A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 56: The Suffering Servant

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 56: The Suffering Servant

The figure who is described here in Isaiah chapters 52 and 53 is commonly called the Suffering Servant by Christians in general, and they correctly and appropriately identify that servant with Yahshua Christ, as the apostles of Christ had also done in their epistles and Gospel accounts. Many of the longstanding, traditional interpretations of the words of the prophets are correct, however quite sadly they are only correct in relation to certain aspects of those prophecies, and then they have accepted a false narrative of the consequences of their fulfillment in other aspects.

This prophecy of the suffering servant cannot be separated from its context within a prophesy of the announcement of the Gospel of Christ, but it also cannot be separated from the call which we had seen in Isaiah chapter 52, for the people of the captivities of Israel to touch not the unclean, and to come out from among them, which is evidently a reference to the people of the nations to where they had been scattered. We had seen that in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul of Tarsus had interpreted that passage and beckoned Christians of his time to separate themselves from all those who did not have and follow the calling of Christ, to be separate from all of those who had not been cleansed on the cross of Christ. This is how the ancient Israelites spread abroad, the true children of God, were separated from His enemies and from all the bastards in the ancient Roman world in the early centuries of Christianity.

As a digression, the acceptance and organization of the churches in the councils of the time of Constantine and subsequent emperors, which resulted in the emergence of the later Roman Catholic Church in the 6th century and with the laws of Justinian, of which the eastern Orthodox churches had also been a part, was a vastly different, imperial form of Christianity which is contrary to Christ, which redefined the meanings of many Biblical terms, and which ignored or dismissed the meanings of most of the words of the prophets. So neither Roman Catholicism nor modern Orthodoxy have ever truly been Christian.

This admonishment to come out from among the unclean, and to be clean, is a reference to the same cleansing which is described by other prophets, for example, where the Word of Yahweh is speaking of both the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities of Israel and Judah, and we read in Jeremiah chapter 33 that:

7 … I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

So the cleansing of Israel in that manner cannot, in turn, be separated from the promise of a new covenant found just a little earlier in Jeremiah, in chapter 31:

31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

This interpretation of the call in Isaiah chapter 52 to “11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD” is supported quite explicitly in a prophecy found in Ezekiel chapter 36, where we read of the idolatry and the other sins for which Israel had been punished, and for which the enemies of God would ultimately be destroyed, and then we read:

19 And I scattered them among the [nations], and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. 20 And when they entered unto the [nations], whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. 21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the [nations], whither they went. 22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the [nations], whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the [nations], which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the [nations] shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the [nations], and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Notice those words, “then will I sprinkle clean water upon you”, and here in Isaiah chapter 52, where the suffering servant is first introduced we read, in part:

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

The many nations are the children of Israel, in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham and Jacob, as they had become many nations over the centuries subsequent to their captivity. As we have asserted earlier in this commentary, this is what Paul of Tarsus had explained in places such as Romans chapter 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10. This was also the purpose of the ministry of Paul, as we had discussed in relation to Isaiah chapter 52 in our last presentation here.

This promise in Ezekiel chapter 36 not only describes what we have seen here in Isaiah chapter 52, and now in chapter 53, but it also parallels both the promise of a new covenant and of a cleansing from sins in Jeremiah chapters 31 and 33, as well as the inclusion in the promise in Jeremiah of a law written in their hearts, where here in Ezekiel there is a promise of a new spirit and a new heart, one of flesh rather than stone. All of these prophets have described the same narrative, but which is told from somewhat different perspectives and under somewhat different circumstances. They all prophesy the punishment, alienation, reconciliation and restoration of the children of Israel. So Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and even the other prophets, all serve to explain one another. In this manner, we do not need Aristotle, Plato, or the Gnostic or Neoplatonic philosophers in order to understand Christianity.

As a digression, at least some jews believe that they are the suffering servant of Isaiah, which is just one more example of their bold and shameless audacity or chutzpah. But evidence has it that among jews, this view did not develop until relatively recently, and especially in accordance with medieval jewish messianic fervor and later political zionism [1]. The truth is that this suffering servant, who is described in the context of the announcement of the gospel to far-off nations, the same nations who are also the “sheep gone astray” here in this chapter, can only be an individual, Yahshua Christ, and that it is for their sins which he suffers. 

