Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Indeed, as you mentioned, it is hard to beat the King James Version for beauty. Peter Gomes says he advises people who are going through suffering to read the KJV Psalms. Reading the Psalms from the KJV is an early Saturday morning routine for me. Of course, many of us in our younger days during the sixties and seventies reacted violently against it, mainly in our rejection of a legalistic past. But I would like to see it used more often now. We can still use our favorites; for me it is the NRSV. But I believe worship gains, especially on specials days, when passages, such as Isaiah 53, are read from the KJV. Besides, the souls of a lot of churches could benefit greatly from the poetry. I sat here and read this beautiful passage three times. It is a poem whose spirit of truth finds its way through Israel, through Jesus, through us, through the next person we meet, with every pain, and cup of cold water, we are able to share.
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