He shall see of [the fruit of] the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant instruct many in righteousness; and *he* shall bear their iniquities.
This verse closes the great prophecy of the suffering Servant. It turns from His death to what that death produces. Two questions run through it. What could satisfy One who suffered so? And what does He do for the "many"?
Where the ESV reads "the anguish of his soul," older versions read "the travail of his soul" — the word for birth pangs. The writers quoted here use that older wording. One links the Lord's picture of childbirth in John 16 to this verse:
Childbirth serves as an illustration. It sets out both joy coming after sorrow and new life springing up. Their sorrow was only a reflection of His sorrow. His was so deep, and of such a kind, that Isaiah 53:11 calls it "the travail of His soul." The previous verse predicts, "He shall see his offspring," plainly in resurrection and in glory. They could not share His atoning sufferings.
The wonder is not that He is satisfied, but that anything could satisfy Him.
The risen Servant will fulfil all the pleasure of the LORD. He Himself will also be satisfied as He sees the full result, the fruit of "the travail of His soul." We are little creatures of small capacity, so very little will satisfy us. His capacity is infinite; yet the fruit of His soul's travail will be so immeasurable as to satisfy Him.
That satisfaction is still future. It waits on what His people become:
So the Lord Himself will then "see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." When? Not now, but when He has them all with Himself and like Himself in glory.
Here the LORD Himself speaks, and the company in view reaches wider than Israel:
Again we hear the LORD speaking. He confirms the word of the remnant, and bears witness to His righteous Servant. The remnant had said, "He shall see his offspring." Now the LORD says, "He shall see of the fruit of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." These words take in the redeemed of Israel, and also that great host who will be with Him and like Him in heavenly glory... So this is the pleasure of the LORD: a vast host of redeemed, made like Christ, as the fruit of His work, and for the joy of His heart.
The ESV reads "make many to be accounted righteous," where older versions read "justify many." Commentators differ over this clause. One argues that the Hebrew verb here also carries the sense of teaching:
Christ does not justify us by His knowledge. The Hebrew word has two meanings. It is to justify. It is also to "instruct in righteousness." But the word goes further than teaching, since He might instruct and they not learn. Here the meaning is that they really do learn. To read it as "justify by knowledge" is very forced.
Others keep the older rendering, and point to how the verb works elsewhere:
I cannot agree with the writer in changing "shall justify" to "instructing in righteousness." The word translated "justify" appears in that exact form of the verb only in Exodus 23:7: "I will not acquit the wicked." That is, God will not make or pronounce a wicked man a just man.
The title itself marks a completed work, and what follows in the book confirms it:
This is the last time Isaiah calls Christ the "Servant" (Isaiah 53:11). Afterwards we read of "servants." His atoning work is now seen as complete, and so others are justified... No one could be righteous before God apart from atonement. "Servants" comes next in Isaiah 54:17: "This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me." That vindication is not from the law, nor from their own works, but from God.
The last clause gives the reason. It tells us how He justifies the many:
If this righteous One does justify them, how is it done? The Holy Spirit tells us: by "bearing their iniquities." Impossible! says some theorist; that may bring pardon, but not justification. Scripture says the opposite: both come by the same means — the death and blood-shedding of Christ.
And the effect for those who are His:
Not a cloud shall exist between God and His own. God has dealt with everything that stood between them, fully and righteously, to His own satisfaction.
- Travail — His sorrow was so deep that only the word for birth pangs would carry it. His people saw a reflection of it, but never shared the atoning suffering itself.
- Fruit — the travail brings offspring: a vast host of redeemed, made like Him, for the joy of His heart.
- Satisfaction — His capacity is infinite, and the fruit of His work is large enough to fill it.
- Timing — that moment is not now; it comes when His own are with Him and like Him in glory.
- Ground — read the clause as "justify many" or as "instruct many in righteousness," the reason is the same. He bore their iniquities, so no cloud remains between God and His own.
