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"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? 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. 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.
"Surely
He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.
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. 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.
"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. By oppression
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. 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.
"Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause
Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes 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. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by His knowledge My righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion
among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, 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." (Book of Isaiah, Chapter
53, Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible)
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