2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: 2 he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and 4 acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we 5 esteemed him not.

1 Isa. 11: 1.

Revealed.

2 Isa. 52 14. Mark 9: 12.

3 Ps. 22: 6. Isa. 49: 7.

4 Heb. 4:15.

5 John 1: 10, 11.

Made known, seen, understood. Though the power of God was displayed, yet

the people did not see and understand it.

- Barnes.

II. The Suffering Saviour.— Vers. 2, 3. 2. For he. The Saviour, the Mes

siah, Jesus Christ. Shall grow up. Rather, "He grew up." All the verbs in this passage

down to the tenth verse are in the past tense. The point of sight is at the time when Messiah's sufferings are finished, and he is entering into glory. Hence the past tense is used, vers. 2-10, and the future at the close. - Birks. Before him. Before Jehovah, who fixed his eye upon him with watchfulness and protecting care. — Delitzsch. As a tender plant, or sucker, growing out of a parent stem. He grew up small and of no reputation, from a family nearly extinct, like a tender plant springing unnoticed from its root hid in a barren and dry land, out of which nothing eminent was expected. - Bishop Horne. And as a root (springing) out of a dry ground. The root is a shoot which springs from the root left in the ground after the tree has been felled. The sprouts that come up from a root in the dry ground lack strength, beauty, comeliness, and present a strong contrast with other plants of the same sort, which may not be a yard away, but whose roots can reach the water. Such sights may be seen in any oriental garden. - Prof. Isaac H. Hall. Both figures depict the lowly and unattractive character of the small though vigorous beginning. The expression "out of dry ground," which belongs to both figures, brings out in addition the miserabie character of the external circumstances in the midst of which the birth and growth of the servant (the man Christ Jesus) had taken place, -the existing state of the enslaved and degraded nation: in a word, "the dry ground" is the corrupt character of the age.Delitzsch. The dry ground is the barren soil of human nature. Cook. Christ was not the product of his circumstances and his age, but was above and beyond them, as a living tree is beyond and above the barren soil in which it grows. He hath no form nor comeliness. No beautiful form or appearance, referring to his state of abasement rather than to his own personal beauty. He had no robes of royalty, no diadem, no splendid retinue, no gorgeous army. - Barnes. It refers to all the circumstances of his manifestation, parentage, position, education, following, etc. (see Luke 2:7; Matt. 13: 54-58; Luke 7: 34, 39). - Todd. And when we shall see him. Rather, joined with the previous words, "Nor comeliness (attractiveness) that we should look (with delight) on him.". Cowles. No beauty that we should desire him. There was nothing in his appearance to make us desire him, or feel attracted to him. - Delitzsch. This represents the Messiah as in his earliest manifestations as exceedingly diminutive, unattractive, unpromising, because he utterly failed to meet the foregone ideas of the Jews.- Cowles. All this does not deny his personal attractiveness and loveliness to those who came to him, and to the poor and needy. The studied reticence of the New Testament as to his form, stature, color, etc., was designed to prevent our dwelling on the bodily, rather than on his moral beauty, holiness, love, etc.; also a providential protest against the making and veneration of images of him. The letter of P. Lentulus to the emperor Tiberius, describing his person, is spurious. - Vitringe.

3. He is (rather, was) despised. Looked down upon by the great, by the world at large. And rejected of men. The word men " is one commonly applied to those of rank or note. - Birks. The name, "the rejected of men," will express all the melancholy history, rejected by the Jews; by the rich, the great, and the learned; by the mass of men of every grade and age and rank. N. prophecy was ever more strikingly fulfilled. Barnes. A man of sorrows. The plural, because of their number. Acquainted with grief. Rather, with suffering. He was "well acquainted with grief," no casual acquaintance, but its familiar friend. · - Birks. For similar prophecies of the suffering of the Messiah, see Ps. 22, 40; Dan. 9: 26, etc. For their fulfilment, see Matt. 18, 29; Luke 24: 26; Acts 17:3; Phil. 2: 7, 8, etc. Todd. And we hid as it were our faces from him. Literally, as one from whom there is hiding of face," as if shrinking from a horrible sight. Cook. The impersonal form refers to the men just named, or all those of note and influ

66

4. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5. But he was 2 wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his 3 stripes we are healed.

6. 4 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 2 Rom. 4:25. 1 Cor. 15:3. 1 Pet. 3: 18. Ps. 119: 176. 1 Pet. 2:25.

