Skip to content

Isaiah 53:5

And Himself is he who is profaned4 from the rebellions of ourselves, he who is crushed from bent over/crooked ones of ourselves! A chastisement of the peace ("shalom") of ourselves is against himself; But within the allied one5 of himself, we are healing ourselves!6

Footnote:

Isa. 53:5

Strong's #2490 ื—ืœืœ chalal. to perforate, pierce through, lay open, profane, desecrate.

The Hebrew word ืžื—ืœืœ (mechalel) comes from this root and can have both active and passive meanings: 

(1) In the piel (active), ืžื—ืœืœ means "he who profanes" or "he who desecrates," as seen in Leviticus 19:12:

 ื•ืœื ืชื—ืœืœ ืืช-ืฉื ืืœื•ื”ื™ืš

"And you are/she is not profaning the self eternal name of the God/Mighty Ones of yourself" 

(2) In the pual (passive), the meaning shifts to "he who is profaned" or "he who is desecrated"

With varied meanings like this, grammatical context usually plays an important role. If there were some object of piercing—say, a spear—it would be easy to translate it concretly as "piercing," but the context is rebellion and "rebellion" does not pierce. It does however profane.

ืžื—ืœืœ ืž ืคืฉืข ื ื•

Nearly all translations thus far change the preposition -ืž "from" to a "for/because of" because the true to text translation would be "he who is pierced/bore through from the rebellions/revolts of ourselves..." and this does not make much sense semantically. Make no mistake about it, there is no "for" or "because of" in this text.

But the alternate meaning is also true the text, and makes more semantical sense:

"he who is profaned/desecrated from the rebellions of ourselves..."

Transgression [ืคืฉืข pasha] is a word that has come to take on a sense of "crossing boundaries" or "breaking rules" But that is not at all the meaning of the word . While a "boundary" might imply a physical or metaphorical limit, ืคืฉืข is more about the attitude behind the act—rebellion, defiance, or wilful disobedience. (cf. Strong's #6588)