Isaiah 53:1
in Isaiah 53Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Who hath believed our message? and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?
KJV
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
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This verse in Isaiah 53
Commentary
19 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Who hath believed our report? - The main design of the prophet in all this portion of his prophecy is, undoubtedly, to state the fact that the Redeemer would be greatly exalted (see Isa 52:13; Isa 53:12). But in order to furnish a fair view of his exaltation, it was necessary also to exhibit the depth of his humiliation, and the intensity of his sorrows, and also the fact that he would be rejected by those to whom he was sent.
This site's exposition
Who has believed our message?
on Isaiah 53:1-3
The heart of the song opens with a question about who has believed the message, quoted at John 12:38 and Romans 10:16. There follows a man no one wanted to look at. The speakers tell a suffering still to come in the past tense, which Delitzsch calls the prophetic perfect.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Are we correct in understanding God's right hand to be the one of whom Isaiah says, "And the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been revealed"? That, you see, is the only Son, whom the Father did not spare "but handed him over for us all." And thus he stretched out his right hand on the cross, and the earth devoured the godless, when they thought of themselves as victorious and of him as despicable in defeat.
If we should understand "hand" as power, the power of the Father and the Son is one; but if we should understand "hand" as it was said through the prophet, "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" the hand of the Father is the Son himself.
For just as it is your arm through which you work, so his Word was called the arm of God, because through the Word he constructed the world. For why does a person, in order to construct something, stretch out his arm except to directly execute his will?
Look and see that he alone is Father and his arm is the Son, and there are not two but one, a person and his arm. Not understanding or noticing how the words of one thing are transferred to other things on account of some similarity in everyday speech concerning visible and well-known things, how much more when ineffable things are spoken in some way, which are said in such a way to be impossible [in another way]? For a person calls another person "his arm" through whom he does whatever he does. And if he is taken away, he mourns and says, "I have lost my arm." And to the one who took him away, he says, "You have taken my arm away." We can thus understand how it can be said that the Son is the arm of the Father through which the Father works all things. Failing to understand this, we remain in the shadows of error, just like those of whom it was said, "To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"
God truly put his arm around the prodigal son when he clothed his Son in human flesh. Then he exclaimed and said to all, "Take my yoke on you." Whoever accepts the yoke of Christ is embraced as with the arm of a father and …
12 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers6 voices
Now he would most certainly have said "your arm" if he had not wished us to understand that the Father is Lord and the Son also is Lord.
A commentator
Apostolic ConstitutionsCONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 5:3.16 · Written before 380.
proposed
Due to their exceedingly great wickedness, they would not believe in him, as the Lord shows in these words, "Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" And afterward, "Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive, for the heart of this people has become desensitized." Therefore, knowledge was taken from them, because when they saw, they overlooked, and when they heard, they heard nothing at all.
A commentator
JeromeHOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 67, ALTERNATE SERIES (PSALM 90) · Written before 420.
proposed
May your right hand with which you fashioned the world bring light to the world. "To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" May your right hand with which you formed humanity take on a human body and save human persons.
(Chapter 53, verses 1 and following) Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground: he has no form or comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we did not esteem him.
A commentator
Clement of RomeClement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 16 · Written before 99.
proposed
For Christ is of those who are humble-minded, and not of those who exalt themselves over His flock. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sceptre of the majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride or arrogance, although He might have done so, but in a lowly condition, as the Holy Spirit had declared regarding Him. For He says, "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared [our message] in His presence: He is, as it were, a child, and like a root in thirsty ground; He has no form nor glory, yea, we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; but His form was without eminence, yea, deficient in comparison with the [ordinary] form of men. He is a man exposed to stripes and suffering, and acquainted with the endurance of grief: for His countenance was turned away; He was despised, and not esteemed. He bears our iniquities, and is in sorrow for our sakes; yet we supposed that [on His own account] He was exposed to labour, and stripes, and affliction. But He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; [every] man has wandered in his own way; and the Lord has delivered Him up for our sins, while He in the midst of His sufferings opens not His mouth. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearer is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth. For the transgressions of my people was He brought down to death. And I will give the wicked for His sepulchre, and the rich for His death, because He did no iniquity, neither was guile found in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to purify him by stripes. […]
For it is incredible that God, the Son of God, should be spoken of and preached as having suffered these things. For this reason they are foretold by the prophets, lest any doubt should spring up in those who are about to believe.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 19 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
The first thing, then, is that a man possess Scripture, not like a Jew who is content with the rind. For instance, a certain Jew was reading one day this passage from Isaias: "Who would believe what we have heard?" He was reading it literally …
Who has believed. Here he begins to set out the remedies against the aforesaid impediments. And first, against their sin, he promises the passion of Christ; second, against their lowering, he promises exaltation: give praise, O you barren (ch. 54); third, against their poverty, he …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The unbelief of the Jews in our Saviour's time is expressly said to be the fulfilling of this word, John xii. And it is applied likewise to the little success which the apostles' preaching met with among Jews and Gentiles, Rom. x. Of the many that hear the report of the gospel there are few, very few, that believe it.
