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The
Identification of the Servant in the Book of Isaiah
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Name
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Reference in
Isaiah
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Quotation
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Identification
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Isaiah
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Isa. 20:3
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“And the LORD
said, ‘Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three
years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush,”
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Isaiah, the
prophet
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Eliakim
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Isa. 22:20
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“Then it will
come about in that day, that I will summon My servant Eliakim the son
of Hilkiah”
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Eliakim ben
Hilkiah, apparently the palace administrator (see Isa. 36:3, 11, 22;
37:2)
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Unnamed
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Isa. 24:2
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“And the people
will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her
mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the
creditor like the lender.
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This is not a
special servant of Yahweh, but a generic servant, as the context
indicates.
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David
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Isa. 37:35
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“For I will
defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s
sake.”
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David, the king
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Israel, Jacob
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Isa. 41:8
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“But you, Israel,
My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend,”
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Israel, a.k.a.
Jacob
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Israel, Jacob
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Isa. 41:9
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“You whom I have
taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts
and said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not
rejected you.’”
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Clearly
Israel-Jacob, from the context of the preceding verse (Isa. 41:8)
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Unnamed
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Isa. 42:1
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“Behold, My
Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have
put My Spirit upon Him”
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The Anointed One
(Messiah – “I have put My Spirit upon Him”), Jesus, as identified in
Matt. 12:17-21, quoting Isa. 42:1-4
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Unnamed
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Isa. 42:19
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“Who is blind but
My servant, or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as
he that is at peace with Me, or so
blind as the servant of the LORD?”
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Jacob-Israel, so
identified in Isa. 42:24
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Unnamed
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Isa. 43:10
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“You are My
witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so
that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me
there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me.”
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Jacob-Israel, so
identified in Isa. 43:1, 22, 28. The servant is also identified as “My
chosen people,” “the people whom I formed for Myself” (Isa. 43:20-21).
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Jacob, Israel
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Isa. 44:1
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“But now listen,
O Jacob My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen:”
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Jacob-Israel
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Jacob, Jeshurun
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Isa. 44:2
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“Thus says the
LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do
not fear, O Jacob My servant; and you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.”
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Jacob-Jeshurun.
Jeshurun is another name for Israel – used elsewhere only in Deut.
32:15; 33:5, 26.
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Jacob-Israel;
Israel
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Isa. 44:21
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“Remember these
things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you,
you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me.”
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Jacob-Israel;
Israel
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Unnamed
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Isa. 44:26
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“Confirming the
word of His servant and performing the purpose of His messengers. It is
I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’ and of the cities of
Judah, ‘They shall be built.’ And I will raise up her ruins again.”
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“His Servant”
probably refers to Isaiah; “His messengers” to various prophets.
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Jacob, Israel
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Isa. 45:4
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“For the sake of
Jacob My servant, and Israel, My chosen one,
I have I have also called you [Cyrus] by your name; I have given you a
title of honor though you have not known Me.”
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Jacob-Israel.
(Yahweh called Cyrus by name in Isa. 44:28
and Isa. 45:1 some 150 years ahead.
This is not a later editorial gloss, or addition!)
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Jacob
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Isa. 48:20
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“Go forth from
Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful
shouting, proclaim this, send it out to the end of the earth; say, ‘The
LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.’”
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Jacob, meaning
Israel.
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Israel
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Isa. 49:3
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“…The LORD called
Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me. He has made
My mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand he has concealed
Me; and He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His
quiver. He said to Me, ‘You are My Servant, Israel, in whom I will show
My glory.’” (49:1b-3)
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On the
face of
it, Israel is the servant, so named. Yet there are other
factors
[1]
present in this extended passage which necessitate the view that
Messiah is the Servant as the ultimate embodiment of the nation of
Israel. Notice the consistent capitalization of “Servant” by NASB
editors in this passage.
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Unnamed; other
than Jacob-Israel
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Isa. 49:5
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“And now says the
LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob
back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him…”
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Clearly, the
Servant is other than Jacob-Israel. He must then be the Messiah, the
Redeemer who brings Zion-Jacob back to Yahweh forever (Isa. 49:5-6;
59:20-21).
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Unnamed; other
than Jacob-Israel
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Isa. 49:6
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“He says, ‘It is
too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make
You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of
the earth.’”
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Clearly, the
Servant is other than Jacob-Israel. Not only does He restore
Jacob-Israel; He serves as a light to the nations (Isa. 42:6; Luke
2:27-32; Acts 13:23, 47-48; 26:23). He is the Messiah.
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Unnamed
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Isa. 49:7
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“Thus says the
LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy
One, to the despised One, to the One abhorred by the nation, to the
Servant of rulers, ‘Kings will see and arise, princes will
also bow down, because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of
Israel who has chosen You.’”
