The Suffering Servant as a Guilt Offering

A “guilt offering” was made when one person had wronged another (on any level of deceit, robbery, defrauding, lying, or swearing falsely) and subsequently had committed an iniquity against Yahweh Himself (Lev 5:14–19). A “guilt offering” would regularly be brought before Yahweh by a priest. The priest would perform the act of sacrificing the “ram without blemish from the flock, or its equivalent” (Lev 5:15).

Leviticus 5:16 says that “The priest shall make atonement on your behalf with the ram of the guilt offering and you shall be forgiven.” Similarly, Isaiah 53:4 says that “[the Servant] has lifted our sickness, he has borne the load of our [the community’s] pain.” Just as the ram serves as an offering for the people’s “guilt” and “punishment” (Lev 5:17–18), the Servant lifts the people’s sickness and bears their pain (Isa 53:4), taking away something they cannot remove on their own. The Servant bears the people’s iniquities (Isa 53:11). He is “pierced for our transgressions” (Isa 53:5) and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isa 53:5). In addition to this, “upon him were the bonds of our peace” (Isa 53:5) and “by his bruises we were healed” (Isa 53:5). Isaiah 53:6 states that Yahweh “interposed upon him the iniquity of us all.” In these seven instances, the text indicates that actions are happening to the Servant—these actions are not done by him, but to him.

Just as a sacrificial animal suffers innocently for the wrong committed by someone else, so the Servant suffers vicariously for the sin of the community. Isaiah 53:8 says that the Servant is “cut off from the land of the living” and in Isaiah 53:9 that “his grave [was made] with the wicked … although he had done no wrongs, and there was no deceit in his mouth.” These lines are building toward the Servant’s death and begin to describe it. The Servant is the guilt offering. His death fits the overall context of this passage (Isa 53:5–6, 9).1

John D. Barry