Jesus was a healer

JESUS WAS A HEALER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Matthew 8:16-1716Whenevening came, many who
were demon-possessedwere brought to him, and he
drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the
sick. 17This was to fulfill what was spokenthrough the
prophet Isaiah:"He took up our infirmitiesand bore
our diseases."
How did Jesus Die for our 'Infirmities and Diseases'(Matt.8:17)?
Question: Could you tell me how it is that Jesus “died for our infirmities and
diseases”,yetwe certainly do not lack these?
Response:This quotation in Matthew 8:17 comes from Isaiah53:4. Matthew
claims its "fulfillment" in that Jesus is seenin context healing many people
with physical diseasesand some with supernaturally induced ones as well
(resulting from demon possession). We should note right awaythat although
our Lord's healing ministry was more widespreadand impressive than any
other before or since, He did not heal everyone, not even everyone in Israel,
not even everyone who put their faith in Him, and even those whom He did
heal were not thereafterimmune to other diseases. So not only does this verse
not speak to any universal furloughing of believers from diseases, it also
cannot be takento mean this even in Jesus'day. This is not to diminish our
Lord's ministry - He is God and could certainly have removed all disease from
all people for all time. The miracles had a purpose, in part to alleviate some

suffering, but the larger purpose of leading to salvationthose willing to come
was clearlyfar more important than any temporary relief from pain.
For those familiar with the context of the quote, Isaiah52-53, none of this is
surprising, because that passageis primarily concernedwith the suffering of
the Servantwhose sacrifice redeems us from our sins. Matthew quotes this
verse because Jesus'ministry of healing not only marks Him out as this
Servant, the true Messiah(cf. our Lord's comments to John's disciples at
Matt.11:4-6), but also is symbolic of the true fulfillment of this verse in Jesus'
bearing of our sins on the cross. In other words, the partial, symbolic
fulfillment of Is.53:4 on this occasionnoted by Matthew lookedforward to the
near future fulfillment at Calvary (cf. Rom.4:25). This is clearenough from
the quotation from 1st Peterbelow, where Peterclearly has Isaiah53:3-5 in
mind:
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we might die to
sins and live to righteousness. ByHis wound you are healed.
1stPeter 2:24
This connecting of sin with pain and disease is a natural one for anyone
familiar with scripture to make. Diseasecanbe a direct consequence of
personalsin (cf. the communion abuses at Corinth: 1Cor.11:29-30, andJesus
command to the just healed paralytic "go and sin no more": Jn.5:14). But it
is not necessarilyeven the rule, for there is also a sense in which all infirmity
and pain are a result of Adam's sin through which we have come to inhabit
these imperfect bodies of sin, bodies that since the expulsion of our parents
from Eden are mortal and subject to all manner of pain and disease through
what have become natural processes.
Therefore in scripture disease is a natural and obvious metaphor for sin, since
disease is sometimes a result of sin, and without original sin there would be no
disease atall. So it is not surprising that one finds disease standing for sin
frequently in Bible (cf. Ps.38:17-18;69:26). We should understand both the
language ofIsaiah and the quotation in Matthew as they apply to Jesus in
preciselythese terms. That is to say, both "He hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows" (Is.53:4 KJV) and "He Himself took our infirmities and

bore our sicknesses"(Matt.8:17 KJV) have their primary application in Jesus'
work on the cross, and neither implies that we have been relieved from
sicknessin this world while we continue to reside in these bodies of sin.
It is important to note that in the verse in Isaiahwhich precedes the one
quoted in Matthew the exactsame Hebrew words are used of the Servant's
own personalsuffering (machobh and choli - KJV does a goodjob on this).
Since without question our Saviorwas without personalsin, the statement
that He would be "a Man of sorrows, acquaintedwith grief" has to refer to all
the physical and mental pain Jesus endured during His earthly life in spite of
the factthat His body was free of sin. We are reminded of Paul's references to
sharing the sufferings of Christ (Col.1:24;cf. Rom.8:17;2Cor.1:5;4:10;
Gal.6:17;Phil.3:10; and Petertoo: 1Pet.4:13), andthis surely must refer to
His life of sacrifice (since we cannot and need not die to propitiate sin as He
did). We can say of a certainty that our Lord's life entailed much pain. Not
only did He live a live of physical hardship and mental anguish (Heb.12:3), He
had to run the ultimate gauntlet of trials and torture just to get to the cross
where He could then be forsakenand judged for all of our sins.
This question has much in common with the "why are we still here" one. In
prayer in Gethsemane, Jesusaskednot that we be takenout of this world, but
that we be sanctifiedin it by means of the truth (Jn.17:15-17). This was so
that we might continue in life to serve and glorify Him through spiritual
advance and to help our fellow Christians advance as well. Diseaseis much
like any other categoryof opposition we face in the devil's world - if there
were no opposition, then our free will in choosing for Jesus day by day and
moment by moment would not be receiving a fair test(and there really would
be no need for us to stay here pastsalvation). But we find ourselves in the
middle of a sevenmillennia long struggle betweenthe Lord and the evil one,
and we have to play our part according to the rules, suffering and disease
being some of the "flak" we have to fly through on this mission; without
challenge, struggle and opposition, there would not only be no reasonfor us to
continue in life after accepting Jesus, there also would be no basis for the
rewards we anticipate and hold dear, for they are based upon our
performance in the ranks under the difficult circumstances ofthis earthly life.

Our Lord knew pain and suffering - even before the cross, and so must we His
servants. There are many varieties of opposition, sorrow, disease andthe like
(cf. Paul's considering of his concernfor the churches as in some respects
more onerous than anything else:2Cor.11:28), but in Jesus there is hope,
there is joy, and there is ultimate deliverance of which we are certain. And on
top of that, Jesus has left us His peace (Jn.14:27), so that no matter what we
are calledupon to endure, we can rest easyin the warm embrace of our
Savior, waiting for the day of our ultimate triumph. In the meantime, we are
calledto remember His example of unflagging courage in the face of suffering,
pain and opposition, and do our best to follow in His footsteps (1Pet.2:21-23).
For more on the nature of sin and our Lord's death and sacrifice to redeemus
from it, see Bible Basics3B: Hamartiology: the Biblical Study of Sin. And
now please also see in part 4A of Basics, Christology, "The Spiritual Deathof
Christ".
In the One who carriedall our infirmities and who intercedes for us before
the throne of grace, our SaviorJesus Christ.
Bob L.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Bearing Others' Woes BySympathy
Matthew 8:17
R. Tuck
Himself took our infirmities, anti bare our sicknesses. The evangelistis here
pointing out that our Lord actually suffered with those who suffered. His
powerto heal was directly connectedwith his power to sympathize; and such

sympathizing was necessarilyfollowedby extreme wearinessand physical
exhaustion. If we can geta true and worthy idea of the way in which our Lord
bore the sufferings which he removed, we shall be in a fair way to understand
how he could bear the sins from which he came to deliver us. This passage,
quoted from Isaiah53:4, "does not mean that Christ literally took into his
body and bore himself all the fevers, pains, lamenesses,blindnesses, leprosies,
he healed, but simply that he took them upon his sympathy, bore them as a
burden upon his com passionate love. In that sense exactlyhe assumedand
bore the sins of the world; not that he became the sinner, and suffered the due
punishment himself, but that he took them on his love, and put himself, by
mighty throes of feeling and sacrifice and mortal passion, to the working out
of their deliverance. The sins were never his, the deserved pains never touched
him as being deserved, but they were upon his feeling in so heavy a burden as
to make him sigh, 'My soulis exceeding sorrowful.' And just because the
world in sin took hold of his feeling in this manner, was he able in turn to get
hold of the feeling of the world, and become its true Delivererand Saviour. In
this factlay bosomedthe everlasting, gospel"(Bushnell).
I. HUMAN SYMPATHY BEARING THE WOES OF OTHERS. Take
illustrative cases, suchas the mother, who bears the disabilities, or sufferings,
of her child. Let it be a cripple-child, see how sympathy finds expressionin
tireless ministries. Or take the doctor, whose sympathy leads him to take his
patient up into thought, study, anxiety, and sets him upon every effort to
preserve life, or relieve pain. In what a full and true sense the pain we take up
by sympathy becomes ours!Yet more striking is a mother's sympathy when
her boy brings on himself sufferings through his sins. Then her bearing means
effort to get him delivered from both sufferings and sins.
II. DIVINE SYMPATHY BEARING THE WOES OF OTHERS. We may
learn of God from our best selves. But this we may confidently say, if God
takes up our woes, he will be most concernedabout the sins which are the real
causes ofall the woes. -R.T.

Biblical Illustrator
Himself took our infirmities.
Matthew 8:17
The preciousnessofChrist's sympathy with our infirmitie
Dr. O. Winslow.
s: — Our Lord's union with our nature was actualand personal, etc. In this
point of light, the truth of Christ's sympathy with our infirmities presents
itself with an actuality and vividness the most realizing and personal. The
proper discussionof our subject suggeststhe considerationof;
I. THE INFIRMITIES WHICH APPERTAIN TO OUR HUMANITY.
Physical — as the consequence ofsin, and not in themselves sinful: New
Testamentillustrations. May become occasions ofsin. But Christ's sympathy
extends to all the infirmities to which His people are subject — the inbeing of
sin; constitutionalinfirmities — varied; sufferings and persecutions,
provocations, trials and temptations; proneness to look to the dark
providences of God, rather than to His power, faithfulness to live in the
providence, etc.
II. OUR LORD'S PERSONALPARTICIPATION IN THOSE
INFIRMITIES. It was a personalact; by His assumption of our humanity; by
taking upon Him our sins.
III. THE PRECIOUSNESSOF HIS SYMPATHY WITH THE VARIED
INFIRMITIES OF HIS PEOPLE. Fittedto sympathize — "touched," etc. Let
us be patient and sympathizing towards the infirmities of our fellow
Christians.
(Dr. O. Winslow.)
Christ's identity and sympathy with His people
H. Stowell, M. A.

