Isaiah 53:4-6
The context
These verses are the central confession of the fourth servant song, spoken by a plural voice that includes itself among the guilty. The song has described the servant's appearance and rejection, and it will go on to describe his death and burial. The speakers move from observation to admission.
What it establishes
The verses describe the servant as bearing griefs and sorrows and as wounded for the speakers' transgressions, and they confess that the straying was the speakers' own. The movement from "he" to "we" is the song's theological center.
What it does not establish
It does not restrict the bearing to physical healing. Matthew quotes the line in the context of Jesus' healings, one early reading, but the Hebrew terms are broader than disease and the song's frame is the nation's sin. Nor does it promise healing in every case.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.