[sanchmo]

Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[1] and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.[2]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes[3] his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life][4] and be satisfied[5] ; by his knowledge[6] my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[7] and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[8] because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

[1] Or: From arrest
[2] Or: away. Yet who of his generation considered that he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the blow was due?
[3] Hebrew: though you make
[4] Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint); Masoretic Text does not have: the light [of life].
[5] Or (with Masoretic Text): [11] He will see the result of the suffering of his soul and be satisfied
[6] Or: by knowledge of him
[7] Or: many
[8] Or: numerous

[malakhi]

Isaiah 53 is not a messianic passage. Read the whole of Isaiah, and tell me, from the context of the whole book, who is the 'servant'?

Psalm 22 is a great example of trying to find something that isn't there. Let me offer a Christian translation first:

[12] Many bulls encompass me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
[13] they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.

[16] Yea, dogs are round about me;
a company of evildoers encircle me;
they have pierced my hands and feet --

[20] Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life from the power of the dog!
[21] Save me from the mouth of the lion,
my afflicted soul from the horns of the wild oxen!

The key here is the translation of verse 16. Christians maintain that the Hebrew word ka-'ari should be translated as 'pierced'. They do so on the claim that the root is krh, "to dig". The problem with this is that it does not account for the 'aleph. Karah consists only of the Hebrew letters kaph, resh, and he, whereas the word in the Hebrew text, ka-'ari, consists of kaph, 'aleph, resh, and yod. Further, the verb krh, "to dig," does not have the meaning "to pierce." Karah generally refers to the digging of the soil, and is never applied in the Scriptures to the piercing of the flesh. A better word would have been nakar, used in 2 Kings 18:21 ("Behold, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.")

The correct translation of verse 16 is:

[16] For dogs have surrounded me;
a company of evildoers have encircled me;
like a lion they are at my hands and my feet.

Which, as you can see, perfectly matches the imagery of the preceding and following verses.

This is one of many such psalms which David wrote about being beset and suffering at the hands of enemies. It is not prophecy, and it is not a messianic passage.