Catholic Commentary
The Servant's Exaltation and Intercession
12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:12 presents God's promise that the suffering Servant will be exalted and rewarded with a share of victory spoils, not through force but through voluntary self-oblation and vicarious suffering. The verse establishes substitutionary atonement: the Servant bears the sin of the many through death and intercession, transforming them from transgressors into beneficiaries of his exaltation.
The Servant's broken body becomes the spoil of victory—his voluntary self-emptying into death wins him exaltation and the power to intercede for the guilty forever.
"He bore the sin of many" — Wᵉhû' ḥēṭ'-rabbîm nāśā' — the verb nāśā' ("to bear, to carry away") is a cultic term drawn from the Levitical sacrificial system, used of the scapegoat (Lev. 16:22) and the sin-offering. The Servant acts as both priest and victim. "Many" (rabbîm) does not mean "some but not all"; in Semitic idiom it typically means the full and vast multitude, the whole of humanity in its sinfulness.
"Makes intercession for the transgressors" — The Hebrew yafgîa' comes from a root meaning to strike, to entreat, to intervene. The Servant's intercession is not merely verbal petition; it is an act of bodily and spiritual interposition — placing himself between the guilty and divine justice. This present-tense verb is strikingly active: the Servant's intercession is ongoing, not concluded. For Catholic exegesis, this is the seedbed of the theology of Christ's eternal priesthood before the Father (see Heb. 7:25).
Catholic tradition identifies Isaiah 53:12 as one of the most luminous Old Testament prophecies of the Paschal Mystery. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing the Servant Songs broadly, teaches that "Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan" (CCC 599). Isaiah 53:12 is the textual foundation of that claim: the "Therefore" of divine vindication belongs inseparably to the because of voluntary self-offering.
St. Cyril of Alexandria saw in the division of spoils an image of Christ distributing the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the Church — the "plunder" of the devil's kingdom being restored to humanity in the form of grace, sacraments, and eternal life. St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae III, q.48, a.2) drew explicitly on the Servant's bearing of sin to articulate satisfaction theory: Christ, as head of the mystical body, bore in himself the sin of the whole body, so that his merit superabounds for all.
The phrase "makes intercession for the transgressors" is the scriptural root of the Catholic understanding of Christ's eternal High Priesthood as expounded in the Letter to the Hebrews and defined by the Council of Trent (Session XXII). Unlike the Levitical priests who offered sacrifice repeatedly, Christ's one offering on the Cross is perpetually present before the Father, making him "always alive to make intercession" (Heb. 7:25). Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est (no. 12) reflects on how this total self-gift of the Servant — pouring out his soul — becomes the very definition of divine love made flesh. The "portion with the great" is not merely personal reward but the exaltation that overflows into the glorification of the Church, his Body, so that she shares in his spoils (Eph. 4:8).
For a contemporary Catholic, Isaiah 53:12 dismantles one of the most persistent spiritual temptations: the belief that suffering endured in faithfulness is ultimately meaningless or that God is absent in degradation. The verse's "Therefore" is one of the most important words in Scripture for the life of faith — it insists that divine exaltation follows directly from self-oblation, not in spite of it.
Practically, this passage challenges Catholics to reconsider how they understand intercessory prayer. The Servant "makes intercession" through bodily self-offering, not merely verbal petition. This suggests that when we unite our sufferings, small humiliations, or costly acts of charity to the one sacrifice of Christ — as the Church teaches is possible through the Offertory of the Mass — we participate in the very intercession the Servant exercises here. Every Catholic who perseveres in suffering without bitterness, who is "numbered among the transgressors" through false accusation or unjust marginalization, shares mysteriously in this verse's logic. The promise of a "portion with the great" is not a prosperity gospel; it is the pledge of resurrection glory to all who take up their cross.
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Commentary
Literal and Narrative Meaning
Isaiah 53:12 opens with the divine "Therefore" (lākēn in Hebrew) — a word of supreme consequence. Everything catalogued in the preceding eleven verses — the Servant's disfigurement, his rejection, his silence, his death among criminals — now receives its divine verdict. God himself is the speaker, and the tone shifts decisively from lamentation to vindication. The full verse reads: "Therefore I will give him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."
"I will give him a portion with the great" — The verb is in the imperfect, signaling a divine promise that stands in the future relative to the Servant's suffering. "A portion with the great" (ḥēleq bārabbîm) evokes the ancient Near Eastern image of a conquering king dividing the plunder of victory among his most valiant warriors. Yet here, paradoxically, the Servant "conquers" not by force but by self-oblation. The "great" (rabbîm) — a word that appears three times in this single verse — is the same word used in v.11 ("he shall make many righteous") and here in "he bore the sin of many." The repetition is deliberate: the many for whom he suffers become the many with whom he is exalted.
"He shall divide the spoil with the strong" — The imagery of military plunder (šālāl) deepens the paradox. This Servant who was stripped, silenced, and killed now distributes the spoils of a supernatural victory. The "strong" ('aṣûmîm) can also be translated "mighty ones," suggesting a share in divine power and glory itself. Catholic exegesis, following St. Justin Martyr and Origen, reads this as the Servant receiving universal lordship over all creation.
"Because he poured out his soul to death" — He'erāh lammāwet napšô — literally, "he laid bare his soul unto death." This is not a passive dying but an active, voluntary self-emptying. The soul (nepeš) in Hebrew signifies the whole person, the living self. The Servant does not merely die; he deliberately exposes his entire being to death as an act of offering.
"Was numbered with the transgressors" — This phrase is quoted explicitly in Luke 22:37, where Jesus himself applies it to his own imminent arrest and crucifixion. It is one of the most direct typological bridges in all of Scripture. The Servant is counted legally and publicly among the guilty, though he is innocent — the very logic of substitutionary atonement.