Bible Strands
Isaiah 53:11
After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks of His Servant in the third Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13–53:12), at the moment after the Servant has been crushed and offered as a guilt offering (v. 10), now entering the reward.
The words — יַצְדִּיק (yats.dik, Hiphil of ts.d.q) is a legal term: "he will declare righteous" or "make righteous," not merely approve but effect a change of standing. The contrast with עַמַּל (a.mal, "toil, anguish") frames the whole verse as suffering converted into juridical outcome.
The thread — Romans 5:18 mirrors the structure: one act produces justification for many, paralleling the Servant's single suffering producing many justified. 1 Peter 2:24 and Isaiah 53:4 supply the "bore" side of the equation that v. 11 resolves into "justifies."
Why it lands — The verse forces a choice: the Servant's anguish is either meaningless or it is the mechanism by which others are declared righteous, and the reader is placed in the "many" who stand on that declaration.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Cross-references
- Romans 5:18 So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.
- Isaiah 53:4 Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
- 1 Peter 2:24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
- Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
- 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
- John 12:27 Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
- John 17:3 Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
- Romans 4:24 but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
- Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”