absolute
see
יִרְאֶ֥הyir.'Eh
H7200
to see · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
seed
זֶ֖רַעZe.ra'
H2233
seed · noun, common masculine singular absolute
prolong
יַאֲרִ֣יךְya.'a.Rikh
H748
to be (causative · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
days
יָמִ֑יםya.Mim
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
pleasure
וְחֵ֥פֶץve.Che.fetz
H2656
pleasure · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
prosper
יִצְלָֽחyitz.Lach
H6743
to push forward · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
hand
בְּיָד֥וֹbe.ya.Do
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Zechariah 13:7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall…
Ephesians 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Isaiah 53:3-6 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised,…
Hebrews 10:6-12 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
1 John 4:9-10 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 53:10–end
In the foregoing verses the prophet had testified very particularly of the sufferings of Christ, yet mixing some hints of the happy issue of them; here he again mentions his sufferings, but largely foretels the glory that should follow. We may observe, in these verses,
I. The services and sufferings of Christ's state of humiliation. Come, and see how he loved us, see what he did for us.
1. He submitted to the frowns of Heaven (Isa 53:10): Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to pain, or torment, or grief. The scripture nowhere says that Christ is his sufferings underwent the wrath of God; but it says here, (1.) That the Lord bruised him, not only permitted men to bruise him, but…
Transition from His humiliation to His exaltation.
pleased the Lord--the secret of His sufferings. They were voluntarily borne by Messiah, in order that thereby He might "do Jehovah's will" (Joh 6:38; Heb 10:7, Heb 10:9), as to man's redemption; so at the end of the verse, "the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand."
bruise--(see Isa 53:5); Gen 3:15, was hereby fulfilled, though the Hebrew word for "bruise," there, is not the one used here. The word "Himself," in Matthew, implies a personal bearing on Himself of our maladies, spiritual and physical, which included as a consequence His ministration to our bodily ailments: these latter are the reverse side of sin; His bearing on H…
To grief "With affliction" - For החלי hecheli, the verb, the construction of which seems to be hard and inelegant in this place, the Vulgate reads בחלי bocholi, in infirmitate, "with infirmity."
When thou shalt make his soul "If his soul shall make" - For תשים tasim, a MS. has תשם tasem, which may be taken passively, "If his soul shall be made" agreeably to some copies of the Septuagint, which have δωται See likewise the Syriac.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering - The word נפש dro nephesh, soul, is frequently used in Hebrew to signify life. Throughout the New Testament the salvation of men is uniformly attributed to the death of Christ.
He shall see his seed - True converts, genuine…
The Church Fathers
Having thus proclaimed in advance the iniquity of the people, he addresses to them an exhortation to repent—for he saw in advance those among them who, after these events, would have the faith. Of this number was the divine Paul; of this number were the three thousand men and the many thousands—and he says, "If you can give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived offspring." If you acknowledge your impiety, and if you request salvation, you will obtain life eternal; for this is what he has called "long-lived."
And the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity. LXX: And the Lord desires to cleanse him from his wound. However, the Lord wanted to cleanse him from the wound that he had received from the soldier's spear. Whether to crush him in weakness and wound: of whom he himself said: Because whom you struck, they persecuted (Ps. 68:27). And through Zacharias God speaks: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered (Zech. 13:7). Therefore, it was not of necessity that he suffered, but of the will of the Father and his own, to whom he himself said: Father, I have wanted to do your will (Ps. 39:9). Of whom also we read above: He was offered, because he himself wanted.
