1 The people reply,“Who would have believed what we now report?Who could have seen the Lord's hand in this?
2 It was the will of the Lord that his servantshould grow like a plant taking root in dry ground.He had no dignity or beautyto make us take notice of him.There was nothing attractive about him,nothing that would draw us to him.
3 We despised him and rejected him;he endured suffering and pain.No one would even look at him —we ignored him as if he were nothing.
4 “But he endured the suffering that should have been ours,the pain that we should have borne.All the while we thought that his sufferingwas punishment sent by God.
5 But because of our sins he was wounded,beaten because of the evil we did.We are healed by the punishment he suffered,made whole by the blows he received.
6 All of us were like sheep that were lost,each of us going his own way.But the Lord made the punishment fall on him,the punishment all of us deserved.
7 “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly;he never said a word.Like a lamb about to be slaughtered,like a sheep about to be sheared,he never said a word.