Not only did the people fail to appreciate God’s servant, they also despised and rejected him.
He was despised and rejected by men is an emphatic statement about the way people responded to the servant. The Hebrew verb rendered despised here and in the last line does not refer to hatred (see the comments on 49.7) but to contempt. It is close in meaning to the Hebrew adjective translated rejected, which may also be rendered “forsaken” (RSV footnote). People did not want to have anything to do with him, so they abandoned him. Men refers to people in general, so New Revised Standard Version has “others.” Rejected by men may be rendered “he was insignificant” (compare Psa 39.4, where the Hebrew word for rejected is translated “fleeting”). In languages that prefer active verbs instead of passive ones, an alternative model for this whole line is “People despised and rejected him.” Good News Translation says “We despised him and rejected him,” because in the last line the speakers associate themselves with those who reject the servant.
A man of sorrows may be rendered “a man of pains” (RSV footnote). The Hebrew expression here can refer to someone who is in great mental anguish or physical pain. In this context it refers to the servant’s deep mental anguish due to being rejected (compare 65.14; Psa 38.17; Jer 30.15).
And acquainted with grief means the servant experienced physical pain. Grief renders the Hebrew term for pain or sickness. The Hebrew verb translated acquainted is a passive form of the verb meaning “to know.” Dead Sea Scrolls has an active form, which seems more appropriate here. For this whole clause New International Version and New Jerusalem Bible say “[and] familiar with suffering,” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “familiar with disease,” and Revised English Bible translates “afflicted by disease.” Good News Translation combines it with the previous one, saying “he endured suffering and pain.”
And as one from whom men hide their faces is literally “and like a hiding of faces from us/him.” The Hebrew preposition for “from” has a suffix that is ambiguous; it can mean either “from us” or “from him.” So this whole clause could mean the servant hid his face from the people, or the people hid their faces so that they did not have to look at him. The form of the Hebrew participle rendered hide in Masoretic Text (“one who hides [himself]”) suggests the first meaning. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh expresses this sense with “As one who hid his face from us.” However, scholars generally believe that the participle in Masoretic Text is a scribal error for an original causative form (“one who causes [others] to hide”) that supports the second meaning. Renderings that follow this reading are “like someone people don’t dare to look at” (Bible en français courant), “No one would even look at him” (Good News Translation), “an object from which people turn away their eyes” (Revised English Bible), and “No one wanted to look at him” (Contemporary English Version). Translators may follow either meaning here (so NRSV footnote|prj:NRSV.Isa 53.3).
He was despised and we esteemed him not: In Masoretic Text these two clauses form one line. As noted above, the speakers associate themselves with the men of the first line by using the pronoun we. The Hebrew verb rendered esteemed has the sense of giving value to something in this context. We esteemed him not means they viewed the servant as worthless. New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh say “we held him of no account,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “for whom we had no regard.” Contemporary English Version expresses the last line very clearly with “We despised him and said, ‘He is a nobody!’”
Revised English Bible reverses the last two lines of this verse, saying “we despised him, we held him of no account, an object from which people turn away their eyes” (similarly Bible en français courant).
For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• He was despised and shunned by people;
he experienced pain, he was familiar with suffering.
Like someone whom people refuse to look at, he was despised,
and we took no account of him.
• People despised and shunned him;
he knew what it was to suffer pain and sickness.
We despised him, and he refused to look at us,
and we held him to be of no worth.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .