Isaiah 53:5
Isaiah 53:55But 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.
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.
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 ("he himself bore our sins in his body upon the stake"), ("the One who did not know sin he made to be sin for us"), and ("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 : 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.