On the other hand, jews most frequently claim to be suffering only because they are jews, and never on account of their own sins, or especially the sins of their own people. So their attitude and behavior is absolutely contrary to what is described here in Isaiah chapter 53. Instead, at least many jews twirl chickens over their head and babble insane incantations by which they imagine to be passing their sins onto the chicken, whereupon the chicken dies for the sins of the jew. So if anything other than Christ is the suffering servant of this chapter, it must be the chicken. Like the jews themselves, all of this is nonsense, but they will run with any narrative that they think may be used to counter the Truth, and to deceive and confuse Christians, most of whom never study Scripture. The Truth is found only in Christ, and the words of His apostles and prophets. 

Although Jacob, as an allegory for all of Israel, is called the servant of Yahweh God by God Himself, where it is speaking collectively in other places in Isaiah, such as in chapters 44 and 48, here it is quite unlikely that this servant may be identified with Jacob. That is because this servant suffers on account of the sins of Jacob, and dies in exchange for those sins, whereby, in turn, Jacob is healed on account of the suffering of this servant. Since Jacob cannot save himself, this suffering servant can only be Yahweh his God, as He had proclaimed in Isaiah chapter 49, which ends with the expression that: “26 … all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.” Likewise, we read in Isaiah chapter 60 that: “16 … thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.” Then, in Acts chapter 5, in words attributed to the apostle Peter, we read: “30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Therefore, if the suffering servant had been the savior of Israel, then that suffering servant is also Yahweh God Himself.

As we have often explained earlier in this Isaiah commentary and elsewhere, the chapter divisions, which are a product of medieval Christianity, are quite unfortunate and very often cause casual readers of Scripture to misunderstand, or even entirely miss the greater context of many passages. The division here between chapters 52 and 53 is certainly one of those places. The prophecy of The Report of the Gospel which we have witnessed in chapter 52, and in the opening verse of this chapter, certainly does envelope the prophecy here of the Suffering Servant, and the suffering of this servant is the very reason for the report of the Gospel. Perhaps it was providential, or at least wise, to divide the chapter where it was, and to include the text which we know as verse 1 here, for that very reason, because it belongs here, however if chapter divisions are necessary at all, then this chapter would have better begun with the verse at 52:13. However doing that might give some the impression that the Suffering Servant had some mission other than suffering on behalf of the people of the captivities of Israel, which certainly is the reason, the only reason, for which He had suffered.

So the prophecy of the carrying of the Gospel in Isaiah 52:7, the baring of the arm of Yahweh in 52:10, the admonition to come out from among the unclean in 52:11-12, the first announcement of the Servant of Yahweh who would be marred, or injured, in 52:13-14, the bewilderment regarding the acceptance of the gospel here in the opening verse of chapter 53, and this ensuing description of the Suffering Servant who would suffer on behalf of the children of Israel in captivity, are all intertwined in context and therefore the theological concepts and the real life consequences of each of these statements cannot be separated one from another. As we shall see, the entire purpose of the Suffering Servant is for the children of Israel in captivity, and for no other people, just as it was also stated in the aforementioned passages of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. For example, the people were told by Isaiah to come out from among the unclean, and in Ezekiel Yahweh had promised them that ”I will take you from among the [nations], and gather you out of all countries”. This gathering is in true Christianity, and not in any imperial universalist church. It is a gathering of Israel from out of the nations where they had been in captivity, not a gathering of believers from all other races, and it is presented in all of these prophets within the context of the announcements of what we now know as the New Testament.

So now, as we commence with Isaiah chapter 53, we shall repeat the first verse of this chapter, which we have already discussed at some length:

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 

As we had explained at the end of our last presentation, there was much division in Judaea over the report of the Gospel, which Christ had referred to as the Gospel of the Kingdom, even while He had conducted His earthly ministry.

The bewilderment which this expresses seems to be calculated, and Christ Himself had answered it in several places in His Gospel. So we read, from John chapter 10 where He was addressing His adversaries, who certainly would not believe this report, and He said:

26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

So where we had first discussed this verse, we also endeavored to elucidate the reason for that division as it had been explained by Christ Himself in the course of His ministry, and also by Paul of Tarsus, in Romans chapter 9 and elsewhere in his epistles, as well as in his own words as they had been recorded by Luke, who was an eyewitness to the events found in Acts chapters 22 and 26.