I. THE COMPLETENESSOF CHRIST'S IDENTITY WITH HIS PEOPLE.
1. Our true nature.
2. In its entirety.
3. In our trials.
II. THE CLOSENESSOF HIS SYMPATHY. Identity is the source of
sympathy. Christ had sympathy with His followers.
(H. Stowell, M. A.)
The sympathy of Jesus
A. A. Bruce, D. D.
The miracles which Christ had wrought.
I. A REVELATION OF CHRIST — of the sympathetic heart of Jesus. The
working of healing miracles not with Jesus a matter of calculation, rather the
spontaneous forth-putting of endowment, in response to need; a revelationof
the grace in Himself. They show His love even more than His power.
II. A PROPHECYOF BETTER DAYS FOR THE WORLD. They are signs
that disease does notbelong to the true order of nature; a prophecy that the
true order shall be restored.
III. AN INSPIRATION TO ALL WHO HONOUR THE NAME OF CHRIST
AND CHERISH THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. We cannot do as Christ did; but
we may adopt His aim, and work for it according to our ability.
(A. A. Bruce, D. D.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES

Adam Clarke Commentary
Himself took our infirmities - The quotation is taken from Isaiah53:4, where
the verb ‫אסנ‬ nasa signifies to bear sin, so as to make atonement for it. And the
rabbins understand this place to speak of the sufferings of the Messiahfor the
sins of Israel; and say that all the diseases, allthe griefs, and all the
punishments due to Israel shall be borne by him. See Synopsis Sohar. Christ
fulfils the prophecies in all respects, and is himself the completion and truth of
them, as being the lamb and victim of God, which, bears and takes awaythe
sin of the world. The text in Isaiah refers properly to the taking away of sin;
and this in the evangelist, to the removal of corporealafflictions:but, as the
diseasesofthe body are the emblems of the sin of the soul, Matthew, referring
to the prediction of the prophet, consideredthe miraculous healing of the
body as an emblem of the soul's salvationby Christ Jesus.
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
That it might be fulfilled … - This passageis found in Isaiah53:4. Our
English translation of that important passage is, “Surelyhe hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows.” The Greek in Matthew is an exacttranslation
of the Hebrew, and the same translation should have been made in both
places. In Isaiah 53:1-12, Isaiahfully states the doctrine of the atonement, or
that the Messiahwas to suffer for sin. In the verse quoted here, however, he
states the very truth which Matthew declares. The wordtranslated “griefs” in
Isaiah, and “infirmities” in Matthew, means properly, in the Hebrew and
Greek, “diseases ofthe body.” In neither does it refer to the disease ofthe
mind, or to sin. To bear those griefs is clearlyto bear them away, or to remove
them. This was done by his miraculous power in healing the sick. The word
rendered “sorrows”in Isaiah, and “sicknesses” in Matthew, means “pain,
grief, or anguish of mind.” To “carry” these is to sympathize with the
sufferers;to make provision for alleviating those sorrows, andto take them
away. This he did by his precepts and by his example; and the cause of all
sorrows - “sin” - he removed by the atonement. The passage in Isaiahand

Matthew, therefore, mean preciselythe same thing. See “Magee on
Atonement,” and the notes at Isaiah, Isaiah53.
The Biblical Illustrator
Matthew 8:17
Himself took our infirmities.
The preciousnessofChrist’s sympathy with our infirmities
Our Lord’s union with our nature was actualand personal, etc. In this point
of light, the truth of Christ’s sympathy with our infirmities presents itself with
an actuality and vividness the most realizing and personal. The proper
discussionof our subjectsuggests the considerationof;
I. The infirmities which appertain to our humanity. Physical-as the
consequence ofsin, and not in themselves sinful: New Testamentillustrations.
May become occasionsofsin. But Christ’s sympathy extends to all the
infirmities to which His people are subject-the inbeing of sin; constitutional
infirmities-varied; sufferings and persecutions, provocations, trials and
temptations; proneness to look to the dark providences of God, rather than to
His power, faithfulness to live in the providence, etc.
II. Our Lord’s personal participation in those infirmities. It was a personal
act; by His assumption of our humanity; by taking upon Him our sins.
III. The preciousness ofHis sympathy with the varied infirmities of His
people. Fitted to sympathize-“touched,” etc. Let us be patient and
sympathizing towards the infirmities of our fellow Christians. (Dr. O.
Winslow.)
Christ’s identity and sympathy with His people

I. The completeness ofChrist’s identity with his people.
1. Our true nature.
2. In its entirety.
3. In our trials.
II. The closenessofhis sympathy. Identity is the source of sympathy. Christ
had sympathy with His followers. (H. Stowell, M. A.)
The sympathy of Jesus
The miracles which Christ had wrought.
I. A revelationof Christ-of the sympathetic heart of Jesus. The working of
healing miracles not with Jesus a matter of calculation, rather the
spontaneous forth-putting of endowment, in response to need; a revelationof
the grace in Himself. They show His love even more than His power.
II. A prophecy of better days for the world. They are signs that disease does
not belong to the true order of nature; a prophecy that the true order shall be
restored.
III. An inspiration to all who honour the name of Christ and cherish the spirit
of Christ. We cannot do as Christ did; but we may adopt His aim, and work
for it according to our ability. (A. A. Bruce, D. D.)
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

That it might be fulfilled which was spokenthrough the prophet Isaiah,
saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.
The passagequotedby Matthew is Isaiah 53:4. Matthew constantly appealed
to the prophetic writers of the Old Testament, citing their long established
and widely-known words as proof of Jesus'claimto be the Messiah.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
That it might be fulfilled which was spokenby Esaias the prophet,.... In Isaiah
53:4 "He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows", here rendered,
himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses:very agreeable to the
Hebrew text, ‫,אוה‬ "he himself", not another; ‫,אשנ‬ "took up", upon himself
voluntarily, freely, as a man lifts up a burden, and takes it on his shoulders;
fni ruo" ,‫חלינו‬irmities", diseases, sicknesses, whetherof body or soul, ‫וניבאכמו‬
ruo" ,kcab sih nopu nedrub a seod nam a sa ,deirrac ro ,"erab dna" ,‫סבלם‬
sicknesses", ordiseases, whichoccasionpain and sorrow. And that these
words are spokenof the Messiah, the Jews themselves own;for among the
names they give to the Messiah, "a leper" is one; which they prove from this
passageF21.
"The Rabbins say, "a leper" of the house of Rabbi is his name; as it is said,
"surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yetwe did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted". Says R. Nachman, if he is of the
living, he is as I am, as it is said, Jeremiah30:21 Says Rab, if of the living, he
is as our Rabbi, the holy.'
Upon which lastclause the gloss is,
"If the Messiahis of them that are alive, our Rabbi the holy is he, "because
'."seitimrifnisraeb eh‫תחלואים‬ ‫דסובל‬
ElsewhereF23they say,
"There is one temple that is calledthe temple of the sons of afflictions;and
when the Messiahcomes into that temple, and reads all the afflictions, all the

griefs, and all the chastisements ofIsrael, which come upon them, then all of
them shall come upon him: and if there was any that would lighten them off of
Israel, and take them upon himself, there is no son of man that canbear the
chastisements ofIsrael, because ofthe punishments of the law; as it is said,
"surely he hath borne our griefs", &c.'
And in another ancient bookF24oftheir's, God is represented saying to the
Messiah,
sitsahc raeb uoht tliw" ,‫ישורין‬ ‫תסבול‬ements", in order to remove their
iniquities? (the iniquities of the children of God,) as it is written, "surelyhe
hath borne our griefs":he replied, "I will bear them with joy".'
Hence it is manifest, that according to the mind of the ancientJews, this
passagebelongs to the Messiah, andis rightly applied to him by the evangelist.
But the difficulty is, how it had its accomplishment in Christ's healing the
bodily diseases ofmen; since Isaiahspeaks not of his actions and miracles, but
of his sufferings and death; and not of bearing the diseasesofthe body, as it
should seem, but of the diseasesofthe mind, of sins, as the Apostle Peter
interprets it, 1 Peter2:24. To remove which, let it be observed, that though the
prophet chiefly designs to point out Christ taking upon him, and bearing the
sins of his people, in order to make satisfactionforthem, and to save them
from them; yet so likewise, as to include his bearing, by way of sympathy, and
taking awayby his power, the bodily diseasesofmen, which arise from sin;
and which was not only an emblem of his bearing and taking awaysin, but a
proof of his powerand ability to do it: for since he could do the one, it was
plain he could do the other.
John Lightfoot's Commentary on the Gospels
17. That it might be fulfilled which was spokenby Esaias the prophet, saying,
Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
[Himself took our infirmities.] Divers names of the Messiasare produced by
the Talmudists, among others "The Rabbins say, His name is, 'The leper of
the house of Rabbi': as it is said, Certainly he bare our infirmities," &c. And a

little after, "Rabhsaith, If Messiasbe among the living, Rabbenu Haccodesh
is he." The Gloss is, "If Messiasbe of them that are now alive, certainly our
holy Rabbi is he, as being one that carries infirmities," &c. R. Judah, whom
they called'the Holy,' underwent very many sicknesses(ofwhom, and of his
sicknesses, youhave the story in the Talmud, "thirteen years Rabbi laboured
under the pain of the teeth," &c.);because of which there were some who
were pleasedto accounthim for the Messias;because, according to the
prophets, Messiasshouldbe 'a man of sorrows':and yet they look for him
coming in pomp.
This allegationof Matthew may seemsomewhatunsuitable and different from
the sense ofthe prophet: for Isaiah speaks ofthe Messiascarrying our
infirmities in himself; but Matthew speaks concerning him healing them in
others: Isaiahof the diseasesofthe soul (see 1 Peter2:24); Matthew of the
diseasesofthe body. But in this sense both agree very well, that Christ's
business was with our infirmities and sorrows, andhe was able to manage that
business:his part was to carry and bear them, and in him was strength and
powerto carry and bear them. In this sense, therefore, is Matthew to be
understood; he healedthe demoniacs and all diseasedpersons withhis word,
that that of Isaiahmight be fulfilled, He it is who is able to bear and carry our
sorrows and sicknesses.And so, whether you apply the words to the diseases
of the mind or the body, a plain sense by an equal easinessdoes arise. The
sense ofIsaiah reachethindeed further; namely, That Messiashimself shall be
a man of sorrows, &c., but not excluding that which we have mentioned,
which Matthew very fitly retains, as excellently wellsuiting with his case..
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases(αυτος τας αστενειας
ελαβεν και τας νοσους εβαστασεν — autos tas astheneias elabenkaitas nosous
ebastasen). A quotation from Isaiah53:4. It is not clearin what sense
Matthew applies the words in Isaiah whether in the precise sense of the
Hebrew or in an independent manner. Moffatt translates it: “He took away
our sicknesses,and bore the burden of our diseases.”Goodspeedputs it: “He

took our sicknessandcarried awayour diseases.”Deissmann(Bible Studies,
pp. 102f.)thinks that Matthew has made a free interpretation of the Hebrew,
has discardedthe translation of the Septuagint, and has transposedthe two
Hebrew verbs so that Matthew means:“He took upon himself our pains, and
bore our diseases.”Plummer holds that “It is impossible, and also
unnecessary, to understand what the Evangelistunderstoodby ‹took‘(ελαβεν
— elaben) and ‹bare‘ (εβαστασεν — ebastasen). It at leastmust mean that
Christ removed their sufferings from the sufferers. He can hardly have meant
that the diseases were transferredto Christ.” ασταζω — Bastazō occurs freely
in the papyri with the sense oflift, carry, endure, carry away(the commonest
meaning, Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary), pilfer. In Matthew 3:11 we
have the common vernacular use to take off sandals. The Attic Greek did not
use it in the sense of carrying off. “This passage is the cornerstone ofthe faith-
cure theory, which claims that the atonement of Christ includes provision for
bodily no less than for spiritual healing, and therefore insists on translating
‹took away‘”(Vincent). We have seenthat the word βασταζω — bastazō will
possibly allow that meaning, but I agree with McNeile:“The passage, as
Matthew employs it, has no bearing on the doctrine of the atonement.” But
Jesus does show his sympathy with us. “Christ‘s sympathy with the sufferers
was so intense that he really felt their weaknessesand pains.” In our burdens
Jesus steps under the load with us and helps us to carry on.
Vincent's Word Studies
Bare ( ἐβάστασεν )
This translation is correct. The word does not mean “he took away, ” but “he
bore, ” as a burden laid upon him. This passageis the corner-stone ofthe
faith-cure theory, which claims that the atonement of Christ includes
provision for bodily no less than for spiritual healing, and therefore insists on
translating “took away.” Matthew maybe presumed to have understoodthe
sense ofthe passagehe was citing from Isaiah, and he could have used no
word more inadequate to express his meaning, if that meaning had been that
Christ took awayinfirmities.

Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
That it might be fulfilled which was spokenby Esaias the prophet, saying,
Whereby was fulfilled what was spokenby the Prophet Isaiah — He spoke it
in a more exalted sense. The evangelisthere only alludes to those words, as
being capable of this lowermeaning also. Suchinstances are frequent in the
sacredwritings, and are eleganciesrather than imperfections. He fulfilled
these words in the highest sense, by bearing our sins in his own body on the
tree: in a lowersense, by sympathizing with us in our sorrows, and healing us
of the diseaseswhichwere the fruit of sin. Isaiah 53:4.
The Fourfold Gospel
that it might be fulfilled which was spokenthrough Isaiah the prophet1,
saying: Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases2.
That it might be fulfilled which was spokenthrough Isaiahthe prophet. See
Isaiah53:4.
Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.Isaiah's visionis
progressive;he sees,first, a man of sorrows;second, a man sorrowful because
he bore the sicknessand sorrows ofothers; third, a man who also bore sin,
and healedthe souls of others by so doing. Such was the order of Christ's life.
His early years were spent in poverty and obscurity; his days of ministry in
bearing by sympathy and compassion, the sicknesses andsorrows ofothers
(John 11:35; Mark 14:34); and in the hour of his crucifixion, he became the
world's sin-bearer(John 1:29; 1 Peter2:24).
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

Matthew 8:17.Thatit might be fulfilled which was spokenby Isaiah the
prophet. This prediction has the appearance of being inappropriate, and even
of being tortured into a meaning which it does not bear: for Isaiah does not
there speak of miracles, but of the death of Christ, — and not of temporal
benefits, but of spiritual and eternal grace. Now, whatis undoubtedly spoken
about the impurities of the soul, Matthew applies to bodily diseases.The
solution is not difficult, if the reader will only observe, that the Evangelist
states not merely the benefit conferredby Christ on those sick persons, but
the purpose for which he healedtheir diseases.Theyexperiencedin their
bodies the grace of Christ, but we must look at the design:for it would be idle
to confine our view to a transitory advantage, as if the Sonof God were a
physician of bodies. What then? He gave sight to the blind, in order to show
that he is “the light of the world,” (John 8:12.)He restoredlife to the dead, to
prove that he is “the resurrectionand the life,” (John 11:25.)Similar
observations might be made as to those who were lame, or had palsy.
Following out this analogy, let us connectthose benefits, which Christ
bestowedon men in the flesh, with the designwhich is statedto us by
Matthew, that he was sent by the Father, to relieve us from all evils and
miseries.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spokenby Esaias the prophet, saying,
Ver. 17. Himself took our infirmities] The prophet speakethofspiritual
infirmities, the evangelistapplieth it to corporal. And not unfitly; for these are
the proper effects of those. We may thank our sins for our sicknesses,
Revelation2:22. She had stretchedherself upon a bed of security, she shall be
cast, anotherwhile, upon a bed of sickness.Asa had laid the prophet by the

heels;and now God lays him by the heels, diseasing him in his feet, 2
Chronicles 16:12. Sin is a universal sickness, Isaiah1:5-6;like those diseases
which the physicians sayare corruptio totius substantiae. And our lives are
fuller of sins than the firmament of stars or the furnace of sparks. Hence all
our bodily distempers, which when we groanand labour under, let us reflect
and revenge upon sin as the mother of all misery. And when we are made
whole, "sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon us."
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Matthew 8:17. That it might be fulfilled, &c.— This prophecy of Isaiahrelates
properly to the sins of men, whereofdiseasesare the emblem and the
consequence;for which reasonthe originalHebrew words rendered here our
infirmities have been by the LXX, and by St. Peter, 1 Peter 2:24 translated
our sins. Grotius has observedthat the original word εβαστασεν signifies, "to
carry a heavy load," Romans 15:1. Galatians 6:2 and so expresses wellthe
indefatigable labours of Christ, spending the evening in healing, probably
with many intermingled discourses,afterhe had employed the day in
preaching.
Greek TestamentCriticalExegeticalCommentary
17.]This is a version of the prophecy differing from the LXX, which has οὗτος
τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶνφέρει, καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν ὀδυνᾶται. The exactsense in which
these words are quoted is matter of difficulty. Some understand ἔλαβεν and
ἐβάστασεν as merely ‘took away,’and ‘healed.’ But besides this being a very
harsh interpretation of both words, it entirely destroys the force of αὐτός, and
makes it expletive. Others suppose it to refer to the personalfatigue, (or even
the spiritual exhaustion, (Olshausen,)which perhaps is hardly consistentwith
sound doctrine,) which our Lord felt by these cures being long protracted into
the evening. But I believe the true relevancyof the prophecy is to be sought by
regarding the miracles generallyto have been, as we know so many of them
were, lesserand typical outshewings of the great work of bearing the sin of the

world, which He came to accomplish;just as diseases themselves, on which
those miracles operated, are all so many testimonies to the existence, and
types of the effect, of sin. Moreoverin these His deeds of mercy, He was
‘touched with the feeling of our infirmities:’ witness His tears at the grave of
Lazarus, and His sighing over the deaf and dumb man, Mark 7:34. The very
act of compassionis (as the name imports) a suffering with its object; and if
this be true betweenman and man, how much more strictly so in His case who
had takenupon Him the whole burden of the sin of the world, with all its sad
train of sorrow and suffering.
Heinrich Meyer's Critical and ExegeticalCommentaryon the New Testament
Matthew 8:17. This expelling of demons and healing of diseaseswere
intended, in pursuance of the divine purposes, to be a fulfilment of the
prediction in Isaiah53:4. Observe that this prophecy is fulfilled by Jesus in
another sense also, viz. by His atoning death (John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24).
The passageis quoted from the original (Hebrew) text, but not according to
the historicalmeaning of that original, which would involve the necessityof
representing the Messiah, in the present instance, as the atoning sin-bearer
(see Kleinert in d. Stud. u. Krit. 1862, p. 723 f.), which, however, is not suited
to the connection—butrather according to that specialtypical reference,
which also seems to have been contemplatedby that prediction when read in
the light of the acts of healing performed by Jesus. At the same time,
λαμβάνειν and βαστάζεινmust not be taken in a sense contrary to that of ‫א‬ ָ‫ָש‬‫נ‬
and ‫ל‬ָ‫ב‬ ָ‫,ס‬ to take away, to remove (de Wette, Bleek, Grimm); but when their
ailments are takenawayfrom the diseased, the marvellous compassionateone
who does this stands forth as he who carries them away, and, as it were, bears
the burden lifted from the shoulders of others. The idea is plastic, poetical,
and not to be understood as meaning an actualpersonalfeeling of the diseases
thus removed.
Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament

Matthew 8:17. ὅπως πληρωθῇ, that it might be fulfilled) It behoved that the
Physicianof the soul should also remove bodily complaints from those who
came in His way.(376)In this manner also, therefore, was fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah. Body and soul togetherform one man: the corrupting
principle of both soul and body is one [namely sin]; one and the same aid was
given to both by this greatPhysician, as the case required.— ἔλαβε, took)i.e.
removed from us.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
Ver. 16,17. Mark hath much the same Mark 1:32-34 and Luke 4:40,41. Luke
adds, he laid his hands upon them, and healedthem. We before, Matthew
4:24, showedwho were meant by persons possessedby devils. See Poole on
"Matthew 4:24". It is only observable that it is said,
he castout the spirits by his word, by the same powerby which he made the
world and all things therein, Genesis 1:1-31, by his authoritative word. He
healed all that were sick, that is, all that were brought to him. Laying on of his
hands, was but an external symbol or rite used in blessing, in miraculous
operations, and in ordination of ministers. The greatquestion is, how that
which the prophet Isaiahsaid, Isaiah53:4, was fulfilled by these miraculous
operations. The words are, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carriedour
sorrows;and, Isaiah53:5, with his stripes we are healed:and the apostle
Peter, referring to that text, saith, Who bare our sins in his ownbody on the
tree, 1 Peter 2:24. The words neither seemtruly quoted, nor doth the sense
appear the same, the evangelistapplying what the prophet seems to speak of
our sins, to our bodily infirmities, and his bearing them, to his curing them;
whereas Peterseemethto apply it to his bearing our sins, that is, the
punishment of our sins, in his stripes, and by his sufferings on the cross. What
I observedbefore is here to be considered, that the evangelists, in their
quotations out of the Old Testament, took themselves only concernedto keep
to the sense, notexactly to the words (which is a liberty we ordinarily take in
quotations). As to the sense, griefand sorrows are terms capable of an
interpretation, as to whatsoevercomes uponus as the fruit and demerit of our

sins, so as the prophet designedto express Christ’s suffering all the
punishment due to us for sin, of which nature are all the afflictions of this life,
and death itself, as well as the pains of hell. The only question is, how
Matthew’s saying, he healed the people’s diseases,answeredthe prophet’s
expression, he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. This scripture was
twice fulfilled in Christ: as to their bodily griefs and sorrows, that is
mentioned by Matthew, though he bare them not all in his own body, yet he
had compassiononmen with reference to them, and showedhimself afflicted
in their afflictions by his putting forth his Divine powerto heal them; and he
bore the guilt that was the cause ofthese and other griefs and sorrows upon
the tree, as is said by Peter;and he therefore healed them, that he might
demonstrate himself to be the true Messiasprophesiedof by Isaiah, who was
to come, who was to bear our griefs and to carry our sorrows.
Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament
Took-bare;took them upon himself, and thus took them away from us. Such
is the plain meaning of this passage, quotedfrom Isaiah 53:4. Bodily sickness
is a part of the sorrow which sin has occasioned. Byhealing this, the Saviour
shadowedforth the perfect redemption which he gives to our souls by taking
our place, and being "woundedfor our transgressions," and"bruised for our
iniquities." Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter2:24.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
17. That it might be fulfilled — It can, in a true sense, be said that the
prophetic Scriptures must be fulfilled. And in a subordinate sense, it can be
truly said that things were done that the Scriptures might be fulfilled; and this
without either saying that such was the intention of the doers, or that they
could not do otherwise. Theyfreely actedto fulfil prophecy, because prophecy
foretold what they would freely do. Esaias — Isaiah53:4. Took our
infirmities, and bare our sicknesses — Sickness, mortality, temporal death,
are as truly a part of the greatpenalty of sin, as the very pains of hell itself.

