But it is important to remember that this prophecy does not stand alone, and a little before, we read in a similar passage, 'It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship.'[377] [Footnote 377: Isa. 49. 6-7; comp. 42. 1-6.] Here it will be noticed the Lord's _servant_ is clearly distinguished from both Jacob and Israel, and evidently means the Messiah. While His bringing salvation to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews; His humiliation in being despised by men and hated by the Jewish nation; and His subsequent triumph, even Kings submitting themselves to Him; are all alluded to, much as they are in the present passage. No doubt there is a difficulty in the prophet thus passing from one meaning of the word _servant_ to another (especially, in a closely connected passage),[378] and various attempts have been made to explain it; but it does not alter the fact that he does so. Perhaps the best explanation is that Israel was _intended_ to be God's Servant, but owing to their sins became unfitted; when God promised in the future to raise up a _righteous_ servant, who should do all His pleasure and atone for Israel's failure. And, it may be added, the term _Servant_ is applied to the Messiah both by Ezekiel and Zechariah, as well as in the New Testament.[379] [Footnote 378: Isa. 49. 3, 5.] [Footnote 379: Ezek. 34. 23; Zech. 3. 8; Acts 3. 13 (R.V.).] Moreover, the Jewish interpretation not only leaves all the details of the prophecy unexplained and inexplicable, but ignores its very essence, which, as before said, is the atoning character of the sufferings. No one can say that the sufferings of the Jews were voluntary, or that they were not for their own sins, but for those of other people, which were in consequence atoned for. Or, to put the argument in other words, if the _He_ refers to the Jewish nation, to whom does the _our_ refer in such sentences as _He was wounded for our transgressions_? While v. 8 expressly says that the Jews (God's people) were not the sufferers, but those for whom He suffered. (For the transgression of _my people_ was _he_ stricken.) This interpretation then is hopelessly untenable, and the passage either means what Christians assert, or it means nothing.