Most wonderful and mysterious of all is the spectral fashion in which the prophecy presents its Hero. He is named only in the first line and once again: elsewhere He is spoken of as He. We never hear or see Himself. But all the more solemnly is He there: a shadow upon countless faces, a grievous memory on the hearts of the speakers. He so haunts all we see and all we hear, that we feel it is not Art, but Conscience, that speaks of Him.
Here is now the prophecy itself, rendered into English quite literally, except for a conjunction here and there, and, as far as possible, in the rhythm of the original. A few necessary notes on difficult words and phrases are given.
lii. 13: _Behold, my Servant shall prosper,_[205] _Shall rise, be lift up, be exceedingly high._[206]
_Like as they that were astonied before thee were many,_ _--So marred from a man's was his visage,_ _And his form from the children of men!--_ _So shall the nations he startles_[207] _be many,_ _Before him shall kings shut their mouths._ _For that which had never been told them they see,_ _And what they had heard not, they have to consider._
_Who gave believing to that which we heard,_[208] _And the arm of Jehovah to whom was it bared?_ _For he sprang like a sapling before Him,_[209] _As a root from the ground that is parched;_ _He had no form nor beauty that we should regard him,_ _Nor aspect that we should desire him._ _Despised and rejected of men,_ _Man of pains and familiar with ailing,_ _And as one we do cover the face from,_ _Despised, and we did not esteem him._