Servant songs

The songs are four poems written about a certain "servant of YHWH" (Hebrew: עבד יהוה, ‘eḇeḏ Yahweh).

[1] This fifth song is largely disregarded by modern scholars; without it, all four fall within Deutero-Isaiah, the middle part of the book, which some believe to be the work of an anonymous 6th-century BCE author writing during the Babylonian Exile.

[2] The Self-Glorification Hymn from Dead Sea Scrolls asserts, from the first-person narrative, a messianic human who has been exalted into heaven with a status above the angels.

[3] Rabbinic Judaism sees this passage, especially "God's Suffering Servant" as a reference to the Jewish nation, not to the king Mashiach.

Jewish teaching also takes note of the historical context in which God's Suffering Servant appears, particularly because it speaks in the past tense.

He does not ecstatically announce salvation in the marketplace as prophets were bound to do, but instead moves quietly and confidently to establish right religion (Isaiah 42:1-4).

The first four verses are quoted in Matthew's gospel,[10] where it is said that the prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus' withdrawal from the cities of Galilee and his request that the crowds do not make him known.

The second poem, written from the servant's point of view, is an account of his prenatal calling by God to lead both Israel and the nations.

Isaiah 49:6 is quoted by Simeon in Luke 2:32 concerning the infant Jesus Christ during the time of His mother Mary's purification.

Carving from the Way of the Cross in St. Mel's Cathedral , Ireland
16th-century Dutch engraving of the Nativity , Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus ; under the Crucifixion image is a quotation from the servant song in Latin translation: Vere languores nostros ipse tulit et dolores nostros ipse portavit et nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum et percussum a Deo et humiliatum ( NIV : "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.")