Isaiah 53

Some of you went with me along this journey of putting Isaiah 53 to music. The first draft was released on Thanksgiving Day of 2018, and consisted only of the 1st 8 verses. The basic melody has remained the same since then, but the style and presentation is quite different now after nearly 2 dozen draft versions, stretching over 3 months. There is no telling how many times I have listened to this now. It is in the hundreds, and I did not tire of it, which I consider to be a miracle of enabling grace. I’m going to trust God to give you the grace to listen to it too, though it is admittedly very long. I could not find a place to break it up, as I have done with the Song of Moses, and Psalm 22. I hope this rendition will help you store this precious and costly portion of Scripture in your heart for the days and eternity to come.


(Right Click HERE to download Isaiah 53 (set to music))

Click or Tap to download sheet music (includes melody line & chords)

1Who… Who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
2For he shall grow up before him as a tender shoot,
and a root out of the dry, dry ground:
He hath no form nor comeliness; 
and when we shall see him,
there is no beauty 
that we should desire him.
3He 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.
4Surely he hath borne our griefs, carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him, smitten of God;
stricken, afflicted, smitten of God.
5But 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.
6All 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.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not…
He opened not his mouth:
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so he opened not…
He opened not his mouth.
8He was taken from prison; taken 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.
9And he made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich… the rich in his death;
because he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet 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.
11He shall see of the travail of his soul,
and He shall be… satisfied:
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify 
many;
for he 
shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great,
and He shall divide the spoil…
the spoil with the strong;
because he has poured out his soul unto death:
with the transgressors was he numbered;
and He bare the sin of many,
for the transgressors He intercedes.

copyright 2019 Tom Quinlan. Use for profit requires permission. Use for edifying the Lord’s body is granted freely.