Isaiah 53

Rabbinic Sources

Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13
Aramaic synagogue paraphrase: “Behold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper; he shall be high and increase and be exceedingly strong.” Oldest surviving Jewish identification of the servant as an individual Messiah.

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a
Messiah sits among the sick at the city gate, changing his bandages one at a time so he can rise immediately when summoned.

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b
“What is his name? … The Rabbis said: ‘the leper scholar’ (ḥiwvara debe Rabbi), as it is written, ‘Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him a leper, smitten of God and afflicted’” (Isa 53:4).

Ruth Rabbah 5:6 (on Ruth 2:14)
“He is speaking of the King Messiah: ‘Come hither’—draw near to the throne; ‘eat of the bread’—the bread of the kingdom; ‘dip your morsel in the vinegar’—these are the chastisements, as it is said, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.’”

Midrash Tanhuma, Toldot (on Zech 4:7)
“Who are you, O great mountain? This is the King Messiah. Why ‘great mountain’? Because he is greater than the patriarchs, as it is said, ‘My servant shall be high and lifted up and lofty exceedingly’” (Isa 52:13).

Pesikta Rabbati 36–37
Longest midrashic treatment. Messiah (often called Ephraim / son of David) agrees before creation to bear Israel’s iniquities. Iron beams are loaded on his neck for seven years; he cries to heaven; God applies Psalm 22 to him. Explicit substitutionary language drawn from Isaiah 53.

Zohar (II 212a and related passages)
Messiah summons every pain and chastisement of Israel onto himself; “Surely our sicknesses he has carried.”

Yalkut Shimoni (on Isa 52–53 / Zech 4)
Repeats the Tanhuma exaltation-after-suffering reading and links the servant’s loftiness to Davidic Messiah.