Isaiah 53
What Happens in This Chapter
This chapter describes a servant who is not impressive to look at and is turned away by people. He suffers and is killed, and the speakers say he was carrying their wrongs, not his own. He is buried with the wicked and with a rich man, even though he had done nothing violent and told no lies. The chapter ends with the LORD giving him a share with the great, because he poured out his life and carried the sins of many.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
1Who believed the message we told? Who has seen the LORD show his strong arm?
2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
2He grew up before God like a small, young plant. He was like a root in dry, hard ground. He did not look grand or important. When we looked at him, nothing made us want him.
3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
3People looked down on him and turned him away. He was a man full of sorrow, who knew pain well. People hid their faces from him. We looked down on him and thought he did not matter.
4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
4But it was our pain he carried. It was our sorrows he took on himself. We thought God was hurting him and punishing him.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
5He was pierced because of the wrong things we did. He was crushed because of our sins. The punishment that brings us peace fell on him. His wounds are what make us well.
"Stripes" in the old wording means the marks left on the back by a whipping.
6All 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.
6We are all like sheep that wandered away. Each of us went off our own way. The LORD put all our wrongs on him.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
7People treated him badly and made him suffer. But he did not say a word. He was led away like a lamb going to be killed. A sheep stays quiet when its wool is cut off. He stayed quiet just like that.
The old wording says the sheep is "dumb." Long ago that word meant silent, not unintelligent.
8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
8They took him away by force and by an unfair judgment. Who can tell about his family after him? For he was taken away from the land of the living. He was struck down for the wrongs my people did.
The old wording, "taken from prison and from judgment," can sound like he was set free. It means the opposite: he was carried off by force and by an unfair trial.
9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
9They gave him a grave with people who did evil. In his death he was with a rich man. Yet he had never hurt anyone. He had never told a lie.
10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
10Still, it was the LORD's plan to crush him and let him suffer. His life is given as an offering to pay for sin. Then he will see his children after him. He will live on for a long time. What the LORD wants will go well in his hands.
11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
11After all the pain he went through, he will see it and be satisfied. Because of what he knows, my good servant will make many people right. He will carry the wrong things they did.
12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
12So I will give him a share along with the great ones. He will share out the prizes with the strong. This is because he poured out his life and died. He was counted as one of the lawbreakers. He carried the sins of many people. And he prayed for the lawbreakers.
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