Isaiah 53:5-6

The context

Isaiah 53 is the fourth servant song, and these verses sit in its central section. The speakers are a plural "we" who describe the servant's suffering as something done for them and then confess their own wandering. The song moves from the servant's rejection to his bearing of sin and finally to his vindication.

What it establishes

The verses state a vicarious relation between the servant's suffering and the people's offenses, and they describe sin as straying like sheep. The confession is corporate: the speakers include themselves among the straying, not among the innocent.

What it does not establish

It does not identify the servant. The song never names him, and the guesses are inferences; the New Testament's application to Jesus is made later. Nor does it specify a mechanism of atonement, only that the suffering benefited the speakers.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• If God is love, why would He send anyone to hell?
• How exactly does the death of Jesus secure salvation for anyone when the deaths of countless others matter not a bit in this regard?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.