Isaiah 53:3 - Exposition

He is despised ; rather, was despised (comp. Isaiah 49:7 and Psalms 22:6 ). Men's contempt was shown, partly in the little attention which they paid to his teaching, partly in their treatment of him on the night and day before the Crucifixion. Rejected of men ; rather, perhaps, forsaken of men— "one from whom men held themselves aloof" (Cheyne); comp. Job 19:14 . Our Lord had at no time more than a "little flock" attached to him. Of these, after a time, "many went back, and walked no more with him" ( John 6:66 ). Some, who believed on him, would only come to him by night ( John 3:2 ). All the "rulers" and great men held aloof from him ( John 7:48 ). At the end, even his apostles "forsook him, and fled" ( Matthew 26:56 ). A Man of sorrows . The word translated "sorrows" means also pains of any kind. But the beautiful rendering of our version may well stand, since there are many places where the word used certainly means "sorrow" and nothing else (see Exodus 3:7 ; 2 Chronicles 6:29 ; Psalms 32:10 ; Psalms 38:17 ; Ecclesiastes 1:18 ; Jeremiah 30:15 ; Jeremiah 45:3 ; Lamentations 1:12 , Lamentations 1:18 , etc.). Aquila well translates, ἄνδρα ἀλγηδόνων The "sorrows" of Jesus appear on every page of the Gospels. Acquainted with grief ; literally, with sickness; but as aeger and aegritudo are applied in Latin both to the mind and to the body, so kholi , the word here used, would seem to be in Hebrew (see Jeremiah 6:7 ; Jeremiah 10:19 ).The translation of the Authorized Version may therefore be retained. We hid as it were our faces from him ; literally, and there was as it were the hiding of the face from him. Some suppose the hiding of God's face to be intended; but the context, which describes the treatment of the Servant by his fellow-men, makes the meaning given in our version far preferable. Men turned their faces from him when they met him, would not see him, would not recognize him (comp. Job 19:13-17 ; Job 30:10 ). Despised. A repetition very characteristic of Isaiah (see Isaiah 1:7 ; Isaiah 3:12 ; Isaiah 4:3 ; Isaiah 6:11 ; Isaiah 14:25 ; Isaiah 15:8 ; Isaiah 17:12 , Isaiah 17:13 , etc.).