Interpretation—­As the Gentiles wondered at their abject state, so as to make them a proverb of reproach, so shall they admire at their wonderful change of circumstances, from the depth of degradation to the height of prosperity and honour.  So that they shall lay their hands upon their mouths, which had beforetime reproached them, when they shall see their felicity to be so far beyond what had been told them, and they shall attentively consider it, and they shall say to each other—­

“Who hath believed our report, and the arm of the Lord to whom was it revealed?  For he grew up [Hebrew, not “he shall grow up,” as in the English version] before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry soil; he had no form nor comeliness; and when we saw him, there was no beauty that we should desire him.”

The sense is—­The Gentiles shall say to each other in wonder, “Who believed what we heard concerning them?  And to whom was the interest the Lord took in them made known?  For it was a dispised people, feeble, and wretched, like a tender plant springing up out of a thirsty soil.  Their appearance was abject, and there was nothing attractive in their manners.”

“He was 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.”

That is—­They were despised, and held in abhorrence:  they were men of sorrow, and familiar with suffering.  We looked upon them with dislike:  we hid our faces from them, and esteemed them not.

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”

Interpretation—­Surely their sufferings are as great as if they had borne the sins of the whole world; or, they are, nevertheless, the means appointed to remove the sufferings of an afflicted world, for God hath connected universal happiness with their prosperity; and the end of their sufferings, is the beginning of our joys.

“Yet did we esteem him smitten of God, and afflicted.”

Interpretation—­Nevertheless, we considered them as a God-abandoned race, and devoted to wretchedness by him, for having crucified their king.

“But he was wounded for [or by] our transgressions, he was bruised [for or by] our iniquities:  the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and through his stripes we are healed.”

That is—­But, instead of being the victims of God’s wrath, they were wounded through our cruelty, they were bruised by our iniquitous treatment, we being suffered to do so, to chastise them for their sins, and to prove their obedience; and this chastisement is that by which our peace is to be effected; for their chastisement and probation being finished.  God will by them impart and diffuse peace and happiness.

“All we like sheep have gone astray, we, have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath caused to meet upon him the iniquity of us all.”