Paul had referred to those in Judaea who rejected the Gospel of Christ and called them dogs and evil workers and described them disparagingly as the “concision”, using a Greek word which means cut off or mutilated, in Philippians chapter 3 where he wrote warning his fellow Christians to:

2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. 3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Additionally, those words of Paul’s evoke the words of David in the 22nd Psalm, which is also a Messianic prophecy. Portions of this Psalm were quoted or alluded to by the apostles in reference to Christ in at least a dozen places in the New Testament, and we shall cite lengthier portions of it here in relation to this description of the Suffering Servant. But for now, from the 22nd Psalm we shall read what seems to be the justification for Paul’s having referred to those who rejected Christ as dogs:

16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Then a little later in the same Psalm there is a plea:

19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

Christ Himself had said, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 7:

6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

This is, of course, how Christians should look at all of those who reject Christ to this very day. No commandment from Heaven ever changed this attitude. It is His Word, and His attitude. Quite explicitly, Paul referred to the jews of his time dogs. Quite prophetically, David also referred to them as dogs. The dogs were not the unsuspecting Roman soldiers, who only thought they had been executing a criminal, but the jews who had pressed the Romans for the execution, even if the entire nation of Judaea, consisting of both Israelite and Edomite Judaeans, was responsible for it collectively. This was asserted by the apostle Peter, in Acts chapter 2, where he referred both to Christ and to the prophecies found here and in the Psalms, and is recorded as having said, in part:

22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

There it is apparent that Peter addressed men of Israel, not men of Judaea, in order to distinguish the true Israelites among the Judaeans just as Paul had done in Romans chapter 9 where he wrote “6 … For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel”, comparing Jacob and Esau. The wicked hands of the rulers in Judaea, which were predominantly of the Edomites who had been appointed by the Herodians, were also the dogs of the words of David, and of Christ and His apostles. Maybe Peter should have said “wicked paws” rather than “wicked hands” and that would have been more appropriate.

Now, commencing with where we had left off in Isaiah chapter 53:

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 

The word for comeliness, הדר or hadar (# 1926) would better have been translated as majesty, as it is in the New American Standard Bible. Among other meanings it is dignity, splendor or glory. While this expression is not found in the 22nd Psalm, the concept that the Suffering Servant grew up before God certainly is, where we read:

9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

So it seems that the Suffering Servant having grown up before God means that He would grow up under the purview or authority of Yahweh, the God of Israel, which suggests that historically, He would had to have grown up under the governance of law and the authority of the temple in Jerusalem. So furthermore, the dry ground mentioned here also refers to the people of Judaea. In another Messianic prophecy earlier in Isaiah, in chapter 44, we read in part:

2 Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

So in the Gospel, Christ had referred to Himself as a source of living water, for example, in His discussion in Samaria with the woman at the well, in John chapter 4:

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Then again in John chapter 7 where in Jerusalem He had addressed the people attending a feast:

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

While in Isaiah chapter 44 it seems that the water is the Word of God, John interprets it as the Holy Spirit which was dispensed at the first Pentecost, which we certainly must find agreeable.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

In that same place in John chapter 7, following John’s parenthetical remark, the apostle recorded the reaction of the people to what Christ had declared and we read:

40 Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. 41 Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? 43 So there was a division among the people because of him. 44 And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. 45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? 46 The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. 47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.

Much later, John would write concerning those who did believe, and how the circumstances in Judaean society had silenced them, in John chapter 12:

37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: 38 That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. 42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:

There John had cited this chapter of Isaiah, and also Isaiah chapter 6. Since the Israelites of Judaea were blinded by Yahweh, so that His Word may be fulfilled, even the words of this chapter of Isaiah, then we must consider that when we assess their sin, that they could not have helped but to go along with their rulers, the “wicked hands” of Peter’s discourse, whom Christ had professed were “not of My sheep, as I said unto you.”

Repeating verse 3 here:

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

From the 22nd Psalm, from a passage which Matthew, Mark and Luke had all alluded to in their Gospel accounts (Mathew 27:39, Mark 15:29 and Luke 23:35):

4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

These words betray the fact that those who had spoken them did not delight in Yahweh, and rather seem to have despised Him. So in the account of the crucifixion in Luke chapter 23 we read, in part:

35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. 36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,

Then in a parallel account from Mark chapter 15:

15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 16 And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band. 17 And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, 18 And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! 19 And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.

