cf. 52:14). His afflictions are described as pains and sicknesses, like the diseases of Job (eg Job 2:7–8; 16:6–17; 19:17–22). Of course his suffering symbolically includes all types of suffering, “sorrows” and “grief” (RSV) as well as physical pain, but the picture of a man wracked with disease, disfigured by sores and deformities of some kind—unidentified like the sufferer himself—is poignant enough as it stands without any further interpretation. The normal meaning of the words in verse 3,