Is 53:5a: “He was pierced (מְחֹלָ֣ל; chalal) for our transgressions (מִפְּשָׁעֵ֔נוּ; pesha)”— Part 1. Genesis - Leviticus: Opening a Pathway to Reconciliation
Reading Time: 10 minutes
In between the series of word studies on humility (tapeinós) and before those to come on meekness (praus), we plan to spend four posts examining each phrase given to us in Isaiah 53:5. As such, we will look at Christ, the “meek and lowly” one in His life, Who, in his death as the Suffering Servant of JHWH was:
I. “pierced for our transgressions”;
II. “bruised for our iniquities”; with the
III. “chastisement of our peace upon Him”; such that
IV. “by His stripes we are healed.”
These word studies will set the stage for a post by the Medical Campus Outreach as well as Longwood Christian Community founder, Bill Pearson, who will apply each of these dimensions to community life under the three pillars of Righteousness, Reconciliation & Reign.
This verse, which offers us extraordinary insights into the nature of our healing through Christ, is centered within the larger context of the final Suffering Servant Hymn of Isaiah (Is 52:13-53:12). As such, we will begin by quoting this final hymn in its entirety below (which we might remember from the second post on tapeinós, the Ethiopian eunuch is reading in the deserts of Gaza when he meets the Apostle Philip).
The Fourth & Final Suffering Servant Hymn
Is 52
13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently (sakal);
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
14 Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men;
15 So shall He sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.
Is 53
1 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced (מְחֹלָ֣ל; chalal) for our transgressions (מִפְּשָׁעֵ֔נוּ; pesha),
He was bruised for our iniquities (מֵעֲנֹתֵ֑ינוּ [avon]);
The chastisement (מוּסָר [mûsar]) for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity (עֲוֹ֥ן [avon]) of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions (מִפֶּ֥שַׁע [pesha]) of My people He was stricken (נֶ֥גַע [nega]).
9 And they made His grave with the wicked
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased (חָפֵץ [chapets], cf. II Sam 22:20) the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul a trespass offering (אָשָׁם֙ [asham], cf. Lev 5:6-7),
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper (יִצְלָֽח׃ [tsalach]) in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities (וַעֲנֹתָ֖ם [avon])
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors (פֹּשְׁעִ֖ים [pasha]),
And He bore the sin (נָשָׂ֔א חֵטְא־ [nasah khet: Num 18:22-23]) of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors [וְלַפֹּשְׁעִ֖ים [pasha]).
With this hymn setting the context, we move forward in our specific focus on the Hebrew word, chalal. And though further, more focused questions will follow, our initial question will be,
Why was it necessary for Christ to be “pierced (chalal) for our transgressions”?
חָלַל (khaw-lal')
Etymology and Definition
To pierce, bore through:
Literally in the sense of hollowing something out, as in the related noun, חָלִיל (chaliyl), “pipe” (i.e. that which has holes bored through it), or the piel verb form of chalal which means “to play the pipe” (cf. I Ki 1:40; Ps 87:7);
In a related, more conceptual sense, it means to put holes through and, therefore, “break” (i.e. a covenant: Ps 55:20, Ps 89:31, 34);
Or when applied to a living being or person, it means literally to “pierce through” so as to “fatally wound” (with the first use in this sense not occurring until Job 26:13);
In a more conceptual sense, it can also convey the idea of breaking a person down by sin and “piercing him through” ( cf. I Tim 6:10), such that he opens himself to iniquity in a way that “defiles” him. As we will see, this meaning will encompasses every use in Exodus and Leviticus and become the majority use in the OT, relating to “profaning,” “polluting,” and “defiling.”
The next most common use, however (and that which will be the focus of this post), has a figurative meaning which expresses the idea of opening up a pathway to something new. In this sense, it is translated as “to begin” (one-third of all occurrences).
From this quick overview of the etymologic definition, we now refine our question further:
Could there be a dual meaning in Is 53:5 with Christ literally being “pierced through” for our transgressions in a way that “opens” up for us a pathway through this fallen age into the eternal kingdom?
143x in the OT
As we will obviously not have the time or space to review in any in-depth manner each of these near 150 occurrences, the majority of our analysis will focus on the opening instances in Genesis 1-11, as these tend to set the foundations for the remaining uses. Afterwards, we will provide a much briefer synthesis of its main uses in each of the Biblical genres (Pentateuch, Histories, Wisdom Literature and Prophets).
Summary Synthesis: Genesis-Leviticus
The opening use in the OT opens a pathway out of the division, dissolution and death of the curse into the renewal of the Covenant in the line of Seth, when “men began (chalal) to call on the name of the Lord.”
When, however, man multiplies on the earth, the evil of the curse, still operating in his heart, begins to consume him. In the Flood that follows, the Lord again renews the Covenant, this time in the line of Noah. Yet even here we see failure and the beginning of a divergence in the line of his son, Ham; for out of Ham comes Nimrod, whose kingdom will be that of Babel.
With the “dashing in pieces” of Babel and man’s scattering over the face of the earth, Gen 11 closes in the renewal of the Covenant in the family of Shem, out of whom will come Terah and finally, Abraham.
The remaining uses in Genesis take us through the line of Abraham in Isaac then through Jacob to Joseph, who brings renewal in the midst of famine and familial reconciliation out of the ashes of deceit and betrayal. When Jacob comes from Canaan to reunite with Joseph in Egypt, he pronounces his blessings over his children.
