[223] נשׂא and סבל. In speaking of his country's woes, Jeremiah (x. 19) says: _This is sickness_, or _my sickness, and I must bear it_, חלי זה ואשׂאני. Ezekiel (iv. 4) is commanded to lie on his side, and in that symbolic position to _bear the iniquity of His people_, עונם תשא. One of the Lamentations (v. 7) complains: _Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we bear_ (סבל) _their iniquities._ In these cases the meaning of both נשא and סבל is simply to feel the weight of, be involved in. The verbs do not convey the sense of _carrying off_ or _expiating_. But still it had been said of the Servant that in his suffering he would be practical and prosper; so that when we now hear that he bears his people's sins, we are ready to understand that he does not do this for the mere sake of sharing them, but for a practical purpose, which, of course, can only be their removal. There is, therefore, no need to quarrel with the interpretation of ver. 4, that the Servant _carries away_ the suffering with which he is laden. Matthew makes this interpretation (viii. 17) in speaking of Christ's healing. But it is a very interesting fact, and not without light upon the free and plastic way in which the New Testament quotes from the Old, that Matthew has ignored the original and literal meaning of the quotation, which is that the Servant shared the sicknesses of the people: a sense impossible in the case for which the Evangelist uses the words.
[224] But they do not tell us, whether they were totally exempted from suffering by the Servant's pains, or whether they also suffered with him the consequence of their misdeeds. For that question is not now present to their minds. Whether they also suffer or not (and other chapters in the prophecy emphasize the people's bearing of the consequences of their misdeeds), they know that it was not their own, but the Servant's suffering, which was alone the factor in their redemption.
[225] _Mystery of Pain_, by James Hinton, p. 27.
[226] Psalm cvi. 23; _cf._ also ver. 32, where the other side of the solidarity between Moses and the people comes out. _They angered Him also at the waters of Strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes ... he spake unadvisedly with his lips._