much the more
careful, that the Evangelist here intentionally deviates from the
Alexandrine version ( [Greek: houtos tas hamartias hemon pherei kai
peri hemon odunatai]). In doing so, "we [Pg 283] do not give an
external meaning to that which is to be understood spiritually;" but
when the Saviour healed the sick, He fulfilled the prophecy before us
in its most proper and obvious sense. And this fulfilment is even now
going on. For him who stands in a living faith in Christ, sickness,
pain, and, in general all sorrow, have lost their sting. But it has not
yet appeared what we shall be, and we have still to expect the complete
fulfilment. In the Kingdom of glory, sickness and pain shall have
altogether disappeared.--Some interpreters would translate [Hebrew:
nwa] by "to take away;" but even the parallel [Hebrew: sbl] is
conclusive against such a view; and, farther, the ordinary use of
[Hebrew: nwa] of the bearing of the punishment of sin, _e.g._, Ezek.
xviii. 19; Num. xiv. 33; Lev. v. 1, xx. 17. But of conclusive weight is
the connection with the preceding verse, where the Servant of God
appears as the intimate acquaintance of sickness, as the man of pains.
He has, accordingly, not only _put away_ our sicknesses and pains, but
He has, as our substitute, _taken them upon Him_; He has healed us by
His having himself become sick in our stead. This could be done only by
His having, in the first instance, as a substitute, appropriated our
_sins_, of which the sufferings are the consequence; compare 1 Peter
ii. 24: [Greek: hos tas hamartias hemon autos anenenken en to somati
autou epi to xulon.]--_Plagued_, _smitten of God_, _afflicted_, are
expressions which were commonly used in reference to the visitation of
sinful men. It is especially in the word _plagued_, which is
intentionally placed first, that the reference to a self-deserved
suffering is strongly expressed, compare Ps. lxxiii. 14: "For all the
day long am I _plagued_, and my chastisement is new every morning." Of
Uzziah, visited on account of his sin, it is said in 2 Kings xv. 5:
"And the Lord inflicted a _plague_ upon the king, and he was a leper
unto the day of his death." [Hebrew: nge] "plague" is in Lev. xiii., as
it were, _nomen proprium_ for the leprosy, which in the law is so
distinctly designated as a punishment of sin.--[Hebrew: hkh] too, is
frequently used of the infliction of divine punishments and judgments.
Num. xiv. 12; Deut. xxviii. 22. The people did