Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Gerard Van Groningen on Isaiah 53:10 and Why God was "Pleased" to Crush the Servant

  

Wyhwh ḥāpēṣ dāk’ô (but or yet—Yahweh was pleased to crush him). The conjunction should be read as providing a contrast. Men kill and bury the Servant (53:9). But—or yet—Yahweh provides the immediate motivation The verb ḥāpēṣ (qal of delight, be willing) indicates that Yahweh not only wants the Servant to suffer but that it pleases him. In fact, the stronger term could be used: it delights Yahweh. Dāk’ô (piel of dāka’, to crush, bruise) must not be read to mean Yahweh is capricious or heartless. Rather, Yahweh has his purpose and reason. Yahweh is delighted therefore to inflict suffering on the Servant because of what will be achieved by it. It must not be thought that Yahweh delights in the suffering itself. The next term emphasizes Yahweh’s role.

 

Heḥělî is also used in 53:4 to refer to the condition of mankind. He bears our sicknesses, diseases, that is, our sin and its result on the human race. Yahweh makes him a sinner with all the consequences of being one, yet he is innocent (53:9c-d). The emphasis is on Yahweh’s identifying the Servant with sinful, corrupted, and depraved people and having him serve as their substitute. (Gerard Van Groningen, Messianic Revelation in the Old Testament, 2 vols. [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1990 repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 1997], 2:638)

 

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