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Messianic Prophecies

Isaiah 53:9

This passage comes from the wider catalog — a broader, more lightly curated list than the core set. Both readings are shown as peers; GEBible takes no side.

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Isaiah 53:9

They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

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Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.

He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?

They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

The counter-reading

How this passage is read within its own context.

On the critical reading, the Hebrew parallelism pairs 'wicked' with 'rich' as synonyms, consistent with prophetic condemnation of wealthy oppressors, so the verse describes a dishonorable burial among the disreputable. Critics argue the Matthean application inverts this by treating 'rich' as a positive, honorable designation. They hold that the grammatical number cannot bear the two-parties reading: in poetic parallelism the singular 'rich' functions as a generic collective and need not denote one individual, and the plural 'wicked' need not mean exactly two persons. On this view the singular/plural mapping is read back from the Gospel narrative rather than derived from Hebrew grammar.

The fulfillment reading

How this passage is read as pointing to the Messiah.

On the messianic-fulfillment reading, Isaiah 53:9's pairing of a burial among the wicked with interment provided by the rich is applied to the burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man, in Matthew 27:57-60. Proponents point to the Masoretic distinction between a plural 'wicked' and a singular 'rich,' reading two parties: a grave assigned among criminals but an actual burial provided by a single rich individual. On this reading the plural corresponds to the criminals crucified alongside Jesus and the singular to Joseph, and the dual structure matching the dual burial detail is taken as too specific to be coincidental. The 'rich' designation is read positively, as an honorable burial.

How the New Testament uses this passage

Each entry names how the New Testament author draws on the passage — a direct quotation, an allusion, an echo, or a typological reading. An echo or an allusion is not the same as a prediction; the label says which is which.

  • Matthew 27:57 Allusion

    Matthew 27:57-60 shapes the burial account so that a rich man provides the tomb, echoing Isaiah 53:9's 'tomb with the rich,' but there is no citation formula or direct quotation, making it an allusion rather than a quote.