All these were borne by the Saviour in the form of atoning sufferings on the
cross. It was by this substitutional suffering in our stead, that the man Christ
Jesus was entitled to redeem us from hell and relieve us from even the earthly
part of our woes. He healed sicknesses, therefore, by bearing even them in his
own body on the tree.
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
‘That it might be fulfilled which was spokenthrough Isaiahthe prophet,
saying, “Himself took our infirmities, and bore our diseases”.’
It can hardly be doubted that this quotation from Isaiahis intended to cover
at leastthe whole of the final summary of exorcismand healing, although it is
probably also intended to coverthe whole passagefrom Matthew 8:1, and
being in the inclusio from Matthew 4:23 to Matthew 9:35, in both of which
verses there is specific reference to His healing of both ‘sicknessand disease’,
it is probably intended to coverthe whole inclusio. The point being made is
that the One Who had come to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)
was thus also here to deliver them from the sufferings which resulted from
that sin, because He was bearing it all for them. And that included being
delivered from the powerof the Evil One (Matthew 8:16). And He was able to
do it because He would bear their necessarysufferings on Himself. As the
original context makes clear(and see also Matthew 20:28)He was here as our
representative and substitute to bear in Himself what the world deserved
because ofsin (Isaiah53:3-5). Among other things He would take on Himself
the groaning of the world (Romans 8:18-25). Thus these acts of healing were a
part of His largerwork as the suffering Servant Who would lay down His life
as a guilt offering on behalf of many, with all its positive results (Isaiah 53:10),
the ServantWho was also the coming King (Isaiah52:13; Isaiah42:1; Isaiah
42:4). And this offering would result in healing and forgiveness (Matthew
9:12-13). We must again draw attention to the fact that we are in the part of
Matthew where the quotations from Isaiahspecificallypredominate, referring
to both King and Servant. Jesus is revealedas having come here as the

suffering Servant, and as in fulfilment of all the Isaianic promises (Matthew
3:3; Matthew 4:16; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17;Matthew 13:14-15).
The word for ‘infirmities’ is used only here in Matthew. Luke, however, uses
it regularly for diseases. The dual idea, but with a different term for
infirmities, is again found in Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; Matthew 10:1. If
we consider the probability that Matthew uses ‘infirmities’ (astheneias)here
simply because it was in the text from which he took the saying, while himself
preferring ‘sicknesses’ (malakian)as in Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35;
Matthew 10:1, then we might see Matthew 8:17 as central to the inclusio from
Matthew 4:23 to Matthew 9:35 (both of which mention the dual ‘sicknessand
disease’), demonstrating that what lies betweenis to be connectedwith
Matthew 8:17. In that case Matthew 10:1, where ‘sicknessesand diseases’are
againmentioned, canthen be seenas also carrying the implication forward
into the future work of His disciples. They too are in a sense God’s Servant
(compare Acts 13:47).
Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Matthew 8:17. Peculiarto Matthew, and in accordancewith the purpose of his
Gospel.
Isaiahthe prophet. In the beautiful Messianic prediction, chap. 53. The
Evangelistdoes not quote from the common Greek version, but makes a more
exacttranslation, varying from the original only in the substitution of diseases
for ‘sorrows,’in the last clause. This is allowable from the parallelism of ideas
common to Hebrew poetry. The prophecy refers to bearing and expiating our
sins, but is here applied to the healing of bodily diseases.His healing was also
a suffering with and for us. These miracles were types of His greatwork of
bearing the sins of the world, being directed againstthe effects ofsin; they
were signs and pledges of His spiritual power. His contactwith all this
suffering was an important part of the work of One who for us became ‘a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief.’ Matthew’s applicationof the prophecy,

especiallyat the close ofsuch a group of miracles, is highly suggestive in
regard to the vicarious work of our Lord. The work of healing is an integral
part of our Lord’s redeeming work. The medical professioncanfind its
highest incentive and truest glory in this fact.
The Expositor's Greek Testament
Matthew 8:17. rophetic citation, apposite, felicitous; setting Christ’s healing
ministry in a true light; giving prominence not to the thaumaturgic but to the
sympathetic aspect;from the Hebrew original, the Sept(53)making the text
(Isaiah 53:4) refer to sin. The Hebrew refers to sicknessesand pains. It is
useless to discuss the precise meaning of ἔλαβεν and ἐβάστασεν: took and
bore, or took and bore away;subjective or objective? The evangelistwould
note, not merely that Jesus actuallydid remove diseases,but that He was
minded to do so: such was His bent.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
the Greek ofthe seventy-two interpreters, for infirmities we have Greek:
amartias, sins; but the evangelistrefers this to our bodily infirmities, because,
as St. John Chrysostomobserves, diseases are the punishment of sins, and
frequently arrive from the diseasesofthe soul. (Menochius) --- The text of
Isaias here quoted, regards the Messiasliterally. (Bible de Vence) --- He took
our infirmities. The words signify both the distempers of the body and the
infirmities of the soul, for Christ cured both. (Witham)
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
That = So that.
by = by means of. Greek. dia.

Esaias = Isaiah. See App-79.
saying. Quoted from the Hebrew of Isaiah53:4. Compare 1 Peter2:24.
took . . . bare. The two words togetherfulfill the sense of the Hebrew (Isaiah
53:4). The Inspirer of Isaiahadapts and deals as He pleases withHis own
words.
bare = to take up for one"s self; to bear our infirmities as in Luke 14:27.
Romans 15:1. Galatians 1:5, Galatians 1:10; Galatians 6:17. Compare John
4:6.
sicknesses. Greek. nososdiseases.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(17) Himself took our infirmities.—The citation is interesting as showing St.
Matthew’s way of dealing with Messianic prophecies. We see in Isaiah53
throughout a picture of our Lord’s spiritual work of redemption, and the
words quoted are almostthe cardinal text for the specialview of the
atonement, which sees in the sufferings of Christ the freely acceptedpenalty
that was due for the transgressions ofmankind. The Evangelist, with the
memory of that evening present to his mind, saw them fulfilled in this removal
of the “infirmities” and “sicknesses”that oppressedthe bodies of men. It was
not merely that He came, as one of boundless wealth, who might scatteralms
broadcast, but that He Himself “took” and“bore” the sufferings which He
removed. He suffered with those He saw suffer. The powerto heal was
intimately connectedwith the intensity of His sympathy, and so was followed
(as analogous works oflove are followedin those who are most Christ-like in
their lives) by wearinessand physical exhaustion. What is relatedby St. Mark
and St. Luke of our Lord’s seeking out the refuge of solitude at the earliest
dawn of the day that followed, is entirely in harmony with the view thus
suggested.
Treasuryof Scripture Knowledge

That it might be fulfilled which was spokenby Esaias the prophet, saying,
it might
1:22; 2:15,23
Himself
Isaiah53:4; 1 Peter2:24
The Bible Study New Testament
He did this to make come true. See Isaiah53. This emphasizes the love and
sympathy which Jesus had for we humans. (See Hebrews 2:11-18).
E.M. Zerr's Commentary on SelectedBooksofthe New Testament
That it might be fulfilled does not always mean that a certain thing was done
just so a particular prophecy might be fulfilled, although it will sometimes
mean that. Whichever the case may be, it will be well to considerit in the light
of saying, "and in so doing the prophecy was fulfilled which," etc. The
prophecy cited here is in Isaiah53:4.
ISA 53:4
New InternationalVersion
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet
we consideredhim punishedby God, stricken by him,
and afflicted.

New Living Translation
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;it was our
sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his
troubles were a punishmentfrom God, a punishment
for his own sins!
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Suffering Servant Of Jehovah
Isaiah53:4-6
E. Johnson
I. THE DESCRIPTIONOF THE SUFFERING.It depicts, by simple force of
language, its extreme intensity - not a suffering springing from internal
weakness ofnature, and so withering and dying like a lamp for want of oil,
but "like a torch in its full flame bent and ruffled, and at length blown out by
the breath of a north wind." It was a diffused suffering, according to the
expressionof the psalmist, "like water in his bowels, or oil in his bones." "In
his personwe may see grief in its height and supremacy, triumphant, crowned
and arrayed in purple, grief reigning and doing the utmost that it was able."
In proportion to the fineness of the nature is the sensitiveness,and in
proportion to the sensitiveness, the capacityfor suffering. In these words,
"stricken, pierced, afflicted, crushed, beatenwith stripes," we have a
cumulation of strong touches in the picture. Add to this, "smitten of God."
The allusion is said to be to leprosy, regardedas a punishment for grievous sin
(Numbers 12:9, 10; 2 Kings 15:5; Psalm 51:7). "The measure of every passion
is the operationof the agent. We must not measure the Divine strokes by the

proportion of those blows which are inflicted by the greatestandmost
exasperatedmortal. Every blow inflicted by the fiercesttyrant can reachno
further than the body, and the body is but the dwelling-place, not any part, of
the soul. None can reachthe conscience but he who made it. God is able,
merely by letting a few drops of his wrath fall upon the guilty conscience, so to
scaldwith a lively sense of sin, that the man shall live a continual terror to
himself. His own breastshall echo peals of vengeance to him every hour.
Suffering must needs be grievous when infinite justice passes sentence,and
infinite powerdoes execution" (South). An "unparalleled greatness" of
suffering is, then, here indicated.
II. THE VICARIOUS NATURE OF THE SUFFERING.He bore our
sicknesses;"the first of twelve distinct assertions in this one chapter of the
vicarious characterof the sufferings of the Servant." They are "because of
our rebellions" and of "our iniquities." The punishment which is the means of
"our peace" andwelfare fell upon him; we have been healed through his
stripes. The iniquity of all has been made to light upon him. "As the avenger
of blood pursues the murderer, so punishment by an inner necessityovertakes
the sinner (Psalm 40:12;Numbers 32:23; cf. Deuteronomy27:15). And
inasmuch as the Servant, by Jehovah's will, has made himself the Substitute of
the Jewishnation, it follows that the punishment of the latter must fall upon
him." After all that has been written for ages upon this difficult subject of
vicarious suffering or punishment, there remain difficulties not to be
surmounted by our reason. How canpunishment be transferred? How can the
suffering due to the sinner be imposed upon an innocent person? How can any
honest mind admit such a confusion of relation, even were it offered, as a
means of escape frompenalty? The answers to these questions are given in
poetic metaphors, and analogieswhichdo not reach to the heart of the matter,
and forensic quibbles which are not lovely in connectionwith spiritual
matters. Forall that, there is something the heart of all men fixes upon as
lovely, Divine, adorable, in the idea of a man laying down his life for his
brethren, a patriot for his country. Much of this deep feeling enters into the
old legends, oftenof a woman - an Alkestis, a Makaria, anHesione; often of a
man - a son of Mesa, King of Moab, a Menoikeus, a Curtius. If we begin to
criticize, we lose the sense and spirit of these sweetstories. So with the great

tradition of the Servant of Jehovah, and with the still greatertradition by
which our lives and hearts have been formed.
III. APPLICATION. Every Christian thinks of Christ when he reads these
beautiful words. Who but he can inspire us with the willingness to "crucify
the flesh, with the affections and lusts"? "Nature, indeed, cannot, will not,
prompt it; but Christianity, which rises many strains above nature, must and
will. The best sacrifice to a crucified Saviour is a crucified lust, a bleeding
heart, and a dying corruption. Let the ambitious man lay his pride in the dust,
the covetous man deposithis treasures in the banks of charity and liberality,
and let the voluptuous epicure renounce his cups and his whores, - and this
will be a present to Heaven better than a whole hecatomb;nor could the fruit
of his body fall so grateful a sacrifice upon God's altar as the sin of his soul"
(South). - J.
Biblical Illustrator
Surely He hath borne our griefs.
Isaiah53:4-6