Therefore will I assign him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and was reckoned with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53 closes with God Himself speaking. He announces the reward that follows the suffering He has just described. The verse looks back to a death among criminals and forward to a share in the spoil, and the word "therefore" ties the two together. (Where the ESV reads "a portion with the many," the older translation quoted below reads "with the great.")
One writer treats this opening word as the hinge of the whole chapter.
Note the first word — "Therefore." Jehovah speaks. He declares that because of what Jesus accomplished in the day of His humiliation, He will receive a great portion in the day of glory... This last verse declares that His sufferings do not contradict His exaltation in any way. They are the secure basis on which His eternal fame and splendour will rest.
The Servant has not yet received this portion. One writer warns against reading the first clause as already fulfilled in the gospel.
The last verse creates no real difficulty, except for those who tie the first clause to the gospel. It looks on to the day of the world-kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ. Then He will come out before every eye as the Lord of lords and King of kings, sharing with others the fruits of His victory... The day is hurrying on when the full number has come in; and so Israel shall be saved. Then this vision (Isaiah 52:13 — 53:12) will be fulfilled, and not as a whole till then.
He does not keep the spoil to Himself. One writer asks who shares it.
He was alone in the awful sufferings of the cross. He will not be alone in the glory that repays them. He will have companions then. God says, "I will divide Him a portion with the great" — a grand expression of His complete satisfaction with the finished work of Christ. The Saviour, in the unselfish activity of His love, "shall divide the spoil with the strong." This proves that the cross has not used up His love. Who are the great and the strong in that day of Christ's coming glory? Those who have borne reproach for His Name in the world which crucified Him. Those who share rejection with Him here shall share glory with Him there.
Men killed Him and God gave Him up. One writer counts a third actor in His death.
So in this great passage we see the death of Christ in three ways. First, as brought about by the wickedness of men. Second, as the act of God, who delivered Him up and put Him to grief. Third, as the act of Christ Himself, who, in obedience to the will of God, "poured out His soul to death."
Men fulfilled this line of the verse without knowing what they were doing.
The Lord is spared no insult or humiliation. They crucify Him at the place of a skull, and the soldiers gamble for His clothes. They mock the nation with the written charge against Him, "THE KING OF THE JEWS," and at the same time they crucify Him between two thieves. Without knowing it they were fulfilling Scripture, which said, "He was numbered with the transgressors."
The verse says He bore the sin of many, not of all. One writer says that word is a careful choice.
But when I come to sin-bearing, the language is always different. He bore our sins; He bore the sins of many. Scripture avoids the word "all," and avoids it with care... You will never find in Scripture that Christ bore the sins of all. If He had, those sins could never be mentioned again, and men could not be judged according to their works.
The verse ends with intercession. One writer links it to the prayer Jesus made while men were crucifying Him, and to the shelter that prayer opened.
The first words we hear Him say are, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34)... The Lord uses this to treat them as ignorant, and so as men guilty of manslaughter instead of murder. In other words, through this prayer He was opening the city of refuge to them (Numbers 35). Only on this basis could they be brought into fellowship with God.
God names four grounds — the poured-out soul, the criminal's place, the sin borne, the intercession. One writer weighs each in turn.
The first speaks of the deep sorrow of His heart. The second speaks of the shame of the cross. The third speaks of the judgment He bore for our sins. The last speaks of the intercession through which God could treat Israel's sin as a sin of ignorance, and not as a deliberate sin for which there was no sacrifice... In the coming day all will see Him, not with the "transgressors" men counted Him among, but with the "many sons" He has brought to glory, "the great" and "the strong."
- Therefore — His sufferings do not cancel His glory. They are the ground it rests on.
- Poured out — His death was the act of wicked men, the act of God, and His own act in obedience.
- Numbered — soldiers fulfilled his words without knowing it, by crucifying two thieves beside Christ.
- Many — Scripture never says He bore the sins of all; the word "many" is chosen with care.
- Interceded — His prayer from the cross opened a refuge to His killers. The shame of the cross gets its public answer when He appears with the great and the strong.