Isaiah 53:4
Himself Took Our Infirmities
NT follows the HebrewQuoted by the apostles in Matthew 8:17, in the Hebrew wording
The Greek says sins. The Hebrew says sicknesses. Matthew needed the right one for a night of healing.
Side by Side
The Greek
Septuagint
He bears our sins, and is pained for us: yet we accounted him to be in trouble, and in suffering, and in affliction.
The Hebrew
Masoretic
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (The Hebrew words mean sicknesses and pains.)
Quoted in Matthew 8:17
Matthew follows the Hebrew
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
Your KJV reads: “griefs” and “sorrows” with the Hebrew, and Matthew’s “infirmities” and “sicknesses” follow the Hebrew too.
See what changed and why ↓What Your Bible Says
When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
Matthew 8:16–17 KJV
At evening in Capernaum the sick are brought to Yahushua, and He heals them all. Matthew says this fulfilled Isaiah 53:4.
What the Greek Says
He bears our sins, and is pained for us.
Isaiah 53:4, Septuagint
The Greek speaks of sins, not sicknesses. Had Matthew quoted the Greek, the verse would not fit a night of healing at all.
What Changed
The first Hebrew word is choli, sickness. The second means pains. Your King James softens them to “griefs” and “sorrows,” but the Hebrew is about the body’s suffering. The Greek translators wrote “sins” instead. That is an interpretation, not a reading of the word.
Matthew did not use the Greek here. He gave the Hebrew meaning in his own words: infirmities and sicknesses.
Which One Is Right?
The Hebrew reads sicknesses and pains.
Matthew 8:17 reads infirmities and sicknesses.
The Greek Bible reads sins. On this verse the Hebrew and the apostle stand together against the Greek.
The Sin-Bearing Is Still There
Isaiah 53 does speak of sin, a few verses later: “he shall bear their iniquities” (verse 11), and “he bare the sin of many” (verse 12). Peter draws on that: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree … by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). The Greek idea is true of the chapter. It just is not what verse 4 says.
Purpose of the Change
No motive is evident; the Greek translators likely read verse 4 in the light of verse 12. The effect is that sickness drops out of the verse, and Matthew went to the Hebrew to show it fulfilled.
The Bottom Line
Isaiah said He bore our sicknesses. Matthew quoted the Hebrew to prove it.
The healing in Capernaum was a foretaste. At the end, sickness and pain are gone for good: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4).
Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it
The Word for Sickness
Choli is the common Hebrew word for illness. Moses promised, “Yahuah will take away from thee all sickness” (Deuteronomy 7:15). The same word appears one verse earlier, where the Servant is “acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Isaiah’s Servant knows sickness and carries it.
Matthew’s Own Words
Matthew’s Greek words for “infirmities” and “sicknesses” are not the words of the Greek Old Testament here. He rendered the Hebrew afresh. That shows he knew the Hebrew and chose it when the Greek missed the meaning.
Not Worshiping the Greek
This section does not worship the Greek or treat it as perfect. The Hebrew is the source, and the Greek is an early witness. The apostles quoted the Greek far more often than not, because it usually kept the older reading. Where it slipped, they went to the Hebrew. They followed what was true.
An Honest Note
The Greek reading is not false teaching. It reads verse 4 through the rest of the chapter, where the Servant does bear sin. But it is not a faithful rendering of verse 4, and Matthew did not use it. That honesty is part of the case: the same witnesses that expose the later Hebrew in other places also show where the Greek fell short.