Consequently there is a further choice within the chosen people. The use of the title, the Servant of Jehovah, is narrowed. The prophet knows that God’s ends will be worked out, that through Israel Jehovah’s name will be carried to the ends of the earth; he also sees as clearly that the nation as a nation is unfit for this lofty duty; so he recognises that the Servant who shall do this work will be found within the people. Whether he identified the Servant of Jehovah in this narrower sense with the small group of really God-fearing men who formed the soul of Israel in his own day, or whether he thought of an individual to be specially prepared for the task by Jehovah, we do not know. Most probably this point was not clear to the prophet himself.[153] It is in four poems of peculiar dignity and surpassing spiritual penetration that this narrower use of the title occurs. In the first[154] of these Jehovah describes His Servant’s character and work; in the second[155], the Servant tells how Jehovah prepared him for his task; in the third,[156] we have a portrait of the Servant as a martyr; while in the fourth[157], he is represented, though righteous himself, as dying a shameful death as an atonement for the sins of the unrighteous. It is to this fourth poem that we would direct the attention of our readers. THE ATONING DEATH OF THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. _Jehovah._— Lo, My Servant shall deal wisely; He shall rise, be uplifted, and be exalted exceedingly. Even as many were amazed at him,— So marred from a man’s was his appearance, And his form from that of the sons of men!— So shall he startle many nations; Before him kings shall shut their mouths. For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider. _Israel._— Who believed what was heard by us? And the arm of Jehovah, to whom was it revealed? He grew up like a sapling before us, And like a shoot out of parched ground. He had no form, nor majesty, that we should look upon him, Nor appearance, that we should desire him. He was despised and forsaken by men, A man of pains and familiar with sickness; And as one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we held him of no account. Yet it was our sicknesses that he bore, And our pains that he carried; While we accounted him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our transgressions, Crushed because of our iniquities; Chastisement to secure our peace was laid upon him, And through his stripes healing came to us. We all like sheep had gone astray, We had turned each one to his own way; And Jehovah made to light on him The iniquity of us all.