---
title: Isaiah 53:5
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-53-5/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-53-5.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 53:5
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 53:5

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

## JW Usage

JWs accept Isaiah 53 as a Messianic prophecy fulfilled in Jesus. Verse 5's "pierced for our transgression... crushed for our errors... by his wounds we were healed" is read as describing the ransom: Jesus's death covers the legal penalty of Adam's sin. The atonement is treated within the corresponding-ransom framework (one perfect human life for Adam's forfeited perfect human life), so the substitutionary force of the verse is preserved verbally while the necessity of divine sacrifice is declined.

## Protestant Usage

Isaiah 53:5 is the Old Testament's clearest statement of penal substitution. Each clause assigns to the Servant the penalty that belonged to others: pierced *for our* transgression, crushed *for our* errors, the chastisement *for our* peace was on him, by his wounds *we* were healed. Pair with 1 Peter 2:24 ("he himself bore our sins in his body upon the stake"), 2 Corinthians 5:21 ("the One who did not know sin he made to be sin for us"), and Romans 3:25 ("God presented him as a propitiation through faith in his blood"). The substitution is not partial coverage of one debt; it is the bearing of "our" failures. Pair with Hebrews 9:14: this works because Christ offered himself "through an everlasting spirit" — the divine self-offering. A finite-creature offering could cover one forfeited life; only an infinite-worth offering can cover "our" transgressions in the unlimited scope Isaiah describes.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ["It Is Finished" — The Completed Atonement](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/tetelestai-finished.md) — John 19:30 / Hebrews 10:11-14 [Salvation]