Isaiah 53:6

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. The extent of our malady, and our urgent need of cure, are next set forth. The words following are the penitent confession of believers, and of Israel in the last days (Zechariah 12:10).

All we like sheep have gone astray - (Psalms 119:176; 1 Peter 2:25). The antithesis is, 'In ourselves we were scattered; in Christ we are collected together: by nature we wander, driven headlong to destruction; in Christ we find the way to the gate of life' (Calvin). True, also, literally of Israel, before its coming restoration (Ezekiel 34:5; Zechariah 10:2; Zechariah 10:6: cf. with Ezekiel 34:23; Jeremiah 23:4; also Matthew 9:36).

We have turned every one to his own way - implying that the apostasy of men is both universal and individual: of the race in general, and of each one in particular: one in guilt, diverse in its several manifestations.

And the Lord hath laid on him - `hath made to light on Him' (Lowth). Rather, 'hath made to rush upon Him:' hipgiya` (H6293), from paaga` (H6293), to meet: hath made to meet upon Him (Maurer).

The iniquity of us all - i:e., its penalty: or rather its guilt, as in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." He was not merely a sin offering (which would destroy the antithesis to "righteousness"), but "sin for us:" sin itself vicariously; the representative of the aggregate sin of all mankind; not sins in the plural, but "sin," and here, in Isaiah, "iniquity:" for the "sin" of the world is one (Romans 5:16); thus we are made not merely righteous, but righteousness, even "the righteousness of God." The innocent was punished as if guilty, that the guilty might be rewarded as if innocent. This verse could be said of no mere martyr.