Christ's love and man's unthankfulness
I. CHRIST'S LOVE.
1. The certainty of what is averred of Christ: "Surely."
2. The acts of Christ's obedience, setforth in two words: He hath "borne," He
hath "carried."
3. The objects. They are "griefs," "sorrows."
II. MAN'S UNTHANKFULNESS, in censuring Christ and despising Him;
and there consider —
1. The persons: "We."
2. The guilt. Esteeming Christ strickenand smitten of God.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
The pressure of the burden on God
J. B. Brown, B. A.
My positions are these —
1. The Lord — electing to perpetuate the sinful race, to endure all the sorrow
which Heaven would look upon, and the question which would fall upon His
government through the existence ofa world so full of wrong and
wretchedness, ina universe whose orderwas his charge — stoopedat once, in
infinite, tender pity, to lift the burden, and to become a fellow-wayfarerin the
sorrowfulpilgrimage to which man had doomed himself by his sin. Suffering
sin to live on and reproduce itself, with all its bitter fruits, in the universe
which He made to be so blest, He needs must become its sacrifice;making the
atonement for the sin which He did not on the moment crush, and bearing the
burden of the sorrow which He did not at once destroy. And this is Divine
love. It must share the sorrow which it allows to live on, though the fountain
of the sorrow be a sin which he hates;it must lift and bear the burden which
most righteous necessitieslay heavily upon erring souls. We none of us know,

even dimly, what is meant by "Emmanuel," "God with us. Godalways with
us, incarnate from the hour when He announced Himself as the woman's seed,
and the destroyer of her foe. God with us, our fellow in all the dread
experience into which our sharing in the sin of Adam has driven us; knowing
Himself the full pressure of its burdens, and infinitely more nearly touched
than we are by everything that concerns the dark, sad history of mankind.
2. The fellowship of God with the race in the very hour of the transgression
infused at once a tincture of hope into the experience of the sinner, and made
it, from the first, a discipline unto life instead of a judgment unto death.
3. This first promise to man, this fellowship of God with the sinning, suffering
race, whose existence He perpetuated, pledgedHim to the sacrifice ofCalvary,
the baptism of Pentecost, and the abiding of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter,
with the world.
(J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Christ the Burden-bearer
C. Clemance, D. D.
There are two questions which here suggestthemselves —
I. WHAT BURDENS PRESSEDON CHRIST, WHICH COULD NOT HAVE
BEEN HIS, UNLESS HE HAD TAKEN THEM UP?
1. By His incarnation He inserted Himself into our race, and by assuming our
own nature, He felt whatever sorrows press onman as man
2. By His position He representedour race. As the Sonof God, He is Heaven's
representative on earth. As the Son of Man, He is our GreatHigh Priest, to
intercede with Heaven. Thus all earth's spiritual concerns restedon Him.
Could such a work be entrusted to man, and He-be otherwise than "a man of
sorrows"?
3. By His own personalsympathy He so felt for man, that He made the
sorrows ofothers His own. His was no heartless officialism.

4. By suffering and sorrow, Christ not only disclosesHis own human
sympathy, but by reasonof the two-foldness of His nature, that human
sympathy was an incarnation of the Divine!
5. But we have to take one more step, in accounting for the burden which lay
upon Christ. He came, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give
His life, a ransom for many."
II. WHAT BURDENS DO NOT REST UPON US, THAT MUST HAVE
BEEN OURS IF CHRIST HAD NOT BORNE THEM AWAY?
1. The burden of unatoned guilt rests on none! "Beholdthe Lamb of God that
beareth awaythe sin of the world!"
2. The burden of hopeless corruption of nature need rest on none. When the
Son of God came to be a sacrifice forus, He came to be also a Living Rootin
us. He allied Himself with human weakness, andjoined it to His almightiness,
that in Him that weakness might be lost, and be substituted by "everlasting
strength."
3. The burden of unshared sorrows rests onnone. Does our sorrow arise from
the sin without us? That pressedmore heavily on Christ than ever it can do on
us. Does it come from personaltrial? Christ's were far heavier than ours.
Does it come from the temptations of Satan? He was in all points tempted like
as we are. But perhaps it may be said, "Byreasonof the infirmities of the
flesh, I am betrayed into impatience, murmuring and fretfulness and I cannot
feel that Christ has lifted off that burden, for I am sure Christ never felt any
fretfulness or impatience, and so He cannot sympathize with mine." But,
strange as it may seemat first sight, it is just here that the perfection of
Christ's sympathy is seen. In this last-named course of sorrow there is a
mixture of what is frail with what is wrong. But since Christ's nature was
untainted by sin, He candraw exactly the line betweeninfirmity and sin,
which sinful natures cannotdo. Now, we do not want, and we ought not to
wish for sympathy with the wrong, but only with weaknessandfrailty. How
does Christ, then, meet this complex case!Distinguishing most clearlybetween
the two, He looks on the infirmity, and has for it a fulness of pity; He discerns
the sin, and has for that fulness of power to forgive it, and fulness of grace to

remove it! "In that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to
succourthem that are tempted."
4. The burden of dreaded death need rest on none. Christ passedthrough
death that He might deliver them who through fearof death are all their
lifetime subject to bondage.
5. The great burden of the destiny of the human race rests not on us. Christ
has takenthat up.
(C. Clemance, D. D.)
The death of Christ a propitiation for sin
J. Mason, M.A.
Two things are asserted—
I. THAT THE MESSIAH SHOULD SUFFER NOT FOR HIS OWN SINS,
BUT FOR OURS (vers. 4-5). This indeed is what His enemies would deny,
esteeming Him "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted," for His own sins, His
imposture, usurpation and blasphemy. But if we peruse the history of His life
we shall find that the sum of all they had to lay to His charge was His
presuming to actin a characterwhich really did (but which they would not
believe did) belong to him: that the whole course of His behaviour exemplified
the most perfectintegrity of heart and life, and showedHim to be the spotless
Lamb of God, in whom there was no sin. Hence it follows that He must have
suffered for the sins of others.
1. Some have put this gloss upon the words, "He was wounded for" — i.e.,
(they say) "by our transgressions," and"bruised by our iniquities." Or, that it
was owing to the sins of the Jews thatHe suffered so much as He did. It was
their malice, unrighteousness and envy that was the cause ofall His suffering.
But this construction is not only apparently forced, but is confuted by the
whole scope and tenor of the prophecy. For He is not said to be smitten by the
Jews, but for them; nay, that He was smitten of God for them, for it was "the
Lord that laid on Him the punishment of their iniquities.

2. Others say that He bore our sins by imputation, and was wounded for our
transgressions, because ourtransgressionswere imputed to Him, or reckoned
as His. But you will say, perhaps, "Were not our sins then imputed to
Christ?" I answer, I find no fault with the word, provided it be rightly
understood and explained. If by "imputation" be meant, that our sins were
actually made over or transferred to Him, so as to become His, I do not see
how this canbe conceivedpossible. "Butmight they not be reckonedHis?"
No, for that would be to reckonthem what they were not, and what it was
impossible they should be. But if by our sins being "imputed" to Christ be
understood no more than that the punishment thereof was actuallylaid upon
Him, this is easily conceived, and readily granted: that is what the sacred
Scriptures everywhere say. If anything further be necessaryto illustrate this
affair, we may explain it by the case ofthe propitiatory sacrifices under the
law, all which pointed at or prefigured the greatChristian sacrifice under the
Gospel. Those piacularvictims were of Divine appointment. The sin-offerings,
over the heads of which the priest was to confess the sins of the people, were
substituted in the room of the offenders, and died instead of those sinners for
whom they were offered. The sins of the people were not transferred over to
the victim, but the victim was slain for the sins of the people. Leviticus 16:21,
22 must of necessitybe taken in a figurative construction: because the sins of a
man can in no other sense be transferred to, or laid upon a beast, than by
transferring upon it the punishment of them.
3. Others there are who acknowledge thatChrist died for us, meaning thereby
that He died for our sakes orfor our good, and to setus a perfectexample of
patience and submission under sufferings; but not for our sins, or in our room
and stead. But if Christ died for us as our Sacrifice, oras the sacrificesunder
the law died for the offenders (as He certainly did if they were proper types of
Him), then He must have died in our room, and as substituted in our place.
4. Others think, that all those places ofScripture which speak of Christ's
death as a "propitiation are to be explained in a figurative sense:that the
apostles borrowedthose sacrificalterms from the Jewishlaw, and applied
them to the death of Christ, only by way of accommodationor analogy, not
that the blood of Christ did really and properly expiate or atone for sin, any
more than that of the Jewishsacrifices;but that He only died for us as a

pledge to assure us that God would pardon and acceptus upon our
repentance. To which it may suffice to say, that the apostle does not speak of
the death of Christ merely by wayof analogyto the Jewishsacrifices,but as
typified, representedand prefigured by them (Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:13,
14; Hebrews 10:4).
II. THAT THE GREAT END AND DESIGN OF CHRIST'S SUFFERING
FOR OUR SINS, WAS TO MAKE OUR PEACE WITH GOD. "The
chastisementof our peace was upon Him," etc. These words plainly intimate
to us the way whereby our peace is made with God, viz. by our justification
and sanctification.
(J. Mason, M.A.)
Vicarious Sacrifice of Christ
W. H. Lewis, D.D.
In these words Isaiahdeclares the end of Christ's sufferings. The Jews, who
put Him to death, did "esteemHim smitten of God," that is, crucified
according to the will of God, for attempting to turn away men from the law of
Moses.And, to this day, they speak of Jesus as one who suffered according to
the law of God, for seducing the Israelites from the faith of their forefathers.
The prophet gives a different view of Christ's death. Instead of dying for His
own sins, He was wounded for our transgressions.
1. There is no passageofScripture in which the substitution of Christ's
sufferings, in place of those of the sinner, is more clearly revealedthan in our
text.
2. All agree that men are sinners, and that sin deserves punishment. But when
we come to ask how it may be forgiven, and for what considerationGod
forgives it, we begin to differ. The Trinitarian doctrine is, that the eternalSon
of God, the uncreated, and equal with the Father, became incarnate, and
suffered the punishment of our sins, as our Substitute; and that for the sake of
what He has done, we may be forgiven. They who are opposedto us, on the

