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Jonathan Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 53

1 Who has believed this our report? And to whom is the power of the arm of the LORD now revealed? 2 The righteous will be great before Him, like budding branches; and like a tree that sends forth its roots by the streams of water, so the generation of the just will multiply in the land that has need of Him. 3 His appearance will not be the appearance of a common person, nor His fear the fear of an ordinary man; but a holy brightness will be His brightness, so that everyone who sees Him will gaze upon Him. 4 Although He will be in contempt, yet He will cut off the glory of all the wicked; they will be weak and wretched. Look, we are in contempt and not esteemed, like a man of pain and appointed to sickness, and as if He had removed the face of His Shekinah from us. 5 Therefore He will pray for our sins, and our iniquities will be forgiven for His sake;⁠ for we are considered crushed, smitten of the LORD, and afflicted. 6 He will build the house of the sanctuary, which was profaned on account of our sins;⁠ He was delivered over on account of our iniquities, and through His teaching peace will be multiplied upon us, and through the teaching of His words our sins will be forgiven us. 7 All we like sheep have been scattered; everyone of us has turned to his own way; and it pleased the LORD to forgive the sins of all of us for His sake. 8 He will pray, and He will be answered; yes, before He opens His mouth He will be heard. He will deliver over the mighty of the nations like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is dumb before her shearers; none will open his mouth in His presence or speak a word. 9 He will gather our captives from affliction and pain, and who will be able to recount the wonderful works that will be done for us in His days? He will remove the rule of the nations from the land of Israel; the sins that my people have committed have come upon them. 10 And He will deliver the wicked into hell, and the riches of treasures that they got by violence to the death of Abaddon, so that those who commit sin will not remain, and that they should not speak folly with their mouth.⁠ 11 And it was the pleasure of the LORD to refine and purify the remnant of His people, in order to cleanse their souls from sin, that they might see the kingdom of their Messiah, that their sons and daughters might multiply and prolong their days, and that those who keep the Torah of the LORD might prosper through His pleasure. 12 He will deliver their souls from the servitude of the nations; they will see the vengeance upon their enemies; they will be satisfied with the spoil of their kings. By His wisdom He will justify the righteous, in order to make many keep the Torah, and He will pray for their sins.⁠ 13 Therefore I will divide to Him the spoil of many peoples, and the treasures of strong fortifications; He will divide the spoil, because He delivered His life to death, and He made the rebellious keep the Torah; He will pray for the sins of many, and as for the transgressors, each will be pardoned for His sake.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 53:4 and Jonathan Isaiah 53:5

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Isaiah 53 says the servant lifts up the illnesses of other people. The Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan interprets this to say the servant prays about sin rather than carrying them, and forgiveness comes for his sake instead of his suffering.

Passages

Isaiah 53:4

Hebrew Bible
3 He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces from him; he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. 4 But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. 5 He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Jonathan Isaiah 53:5

Targum
4 Although He will be in contempt, yet He will cut off the glory of all the wicked; they will be weak and wretched. Look, we are in contempt and not esteemed, like a man of pain and appointed to sickness, and as if He had removed the face of His Shekinah from us. 5 Therefore He will pray for our sins, and our iniquities will be forgiven for His sake; for we are considered crushed, smitten of the LORD, and afflicted. 6 He will build the house of the sanctuary, which was profaned on account of our sins; He was delivered over on account of our iniquities, and through His teaching peace will be multiplied upon us, and through the teaching of His words our sins will be forgiven us.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

“... The aspect of the messiah’s activity in Targum Jonathan to Isaiah 53 most congruent with the picture of the servant in Isaiah 53 is his intercession on behalf of Israel (Targum Jonathan Isaiah 53:4, 6, 11) and his teaching (Targum Jonathan Isaiah 53:5, 11), which lead to the forgiveness of Israel’s sins. But here too Targum Jonathan goes well beyond what the Hebrew text has to say, repeatedly insisting on the success of the intercession, which is implied but not emphasized in the Hebrew. Hebrew: Surely he has borne our griefs [literally, sicknesses] and carried our sorrows [literally, pains].... (Isaiah 53:4) Targum Jonathan: Then he will beseech concerning our sins and our iniquities for his sake will be forgiven.... Hebrew: ... Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5) Targum Jonathan: ... And by his teaching his peace will increase upon us, and in that we attach ourselves to his words our sins will be forgiven us. ...”
Martha Himmelfarb, Jewish Messiahs in a Christian Empire: A History of the Book of Zerubbabel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017), 95–96.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 53:4 and Jonathan Isaiah 53:5

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