Isaiah 53:1

1 Who believed to our hearing? (Who hath believed our report?) and to whom is the arm of the Lord showed?

Isaiah 53:1 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 53:1

Who hath believed our report?
&c.] Or "hearing" ^F1. Not what we hear, but others hear from us; the doctrine of the Gospel, which is a report of the love, grace, and mercy of God in Christ; of Christ himself, his person, offices, obedience, sufferings, and death, and of free and full salvation by him: it is a good report, a true and faithful one, and to be believed, and yet there are always but few that give credit to it; there were but few in the times of the Prophet Isaiah that believed what he had before reported, or was about to report, concerning the Messiah; and but few in the times of Christ and his apostles, whom the prophet here represented; for to those times are the words applied, ( John 12:38 ) ( Romans 10:16 ) , the Jews had the report first made unto them, and saw the facts that were done, and yet believed not; when Gentile kings, and their subjects, listened with the most profound silence, and heard with the greatest attention and reverence, as in the latter part of the preceding chapter, to which some think this is opposed; wherefore some begin the text with the adversative particle "but". According to the Septuagint and Arabic versions, the words are directed to God the Father, for they render them, "Lord, who hath believed"; and so they are quoted in the above places in the New Testament: and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
meaning either the Gospel itself, the power of God unto salvation, hidden from the generality of men; for though externally, yet not internally revealed and made known; which to do is the Lord's work, and is owing to his special grace: or Christ, who is the power of God, by whom all the works of creation, providence, grace, and salvation, are wrought; and by whom the blessings of grace are dispensed; and by whom the Lord upholds all things, and supports his people; and who was not revealed but to a very few, as the true Messiah, as God's salvation, and in them the hope of glory: or else the powerful and efficacious grace of the Spirit, and the exertion and display of it, which is necessary to a true and spiritual believing the Gospel, and the report of it; which, unless it comes with the power and Spirit of God, is ineffectual.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (wntemvl) , (th akoh hmwn) , Sept.; "auditui nostro", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius.

Isaiah 53:1 In-Context

1 Who believed to our hearing? (Who hath believed our report?) and to whom is the arm of the Lord showed?

2 And he shall go up as a rod before him, and as a root from [the] thirsty land. And neither shape neither fairness was to him; and we saw him, and no beholding was; and we desired him, (And he shall grow up like a rod before the Lord, and like a root from the thirsty land. And neither shape nor beauty was to him; and when we saw him, there was no comeliness to him, so that we would desire him;)

3 despised, and the last of men, a man of sorrows, and knowing sickness. And his cheer was as hid (from us,) and despised; wherefore and we areckoned not him. (he was despised, and the last of men, a man of sorrows, and knowing of suffering. And we hid our faces from him, for we despised him, and regarded him as if he was nothing, or of no account.)

4 Verily he suffered our sicknesses, and he bare our sorrows; and we areckoned him as a mesel, and smitten of God, and made low. (Truly he suffered our sicknesses, and he carried our sorrows; but we reckoned him like a leper, and struck by God, and abased, or made low.)

5 Forsooth he was wounded for our wickednesses, he was defouled for our great trespasses; the learning of our peace was on him, and we be made whole by his wanness. (And he was wounded for our wickednesses, he was defiled for our great trespasses; he suffered what should have been our chastising, or our punishment, and we be healed, or made whole, by his scourgings.)