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Yahweh speaks to
the Servant of rulers. Since He is abhorred by the nation (Israel), He
must be other than Israel, the Messiah, chosen by God. Yet to Him Kings
and princes will defer.
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Unnamed
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Isa. 50:10
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“Who is among you
that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in
darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and
rely on his God.”
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Though unnamed,
the Servant must be the same person who speaks in Isa. 50:4-9,
whose back
was scourged and who was spat upon (Isa.
50:6; Matt. 26:67; 27:26, 30;
Mark 14:65; 15:15, 19; Luke 22:63; John 19:1), Messiah.
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Unnamed
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Isa. 52:13
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“Behold,
My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and
greatly exalted.”
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Though
unnamed,
this ultimately exalted [2] Servant
is He who died for the sins of the nation of Israel, as
expressed by the plural pronoun “our,” representative of the believing
remnant (Isa. 53:1-12),
Messiah.
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Unnamed
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Isa. 53:11
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“As a result of
the anguish of His soul, He will see it and
be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will
justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”
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The Messiah, the
“Righteous One” whose sacrificial death atoned for the sins of “the
many.”
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Summary: This document
represents an attempt
to identify every occurrence in the singular of the word “servant”
(Heb. ebed) in the book of Isaiah.
The servant
is named on several occasions: Isaiah, Eliakim, David, and Israel,
often also
identified as Jacob, once as descendant of Abraham, and once as
Jeshurun. Of particular
interest is the identification of the “servant” in the so-called
“Servant
Songs” found in Isa. 41-53.
There follows a representative
table produced
by Thomas Constable, Dr.
Constable’s
Notes on Isaiah.
Contable actually includes a 5th "Servant Song" he says is found in
Isaiah 61:1-3, with a postscript in Isaiah 61:4-9. However, the word
"servant" does not appear there, so I have declined to include it.
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THE "SERVANT SONGS"
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Number
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Passage
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Post Script
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1
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Isa.
42:1-4
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Isa.
42:5-9
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2
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Isa.
49:1-6
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Isa.
49:7-13
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3
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Isa.
50:4-9
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Isa.
50:10-11
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4
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Isa. 52:13—53:12
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Isa.
54—55
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There are
some, Jewish people for example, who see only the nation of Israel as
being the
servant in these songs. There are others who see both Israel and the
Messiah
denoted in these “servant songs.” While it is true that God intended
Israel to
be a “kingdom of priests” (Ex.
19:5-6) that would bring the nations of
the
world into fellowship with Him, sadly, too often Israel has not
fulfilled that
role. The reality is that there are servant references which cannot
possibly
refer to Israel. How can the servant be Israel when He is distinguished
from
Israel and actually restores Israel (Isa. 49:6)? In what sense has
Israel given
“his back to those who strike” him, his “cheeks to those who pluck out
the
beard,” and left his face uncovered “from humiliation and spitting”
(Isa.
50:6)? In what way has Israel’s appearance been “marred more
than any
man and
His form more than the sons of men” (Isa.
52:14)? In what way will
Israel “sprinkle
many nations” (Isa.
52:15)? In what way has Israel been “pierced
through for
our transgressions,” “crushed for our iniquities,” borne “the iniquity
of us
all,” or borne “the sin of many” (Isa.
53:5-6, 11-12)? In the “Servant
Songs” it
is better to see the servant in some instances as referring to Israel,
while in
other instances as referring only to the Messiah. At the same time,
there is a
sense in which Jesus, the Messiah, is the ultimate embodiment of
Israel. As
John A. Martin summarized, “Which servant Isaiah was referring to in
each
passage must be determined by the context and the characteristics
assigned to
the servant. Israel as God’s servant was supposed to help bring the
world to a
knowledge of God, but she failed. So the Messiah, the Lord’s Servant,
who
epitomizes the nation of Israel, will fulfill God’s will” (John A.
Martin, “Isaiah,”
Introduction to Isaiah 42, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament).
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| 2 “The terms high,
lifted up, and
greatly exalted describe God elsewhere (cf. Isa.2:17;
6:1; 33:10; 57:15).
... Thus the
Servant would take a place of equality with God (cf. Acts.
2:33; 3:13,
26;
Phil. 2:9; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Pet. 3:22).
This
could in no
way refer to Israel, the remnant in Israel, or any merely human person”
(Thomas
Constable, Dr.
Constable’s Notes on Isaiah). Text |
The
Identification of the
Servant in the Book of Isaiah
Prepared
by James T.
Bartsch
Published Online by WordExplain.com
Email
Contact: jbartsch@wordexplain.com
Scripture
taken from the NEW
AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,
1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by
permission. (www.Lockman.org)
WordExplain
by James T. Bartsch
Search
WordExplain.com here.
Published
November 3, 2010
Updated March 21, 2014; October 29, 2021
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