Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53
← chapter 52 chapter 54 →
Isaiah 53 in the Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran from the second century BC (and is mostly identical to the Masoretic version).
Book	Book of Isaiah
Bible part	Old Testament
Order in the Bible part	23
Category	Nevi'im

Isaiah 53 is the fifty-third chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Isaiah, and is a part of the Book of the Prophets.

The fourth servant song, or Isaiah 52:13-53:12, taken from the Book of Isaiah, is the last of the four Songs of the Suffering Servant, and tells the story of a "Man of Sorrows" or "God's Suffering Servant".

Jewish and Christian scholars both agree that Isaiah 52:13 is the natural beginning of the section, which is reasonable when one considers that the original Hebrew does not have the modern chapter breaks. The speaker from Isaiah 52:13 to the end of chapter 52 is God himself, whereas from the beginning of 53:1 through 53:9 the gentile kings of nations are speaking in their numbed astonishment. This narrative expressed by the surprised leaders of the surrounding gentile nations is referred to in 52:15. This alternation in speakers is evident in that verses Isaiah 52:13 and Isaiah 53:11 speak of "My [i.e. God's] servant", while the intervening verses refer to "our transgressions" (i.e., in the Jewish view of this chapter, the transgressions committed by the gentile nations against God's servant, Israel, or, in the Christian view of this chapter, the sins of individuals against God).

Jewish scripture in Isaiah 52:13 through Isaiah 53:12 describes the servant of the Lord as the Nation of Israel itself: "My Servant..." (Isaiah 53:11), "... a man of pains and accustomed to illness ... " (Isaiah 53:3). "The theme of Isaiah is jubilation, a song of celebration at the imminent end of the Babylonian Captivity". Jewish scripture in Isaiah speaks in the light, when it says: