What Does Isaiah 53:5 Mean?
But he was pierced for our rebellion, and crushed for our crookedness. The straightening that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.
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
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.THE KEY
The wound that exposes our rupture is also where healing reaches us.
THE MEANING
The verse names the rebellion and crookedness that fracture us, and says the burden that opens wholeness rests on him. His wound is where healing reaches us now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your brokenness makes healing unreachable: the verse locates healing in the one who bears the wound, before you become unbroken.
THE ROOT
נִרְפָּא
nirpa
GROWS FROM
רפא
To heal, restore health.
“healed” in this verse is nirpa. The verse says healing reaches us through the wound borne for us; it is received, not something we manufacture. The opening consonants echo רָפָה (raphah, release; let your hands drop), though its final letter differs, so healing resonates with release without being the same Hebrew root.
ALSO GROWS
rofe: Healer
רֹפֵא
The one who heals shares the same root as the healing received here.
refu'ah: Healing, remedy
רְפוּאָה
The word for healing itself grows from the root used in “we are healed.”
פְּשָׁעֵינוּ
pesha'einu
GROWS FROM
פשע
To rebel, break away.
Pesha names rebellion or breaking away, giving “transgressions” the force of a real rupture. The verse does not make that rupture harmless; it places it beside the wound borne for us.
ALSO GROWS
pesha: Rebellion, breaking away
פֶּשַׁע
This is the singular form of the word translated “transgressions.”
poshea: One who rebels
פֹּשֵׁעַ
The root names both the breakaway and the one enacting it.
שְׁלוֹמֵנוּ
shelomenu
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole, complete, intact.
“made us whole” in this verse is shelomenu. The phrase rendered “the chastisement of our peace” contains shelomenu, “our wholeness.” This root also carries the sense of making restitution, tying wholeness to what answers a rupture rather than pretending it never happened.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It makes clear that the “peace” named here has the sense of wholeness.
shillem: Make restitution, repay
שִׁלֵּם
This branch links the root’s wholeness to making good what has been broken.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names wounds openly and joins them to healing, binding, or restoration.
He mends the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.Come, and let us turn back to the LORD, for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck, and he will bind us up.Who himself carried our shortcomings in his own body on the tree, that we, dead to shortcomings, might live to alignment; and by his bruises you were healed.THE THREAD
Who releases all your crookedness; who heals all your sicknesses.Isaiah’s words for “iniquities” and “healed” grow from the Hebrew roots avon (crookedness) and rapha (heal); Psalm 103:3 brings those same roots together. The shared roots join the naming of crookedness with healing.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us