Now concerning this, there is a further prophecy here in Isaiah:

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

This passage was cited explicitly in Matthew chapter 8 where we read:

14 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. 15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. 16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

While it is appropriate that Matthew interpreted the actions of Christ to be a literal fulfillment of those words of Isaiah, it is also apparent from those actions, from the very words of Christ in the Gospel and from the prophecies here in Isaiah that the literal fulfillments of these words during the time of His ministry were themselves only symbolic of His purpose for all of Israel. So next we see the purpose for the suffering of the Suffering Servant:

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 

By His stripes we are healed, as the children of Israel are reconciled to Yahweh their God, having been released from the punishments of the law, as Paul had explained in Romans chapter 7, which we shall cite here at the end of our commentary for verse 6. For this same reason, Paul had described the Gospel as the “Gospel of reconciliation”, and his ministry as the “ministry of reconciliation” in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and he said in Hebrews chapter 2 that Christ had come “to make reconciliation for the sins of the people”. Then, on account of the sins of their Israelite ancestors, he had told his readers in Colossians chapter 1:

21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.

The apostle Peter had cited this passage of Isaiah in chapter 2 of his first epistle, where we read:

21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

There Peter is speaking to people whom he must have known were the same sheep we see referred to in the very next passage of Isaiah, since only they could have returned to Yahweh:

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

Since chapter 52 it is the children of who are being addressed here, and it is they who are portrayed here as having said these things. Only the children of Israel could have been described as sheep having gone astray, since only the children of Israel ever had the law, as we read in the 147th Psalm:

19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.

Sin is only imputed where there is law, according to Paul of Tarsus in Romans chapter 5:

13 For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Therefore only the children of Israel could have ever been held responsible for their sins, and only the children of Israel had been punished for their sins. Therefore only they could be the sheep who had gone astray, and Peter must have been writing to them.

In his opening passage of that epistle, Peter had addressed his intended readers as ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήμοις διασπορᾶς or “to the elect sojourners of the dispersion”. The words ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήμοις are in the Dative case, so the address is being made to them. The Greek word ἐκλεκτός is elect, and the Greek word παρεπίδημος is a sojourner, as Liddell & Scott define the word to mean “sojourning in a strange place” [2]. Therefore it cannot describe so-called “gentiles” living in their own lands as “strangers”. The people to whom he was writing were not mere strangers, as the word is very poorly translated in the King James Version. Rather, they were Israelites dwelling in a “strange place”, in Anatolia, and therefore we have sojourners in our own translation. They were descendants of the Israelites who went into captivity, for which they “were as sheep going astray”. Those sheep were also described in Ezekiel chapter 34, which we shall read in part:

6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. 7 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; 8 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock …

11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, [out from the nations to which they had been scattered, the unclean of Isaiah chapter 52] and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

So the purpose of the Gospel of Christ was to seek out and return the lost sheep of Israel to Him, and for that reason the apostles of Christ had written to these people scattered abroad, primarily in Europe, Anatolia, the Levant and Mesopotamia, which was, for the most part, the Roman world and the “world” of that time. It is in accordance with the same promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that we read in the Messianic prophecy of the 22nd Psalm, as a result of the deliverance of the Messiah from the power of the dog, which evidently happened in His resurrection:

22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. 24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. 25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. 27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

The Gospel of Christ was the announcement to the nations that had been promised to the fathers, which came of the scattered seed of Israel in captivity.

So the purpose of the suffering of the Suffering Servant was to die on behalf of the sins of the children of Israel In Romans chapter 7, Paul explains that purpose from an entirely different perspective, which we already addressed in relation to the reference concerning “the bill of Your Mother’s Divorcement” which is found in Isaiah chapter 51. Earlier we had cited Jeremiah chapter 31, where Yahweh said that He was a husband unto Israel. The children of Israel collectively, as a nation, were considered to be the wife of Yahweh their God throughout the scriptures of the Old Testament, So discussing the sacrifice of Christ from that perspective, we read in Romans chapter 7:

1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

This is a prominent example of the depth and the prescience of the Word of God, that here the Suffering Servant is clearly the Messiah of other prophecies, who would come and save the people of Israel from their sins. But from another perspective, He is also Yahweh God incarnate, the Husband who gave Himself over to death so that his wife, the children of Israel, could be released from the punishments of the law. So concerning that aspect of the Suffering Servant, Isaiah continues:

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 

Perhaps the Messianic prophecy of the 22nd Psalm explains some of the reasons for his silence:

12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

There is no sense arguing with bulls and dogs. The last verse in that citation of the 22nd Psalm describes an event in the crucifixion of Christ which was mentioned in all four of the Gospel accounts, in Matthew chapter 27, Mark chapter 15, Luke chapter 23 and John chapter 19. But while Luke and Mark only include the incident in their broader descriptions of the event, Matthew and John each cite the actual passage, but without indicating its source or attributing it to any specific prophet.

