Passage

Isaiah 52.13-53

Book: Isaiah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

11. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of Jehovah. 12. For ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight: for Jehovah will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward.

13. Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. 14. Like as many were astonished at thee (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), 15. so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand. (Isaiah 52:11-15, ASV)

WEB

11. Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels. 12. For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

13. Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high. 14. Just as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), 15. so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him: for they will see that which had not been told them; and they will understand that which they had not heard. (Isaiah 52:11-15, WEB)

KJV

11. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 12. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward. ^{be: Heb. gather you up}

13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. ^{deal: or, prosper} 14. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 15. So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. (Isaiah 52:11-15, KJV)

YLT

11. Turn aside, turn aside, go out thence, The unclean touch not, go out from her midst, Be ye pure, who are bearing the weapons of Jehovah. 12. For not in haste do ye go out, Yea, with flight ye go not on, For going before you [is] Jehovah, And gathering you [is] the God of Israel!

13. Lo, My servant doth act wisely, He is high, and hath been lifted up, And hath been very high. 14. As astonished at thee have been many, (So marred by man his appearance, And his form by sons of men.) 15. So doth he sprinkle many nations. Concerning him kings shut their mouth, For that which was not recounted to them they have seen, And that which they had not heard they have understood! (Isaiah 52:11-15, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the LORD, through the prophet
Audience: the exiles
Location: addressed to a people in exile
Time period: the later section of the book, addressed to a people in or facing exile; authorship of chapters 40 to 66 is disputed and is argued at Isaiah 7-14 Was Mistranslated Objection Defeater and in the wider treatment of the book

Theological reading

The fourth servant song, and the most disputed passage in the Hebrew Bible.

The structure runs from exaltation announced at 52:13, through the astonishment of kings, to the description of one despised and rejected, bearing griefs, wounded for transgressions, on whom the LORD laid the iniquity of us all, silent before his shearers, cut off from the land of the living, given a grave with the wicked, and then seeing his offspring and prolonging his days.

The interpretive question is the servant's identity: an individual, the prophet, or Israel corporately. The corporate reading is the standard Jewish one and has real support, since the book calls Israel the servant elsewhere. Against it stands the servant's suffering for the people in 53:8, my people to whom the stroke was due, which distinguishes the two.

The codex argues this at Isaiah 53 Is About Israel Objection Defeater and collects the internal-Jewish evidence for an individual messianic reading at Rabbinic Sources Attest a Suffering Messiah Argument.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H0120 - adam, adam, Strong's H0120
H5650 - ebed, ebed, Strong's H5650
H8085 - shama, shama, Strong's H8085
H1121 - ben, ben, Strong's H1121

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Isaiah the Prophet

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.