who He was

2 My servant grew up in the LORD's presence like a tender green shoot,

  like a root in dry ground.

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,

  nothing to attract us to him.

3 He was despised and rejected—

  a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.

  He was despised, and we did not care.


4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;

  it was our sorrows* that weighed him down.

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,

  a punishment for his own sins!

5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,

  crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

  He was whipped so we could be healed.

6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

  We have left God's paths to follow our own.

Yet the LORD laid on him

  the sins of us all.


7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,

  yet he never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

  And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,

  he did not open his mouth.

8 Unjustly condemned,

  he was led away.

No one cared that he died without descendants,

  that his life was cut short in midstream.

But he was struck down

  for the rebellion of my people.

9 He had done no wrong

  and had never deceived anyone.

But he was buried like a criminal;

  he was put in a rich man's grave.


Prophesied Isaiah 53:2-9 by the prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus lived on earth.