This passage of Isaiah chapter 53 is also found where it had been cited by the so-called Ethiopian Eunuch, a man who was ostensibly an Israelite, but who was employed in some capacity as a servant to the queen of Ethiopia, or properly, Kush, who is mentioned in the passage of Acts chapter 8 as Candace. The word Κανδάκη, or Candace, is a title which was held by the queens of Kush, one of whom had been repelled from an invasion of Roman Egypt by the Romans about 22 BC, or about 60 years before the account in Acts chapter 8.

As we had seen here in earlier chapters of Isaiah, at least some of the people of Judah had fled the Assyrians and had gone into Egypt and to Kush. But more significantly, during the Persian period a Judaean garrison was stationed at Elephantine Island, an island in the Nile River which marked the southern border of Egypt. From this, thousands of documents dating from the late 6th to the late 5th centuries BC have been discovered [3], some of which corroborate the historicity of the accounts in Nehemiah and Ezra.

So the Ethiopian eunuch encountered by Philip may have descended from these people, but it is much more likely that he was a Judaean contemporary employed or living abroad, as there were many such men throughout the Roman empire. His identity as an Israelite is evident where he had been visiting Jerusalem for a feast, which was required in the law, and it was Peter, not Philip, who had converted the first non-Judaeans to Christianity, as Peter himself described in the account of his later experience in the household of Cornelius, a Roman, in Acts chapter 15. So this man was employed on behalf of the Ethiopian queen, but not even necessarily in Ethiopia. Rather he was employed in Gaza. Gaza is only about fifty miles from Jerusalem, but where the border of modern Egypt crosses into Sudan at the River Nile, it is well over a thousand miles from Jerusalem, or perhaps only eight hundred miles to the location of the isle Elephantine.

Since Ethiopia was not under Roman rule, it would have been quite difficult for an Ethiopian to casually enter into and then travel through all of Roman Egypt and Judaea safely, in order to worship in Jerusalem, and aliens were forbidden from even entering the temple in Jerusalem, at the risk of the penalty of death. In fact, when Paul was arrested in Jerusalem it was under the false accusation that he had brought an uncircumcised Greek into the temple, for which certain men even wanted to kill him, something which is recorded in Acts chapter 21.

While this was a necessary digression, with this background we shall read from Acts chapter 8, where Philip had been beckoned to leave Jerusalem for Gaza, and the full meaning of the language which is partly lost in the translation also informs us that Philip had a chariot of his own:

27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, 28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. 30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. 34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

Now we shall continue with Isaiah’s description of the Suffering Servant:

8 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. 

In the Septuagint, as it is translated by Brenton, the first clause of this verse reads: “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away”, however in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible we read: “From detention and judgment he was taken away”, with only slightly different readings among the various copies of Isaiah preserved in the scrolls. The Hexapla fragments are wanting any evidence for this clause.

That word for generation in the phrase “who shall declare his generation” is the Hebrew word דור or dowr (# 1755), which is generally interpreted as an age or generation, but the meaning of the word should not be constrained to that interpretation. So here we are compelled to repeat what we had written in relation to this word in Part 9 of our Genesis commentary, which is titled Perfect in His Race, in reference to Noah:

… while the Hebrew word dor was translated into a singular form of the Greek word γενεά here in the Septuagint, in the Hebrew passage it appears in the plural, דרת or doreth. In his Hebrew-Chaldee lexicon, Gesenius defines dor (# 1755) as “an age, generation of men, as if the period and circuit of the years of life”. Then further on he wrote “The idea of age, or generation being neglected, it often means a race of men” [with this we must disagree, as this meaning may also readily be seen to encompass the time element, rather than neglecting it], adding the Septuagint translation to the Greek word γενεά as an example. Of the plural, as the word appears here, Gesenius then adds that “In the plural there are two forms…. The former occurs in one expression” which he translates as “for ever and ever, signifying perpetuity” and “the later is frequently used of generations, ages to come…” While these definitions are not necessarily wrong, they are incomplete, because they do not answer why dor is a generation in the sense of the period or circuit of the years of a life.

