What Does Isaiah 53:4 Mean?
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.THE KEY
“Griefs” and “sorrows” name sickness and pain here: the one we read as punished is carrying our affliction.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of sickness and pain being borne by another. It exposes how easily we read visible suffering as proof that God is against the sufferer, even as the verse names him as the one carrying that suffering. The burden is not merely seen; it is taken up.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Affliction proves that God is punishing or rejecting the person who suffers.
THE ROOT
חֳלָיֵנוּ
ḥolayenu
GROWS FROM
חלה
ḥ-l-h
To be weak or ill; to fall sick.
“sicknesses” in this verse is ḥolayenu. The word translated “griefs” names sickness or illness, bringing bodily vulnerability into the burden he bears. It can include sorrow, but it does not leave the suffering abstract or purely emotional.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoleh: A sick person
חוֹלֶה
The branch makes the sufferer visible within the word for sickness he bears.
maḥalah: Sickness or disease
מַחֲלָה
This related form keeps “griefs” close to illness and bodily affliction.
מַכְאֹבֵינוּ
mak'oveinu
GROWS FROM
כאב
k-'-b
To hurt or feel pain.
“wounds” in this verse is mak'oveinu. “Sorrows” here carries the sense of pains, not only inward sadness. Beside the word for sickness, it gathers bodily pain and distress into what is carried.
ALSO GROWS
ka'av: To hurt or be in pain
כָּאַב
The verb shows the pain as something experienced, not just an idea about suffering.
mak'ov: Pain or anguish
מַכְאוֹב
This noun is the singular form behind the verse’s “sorrows,” keeping pain at the center of the phrase.
סְבָלָם
sevalam
GROWS FROM
סבל
s-b-l
To carry or bear a load.
“carried” in this verse is sevalam. The verb shares its root with words for a burden and a bearer. The verse presents sickness and pain as weight he shoulders, not suffering he merely observes.
ALSO GROWS
sevel: A burden or hard labor
סֵבֶל
The related noun makes the load within “carried” explicit.
sabbal: A porter or bearer
סַבָּל
This branch names the one who carries a load, echoing the verse’s picture of him bearing affliction.
THE PATTERN
The one who sustains and delivers bears the people’s burden where they are vulnerable.
And in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.Even to old age I AM, and to gray hair I will bear you. I have made, and I will lift, I will bear, and I will slip you free.So that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be filled, saying, He himself lifted our weaknesses and carried our sicknesses.THE THREAD
So that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be filled, saying, He himself lifted our weaknesses and carried our sicknesses.Matthew connects Isaiah’s words to the bearing of infirmities and sicknesses, keeping “griefs” and “sorrows” close to bodily affliction. The one described as carrying pain is shown taking that burden up, not merely watching it.
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