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Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away.
    From this generation, who was there to complain?
Who was there to cry “Foul”?
    He was, after all, cut off from the land of the living,
Smacked and struck, not on his account,
    because of how my people (my people!)
Disregarded the lines between right and wrong.
    They snuffed out his life.[a]
And when he was dead, he was buried with the disgraced
    in borrowed space (among the rich),
Even though he did no wrong by word or deed.[b]

It is hard to understand why God would crush His innocent Servant. But it is in His suffering for sin that God deals decisively with sin and its harmful effects.

10 Yet the Eternal One planned to crush him all along,
    to bring him to grief, this innocent servant of God.
When he puts his life in sin’s dark place, in the pit of wrongdoing,
    this servant of God will see his children and have his days prolonged.
For in His servant’s hand, the Eternal’s deepest desire will come to pass and flourish.

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By oppression[a] and judgment(A) he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;(B)
    for the transgression(C) of my people he was punished.[b]
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,(D)
    and with the rich(E) in his death,
though he had done no violence,(F)
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.(G)

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will(H) to crush(I) him and cause him to suffer,(J)
    and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,(K)
he will see his offspring(L) and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper(M) in his hand.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 53:8 Or From arrest
  2. Isaiah 53:8 Or generation considered / that he was cut off from the land of the living, / that he was punished for the transgression of my people?
  3. Isaiah 53:10 Hebrew though you make