other hand, believe that Christ, a createdbeing, but still so very exalted that
He may be calleda God — yet not the supreme God — took our nature upon
Him, that He might teachmen a purer religion than was everbefore known,
and setbefore them a perfectexample, and thus draw them awayfrom their
sins; so that He saves us from our sins, not by atoning for them, but just as
any merely goodman does, who so teaches and practises as to lead men from
sin to holiness. While engagedin this work, they assertfurther, that the Jews
seizedupon the Saviour and put Him to death; and Jesus, to show that He was
persuaded of the truth of what He had taught, gave Himself up to die, just as
Latimer and Ridley sealedtheir testimony with their blood; and that thus
Christ may be said to have died for us, because He met His death in seeking to
do us good. Some go a little further, and believe that God was so pleasedwith
the holy life, and the martyr-death of His Son, that for His sake He is
graciouslyinclined to forgive sin, just as the goodconduct of one child may
procure favours for an erring brother, for whom he pleads. They expect to be
savedthrough their repentance, by the mercy of God; we expect salvation
through the alone merits of the suffering Son of God.
3. Now let us go on to see how this great doctrine of our Church is sustained
by Scripture.
4. But again, we ask attention to the fact, that Christ's sufferings were not so
much from man as from God, not bodily so much as of the soul. How do we
accountfor this? If He was seizedupon by the Jews, and died merely as a
martyr, would God have withdrawn His presence from Him in His last
agonies WouldHe not then have had, as other good men have had, the
brightest views of the Divine presence and comfort? But it was just the
reverse. "The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." "It pleasedthe
Lord to bruise Him." It is said God made Christ's soul, not His body alone, an
offering for sin; it was foretold that it should be mental, not merely corporal
suffering, that He should endure. And such, in fact, was the case.
5. How canthese facts be explained on the Unitarian system?
(W. H. Lewis, D.D.)

Redemption
R. V. Pryce, M.A., LL.B.
I. THE NEED (ver. 6). Sheep, but astray; through following their own
inclinations. Divine pity is on the selfish and the lost.
II. THE MEANS.
1. The reality of the redemption seenin the fact that Christ died. He did not
die for His own sin; "I am innocent of the blood of this just man," said His
judge. He did not die through His own feebleness;"I have powerto lay down
My life," etc., said Christ. He did not die by accident;"the Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity of us all:" it was the will of the Father, and foretold, and a
fact.
2. The form of the redemption.(1) The humiliation of Christ. The humiliation
of Christ teaches the intensity of sin. Where sin is not felt His humiliation is
misunderstood. "We did esteemHim stricken," etc.(2)The substitution of
Christ. The substitution of Christ teaches the wealth in our redemption;
where Christ is not knownin His Divine nature the riches of salvationnot
fully appreciated.
III. THE EFFECT (ver. 5).
1. Sin atoned for, iniquity borne away.
2. Peace. "The chastisementofour. peace was upon Him." "Being justified by
faith we have peace."
3. Healing. We are free from sin to be the servants of God. The depth of His
love the measure of our obligation. As that cannot be fathomed our obligation
can never be fully realized.
(R. V. Pryce, M.A., LL.B.)
Vicarious suffering
A. Crauford, M.A.

Greatis the powerof vicarious suffering in its endless varieties. By the
struggles and the obstinate questionings of deep souls the world of ordinary
men is redeemedand elevated. It is by His suffering prophets that Godmost
truly saves the world. By the untold miseries of Job, by the deep grief of
Isaiah, by the piercing sorrows ofPaul, by the wearyrestlessness of
Augustine, by the fiery agonies ofLuther, by the sore trials of John Bunyan,
by the spiritual travail of Wesleyand Whitfield, by the brave endurance of
Theodore Parker, by the torn heart of Robertsonof Brighton, by the manifold
diquietudes and internal gloomof the greatarmy of bewildereddoubters and
baffled pioneers — by all these we have been led from the house of bondage
and the city of destruction, from the valley of the shadow of death, into the
glorious liberty of the children of God.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
Luther and Bunyan
A. Crauford, M.A.
Luther and Bunyan: — By their "agonyand bloody sweat."it is given to
sympathetic souls in every age to deliver the world to some extent. Thus by the
stripes of Luther John Bunyan was healed. From Luther's commentary on the
Epistle to the Galatians Bunyan receivedpeace and victory.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
Vicarious suffering
A. Crauford, M.A.
with its far-reaching influence, pervades the whole world. Assuredly this is not
due to any after-thought of God. It is an essentialpart of the original
arrangement. "No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)

Societyan organism
A. Crauford, M.A.
The English Deists certainlyerred in rejecting the true inner meaning of the
doctrine of salvation by vicarious suffering. The Deists did not realize the
truth that societyis an organism. And our perception of this fact in the
present day enables us to appreciate the real meaning of the doctrine of
vicarious suffering. This truth shines all the more clearly, owing to the light of
modern science, whichhas discredited the old Deism even more effectually
than Bishop Butler did.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
Sadder and mysterious aspects ofvicarious suffering
A. Crauford, M.A.
Some of these aspects are so unspeakablysadthat it is only in the light of a
future life that I canbear to gaze upon them. We do but skim over the surface
of the deep mystery of vicarious suffering, unless we recognize the fact that
the spiritual world is full of wastedlives, of marvellous abortions, of grand
and heroic failures, of illustrious scapegoats dying in the bleak wilderness of
ignominy and defeat, bearing away the sins of the many, and yet by them
misunderstood, condemned, and anathematized. In many respects these
outcastscapegoats ofthe spiritual world are the truest saviours of our race,
though by commonplace religionists they "are numbered with the
transgressors,"anddie unhealed and unredeemed, and "make their graves
with the wicked."
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
The world's majestic failures

A. Crauford, M.A.
are a sorrowfulhint of God's inexhaustible resources.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
The failure of one the gain of another
A. Crauford, M.A.
I suppose that no thoughtful person would think of denying the fact that
predestined failure is the lot of many noble natures here on earth. They are
stepping-stones on which others "rise to higher things." Of eachof them we
might truly, affirm that he is thus addressedby others, "Bow down, that we
may go over. And, in meek obedience, he complies; so that we write
concerning him, "And thou hastlaid thy body on the ground, and as the street
to them that went over." Such souls are scapegoatsofthe race, bearing away
the deficiencies andthe sins of many into the wilderness ofisolation,
despondency, and disaster. They drink to the very dregs the cup of ancestral
sinfulness, and their brethren thereby escape thatfatal heritage of the soul. It
seems as if it were necessarythat they should be lost, in order that others may
be saved. Consciouslyor unconsciously, they suck out the poison from the
wounds of the human race.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
Vicarious sacrifice in the intellectual world
A. Crauford, M.A.
I In the intellectual world it is often expedient that one man should be
sacrificedfor the race. For instance, David Hume's total want of spirituality,
though extremely injurious to him individually, was probably highly
beneficialto the race in one way, viz. by showing to what monstrous
conclusions intellectby itself was likely to lead. And the very infirmities and
aberrations of the intellect, in some men, are full of instruction for the race at

large. Unrestrained imagination often mars or destroys the life of its
possessor, as did that of Rousseau, but adds much to the world's abiding
mental wealth.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
Poisons as tonics
A. Crauford, M.A.
The spiritual poisons of individuals are often turned into tonics for the race.
(A. Crauford, M.A.)
Stricken, smitten of God
Jesus, smitten of God
Jr. R Macduff, D.D.
Smitten as with a loathsome leprosy — the curse-mark of judicial vengeance
upon Him, for so it is rendered by St. , We thought Him to be a leper.
(Jr. R Macduff, D.D.)
Stricken
Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.
is the expressionusedwhen God visits a man with severe and sudden sickness
(Genesis 12:17;1 Samuel6:9), especiallyleprosy, which was regardedas pre-
eminently the "stroke" ofGod's hand (Job 19:21;2 Kings 15:5; Leviticus
13:3, 9, 20), and the direct consequence ofsin.
(Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)

The Servant of the Lard pictured as a leper
Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.
That the Servant is pictured as a leper is suggestedby severalparticulars in
the description, such as His marred and disfigured form, and His isolation
from human society, as wellas the universal conviction of His contemporaries
that He was a specialobjectof the Divine wrath; and the impression is
confirmed by the parallelcase of Job, the typical righteous sufferer, whose
disease was elephantiasis, the most hideous form of leprosy. It has to be borne
in mind, of course, that the figure of the Servant is, in some sense, anideal
creationof the prophet s mind, so that the leprosy is only a strong image for
such sufferings as are the evidence of God's wrath againstsin.
(Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
The mystery of our Lord's sufferings
R. Tuck, B.A.
I. THE MYSTERYOF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS — MAN'S
EXPLANATION OF IT. "We did esteemHim stricken, smitten of God and
afflicted." And it is impossible to say that this is other than a fair view to take
from man's position and with man's knowledge.
1. Let us try and realize the process ofmind in a man who was told of Christ's
sufferings and death, but had no knowledge ofHis personalinnocence;no
conceptionof Him as the "spotlessOne," separatefrom sinners. Such a man
would only decide that He was "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." To
such a man it would be plain enough that God has establishedan immediate
connectionbetweensin and suffering. And yet we know, we feel, that this
explanation of the mystery of our Lord's sufferings is insufficient and
incorrect. It does not lift the veil. It is altogethertoo commonplace. Good
enough if Christ were a fellow-man. Worthless — nay, wholly wrong — if He
be the spotless Lamb of God; if He be the Son of God with power.

2. Then let us try to realize the process ofmind in a man who has some
knowledge ofChrist's life, and especiallyof His personalinnocence, as one
who "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." Such a man might
say, Christ's sufferings were a speciallyand extraordinary Divine judgment.
"He was smitten of God." Such a knowledge ofChrist's life would convince
the man that Jesus must have been a most amiable and excellent person, an
obedient Son, a loving Friend, a gentle-heartedBrother; one who could claim
to be a firm and wise moral Teacher. The man would feel sure that the
influence of such an one as Jesus must have been very greatupon His age. The
fast departing moral life of Judaism ought to have had its flickering flame
fanned afreshby the presence and teachings of such a Master-Spirit. And
then, as he saw Him despised, persecuted, and at last put to the ignominious
slave's death of the cross, whatcould he think about it all But this? It was a
sad calamity, one of those mysterious Divine judgments that seem to come in
every age, and puzzle sorelythe sons of men. Man can only say of the sufferer
— "Smitten of God." In this way a man might fairly regard the innocent
Jesus. Nay;this, too, is insufficient; it is but the beginning of an explanation. A
calamity! Yes, but only a seeming calamity, seeing that by dying He
conquered death, "led captivity captive," and "openedthe kingdom of heaven
you to all-believers." "Mancannotof himself explain the mystery of Christ's
sufferings. But he can be humble, and. learn so much of the mystery as God
may be pleasedto reveal.
II. THE MYSTERYOF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS — GOD'S
EXPLANATION OF IT. "He was wounded for our transgressions," etc.
1. We may first notice that God sustains man's view, that the sufferings of
Christ were His appointment; but He further declares thatthey were an
unusual and altogethersingularappointment.
2. Then God's explanation declares that the sufferings of Christ bore no
relation whateverto His own guilt.
3. God affirms, further, that Christ suffered as the Representative or
Substitute, for others. Is it any wonder that an absorbing love should grow in
our souls toward this vicariously-suffering Saviour? In the restorationof man

to the Divine favour; in the greatand gracious work of"reconciliation," we
can recognize three stages —(1)A loving purpose cherished in the deep heart
of the Holy Father, that He would recover, deliver, and save His lost,
rebellious, prodigal children.(2) That Divine and loving purpose effectually
wrought out by God s well-belovedand only begottenSon, in His incarnate
life, labours, sufferings, sacrifice and death.(3)The third stage is yet
incomplete. It is the voluntary and hearty acceptance, by the long sought
children, of the redemption thus gloriously wrought for them.
(R. Tuck, B.A.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(4) Surely he hath borne our griefs . . .—The words are spokenas by those
who had before despisedthe Servant of Jehovah, and have learnt the secretof
His humiliation. “Grief” and “sorrow,”as before, imply “disease”and “pain,”
and St. Matthew’s applicationof the text (Matthew 8:17) is therefore quite
legitimate. The words “stricken, smitten of God,” are used elsewhere specially
of leprosy and other terrible sicknesses (Genesis 12:17;Leviticus 13:3;
Leviticus 13:9; Numbers 14:12;1Samuel6:9; 2Kings 15:5). So the Vulg. gives
leprosus. The word for “borne,” like the Greek in John 1:29, implies both the
“taking upon himself,” and the “taking awayfrom others,” i.e., the true idea
of vicarious and mediatorial atonement.
MacLaren's Expositions
Isaiah