There is another Hebrew noun (# 1754) with this same spelling, דור or דר, dowr or dor, which simply means a circle. But there are also two verbal forms of dor with the same spelling, the differences in all of these words only being in the artificial rabbinical vowel points, one of which (# 1753) is defined as to dwell or to inhabit, and the other (# 1752) Gesenius defines as to go around, to go in a circle, and therefore also to remain, to delay, to inhabit [1]. It is this last definition which is most pertinent here. Noah being perfect in his generations, we may assert that as a noun, a "dor" also represents what has remained, something which is still in its original form or habitation. Even the Brown Driver Briggs lexicon has the phrase “usually of duration to come” in its definition of the word dor. So in light of the race-mixing miscegenation which was transpiring in Noah’s time, Noah was just because he was not participating in the race-mixing, thereby being “perfect in his race” since his own immediate progeny represented the duration, or what was left, of the Adamic race on the earth. We also make the assertion that race is a proper translation of dor in Genesis 6:9, because the word is plural and therefore it encompasses not just Noah, but Noah’s entire towledah, or all of the generations of his descent, including that of his sons who are mentioned in verse 10.

In reference to the purpose of Christ and His Gospel, the words “who shall declare his generation” have little or even no meaning if generation is merely a period of time. The Gospel accounts inform us of when He had lived, and of how long He had lived, or approximately how old He was when He had departed. So nobody has to declare His generation in that sense. But if this word dowr or dor can refer to a remnant, or a race, as it does in Genesis chapter 6, then both of those definitions do have a significant meaning in relation to the Gospel, because either of them refer to the identity of the true children of Israel, as opposed to the mixed-race Edomites who had come to predominate Judaea during the course of His lifetime, and who claimed that inheritance for themselves. So where we read “who shall declare his remnant?” or “… his race?” in this verse of Isaiah, we see that the apostles had declared that, throughout their epistles and their ministries, for which reason they had brought His Gospel to the people of Europe, Anatolia and Mesopotamia, as well as to those who had still dwelt in the Levant.

Where we read in Isaiah 53:8 that “for the transgression of my people was he stricken”, in a similar prophecy found in Daniel chapter 9, where the entire purpose of Jerusalem in the second temple period is described, we read in part:

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the [Prince] that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

We would assert that the people of the Prince, which is Christ, were the Romans who had destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, an event which Christ Himself had described in the Gospel, saying, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 21, “22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” In other words, all things written concerning Himself and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem were fulfilled. But notice that Daniel had said “shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself” and here we are told likewise, that “for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” Christ was stricken for the transgressions of the people of Israel, and for no other people.

Isaiah continues his description of the Suffering Servant:

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 

The Septuagint according to Brenton has verse 9 to read: “9 And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death; for he practised no iniquity, nor craft with his mouth.” The Latin Vulgate translation of Douay-Rheims agrees with this reading, as does the translation of Symmachus noted in the Hexapla. [4] But once again, the manuscripts of Isaiah among the Dead Sea Scrolls generally support the reading of the Masoretic Text, and therefore the King James Version. While either version of the passage may ring true, here the focus is on the Messiah as the Suffering Servant, and not as the avenging God who shall destroy His enemies, which is the subject of many other prophecies.

Christ was actually buried in the tomb of a wealthy man, where we read in Matthew chapter 27, in the aftermath of the Crucifixion:

57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: 58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. 59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Of course, any man who dies must share the grave in the same manner as the wicked, or the wealthy, regardless of how he had lived his life. This is lamented in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 where we read:

2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. 3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

We have already read the testimony of Peter, in chapter 2 of his first epistle, where he spoke of Christ:

22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

But Christ having been without sin, and having volunteered Himself to die, His having made His grave with the wicked is all the more significant of a sacrifice. Moreover, according to Peter in chapters 3 and 4 of his first epistle, He had literally made His grave by preaching the Gospel to the wicked, even to those as wicked as the children of Adam who had died in the flood of Noah, where we read:

3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

4: 6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Paul had also alluded to this, where he wrote in chapter 4 of his epistle to the Ephesians that:

8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

There Paul had either paraphrased a passage from the 68th Psalm, or he had a differing version of the Psalm, which, as it is found in the King James Version, reads:

18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.

