Was the Suffering Servant actually King Zedekiah? Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Question

@Dick Harfield, in a article titled A New Look at a Servant Song suggests that Isaiah (or Second Isaiah) was speaking of King Zedekiah. This goes against both traditional Christian interpretations that the Servant was Jesus and the Jewish understanding that it refers to Israel as a nation. Arguing that the Servant, who is not named, must be a person well known to Isaiah's audience, Harfield says:

Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, was indeed a man of sorrows. The Babylonians killed his sons before his eyes, blinded him and led him in chains to Babylon because he had rebelled against their rule. The Servant Song refers to a Man of Sorrows whom I believe to be Zedekiah. He was “wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” before he was taken in chains (“brought as a lamb to the slaughter”) to prison in Babylon. The Servant was taken from prison and cut off from the land of the living because of the transgressions of the people... As their king, Zedekiah took responsibility for the suffering of the people (“borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows”)... Isaiah 53:3 tells us the Jews exiled with the man of sorrows hid their faces from him and despised him, as they might do with a king who had failed his nation.

Harfield presents further arguments in favor of this idea in the article linked above. Do the historical facts and/or Biblical text (as opposed to Jewish and Christian doctrine) contradict this proposition?

Answer 1

Isaiah 53:5 says, “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him"

King Zedekiah did suffer by being imprisoned, blinded, and having his sons die in his presence. But his suffering was due to his own evil. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, he made an oath in God’s name and did not keep it, and he also did not humble himself before Jeremiah.

Because of his sins, he suffered greatly unlike the Suffering Servant who suffered because of other’s transgressions. This leads me to believe that Jesus was the prophesied Servant.

Answer 2

The book of Isaiah contains four famous "servant songs", namely:

1. Isaiah 42:1-4;
2. Isaiah 49:1-6;
3. Isaiah 50:4-9;
4. Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

The fourth of these is by far the most famous and well-known. If, as Dick Harfield suggests (in common with a minority of scholars, especially Jewish) it refers to king Zedekiah or the nation of Israel generally, it is a very poor prophecy. Many Christian Bible students believe all four of the servant songs were Messianic. [see Wikipedia: Servant Songs for some other views.] Let us examine the predictions of this fourth servant song to determine the prophetic intent:

• (V4) "Surely He took on our infirmities"
• (V5) "But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him"
• (V6) "and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all"
• (V7) "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth."
• (V8) "For He was cut off from the land of the living"
• (V9) "nor was any deceit in His mouth"
• (V10) "and when His soul is made a guilt offering"
• (V11) "By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities."
• (V12) "Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors."

All these are true of Jesus Christ (John 1:29, 1 John 2:2, Rom 5:6-8, Heb 9:26, 2 Cor 5:19; not one is true of King Zedekiah! Indeed, Zedekiah was not killed ["cut off from the land of the living"] but taken captive to Babylon. Zedekiah did not die as a ransom for sin generally - that was the sole work (Acts 4:12) of Jesus Christ -

John 1:29 - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

1 John 2:2 - He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Thus, Isaiah correctly says of the coming Messiah,

Isa 53:6 - and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

Thus, while one can see that some phases, isolated from their context, can be made to fit with Zedekiah (and some other regnal tragics), most cannot. The whole thrust and intent of Isa 53 is clearly Messianic.