Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 53:4

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." — Isaiah 53:4 (ASV)

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:

What a discovery this truth seems to be! How it bursts upon the prophet and his hearers and amazes them! "Surely," they say, "can it be really so that 'he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows'?" Yes, it is indeed so; there is no accounting for the sufferings of the perfect Christ except by this explanation, that he was bearing our griefs, and carrying the sorrows that we ought to have carried for our own sin.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

Listen, you sad ones, you sorrowful ones! Let this sweet note charm you into joy: He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

Yet we –

We, for whom He was the Substitute, for whom He suffered: "Yet we" –

Surely he has borne our griefs, –

Can all of you say this? Can every one of us unite in the reading of this sentence, Surely, he has borne our griefs? If you have truly learned that he bore your griefs, you may indeed bless his name, for it is the best news that ever reached your ears. Go and tell it to your fellow sufferers: Surely he has borne our griefs, –

And carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

They thought that God had smitten him, and so he had; but they wrongly supposed that there was something of sin in him that caused God to smite him, whereas he was holy, harmless, undefiled; and he was only stricken and smitten because he was bearing the sins of his people.