Who hath believed our report?.... Or "hearing" (a).
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The prophet, as if present during Messiah's ministry on earth, is deeply moved to see how few believed on Him (Isa 49:4; Two reasons are given why all ought to have believed: (1) The "report" of the "ancient prophets." (2) "The arm of Jehovah" exhibited in Messiah while on earth.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Who hath believed our report? - The report of the prophets, of John the Baptist, and Christ’s own report of himself. The Jews did not receive the report, and for this reason he was not manifested to them as the promised Messiah. ‘He came unto his own, but his own received him not.’ Before the Father he grew up as a tender plant: but to the Jews he was as a root out of a dry ground. ‘He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.’
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Who would have believed our report So will the nations say to one another, Were we to hear from others what we see, it would be unbelievable.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
And he came up like a sapling before it This people, before this greatness came to it, was a very humble people, and it came up by itself like a sapling of the saplings of the trees.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִ֥י | mi | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| הֶאֱמִ֖ין | heemin | has he believed | H539 → | 106 times |
| לִשְׁמֻעָתֵ֑נוּ | lishmuatenu | <to> report our | H8052 → | 27 times |
| וּזְר֥וֹעַ | uzeroa' | and [the] arm of | H2220 → | 91 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | to | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מִ֥י | mi | whom? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| נִגְלָֽתָה׃ | niglatah | has it been revealed | H1540 → | 186 times |
מִ֥יwho?
miH4310 →423 times
הֶאֱמִ֖יןhas he believed
heeminH539 →106 times
לִשְׁמֻעָתֵ֑נוּ<to> report our
lishmuatenuH8052 →27 times
וּזְר֥וֹעַand [the] arm of
uzeroa'H2220 →91 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
עַל־to
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
מִ֥יwhom?
miH4310 →423 times
נִגְלָֽתָה׃has it been revealed
niglatahH1540 →186 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 1:12But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—
it leads to
- Galatians 3:26
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 8:14
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
- 1 John 3:1
Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is…
- 2 Corinthians 6:17–18
“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
- Galatians 4:6
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
- Galatians 3:26
Through
1 Corinthians 1:18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 2:14
The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10
and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
- 1 Corinthians 2:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies23
On this verse
On this chapter
What the record shows
1 entry◈The Yeshua cluster in Isaiah 53contested
Yacov Rambsel (1996) and Grant Jeffrey (1996) claimed a cluster of "Yeshua" equidistant letter sequences in Isaiah 53. Documented here beside its refutation, never endorsed: a four-letter Hebrew string is dense at some skip throughout any long text, so its presence carries no evidential weight.
The case against it
ישוע is a four-letter string, and four-letter strings are dense at some skip throughout any long Hebrew text; contrary and even blasphemous strings surface in the same passages by the same method. David E. Thomas set out the arithmetic in "Hidden Messages and the Bible Code," Skeptical Inquirer 21(6) (1997). Randall Ingermanson - a physicist and a believing Christian, writing for a Christian publisher - ran the method himself and concluded in Who Wrote the Bible Code? A Physicist Probes the Current Controversy (WaterBrook, 1999) that it does not hold. This entry carries particular weight on a confessional site: the temptation to keep an "our-side" code because it flatters the faith is exactly what the honesty mandate exists to resist.
About Isaiah
This page draws on 20 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Apostolic Constitutions, CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 5:3.16; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 363:2; Augustine of Hippo, TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 48:7; Augustine of Hippo, TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53:2; Augustine of Hippo, TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53:3; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 19; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 163:2; Clement of Rome, Clement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 16; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 67, ALTERNATE SERIES (PSALM 90); Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Tertullian, AGAINST PRAXEAS 13; Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah and Tyrannius Rufinus, COMMENTARY ON THE APOSTLES' CREED 21.