And in his first prophetic word over Reuben, we are introduced to the next meaning of chalal as one’s piercing through with sin so as to bring “defilement.” And this meaning will encompass every use of this word from Exodus through Leviticus.
Detailed Analysis
Gen 1-11
From the Entropy of the Curse to Covenant Renewal
The opening use of chalal comes in the fourth chapter of Genesis in the context of the renewal of the Covenant line in Seth. After the exile from the Garden under the pronouncement of a three-fold curse (Gen 3:14-18), we begin to see its outworking in the line of Cain. The shame, hiding, accusation, division and spiritual death (תָּמֽוּת׃ מ֥וֹת [muth muth], 2:17) that had marked the first parents (3:7-13) becomes more deeply embedded in the life of the first son (4:6-9) and his offspring (4:23-24, comp. Mt 18:21-22). At the close of the chapter in the midst of the degeneration and entropy that characterizes the life of man cut of “from the presence of the Lord” (4:16), we are opened up to a living hope in the birth of Seth, in whom the pathway of the Covenant is, so to speak, reopened (4:25).
And it is here that we encounter the first usage of chalal:
“And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began (הוּחַ֔ל [chalal]) to call on the name of the Lord” (4:26).
From Seth to Noah
From the renewal of the Covenant line in Seth, we are then taken to Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, “when men began (הֵחֵ֣ל [chalal]) to multiply on the face of the earth” (5:32-6:1, second occurrence). As the malignancy of evil (רַע [ra’], however, begins to consume the heart of man, such that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (6:5), the Lord brings upon man the judgement of the Flood (6:6-7).
“Yet,” the Scripture tells us,
“Yet, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (6:8), a man “blameless” (תָּמִ֥ים [tamim]) who “walked with God” (6:9) amidst the corruption and violence that had “filled the earth” (6:11-12).
And Noah the Lord preserves and, following the great ordeal of judgment, blesses him and his family with the same blessing spoken over the first creation (9:1, cf. Gen 1:28-29). God then renews the Covenant in the Noahic line (9:8-17).
The Divergence in the Noahic line
Even here, though, we immediately see that the corruption still continues on in Noah (“And Noah began (וַיָּ֥חֶל [chalal], third occurrence) to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard, 9:20). “Then he drank of the wine and was drunk (וַיִּתְגַּ֖ל [shakar]), and became uncovered (וַיִּתְגַּ֖ל [galah]), in his tent (cf. Lev 18 where galah occurs 17x). And the one held responsible is “Ham, the father of Canaan” (9:22), in whom we witness the divergence from the Covenantal line that will be heightened in his offspring (9:23-27).
“And the sons of Ham” were “Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan” (10:6).
“And Cush begat Nimrod: he began (הֵחֵ֔ל [chalal], third occurrence) to be a mighty one in the earth (10:8)…
“And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel (10:10)…
“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin (הַחִלָּ֣ם [chalal], fourth occurrence) to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (11:6).
From the Scattering of Babel to the Concentration in Abraham
From the literal “dashing in pieces” (וַיָּפֶץ [pûs], 11:8), of Babel with man’s scattering over “all the face of the earth,” we are taken back to the “genealogy of Shem” (11:10-26) to the line of Terah (11:27-32), where we see the renewal of the Covenant in Abraham and his seed (12:1-3).
The Remainder of Genesis
The Final Three Uses in Genesis: From famine to renewal even amidst the scattering effects of sin
Through the line of Isaac then Jacob, we are brought from Canaan to Egypt where the “seven years of dearth began (וַתְּחִלֶּ֜ינָה [chalal], fifth occurrence) to come” (41:54).
And in the famine, the “dearth,”people look to Joseph—one betrayed by his own kin, sold into slavery, falsely accused, imprisoned—yet “in whom” was “the Spirit of the Lord” (41:38).
This is where any true beginning occurs.
Through the struggle for reconciliation among Joseph and his brothers (44:12, sixth occurrence), we come finally in chalal to the close of Genesis, where Jacob pronounces his prophetic blessing upon his twelve sons, in whom the Covenant will continue in the twelve tribes of Israel (49:1-28).
In his first prophecy over Reuben, however, we encounter the first alternate meaning of chalal. Though Jacob’s “firstborn” and the “beginning of his strength,” Reuben is told that he “will not excel.” And the stated reason is that he “went into his father’s bed” and “defiled” it (חִלַּלְתָּ [chalal] 49:4).
Chalal in the Exodus & Leviticus
This use of chalal (“defile”, “profane”, ‘pollute”, lit. “pierce oneself through with iniquity,” cf. I Tim 6:10) will continue in its two occurrences in Exodus, where it relates to the pollution of idolatry (20:25) then the defilement of the Sabbath (31:14). The next 16 instances in Leviticus all occur in the second half of the book, taking us beyond the establishment of the priesthood and sacrificial system (Chs. 1-16) into the personal application of holiness in the lives of God’s people (Chs. 17-27).
The summary
And so through Genesis into Leviticus we are introduced to the two key conceptual meanings of chalal, first as a piercing that forms an opening into a new beginning, or a piercing that opens one up the dissolution of defilement.
From here we will move on to its further development in the remainder of the Pentateuch.