THE SUFFERING SERVANT-II
Isaiah53:4 - Isaiah 53:6.
The note struck lightly in the close ofthe preceding paragraph becomes
dominant here. One notes the accumulationof expressions for suffering,
crowdedinto these verses-griefs,sorrows, wounded, bruised, smitten,
chastisement, stripes. One notes that the cause ofall this multiform infliction
is given with like emphasis of reiteration-our griefs, our sorrows, and that
these afflictions are invested with a still more tragic and mysterious aspect, by
being traced to our transgressions,our iniquities. Finally, the deepestword of
all is spokenwhenthe whole mystery of the servant’s sufferings is referred to
Jehovah’s making the universal iniquity to lie, like a crushing burden, on
Him.
I. The Burdened Servant.
It is to be kept in view that the ‘griefs’ which the servant is here describedas
bearing are literally ‘sicknesses,’and that, similarly, the ‘sorrows’may be
diseases. Matthew in his quotation of the verse {Matthew 8:17} takes the
words to refer to bodily ailments, and finds their ‘fulfilment’ in Christ’s
miracles of healing. And that interpretation is part of the whole truth, for
Hebrew thought drew no such sharp line of distinction betweendiseases ofthe
body and those of the soul as we are accustomedto draw. All sicknesswas
takento be the consequence ofsin, and the intimate connectionbetweenthe
two was, as it were, set forth for all forms of bodily disease by the elaborate
treatment prescribed for leprosy, as pre-eminently fitted to stand as type of
the whole. But the fulfilment through the miracles is but a parable of the
deeper fulfilment in regard to the more virulent and deadly diseases ofthe
soul. Sin is the sickness, as it is also the grief, which most afflicts humanity. Of

the two words expressing the Servant’s taking their burden on His shoulders,
the former implies not only the taking of it but the bearing of it away, and the
latter emphasises the weightof the load.
Following Matthew’s lead, we may regard Christ’s miracles of healing as one
form of His fulfilment of the prophecy, in which the principles that shape all
the forms are at work, and which, therefore, may stand as a kind of pictorial
illustration of the wayin which He bears and bears awaythe heavierburden
of sin. And one point which comes out clearlyis that, in these acts of healing,
He felt the weightof the affliction that He took away. Evenin that region, the
condition of ability to remove it, was identifying Himself with the sorrow. Did
He not ‘sigh and look up’ in silent appeal to heavenbefore He could say,
Ephphatha? Did He not groanin Himself before He sentthe voice into the
tomb which the dead heard? His miracles were not easy, though He had all
power, for He felt all that the sufferers felt, by the identifying powerof the
unparalleled sympathy of a pure nature. In that region His pain on accountof
the sufferers stoodin vital relation with His powerto end their sufferings. The
load must gall His shoulders, ere He could bear it awayfrom theirs.
But the same principles as apply to these deeds of mercy done on diseases
apply to all His deeds of deliverance from sorrow and from sin. In Him is set
forth in highest fashion the condition of all brotherly help and alleviation.
Whoeverwould lighten a brother’s load must stoophis ownshoulders to
carry it. And whilst there is an element in our Lord’s sufferings, as the text
passes onto say, which is not explained by the analogywith what is required
from all human succourers and healers, the extent to which the lower
experience of such corresponds with His unique work should always be made
prominent in our devout meditations.
II. The Servant’s sufferings in their reason, their intensity, and their issue.

The same measure that was meted out to Job by his so-calledfriends was
measuredto the servant, and at the Impulse of the same heartless doctrinal
prepossession. He must have been had to suffer so much; that is the rough and
ready verdict of the self-righteous. With crashing emphasis, that complacent
explanation of the Servant’s sufferings and their ownprosperity is shivered to
atoms, by the statementof the true reasonfor both the one and the other. You
thought that He was afflicted because He was bad and you were spared
because you were good-no, He was afflicted because youwere bad, and you
were spared because He was afflicted.
The reasonfor the Servant’s sufferings was ‘our transgressions.’More is
suggestednow than sympathetic identification with others’ sorrows. This is an
actualbearing of the consequencesofsins which He had not committed, and
that not merely as an innocent man may be overwhelmed by the flood of evil
which has been let loose by others’ sins to sweepoverthe earth. The blow that
wounds Him is struck directly and solelyat Him. He is not entangled in a
widespreadcalamity, but is the only victim. It is pre-supposed that all
transgressionleads to wounds and bruises; but the transgressions are done by
us, and the wounds and bruises fall on Him. Can the idea of vicarious
suffering be more plainly set forth?
The intensity of the Servant’s sufferings is brought home to our hearts by the
accumulation of epithets, to which reference has already been made. He was
‘wounded’ as one who is pierced by a sharp sword; ‘bruised’ as one who is
stoned to death; beaten and with livid wealesonHis flesh. A backgroundof
unnamed persecutors is dimly seen. The description moves altogetherin the
regionof physical violence, and that violence is more than symbol.
It is no mere coincidence that the story of the Passionreproduces so many of
the details of the prophecy, for, although the fulfilment of the latter does not
depend on such coincidences,they are not to be passedby as of no

importance. Formergenerations made too much of the physical sufferings of
Jesus;is not this generationin danger of making too little of them?
The issue of the Servant’s sufferings is presentedin a startling paradox. His
bruises and wealesare the causes ofour being healed. His chastisementbrings
our peace. Surelyit is very hard work, and needs much forcing of words and
much determination not to see whatis setforth in as plain light as can be
conceived, to strike the idea of atonement out of this prophecy. It says as
emphatically as words can say, that we have by our sins deservedstripes, that
the Servantbears the stripes which we have deserved, and that therefore we
do not bear them.
III. The deepestground of the Servant’s sufferings.
The sadpicture of humanity painted in that simile of a scatteredflock lays
stress on the universality of transgression, onits divisive effect, on the solitude
of sin, and on its essentialcharacteristic as being self-willed rejectionof
control. But the isolationcausedby transgressionis blessedly counteractedby
the concentrationofthe sin of all on the Servant. Men fighting for their own
hand, and living at their own pleasure, are working to the disruption of all
sweetbonds of fellowship. But God, in knitting togetherall the black burdens
into one, and loading the Servant with that tremendous weight, is preparing
for the establishment of a more blessedunity, in experience of the healing
brought about by His sufferings.
Can one man’s ‘iniquity,’ as distinguished from the consequencesofiniquity,
be made to press upon any other? It is a familiar and not very profound
objectionto the Christian Atonement that guilt cannot be transferred. True,
but in the first place, Christ’s nature stands in vital relations to every man, of
such intimacy that what is impossible betweentwo of us is not impossible

betweenChrist and any one of us; and, secondly, much in His life, and still
more in His passion, is unintelligible unless the black mass of the world’s sin
was heaped upon Him, to His own consciousness. In that dread cry, wrung
from Him as He hung there in the dark, the consciousnesses ofpossessing God
and of having lostHim are blended inextricably and inexplicably. The only
approachto an explanation of it is that then the world’s sin was felt by Him,
in all its terrible mass and blackness, coming betweenHim and God, even as
our own sins come, separating us from God. That grim burden not only came
on Him, but was laid on Him by God. The same idea is expressedby the
prophet in that awful representationand by Jesus in that as awful cry, ‘Why
hast Thou forsakenMe?’
The prophet constructs no theory of Atonement. But no language could be
chosenthat would more plainly setforth the fact of Atonement. And it is to be
observedthat, so far as this prophecy is concerned, the Servant’s sole form of
service is to suffer. He is not a teacher, an example, or a benefactor, in any of
the other ways in which men need help. His work is to bear our griefs and be
bruised for our healing.
BensonCommentary
Isaiah53:4-5. Surely he hath borne our griefs — Whereas it may seeman
incredible thing, that so excellentand glorious, and so innocent and holy a
person should meet with this usage, it must be known that his griefs and
miseries were not laid upon him for his own sake, but wholly for the sake of
sinful men, in whose steadhe stood, and for whose sins he suffered: yet we did
esteemhim — Yet our people, the Jews, were so farfrom giving him the glory
and praise of such astonishing condescensionand compassion, thatthey made
a most perverse constructionof it; and so greatwas their prejudice against
him, that they believed he was thus disgracedand punished, and, at last, put
to death, by the just judgment of God, for his blasphemy and other manifold
acts of wickedness. But, &c. — This was a most false and unrighteous
sentence. He was wounded —