It can certainly be said that for the spirits of the children of Adam, the grave is a prison in which they had been held in captivity, having been alienated from God. But in Hosea chapter 13 there is another promise which references the grave, where we read:

14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Likewise there is a similar promise earlier in Isaiah, in chapter 28, which is found along with yet another Messianic prophecy:

16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

So now we shall see that it pleases Yahweh God to fulfill those very promises:

10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 

Ostensibly, the Suffering Servant shall “see His seed” because He is also the God and Creator of Israel. This is manifest in Isaiah chapter 43:

14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. 15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

For this same reason Paul had described Christ as the “firstborn among many brethren”, in Romans chapter 8.

At the very beginning of the ministry of Christ, He was baptized in the River Jordan by John, who had declared upon his having seen Him, as it is recorded in John chapter 1, “29 … Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” For that very reason, Paul of Tarsus had admonished his readers in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 to “7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

So in chapter 1 of his first epistle, Peter had told his readers:

18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

Ostensibly, Christ was without spot or blemish because He was without sin, and the Passover lambs prescribed in the law were required to have been without spot or blemish. This is seen in the ordinance of the Passover first given in Exodus chapter 12:

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

This is also required in the sin offerings prescribed by the law, for example in Leviticus chapter 4:

3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering. 4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the LORD.

Then in Leviticus chapter 9:

1 And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel; 2 And he said unto Aaron, Take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD. 3 And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering; 4 Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the LORD; and a meat offering mingled with oil: for to day the LORD will appear unto you.

Reflecting on these ordinances, Paul of Tarsus had later written in chapter 9 of his epistle to the Hebrews:

11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Now from the perspective of a man, the Suffering Servant himself is described as being pleased by His Own sacrifice:

11 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. 

Paul of Tarsus had written of this at length in Romans chapter 5, where he sad in part:

12 Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all [Adamic] men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come [Christ]. 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. [The many of Adam who had suffered death.] 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. [Christ was condemned without having sinned.] 17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [Christ] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. [The same “many”.]

The apostle John explains this in a much simpler manner, where he attested in chapter 3 of his first epistle that:

8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

One of the works of the devil was to tempt Eve into sin, and Adam followed her, so Adam suffered death, and all of his descendants also suffered death, on account of his sin. Therefore if Christ is to destroy the works of the devil, that first act must be reversed, and we have seen that even that those children of Adam who died in the flood had heard the Gospel of Christ, and have been gifted with life in Him, the free gift which Paul had mentioned in Romans chapter 5.

Now once again, from the perspective of a man, the Suffering Servant is rewarded for his His having suffered:

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. 

In the Gospels of both Mark and Luke, this passage is cited in reference to the phrase that “he was numbered with the transgressors”. Thus we read in Mark chapter 15:

27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.

But in Luke chapter 22, the passage was cited in a completely different context, where Christ repeats the prophecy of Isaiah in reference to Himself and we read, right after He had told Peter that he would deny Him three times:

35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. 36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. 37 For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. 38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

Of course, the apostles had been told by Christ on several occasions what things were to come concerning Him, but they never really understood those things until after they had happened. So while He was with them, they had need of nothing, but once He was taken away, they were told that they must provide for themselves. There is also a lesson for us in that example, so we should pray that God is with us. 

Yahshua Christ has had His portion with the great all throughout History, and at His return it shall certainly become manifest, that He is King over Israel, and that He is greater than them all. Next, as we shall see in Isaiah chapter 54, the children of Israel were given a further promise, to inherit the nations, for which reason, along with the promises to Abraham in Genesis, it is apparent that Paul had called Abraham the Heir of the World, in Romans chapter 4.

This concludes our commentary on Isaiah through chapter 53. 

Footnotes 

1 Isaiah 53: did Judaism always consider Israel the suffering servant?, Nick Meader, Medium.com, https://medium.com/interfaith-now/isaiah-53-did-judaism-always-consider-israel-the-suffering-servant-135fbfef2188, accessed January 22nd, 2026. 

2 παρεπίδημος, LSJ.gr, https://lsj.gr/wiki/%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B5%CF%80%CE%AF%CE%B4%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%82, accessed January 23rd, 2026. 

3 Elephantine papyri and ostraca, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantine_papyri_and ostraca, accessed January 23rd, 2026. 

4 Origenis Hexaplorum, Fridericus Field, AA. M., Volume II, Clarendon Press, 1875, p. 535.