What does 'pierced for our transgressions' mean in Isaiah 53:5?

The Hebrew of Isaiah 53:5 is unambiguous — this is physical violence visited on a person for someone else's sake:

"He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the chastening of our peace was upon him, and by his wound we were healed." — Isaiah 53:5

The first word, mecholal (מְחֹלָל, H2490), is a passive form of a verb meaning to pierce or wound. In its passive intensive form (Pual), it describes someone who has been physically pierced. The Greek Old Testament translates it as "was wounded" — preserving the physical violence. Both of the major Isaiah scrolls found among the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the same Hebrew consonants, so there's no manuscript question here. The text says what it says.

The second word, medukka' (מְדֻכָּא, H1792), means crushed or shattered — the kind of destruction that crumbles something to pieces. Here the Greek Old Testament actually softens it, substituting "weakened" for "shattered." Hebrew says something broken; Greek says something weakened. The difference matters, and the Hebrew has priority.

The third phrase, musar shelomenu (מוּסַר שְׁלוֹמֵנוּ, H4148 + H7965), is "the discipline of our peace" — the corrective suffering that produces our shalom fell on him. Musar is the word used in Proverbs for the discipline a father gives a son (Prov 1:8; 3:11). What should have corrected us was placed on him.

The final clause, nirpa'-lanu (H7495, "it was healed to us"), is passive: healing comes to us, we didn't achieve it. One person's wound (chaburato, H2250, singular) produces healing for many. All three manuscript traditions — the Masoretic Text, the Greek Old Testament, and the Dead Sea Scrolls — preserve this structure without variation. Peter quotes it in 1 Peter 2:24, drawing on the Greek Old Testament's wording.

Read the full study on Isaiah 53