What Does Isaiah 53:8 Mean?
He was taken from confinement and from judgment. Who shall speak of his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living, struck for the rebellion of my people.
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
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for “cut off” also describes the Red Sea divided into parts: here the act that opens a way appears as a life violently severed.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a terrible scene in the present: a person is taken from confinement and judgment, then cut off from among the living. It names the people’s rebellion as bound to his being struck, while the question of his generation remains unanswered.
THE ROOT
נִגְזַר
nigzar
GROWS FROM
גזר
To cut, sever, or divide.
English “cut off” can sound like pure disappearance; the Hebrew form נִגְזַר (nigzar, cut off) comes from גזר (gazar, to cut or divide), whose other forms describe cutting something into parts. In Psalm 136:13, the same verb names the sea divided into sections, so this word can hold a severing that is also the opening of passage.
ALSO GROWS
gazar: To cut apart or divide.
גָּזַר
This verb is used for dividing the sea in Psalm 136:13, where cutting opens a passage.
gezerim: Parts or pieces.
גְּזָרִים
Psalm 136:13 uses this word for the Red Sea divided into parts, extending the root from a person’s severance to a divided barrier.
THE PATTERN
The language of severing holds both the loss of a life and a division that opens a passage.
To him who cuts the Sea of Reeds into parts, for his faithful love reaches to the ages.In his being brought low, his judgment was lifted away; and who shall tell of his generation? For his life is lifted from the ground.THE THREAD
To him who cuts the Sea of Reeds into parts, for his faithful love reaches to the ages.Isaiah’s “cut off” and the psalm’s “divided … into parts” translate forms of גזר (gazar, to cut or divide). The word names both a life severed from the living and a sea split so passage opens, placing a startling image of division beside the verse’s violence.
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