Chastisement to procure peace.

Stripes to procure healing.

There is a difference between being `acquainted with' grief and being `wounded for' transgressions, even as

there is a difference between being burdened with our sorrows, and being bruised for our iniquities. This is brought

out by the presence or absence of the word `for', which is employed in the phrases `wounded for' or `bruised for',

but not in those passages which speak of being acquainted with or carrying grief or sorrow. The chastisement of our

peace belongs to that class of sufferings that stress the mental aspect; the stripes that procure healing belong to the

bodily sufferings the same Saviour endured `for' His people.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Isaiah 53 is the great confession of repentant Israel, and so at last, they

acknowledge their transgressions, saying:

`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' (Isa. 53:6).

A Suffering Servant. He shall be extolled,

Heb. nasa, `To be lifted up'.

Heb. paga.

B A meeting place for sins.

Heb. nasa, `To lift up'.

A Triumphant Servant. He shall bear,

Heb. paga.

B A meeting place for sinners.

In both passages paga is causative, `He caused to meet'. In the one case it was the meeting, in wrath, of borne

sin; in the other the meeting, in grace, of ransomed sinners.

How different is Isaiah's usage of the word in chapter 47, where God visits the iniquity of Babylon on the great

city and system.

`Come down, and sit in the dust ... thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a

man' (Isa. 47:1-3).

The translation hardly expresses the true intention of the prophet here. He does not so much say that God will not

meet guilty Babylon as a man, for, then, Babylon might hope for some excusing of its evil. Rotherham renders the

`An avenging I will take, and will accept no son of earth'.

George Adam Smith renders the passage:

`Vengeance I take, and strike treaty with none'.

The Revised Version reads,

`I will accept no one'.

Truly, terrible indeed would be the lot of all men if God dealt with them according to their deserts. Merciful

intercession for us, meant the bearing of sin by Him.

`He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation?'(Isa. 53:8).

The Companion Bible says: `As to the men of His age (i.e., His contemporaries), who ponders, or considers as to

this seed, seeing He is to be cut off?'

Lightfoot refers to the rule of the Sanhedrin which says:

`In judgments about the life of any man, they begin first to transact about acquitting the party who is tried: and

they begin not with those things which make for his condemnation' (Sanhedr. cap. 4).

It is evident from the record of the trial of Christ, that this merciful rule was abandoned. There was some

pretence of calling forward any who would `testify on His behalf' but, with the disciples fled, and the ban of