Isaiah 53:8

He was taken away by distress and judgment. Who can describe his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the transgression of my people he was struck down. LXX: In his humility his judgment was taken away. Who will declare his generation, for his life is taken from the earth? He was led away to death because of the iniquities of my people. And what follows: He was taken away from distress and judgment; or as the Septuagint translated, in his humility his judgment was taken away, it signifies that he, having conquered, ascended from tribulation and judgment to the Father; or that the judge of all will not find truth in judgment; but that he was condemned without any fault, through the sedition of the Jews and the voice of Pilate. Therefore, the Prophet marvels that God has delivered himself to the passion of all. About what Paul is speaking: For if they had believed, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). It follows: Who will declare His generation? This is understood in two ways: either it is to be understood about His divinity, that the mysteries of His divine birth are impossible to know; about which He Himself speaks in the Proverbs: Before all the hills He brought me forth (Prov. 8:25); according to what we read elsewhere: For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? (Rom. 11:34)? That is, no man; or about the birth of the Virgin, which can hardly be explained. Finally, when it was said to Mary by the Angel: You shall conceive and bear a son, she responded: How shall this be, since I do not know man? To which the Angel again said: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (Luke 1:31, 34, 35), so that the mysteries of this birth may be attributed either to the Angel or to the Evangelist alone. […]

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; not begotten of things which are not, but of Him who is the Father; not in a corporeal manner, by excision or division as Sabellius and Valentinus thought, but in a certain inexplicable and …

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. […]

This sheep is equally called shepherd and says "I am the good Shepherd." By his manhood he is sheep; by his divine loving-kindness he is shepherd.

He was taken away from distress. The humility of his passion having been set out, here he begins to set out the glory of his exaltation, which is the reward of his passion, as it says in Philippians 2:9: for which cause, God also has …

He was stricken to death, to the grave which he made with the wicked (for he was crucified between two thieves, as if he had been the worst of the three) and yet with the rich, for he was buried in a sepulchre that belonged to Joseph, an honourable counsellor.

He was delivered to death for our offences, Rom. iv. Hence it is said to be according to the scriptures, according to this scripture, that Christ died for our sins, 1 Cor. xv. Some read this, by the transgressions of my people; that is, by the wicked hands of the Jews, who were, in profession, God's people, he was stricken, was crucified and slain, Acts ii.

He was taken from prison, and from judgment,....

Rather, JEHOVAH speaks in the person of His prophet, "My people," by the election of grace (Heb 2:13). was he stricken--Hebrew, "the stroke (was laid) upon Him." GESENIUS says the Hebrew means "them"; the collective body, whether of the prophets or people, to which the Jews refer the whole prophecy.

And who shall declare his generation “And his manner of life who would declare” - A learned friend has communicated to me the following passages from the Mishna, and the Gemara of Babylon, as leading to a satisfactory explication of this difficult place.

He was taken from prison - Margin, ‘Away by distress and judgment.’ The general idea in this verse is, that the sufferings which he endured for his people were terminated by his being, after some form of trial, cut off out of the land of the living. Lowth renders this, ‘By an oppressive judgment he was taken off.’ Noyes, ‘By oppression and punishment he was taken away.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘In his humiliation (ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει en tē tapeinōsei), his judgment (ἡ κρίσις αὐτοὺ hē krisis autou), (his legal trial. Thomson), was taken away;’ and this translation was followed by Philip when he explained the passage to the eunuch of Ethiopia Act 8:33. The eunuch, a native of Ethiopia, where the Septuagint was commonly used, was reading this portion of Isaiah in that version, and the version was sufficiently accurate to express the general sense of the passage, though it is by no means a literal translation. The Chaldee renders this verse, ‘From infirmities and retribution he shall collect our captivity, and the wonders which shall be done for us in his days who can declare? Because he shall remove the dominion of the people from the land of Israel; the sins which my people have sinned shall come even unto them.’ The Hebrew word which is here used (עצר ‛otser, from עצר ‛âtsar, “to shut up, to close,” means properly “a shutting up,” or “closure”; and then constraint, oppression, or vexation. In Psa 107:39, it means violent restraint, or oppression. It does not mean prison in the sense in which that word is now used. It refers rather to restraint, and detention; and would be better translated by confinement, or by violent oppressions. The Lord Jesus, moreover, was not confined in prison. He was bound, and placed under a guard, and was thus secured. […]