_The Prophet._— He was oppressed, yet he let himself be afflicted, And opened not his mouth, As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, And as a sheep that is dumb before her shearers, And opened not his mouth. By a tyrannical judgment he was taken away; And, as for the men of his time, who considered, That he was cut off out of the land of the living, That for the transgression of my people he was stricken? And his grave was made with the wicked, And his tomb with the unrighteous, Although he had done no violence, And there was no deceit in his mouth. But it was Jehovah that willed to crush him, That laid on him sickness: If he should lay down his life as a guilt-offering, He would see a posterity, he would lengthen his days, And the will of Jehovah would prosper by his hand; After the travail of his soul he would see it, And would be satisfied with his knowledge. _Jehovah._— My Servant, the righteous one, shall make many righteous; For he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a share with the many, And with the strong he shall divide the spoil; Inasmuch as he poured out his life-blood to death, And let himself be numbered with the transgressors; Yet it was the sin of the many he bore, And for the transgressors he interposed. In this marvellous poem we have four successive vignettes of the Servant. There first rises in the prophet’s mind a vision of the awe-struck wonder with which the nations and their kings shall gaze on the Servant of Jehovah, when after unequalled humiliation he shall be uplifted in surpassing glory. The next picture takes us back to his life of humiliation: he grows up with nothing in him to strike the eye or attract the attention of men; nay, rather all turn their back on him as worthless, contemptible, smitten with divine punishment. But along with this sorrowful portrait there comes the passionate confession of the men of Israel, that the Servant in all his sufferings had been bearing their sins. The third picture shows us the suffering Servant in uncomplaining meekness enduring a criminal’s death with all its shameful associations; yet this death is explained as occurring in accordance with God’s will, and as being a guilt-offering. The series ends in triumph: the righteous Servant by bearing iniquity will make many righteous and will achieve the glory and the reward of the conqueror.