1 Matt. 8: 17. Heb. 9:28. I Pet. 2: 24.

31 Pet. 2: 24

ence. Their faces were averted from him, as a lunatic, beside himself, or one possessed, as a deceiver and a blasphemer. - Birks. The Jews were wilfully blind, and would not see Jesus as he really was. And we esteemed him not. Estimated him at nothing. -Luther. Set no value upon him, did not recognize his worth. In unrequited love there is the sharpest pang. The rejection of Jesus was the consummation of his sorrow. Then his cup was full. R. Millman.

4.

III. This Suffering an Atonement for Our Sins. - Vers. 4-6. There are no fewer than eleven expressions in this chapter, which clearly describe the VICARIOUS character of the sufferings endured by the Lord's Servant. (1) "He bore our griefs; " (2) "He carried our sorrows; (3) "He was wounded for our transgressions; " (4) "Bruised for our iniquities; " (5) "The chastisement of our peace was upon him; (6) "By his stripes we are healed; " (7) "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all; (8) "For the transgression of my people was he stricken;" (9) "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin; (10) "He shall bear (or carry) their iniquities; " (11) "He bare the sins of many." Surely. "But verily," implying that their view was strangely contradictory to the actual truth. - Cook. Hath borne our griefs. Not took away, but bore, or carried them. "Griefs," sicknesses, a representative expression for all suffering.- Alexander. The reference here is clearly to sins and heart sorrows; in Matt. 8: 17, to physical disease. Matthew interprets the one by the other, and leaves us to draw the conclusion that as Christ bore the sicknesses of those he healed, in like manner he bears the sins of those he redeems. But how then did he bear the infirmities of the sick? Not literally. He removed them from others, he did not become diseased himself. Neither in removing sins from others does he become stricken with sin himself. But he did not merely heal the sick: he truly bore their sicknesses, not in his body, but on his heart. The metaphor is of one who removes a burden by putting his own shoulder under it, and bearing it away upon himself. This Christ did, because he entered through compassion into the sorrows and sicknesses he healed. So not by any literal transfer of sins from others to himself, but by a spiritual and sympathetic bearing of the burden of the world's sins in his own heart, he bore them away from all those who cast their burdens upon him. — Lyman Abbott. But this is not all. He bore our griefs not only by sympathy, but he bore them away by his healing power. Jesus is not only loving, but divine, and still bears the griefs of his children away, by removing them, or by transforming them into blessings; and by the many ways in which his Gospel lessens the troubles and sickness of men.-P. Smitten of God. As with divine judgment, as if suffering God's displeasure.

5. He was wounded . . . bruised. 66 Pierced," "crushed." There are no stronger terms in the language than are here used to signify the extremity of the sufferer's affliction. Cook. Transgressions. Going over the boundaries of right. Iniquities. In-equities, acting against the right of others. These are the common names of sin. The chastisement of our peace. The chastisement by which our peace with God was procured. The word "peace" includes all health and blessedness. Wordsworth. Stripes. The word means not the blows, but the wounds procured by them, wales.

6. All we (every human being), like sheep, have gone astray. When left without a shepherd, sheep wander about in every direction, "every one to his own way." This presents a lively picture of the diversity of the sins and errors of men. - Todd. Sheep without a shepherd which have lost their way, and that in a country where flocks are exposed to the ravages of wild beasts, are the very picture of helplessness; and such was and is the condition of man, needing to be sought as well as saved. - Keith. We have turned every one to his own way. Become lonely wanderers where each one pursues his own interests, forms his own plans, following his own pleasures. - Barnes. His oWN WAY is the oppo

7. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted; yet 1 he opened not his mouth: 2 he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

8. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for 3 he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

1 Matt. 26:63; 27: 12, 14. Mark 14:61; 15:5. John 19:9.

2 Acts 8: 32. 3 Dan. 9: 26.

site of God's way; it leads to ruin, and he cannot alone find the way to heaven and God. And the Lord hath laid on him. The word laid" means to light, in hostile encounter, whether as many burdens on one shoulder, or many shafts aimed at one common target. Each sin of every sinner would be like a separate wound in the heart of this Man of sorrows. - Birks. The iniquity of us all. The sorrows that were due for our iniquity, the punishment that we escape, has fallen on him. There was no forcing of the innocent Jesus to bear our sins; he took our place of his own free choice. And as he was really God, thus God himself bore our sins and is our Redeemer. Some have said that it is mean to allow another to bear the pains we deserve. We do not allow it: but it is the very essence of love, of nobleness, of greatness, to be willing to suffer for the good of others. And it is exactly this which the God-man Jesus Christ did, and thus has expressed more clearly, than by all he has done in this marvellous universe, the goodness, the greatness, the love, the exalted nature of our God and Saviour.

CHRIST BEARING THE SINS OF MEN.

