Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 8:17

"that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases." — Matthew 8:17 (ASV)

That it might be fulfilled, etc. This passage is found in Isaiah 53:4. Our English translation of that important passage is, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. The Greek in Matthew is an exact translation of the Hebrew, and the same translation should have been made in both places.

In the fifty-third chapter, Isaiah fully states the doctrine of atonement, or that the Messiah was to suffer for sin. In the verse quoted here, however, he states the very truth which Matthew declares. The word translated griefs, in Isaiah, and infirmities, in Matthew, means properly, in the Hebrew and Greek, diseases of the body.

In neither does it refer to the disease of the mind, or to sin. To bear those griefs is clearly to bear them away, or to remove them. This was done by his miraculous power in healing the sick. The word rendered "sorrows," in Isaiah, and "sicknesses," in Matthew, means pains, griefs, or anguish of mind.

To carry, then, is to sympathize with the sufferers; to make provision for alleviating those sorrows; and to take them away. This he did by his precepts and his example; and the cause of all sorrows—sin—he removed by his atonement. The passage in Isaiah and Matthew, therefore, means precisely the same thing. See Magee on Atonement, and see Barnes on Isaiah 53:1 and following.