Which word comprehends all his pains and punishments, and his death
among the rest; for our transgressions — The prophet does not sayby, but for
them, or, because ofthem, namely, for the guilt of our sins, which he had
voluntarily takenupon himself, and for the expiation of our sins, which was
hereby purchased. The chastisementofour peace — Those punishments by
which our peace, our reconciliationto God, was to be purchased, were laid
upon him, by God’s justice, with his own consent. With his stripes we are
healed — By his sufferings we are saved from our sins, and from the dreadful
effects thereof.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
53:4-9 In these verses is an accountof the sufferings of Christ; also of the
design of his sufferings. It was for our sins, and in our stead, that our Lord
Jesus suffered. We have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God.
Sinners have their beloved sin, their own evil way, of which they are fond. Our
sins deserve all griefs and sorrows, eventhe most severe. We are savedfrom
the ruin, to which by sin we become liable, by laying our sins on Christ. This
atonement was to be made for our sins. And this is the only way of salvation.
Our sins were the thorns in Christ's head, the nails in his hands and feet, the
spearin his side. He was delivered to death for our offences. Byhis sufferings
he purchased for us the Spirit and grace ofGod, to mortify our corruptions,
which are the distempers of our souls. We may wellendure our lighter
sufferings, if He has taught us to esteemallthings but loss for him, and to love
him who has first loved us.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Surely - This is an exceedinglyimportant verse, and is one that is attended
with considerable difficulty, from the manner in which it is quoted in the New
Testament. The generalsense, as it stands in the Hebrew, is not indeed
difficult. It is immediately connectedin significationwith the previous verse.
The meaning is, that those who had despised and rejectedthe Messiah, had
greatly erred in condemning him on accountof his sufferings and humiliation.
'We turned away from him in horror and contempt. We supposedthat he was
suffering on accountof some greatsin of his own. But in this we erred. It was

not for his sins but for ours. It was not that he Was smitten of God for his own
sins - as if he had been among the worst of mortals - but it was because he had
takenour sins, and was suffering for them. The very thing therefore that gave
offence to us, and which made us turn awayfrom him, constituted the most
important part of his work, and was really the occasionofhighest gratitude. It
is an acknowledgmentthat they had erred, and a confessionofthat portion of
the nation which would be made sensible of their error, that they had judged
improperly of the characterofthe sufferer. The word rendered 'surely' (‫אכן‬
'âkēn, Vulgate, vere), is sometimes a particle strongly affirming, meaning
truly, of a certain truth Genesis 28:16;Exodus 2:14; Jeremiah8:8. Sometimes
it is an adversative particle, meaning but yet Psalm 31:23;Isaiah 49:24. It is
probably used in that sense here, meaning, that though he was despisedby
them, yet he was worthy of their esteemand confidence, for he had borne
their griefs. He was not suffering for any sins of his own, but in a cause which,
so far from rendering him an objectof contempt, made him worthy of their
highest regard.
He hath borne - Hebrew, ‫נׂשא‬ nâs'â'. Vulgate, Tulit. Septuagint, φερει pherei -
'He bears.'Chald. 'He prayed (‫יבבי‬ yibe‛ēy) for, or on accountof our sins.'
Castilio, Tulit ac toleravit. In these versions, the sense is that of sustaining,
bearing, upholding, carrying, as when one removes a burden from the
shoulders of another, and places it on his own. The word ‫נׂשא‬ nâs'a' means
properly "to take up, to lift, to raise" Genesis 7:17, 'The waters increased, and
lifted up the ark;' Genesis 29:1, 'And Jacoblifted up his feet (see the margin)
and came.'Hence, it is applied to lifting up a standard Jeremiah 4:6;
Jeremiah50:2 : to lifting up the hand Deuteronomy 32:40;to lifting up the
head Job 10:15;2 Kings 25:27;to lifting up the eyes (Genesis 13:10, etsoepe);
to lifting up the voice, etc. It then means to bear, to carry, as an infant in the
arms Isaiah 46:3; as a tree does its fruit Ezekiel17:8, or as a field its produce
Psalm70:3; Genesis 12:6.
Hence, to endure, suffer, permit Job 21:3. 'Bearwith me, suffer me and I will
speak.'Hence, to bear the sin of anyone, to take upon one's selfthe suffering
which is due to sin (see the notes at Isaiah53:12 of this chapter; compare
Leviticus 5:1, Leviticus 5:17; Leviticus 17:16; Leviticus 20:19;Leviticus
24:15;Numbers 5:31; Numbers 9:13; Numbers 14:34;Numbers 30:16;

Ezekiel18:19-20). Hence, to bear chastisement, orpunishment Job34:31 : 'I
have borne chastisement, I will not offend anymore.' It is also usedin the
sense oftaking awaythe sin of anyone, expiating, or procuring pardon
Genesis 50:17;Leviticus 10:17;Job 7:21; Psalm33:5; Psalm 85:3. In all cases
there is the idea of lifting, sustaining, taking up, and conveying away, as by
carrying a burden. It is not simply removing, but it is removing somehow by
lifting, or carrying; that is, either by an act of power, or by so taking them on
one's own self as to sustain and carry them. If applied to sin, it means that a
man must bear the burden of the punishment of his own sin, or that the
suffering which is due to sin is taken up and borne by another.
If applied to diseases,as in Matthew 8:17, it must mean that he, as it were,
lifted them up and bore them away. It cannotmean that the Saviour literally
took those sicknessesonhimself, and became sick in the place of the sick,
became a leper in the place of the leper, or was himself possessedwith an evil
spirit in the place of those who were possessedMatthew 8:16, but it must
mean that he took them away by his power, and, as it were, lifted them up,
and removed them. So when it is saidIsaiah 53:12 that he 'bare the sins of
many,' it cannot mean literally that he took those sins on himself in any such
sense as that he became a sinner, but only that he so took them upon himself
as to remove from the sinner the exposure to punishment, and to bear himself
whateverwas necessaryas a proper expressionof the evil of sin. Peter
undoubtedly makes an allusion to this passageIsaiah53:12 when he says 1
Peter2:24, 'Who his ownself bare our sins in his own body on the tree' (see
the notes at Isaiah53:12). Matthew Mat 8:17 has translated it by ἔλαβε elabe
("he took"), a word which does not differ in significationessentiallyfrom that
used by Isaiah. It is almostexactly the same word which is used by
Symmachus (ἀνελαβε anelabe).
Our griefs - The word used here (‫חלי‬ chăliy) means properly sickness,disease,
anxiety, affliction. It does not refer to sins, but to sufferings. It is translated
'sickness'Deuteronomy28:61;Deuteronomy 7:15; 2 Chronicles 21:15;1
Kings 17:17; 'disease'Ecclesiastes6:2; 2 Chronicles 21:18;2 Chronicles
16:12;Exodus 15:26; 'grief' (Isaiah 53:3-4;compare Jeremiah16:4). It is
never in our version rendered sin, and never Used to denote sin. 'In ninety-
three instances,'says Dr. Magee (On atonement and Sacrifice, p. 229, New

York Ed. 1813), 'in which the word here translated(by the Septuagint)
ἀμαρτίας hamartias, orits kindred verb, is found in the Old Testamentin any
sense that is not entirely foreignfrom the passagebefore us, there occurs but
this one in which the word is so rendered; it being in all other casesexpressed
by ἀσθένεια astheneia, μαλακίαmalakia, orsome word denoting bodily
disease.''Thatthe Jews,'he adds, 'consideredthis passageas referring to
bodily diseases,appears from Whitby, and Lightfoot. Hor. Heb. on Matthew
8:17.' It is rendered in the Vulgate, Languores - 'Our infirmities.' In the
Chaldee, 'He prayed for our sins.' Castellio renders it, Morbos - 'Diseases;'
and so Junius and Tremellius. The Septuagint has rendered it in this place:
Ἁμαρτίας Hamartias - 'Sins;' though, from what Dr. Kennicott has advanced
in his Diss. Gen. Section79, Dr. Magee thinks there can be no doubt that this
is a corruption which has crept into the later copies of the Greek. A few Greek
manuscripts of the Septuagint also read it ἀσθενείας astheneias, andone copy
reads μαλακίας malakias.
Matthew Mat 8:17 has rendered it, ἀσθενείας astheneias - 'infirmities,' and
intended no doubt to apply it to the fact that the Lord Jesus healed diseases,
and there can be no doubt that Matthew has used the passage, notby wayof
accommodation, but in the true sense in which it is used by Isaiah;and that it
means that the Messiahwouldtake upon himself the infirmities of people, and
would remove their sources ofgrief. It does not refer here to the fact that he
would take their sins. That is statedin other places Isaiah53:6, Isaiah 53:12.
But it means that he was so afflicted, that he seemedto have taken upon
himself the sicknessesand sorrows ofthe world; and taking them upon
himself he would bear them away. I understand this, therefore, as expressing
the twofoldidea that he became deeply afflicted for us, and that. being thus
afflicted for us, he was able to carry awayour sorrows. In part this would be
done by his miraculous powerin healing diseases,as mentioned by Matthew;
in part by the influence of his religion, in enabling people to bear calamity,
and in drying up the fountains of sorrow. Matthew, then, it is believed, has
quoted this passage exactlyin the sense in which it was usedby Isaiah; and if
so, it should not be adduced to prove that he bore the sins of men - true as is
that doctrine, and certainly as it has been affirmed in other parts of this
chapter.

And carried - Hebrew, (‫סבל‬ sābal). This word means properly to carry, as a
burden; to be laden with, etc. Isaiah46:4, Isaiah46:7; Genesis 49:15. It is
applied to carrying burdens 1 Kings 5:15; 2 Chronicles 2:2; Nehemiah 4:10,
Nehemiah 4:17; Ecclesiastes12:5. The verb with its derivative noun occurs in
twenty-six places in the Old Testament, twenty-three of which relate to
carrying burdens, two others relate to sins, and the other Lamentations 5:7 is
rendered, 'We have borne their iniquities.' The primary idea is undoubtedly
that of carrying a burden; lifting it, and bearing it in this manner.
Our sorrows - The word used here (‫מכאב‬ make'ob, from ‫כאב‬ kâ'ab, "to have
pain, sorrow, to grieve, or be sad"), means properly "pain, sorrow, grief." In
the Old Testamentit is rendered 'sorrow'and 'sorrows'Ecclesiastes1:18;
Lamentations 1:12-18;Isaiah65:14; Jeremiah45:3; Jeremiah30:15; 'grief'
Job 16:6; Psalm69:26; 2 Chronicles 6:29; 'pain' Job 33:19;Jeremiah 15:18;
Jeremiah51:8. Perhaps the proper difference betweenthis word and the word
translated griefs is, that this refers to pains of the mind, that of the body; this
to anguish, anxiety, or trouble of the soul; that to bodily infirmity and disease.
Kennicott affirms that the word here used is to be regarded as applicable to
griefs and distresses ofthe mind. 'It is evidently so interpreted,' says Dr.
Magee (p. 220), 'in Psalm 32:10, 'Many sorrows shallbe to the wicked;' and
again, Psalm69:29, 'But I am poor and sorrowful;' and again, Proverbs 14:13,
'The heart is sorrowful;' and Ecclesiastes1:18, 'He that increasethknowledge
increasethsorrow;' and so Ecclesiastes2:18;Isaiah65:14; Jeremiah30:15.'
Agreeably to this, the word is translated by Lowth, in our common version,
and most of the early English versions, 'Sorrows.'The Vulgate renders it,
Dolores:the Septuagint, 'For us he is in sorrow' (ὀδυνᾶται odunatai), that is,
is deeply grieved, or afflicted.
The phrase, therefore, properly seems to mean that he took upon himself the
mental sorrows ofpeople. He not only took their diseases, andbore them
away, but he also took or bore their mental griefs. That is, he subjected
himself to the kind of mental sorrow which was needful in order to remove
them. The word which is used by Matthew Mat 8:17, in the translation of this,
is νόσου nosou. This word( νόσος nosos)means properly sickness, disease
Matthew 4:23-24;Matthew 9:35; but it is also used in a metaphoricalsense for
pain, sorrow, evil (Rob. Lex.) In this sense it is probable that it was designed

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