Matthew 27:38

Then are there crucified with him two robbers, one on the right hand and one on the left.

Broadus supposed that these two robbers were comrades of Barabbas who would have been here between them had not Jesus taken his place. Our Lord had said the night before, "This that is written must yet be fulfilled on me, and he was reckoned among the transgressors" (Luke 23:37; Isaiah 53:12). This was substantially fulfilled by punishing him as if for transgression, but all the more strikingly by associating him with actual transgressors.[7]

Another remarkable prophecy relative to these events is Isaiah 53:9, "They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death" (RSV). In the prophecy the term "wicked" is plural, there being two robbers, while the expression "rich man" is singular, there being only one Joseph of Arimathea to provide the grave.

On the designation of those crucified with Jesus as "thieves" rather than robbers, a distinction noted between the King James and the Revised Version, it is clear that the correct term is "robber." The prevalence of the term "thief" which imputes some smaller measure of guilt, however, has done little harm, especially since Barabbas, as the leader of the group, would have been held more guilty anyway.