Isaías 53

VBL · Chapter 53/66

1¿Ha creído alguien en nuestras noticias? ¿A quién ha mostrado el Señor su poder?

2Como un brote joven creció ante él, como una raíz que surge de la tierra seca. No tenía belleza ni gloria para que nos fijáramos en él; nada en su aspecto nos atraía.

3La gente lo despreciaba y lo rechazaba. Era un hombre que realmente sufría y que experimentaba el dolor más profundo. Le tratamos como a alguien a quien se le da la espalda con asco: le despreciamos y no le respetamos.

4Sin embargo, era él quien cargaba con nuestras debilidades, estaba cargado con nuestro dolor, pero suponíamos que estaba siendo golpeado, vencido y humillado por Dios.

5Pero fue herido por nuestros actos rebeldes, fue aplastado por nuestra culpa. Experimentó la disciplina que nos trae la paz, y sus heridas nos curan.

6Todos nosotros nos hemos extraviado, como ovejas. Cada uno de nosotros ha seguido su propio camino, y el Señor permitió que toda nuestra culpa cayera sobre él.

7Fue perseguido y maltratado, pero no dijo nada. Fue llevado como un cordero a la muerte, y del mismo modo que una oveja a punto de ser esquilada guarda silencio, él no dijo ni una palabra.

8Por la fuerza y una sentencia de muerte fue asesinado —¿a quién le importaba lo que le ocurriera? Lo ejecutaron, lo sacaron de la tierra de los vivos; lo mataron por la maldad de mi pueblo.

9Lo enterraron como si fuera un malvado, dándole una tumba entre los ricos, aunque no había hecho nada malo ni había dicho ninguna mentira.

10Sin embargo, la voluntad del Señor era que fuera aplastado y que sufriera, porque cuando dé su vida como ofrenda por la culpa, verá a sus descendientes, tendrá una larga vida, y lo que el Señor quiere se logrará a través de él.

11Después de su sufrimiento, verá los resultados y quedará satisfecho. A través de su conocimiento, mi siervo que hace lo que es correcto, enderezará a muchos, y cargará con sus pecados.

12Por eso le concederé un lugar entre los grandes y le daré el premio de los vencedores, porque derramó su vida en la muerte y fue contado como uno de los rebeldes. Tomó sobre sí los pecados de muchos y pidió perdón por los rebeldes.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The most famous and detailed Song of the Suffering Servant: he is despised, rejected, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, led like a lamb to the slaughter without opening his mouth, bearing the sin of many and interceding for the transgressors.

Explanation

This chapter is one of the most read and debated texts in all of biblical literature, describing a figure who voluntarily suffers for the sin of others, something with virtually no parallel in other religions of antiquity. The Christian New Testament sees in it a detailed prophecy of Jesus's crucifixion, quoted extensively in texts such as Acts 8:32-33 (when Philip explains this passage to an Ethiopian eunuch) and 1 Peter 2:22-25. Jewish scholars have also traditionally debated this passage, some interpreting the "Servant" as representing the people of Israel itself suffering in exile, while other ancient Jewish readings also recognized an individual messianic sense. Regardless of interpretation, the central message of someone who suffers unjustly to bring healing and reconciliation to others is universally powerful. The application today is to reflect on how voluntary suffering out of love for others can carry a redemptive purpose greater than it appears.

Fun facts

  • Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered at Qumran starting in 1947, there is an almost complete copy of the book of Isaiah (the "Great Isaiah Scroll") dated to around 125 BC — more than a thousand years earlier than any other known copy — which contains this chapter nearly identical to the text we know today, one of the strongest confirmations of the careful preservation of the biblical text.
  • This chapter is quoted or alluded to in the New Testament more than any other chapter of Isaiah, appearing in references from all four Gospels, Acts, Romans, 1 Peter, and other apostolic letters.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaías 53:1The question “Who hath believed our report?” opens the chapter by acknowledging that the message about this suffering figure is hard to accept, something no one would expect to see as a sign of God’s power.
  2. Isaías 53:2“A tender plant” and “a root out of a dry ground” describe a humble, unremarkable growth, with no beauty to draw attention. It’s the opposite of the image of a glorious king one might expect from someone exalted in the previous chapter.
  3. Isaías 53:3Being despised, the kind of person people avoid looking straight at, describes complete social rejection. The central figure of this chapter, called the Servant, suffers with no status and no recognition at all.
  4. Isaías 53:4“He hath borne our griefs” is one of the most debated phrases in the chapter: onlookers assume the suffering is personal punishment, but the text already signals that it is actually something carried on behalf of others.
  5. Isaías 53:5Wounded and bruised describe the chapter’s central idea: the Servant’s suffering benefits other people, carrying a weight that was not his own. Jewish readers traditionally read this figure as the people of Israel itself suffering for the nations; Christian readers read it as a reference to Jesus — the original text does not resolve this divergence.
  6. Isaías 53:6Comparing the people to sheep gone astray, each one following its own way, contrasts with the idea that it is on this single figure that the collective weight of everyone’s wanderings falls, a summary of the entire chapter.
  7. Isaías 53:7The Servant’s suffering is compared to that of a lamb led to the slaughter, killed without resisting or defending itself. It’s an image of total submission in the face of violence.
  8. Isaías 53:8“He was cut off out of the land of the living” is an expression for death, and the closing phrase ties this suffering to the people’s transgression, not to any guilt of the figure’s own, the central idea of the whole chapter.
  9. Isaías 53:9Being buried as a criminal and, at the same time, associated with a rich man is a strange combination. Some scholars read this as two different situations happening, without certainty about the exact details the original Hebrew describes.
  10. Isaías 53:10Prolonging his days after the Servant’s life has already been given as an offering is one of the most debated verses in the chapter, because it speaks of continuity after death without detailing how. It closes by saying that this suffering will justify many, giving meaning to everything that came before.
  11. Isaías 53:11“Shall see... and shall be satisfied” suggests an outcome beyond the suffering itself, something that continues after the ordeal, and “justify many” extends the effect of this suffering beyond the one who suffered.
  12. Isaías 53:12“Divide him a portion with the great” and dividing the spoil with the strong are images of reward after victory, applied here to someone who died numbered among transgressors, and yet intercedes for them.

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