Isaiah 53:8

He was taken from prison and from judgment Every word here is ambiguous. The principal interpretations are as follows: (1) "Without hindrance and without right he was taken away," i.e. he was put to death without opposition from any quarter, and in defiance of justice. The only exception that can fairly be taken to this view is the translation "hindrance," a sense of the noun for which there are no parallels. Yet the verb from which the noun is derived occurs in the sense of "detain" (1 Kings 18:44, &c.), and as the noun is very uncommon, the rendering cannot be pronounced impossible. (2) "Through oppression and through judgement he was taken away" (so virtually R.V.). "Judgement" here means "judicial procedure," and the rendering "oppression" is guaranteed by Psalms 107:39. "Oppression and judgement" may mean (as explained by Cheyne) an oppressive judgement ("through distressful doom," see his Introduction, p. 428), the idea being that the Servant's death, like that of our Lord, was a judicial murder. For "taken away" in the sense of "put to death" see on ch. Isaiah 52:5, and cf. Ezekiel 33:4 (where, however, a different part of the verb is used). (3) "From oppression and from judgement he was taken away," i.e. released by death, or taken by God to Himself (2 Kings 2:10). Here the sense of "oppression and judgement" is indeterminate; the meaning might either be simply that by death he was finally released from his troubles, or that God took him away from the malice of his persecutors. The rendering "imprisonment" instead of "oppression" could be justified from the usage of the verb (2 Kings 17:4 &c.), although not of the noun itself; only in this case we must not read, "From imprisonment … he was led away (to execution)," for that is an idea which could hardly have suggested itself apart from the fulfilment of the prophecy in the crucifixion of Christ. Of the three interpretations the last seems the most natural, although everything turns on the question whether the death of the Servant is conceived as caused directly by men or by God through sickness. (see below on the last clause of this verse.)

And who shall declare his generation?] A still more difficult clause. The Hebr. word for "generation" (dôr) may mean (a) the time in which he lived, (b) the circle of his contemporaries, (c) those like-minded with him (Psalms 12:7; Psalms 14:5; Proverbs 30:11 ff.); but is never used with any such significance as "length of life," or "life-history," or "posterity." In neither of its three senses does it supply a suitable object to the verb declareor rather consider (Psalms 143:5 "meditate"). We may, however, take it in the sense (b), and render with R.V. and as for his generation who (among them) considered &c. (On this construction see Davidson, Synt.§ 72, Rem. 4). Yet the construction as direct obj. of the verb is so much the more natural that any suggestion would be acceptable which might enable us to retain it. Duhm (following Knobel) takes the word in its Aramaic sense of "dwelling-place" (see on ch. Isaiah 38:12) and translates "who enquires after his dwelling-place" (with God)? It would be better, perhaps, to understand "dwelling-place" exactly as in Isaiah 38:12, of the earthly dwelling-place, the place that once knew him but knows him no more: "Who enquires after it, or thinks about it?" he has vanished from the thoughts of men.

for he was cut off(Psalms 88:5; Ezekiel 37:11) out of the land of the living Comp. again Jeremiah 11:19. The R.V. makes this clause an object sentence governed by the verb "considered" (reading thatinstead of for). This is perhaps necessary if the R.V. rendering of the previous line be adopted.

for the rebellion of my people was he stricken(lit. "(was) a stroke upon him")] The last word in the Hebr. (לָמוֹ) would be translated most naturally "upon them" (but see Davidson, Gram.§ 19 R. c.); hence some render "because of the rebellion of my people, the stroke(due) to them." A far more satisfactory sense is obtained by the help of the LXX. Read למות and change the preceding noun into a passive verb (nugga-for nega-) and render was he stricken unto death. The expression "stricken" is from the same verb which in Isaiah 53:4 suggested leprosy as the cause of the Servant's disfigurement; and its use here in connexion with his death is in favour of the view that he died of his sickness and not by the hands of his persecutors. If this conclusion be sound it confirms the view expressed above as to the sense of the first clause of this verse.