"His soul will see his offspring grow." On the day after his suffering, the spiritual conception of that indescribable, indwelling birth came. The divine power was vindicated in accordance with the promises to Abraham in the undoing of death-bearing sin and the access to redemption. And where the [LXX] text has "And the Lord wills to alleviate his soul from its suffering," Symmachus renders, "And the will of the Lord prospered in his hand." And this fits the Savior well. He gave light to himself so that others would be illuminated through his being just, but he also gave understanding. For the spirit of wisdom and understanding was resting on him to give others understanding and "to justify those worthy of being justified." Others interpret in this way: the Lord wills to turn the sorrow on the cross to gladness through revealing himself to those who had once been deceived in darkness who were now being transformed into light. For as Paul said, "We who were once darkness are now light in the Lord" and "recreated in understanding," as though being changed from glory into glory.…God is said to have made one new humanity from two peoples, that is, to have made a transformation. For the Only Begotten considered our salvation to be his own reward. By taking a body, he thus suffered on our behalf. And so, it was necessary for the Father to make the "alleviation of suffering"—which is said about Christ—our healing and to make his light our illumination, exchanging what we had for something better as we were recreated in the understanding of God. For Christ did not come to be served but, as he said himself, to serve the working out of the plan of our salvation in his incarnation.
Dictionary and topics
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Humiliation of Christ — (Phil. 2:8), seen in (1) his birth (Gal. 4:4; Luke 2:7; John 1:46; Heb. 2:9), (2) his circumstances, (3) his reputation (Isa. 53; Matt. 26:59, 67; Ps. 22:6; Matt. 26:68), (4) his soul (Ps. 22:1;…
Prophecy — Or prediction, was one of the functions of the prophet. It has been defined as a “miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human…
Atonement, The · Foretold — Foretold
Death Of Christ, The · Appointed by God — Appointed by God
Persecution · OF JESUS — OF JESUS
Trespass Offering · Illustrative of Christ — Illustrative of Christ
Types Of Christ · Trespass offering — Trespass offering
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him,.... The sufferings of Christ are signified by his being "bruised"; See Gill on Isaiah 53:5, and as it was foretold he should have his heel bruised by the serpent, Genesis 3:15, but here it is ascribed to the Lord: he was bruised in body, when buffeted and scourged, and nailed to the cross; and was bruised and broken in spirit, when the sins of his people were laid on him, and the wrath of God came upon him for them: the Lord had a hand in his sufferings; he not only permitted them, but they were according to the counsel of his will; they were predetermined by him, Acts 2:23, yea, they were pleasing to him, he took a kind of delight and pleasure in them;…
Yet Jehovah was pleased to bruise him. This illustrates more fully what I formerly stated in few words, that the Prophet, in asserting Christ's innocence, aims at something more than to defend him from all reproach. The object therefore is, that we should consider the cause, in order to have experience of the effect; for God appoints nothing at random, and hence it follows that the cause of his death is lawful. We must also keep in view the contrast. In Christ there was no fault; why, then, was the Lord pleased that he should suffer? Because he stood in our room, and in no other way than by his death could the justice of God be satisfied.
When he shall have offered his soul as a sacrifice.…
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 Bttcher's suggestion, that we should read החלי as an accusative of more precise definition, commend it…
The final stanza of the poem first explains why the servant suffered and was treated unjustly in the place of others; it then explains what the result of that obedience would be.
53:10 The servant’s grief would accomplish a greater good; the forgiveness and reconciliation of sinful humanity. Note also God’s good plan to prosper and exalt the servant. • when his life is made an offering for sin: The suffering of the servant provided a substitute for others, just as the animal sacrifices in the Temple did. • Having many descendants and enjoying a long life are rewards for godly and wise living (see Prov 3:2; 17:6; 20:7). Because the servant left his fate in his God’s hands, he would receive e…
And the Lord wished to crush him, He made him ill The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to crush him and to cause him to repent; therefore, he made him ill.
If his soul makes itself restitution, etc. Said the Holy One, blessed be He, “I will see, if his soul will be given and delivered with My holiness to return it to Me as restitution for all that he betrayed Me, I will pay him his recompense, and he will see children, etc.” This word אָשָׁם is an expression of ransom that one gives to the one against when he sinned, amende in O.F., to free from faults, similar to the matter mentioned in the episode of the Philistines (I Sam. 6:3), “Do not send it away empty, but you shall send back with it…