I. Punishment (1) expresses the feeling of justice due for sin. (2) It is one measure of the evil of sin, showing God's abhorrence of it. (3) It is meant for the good of the sinner, to persuade him to cease from sin. (4) It is a warning to others to avoid that which so displeases God and brings ruin to man.

II. Forgiveness, merely on condition of repentance, fails (1) in satisfying the sense of justice; (2) in showing the evil of sin; (3) in satisfying the conscience of the sinner himself; (4) in preventing sin in others. No ruler in a wicked world can make it a rule to forgive sin and remove its punishment on the mere condition of repentance, although it be sincere, without spreading and multiplying that sin. The peculiar sins of every community and nation prove this.

III. Christ bore the sins of men, so that to those who repent and believe on him, (1) the sense of justice is satisfied; (2) the evil of sin is shown to be greater than it could have been by the punishment of sin; (3) more than by any other power is the sinner saved from committing sin; (4) it is the greatest preventative of sin among men; it does more than all other forces to save the world from sinning. It brings the strongest motives — love, duty, fear, hope- to bear on the hearts of men with the greatest power. Facts visible in every Christian community prove that Christ does bear the sins of men away.

IV. Foregleams of the Suffering Saviour.- Vers. 7-10. 7. He was oppressed. All his ill-treatment was unjust and oppressive. He was afflicted. Rather, "he submitted himself to affliction," he accepted it voluntarily for the sake of saving men. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. The essential truth taught here by the figures of the sheep and lamb is the quiet non-resistance with which Christ submitted to all the indignity put upon him. — L. Abbott. While at the same time he had the power to save himself from every one, and "more than twelve legions of angels" stood ready to defend him.

cess.

8. He was taken, etc. Or, "through oppression (Ps. 107: 39, s.w.) and judgment was he taken away"; by violence which cloaked itself under the formalities of a legal proCook. By violent hands he was seized upon, and hurried to trial, and by a sentence of unrighteous judgment carried off to execution.- Birks. Who shall declare his generation? Meyer, Alford, and others understand this as equivalent to, "Who can describe the wickedness of the men of this time?" Hengstenberg interprets it, "Who shall declare his posterity?" i.e., his spiritual children, born of the travail of his soul. R. Payne Smith renders it, "Who will care to bestow thought on a career so prematurely cut short?" This agrees better with the spirit of the passage than either of the other interpretations. — L. Abbott. Cut off out of the land of the living. This implies a violent death. For the transgression of my people. He was indeed cut off, and his earthly career prematurely ended, but it was in order to save the people from their sins.

9. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any 2 deceit in his mouth.

10. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul 3 an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, 1he shall prolong his days, and 5 the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his

hand.

11. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: 6 by his knowledge shall 7 my righteous 8 servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

9.

And he made (or, "One appointed") his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. An enigma which only history could explain. Jesus was put to death with the wicked on the cross, and they thought to bury him in a criminal's grave. But by a striking providence the same authority gave permission to a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, who provided him with an honorable burial in his own rock-hewn tomb (Matt. 27 : 57–60). This striking and minutely accurate prophecy could not have been the result of conjectHow could a pretended prophet, 700 years before the event, conjecture of one who was executed as a malefactor, that he would be buried with the rich, contrary to the usual course of events? - Barnes. Because he had done no violence. This was the reason why God so ordered matters in his providence. It was an attestation of his innocence (Cook). It was the beginning of his glorification (Philippi).

ure.

V. The Triumph of the Suffering Saviour.- Vers. 10-12. 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The statement here is a climax rather than a contrast. It was not unjust judges alone, but the LORD himself, who laid on Messiah this heavy burden. - Birks. Not because of any displeasure with him; not as wishing him pain or evil; and not at all as approving the spirit or the deeds of his murderers; but as looking toward the ulterior reward-the glorious results which could not be reached save through much suffering. He had joy in the suffering only because the results were so surpassingly joyous and could be gained in no other way. Cowles. When thou shalt make. The construction in the margin, when he shall make, is the one now usually adopted. — Alexander. In the common version "thou" refers to Jehovah. His soul. His life, his own heart's blood. Cowles. An offering for sin. When the atonement is made and completed, then by means of that the following shall be the result. He shall see his seed. His spiritual children, those born by the Spirit into a holy and divine life like his. He shall prolong his days. (1) His days, which seemed to be brought to an end prematurely, shall be prolonged by a joyful resurrection (Ps. 21:4). — Birks. (2) He ever liveth in heaven, and is with his children to the end of time. (3) His kingdom and reign on earth shall never end. The pleasure of the Lord. The things which please the Lord: the salvation of men, their redemption from sin, and the flourishing of the fruits of the Spirit, -love, joy, etc. All these shall prosper in his hand, or under his government or direction. No power has ever yet been found like Christ for producing in men the character and the deeds which please the Lord.

II. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. The word "travail" is here used in its old English sense of labor accompanied with pain, toil, without reference to any particular kind of labor or suffering. Todd. The toil or travail is the suffering of Christ, when his soul was made a sin-offering. It is here promised that he shall behold the blessed effects of those sufferings, and be satisfied with them. -Birks. They will abundantly repay him for all his sufferings. This is the grandest promise in the Bible with reference to the number of the saved. · Todd. Whatever may be true to-day, in the end the number of the saved shall be to those that are lost as the countless leaves of the forest to the few dead leaves of winter,- as all the inhabitants of the state to the few criminals in our state prison. Before the world's ages have passed away, Christ will be satisfied, and so shall we be satisfied with him.-P. By his knowledge. By the knowledge of him. By his sacrifice of love being made known to men, and by the experimental knowledge of him in their hearts. My righteous servant. The righteous one, my servant. None but a perfect being could make atonement. Justify many. Cause them to be treated as just or righteous before God, and also make them truly just in heart and life.

12. 1 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and 2 he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was 3 numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

4 Luke 23: 34.

1 Ps. 2:8. Phil. 2:9. 2 Col. 2:15. 3 Mark 15:28. Luke 22:37. Rom. 8:34. Heb. 7: 25. And those thus saved shall not be few, but many. For he shall bear their iniquities. All this shall be by means of the atonement which shall have force all down the ages.

12. Therefore. Still on account of his atoning love he never lets us forget the source and power of the world's salvation. Divide him a portion with the great. The simple meaning is that he shall be triumphant. Spiritual triumphs must be here intended. — Alexander. Not that others shall be sharers of his victory, but that he shall be as gloriously successful in his enterprise as other victors ever were in theirs. - S. T. Lowrie, D.D. The mighty are those who constitute the spoil, and therefore even the mighty kings (52:15) and strong nations (Mic. 4: 3) shall become his inheritance (Ps. 2:8). — Birks. Because. He again refers these triumphs to the means by which they shall be obtained, - the atoning love of Jesus Christ. He was numbered with the transgressors. Not only by being crucified between two thieves, but in being made like sinful man, becoming one of a sinful race. And made intercession for the transgressors. Makes, and will make. "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." Not merely in the restricted sense of prayer for others, but in the wider one of meritorious and prevailing intervention (Rom. 8: 34; Heb. 9: 24; 1 John 2:1). - Alexander. A Saviour; "all that God could give, and all that man can

want."

I.

Josiah Gregory.

PRACTICAL.

One scheme of redemption runs through the whole Bible. The same Saviour is taught by symbol, and type, and prophecy in the Old Testament who is revealed in the New. 2. This unity of plan through fourteen centuries in many different writings, with definite prophecies fulfilled 700 years after they were written, is a proof that the Bible is from God.

3. Ver. 2.

The world often despises, in their feeble beginnings, the best things that come to it, the best men, the best reforms, the best inventions.

4. Those not acquainted with Christ, by receiving him into their hearts, do not perceive the beauty, and blessedness, and joy there is in him.

5. Ver. 3.

We hide our faces from Christ behind the veils of prejudice, besetting sins, pride, and worldliness.

6. Ver. 4.

Christ has felt human sorrow and overcome it. Therefore he can sympathize with us in our griefs, and by his divine power and love can take them away or transform them into blessings.

7. Ver. 6.

Men have gone astray from the true path, and wandered, like sheep without a shepherd, into the ways of sin and danger, and cannot of themselves find their way back to God and heaven.

8. Christ by his life, sufferings, and death has made atonement for the sins of the world. In the light of this we see (1) the greatness of our sins; (2) our danger; (3) the love of God; (4) God's desire for our salvation; (5) our duty to forsake our sins and come to Christ; (6) the ingratitude of rejecting Christ.

9. Vers. 10, II. Christ has not died in vain, and his work is a success in the world. Great multitudes will be saved through Jesus Christ.

IO.

II. The kingdom of Christ will triumph and endure forever.

12. The means by which it shall triumph is the atoning love of God in Jesus Christ. 13. The fruit of toiling and suffering for others more than pays for all it costs.

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

NOTE the time of this prophecy, and the wonderful accuracy of the description written 700 years before the event.

SUBJECT, - SALVATION THROUGH A SUFFERING SAVIOUR.

I. HOW THE SAVIOUR WAS FIRST RECEIVED BY MEN (vers. 1-3). Christianity, now so great, had the feeblest beginnings; and Jesus Christ, now so honored, was at first despised and rejected.

Illustrations. (1) The stone that smote the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and