Isaiah 53:12 - Made Intercession for his Persecutors

Introduction

Note: Half of this post appears in a different blog post concerning the supposed prophecy about being crucified between a pair of thieves. That means that about half of this post is unique and new.

This blog post has a focus on a portion of Isaiah 53:12, and as a result, a lot of detail concerning this song is going to be omitted for the sake of brevity. When writing about Isaiah 53 in general, it took me 43 pages in MS-Word to describe the history and language to my satisfaction, and that won’t work in a short blog post. So, to be brief, let’s begin looking at Isaiah 53:12.

Quick Overview of Isaiah 53

The book of Isaiah is generally broken down into three sections, which we will call “Proto Isaiah”, “Deutero-Isaiah”, and “Trito-Isaiah”.

Isaiah 53 is near the end of “Deutero-Isaiah”, which consists of chapters 40-55. The entirety of Deutero-Isaiah covers the period when the Jewish people were in exile in Babylon, and will sometimes backward reference for the reason for that exile. Chapter 53 is in the style of a Biblical song, a narrative with rhyme, metaphor, and cadence, and, being near the end of Deutero-Isaiah is recapping what came before and celebrating the end of the exile.

There is a general theme that runs through many of the books of the prophets and writings (referred to as “Nach”) which is that the Jews got what they deserved, and that their exile to Babylon will have a fixed duration, that God (or His servant leading an army) will wipe out Babylon, killing all of the evil people and the wealthy, turn Babylon into a wasteland, and the Jews will gather up the booty from the dead rich Babylonians and rush to Jerusalem where they will return to God (literally and metaphorically), and a return to glory.

And chapter 53, being close to the end of that timeline celebrates the end, and so I call it Isaiah’s “Song of Salvation”, where “salvation” means the redemption from forced exile.

There are, generally, two ways that this song is read. The first, as I stated, was it being messianic in the way that there will be freedom and a reestablishment of Jewish dominance in the land. The other way, which is how Christians hold it, is that it’s messiah-centric, and that it’s not about how the Jews suffered, but how the messiah, many centuries after the fall of Babylon, would suffer.

And that brings us to the last verse in what is near the end of the Babylonian period narrative texts, which Christians see as referring to Jesus’ last day on earth, as they do with most of Isaiah 53, which requires some interesting mental gymnastics in order to make that work.

The Claim

There is one claim that says that Luke 23:34, a verse that describes Jesus as asking God to forgive the people who harmed him, fulfills a prophecy in Isaiah 53:12. Amazingly enough, Jesus didn’t have to die for God to forgive the sins of mankind.

Here is Luke 23:34 (KJV):

“Then said Jesus, Father forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots.”

It should be noted that Isaiah 53:12 does not have the protagonist telling God to forgive anyone, saying that his abusers didn’t know what they were doing, nor does it contain any word referring to “intercession”.

As we have already seen in the many posts that I have already written about the subject, in order to get a prophecy to “work”, the verse being assigned as a “fulfillment” is typically chopped up with some of it ignored entirely, especially when it is contrary to the claim. In this case, selecting 3 Hebrew words out of a verse composed of 22 words to make a case for a “fulfillment”.

So here is the KJV version of Isaiah 53:12, with me highlighting in bold the supposed “intercession prophecy”:

               Therefore, I will 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 the many,
               and made intercession for the transgressors.

But let’s look at the version based on the Hebrew text. I will put in brackets any variance that is found in the Dead Sea Scroll that contains this same verse.

               Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many,
               and a plunder of great ones he will share, because
               he had publicly exposed himself to death;
               And he had been one with the pesha’im,
               and he tolerated the sin[s] of many,
               it was due to [her] pesha’im that he was harmed.

As you can see, there’s no intercession. And it says that the protagonist was one of the pesha’im, and it was his association with them (rebelling against the prophet) that caused him to be harmed by being in exile with them.

Pesha’im

What were these pesha’im?

The Hebrew word used is “פשע” (“pesha” - the singular form), or “פשעים” (“pesha’im” - the plural form).  The prophets use this term of a personal condemnation of the Jews who were being disobedient to the prophets and, by extension, to YHVH. In Isaiah, as we will see below, when it is speaking of people, pesha’im only refers to the exiled Israelites as a whole who were in exile specifically because they didn’t listen and obey the prophets of YHVH. When it is speaking of actions, it is referring to the rebellious actions of the Jewish people, of disobeying the prophet. And when one goes against a prophet, one goes against YHVH.

Turning away from pesha is to obey the prophet. Being cast out because of your pesha is to ignore the prophet. And YHVH wiping away one’s pesha with is a statement of being forgiven through the prophet. So, translating pesha as a sin as if it is the same as a cheit is inadequate to the task. Therw is always a disobedience and rebellion against a prophet being referred to, and YHVH always takes that personally.

We see this throughout Isaiah as in:

1:2 – “…they [Israel] have pesha (פשע) against Me!”
1:28 – “But the pesha’mi and the sinners shall be crushed…”
24:20 – “…her pesha shall weigh her down…”
43:25 – “But it is I, I, for My own sake, wipe away your pesha’im…
43:27 – “Your first patriarchs sinned against Me, and your advocates pesha against me.”
44:22 –“I wipe away you peshaim like a cloud…”
46:8 – “Keep this in mind and stand firm, take this to heart you pesha’im.”
48:8 – “…you were called a pesha while in the womb.”
50:1 – “…for your pesha I have sold you off…”
53:5 – “But he was harmed because of our pesha…”
53:12 “…and he was one of the pesha’im (disobedient)…
53:12 – “…and it was due to pesha’im he was harmed.”
53:8 – “…through the pesha of my people he was afflicted.”
59:20 – “[YHVH] will come as the redeemer to Zion, to those in Jacob who torn away from pesha.”
57:4 – “…you are children of a pesha, the seed of a lie.”
58:1 “…declare to My people their pesha”
59:12 – “For you many pesha’im are before you…we know well your pesha’im.”
59:13 – “pesha and faithlessness in YHVH and turning away from our God…”
66:24 – “They shall go out and gaze upon the corpses of those who rebelled (pesha) against Me…”

Summary

Isaiah 53:12 does not say that the messiah will intercede on behalf of his abusers. In fact, the protagonist’s abusers are all killed off in verse 9.

Also, this verse begins by the Prophet promising that YHVH is going to give the loot, the booty that belonged to the wealthy ones who were killed in the defeating of Babylon in verse 9, as well as the abusers of the protagonist. The protagonist is reminded that he too is one of the pesha’im who deserved what he got for not listening to the prophets, but since he endured his punishment without complaint, he will benefit.

Here is the meme used: