And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth.

“For Christ is of those who are humble-minded, and not of those who exalt themselves over His flock. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sceptre of the majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride or arrogance, although He might have done so, but in a lowly condition, as the Holy Spirit had declared regarding Him. For He says, "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared [our message] in His presence: He is, as it were, a child, and like a root in thirsty ground; He has no form nor glory, yea, we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; but His form was without eminence, yea, deficient in comparison with the [ordinary] form of men. He is a man exposed to stripes and suffering, and acquainted with the endurance of grief: for His countenance was turned away; He was despised, and not esteemed. He bears our iniquities, and is in sorrow for our sakes; yet we supposed that [on His own account] He was exposed to labour, and stripes, and affliction. But He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; [every] man has wandered in his own way; and the Lord has delivered Him up for our sins, while He in the midst of His sufferings opens not His mouth. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearer is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth. For the transgressions of my people was He brought down to death. And I will give the wicked for His sepulchre, and the rich for His death, because He did no iniquity, neither was guile found in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to purify him by stripes. If you make an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord is pleased to relieve Him of the affliction of His soul, to show Him light, and to form Him with understanding, to justify the Just One who ministers well to many; and He Himself shall carry their sins. On this account He shall inherit many, and shall divide the spoil of the strong; because His soul was delivered to death, and He was reckoned among the transgressors, and He bare the sins of many, and for their sins was He delivered." [Isaiah 53:1-12] And again He says, "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All that see me have derided me; they have spoken with their lips; they have wagged their head, [saying] He hoped in God, let Him deliver Him, let Him save Him, since He delights in Him." [Psalm 22:6-8] You see, beloved, what is the example which has been given us; for if the Lord thus humbled Himself, what shall we do who have through Him come under the yoke of His grace?”

“David alone of the prophets prophesied with an instrument, called by the Greeks the "psaltery." … But this psaltery has the source of its musical numbers above, in order that we, too, may practice seeking things above and not suffer ourselves to be borne down by the pleasure of melody to the passions of the flesh. And I think that this truth, too, was signified deeply and clearly to us in a prophetic way in the construction of the instrument, namely, that those who have souls well ordered and trained have the way ready to things above. And again, an instrument having the source of its melodious sound in its upper parts may be taken as like the body of Christ and his saints—the only instrument that maintains rectitude; "for he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." This is indeed an instrument, harmonious, melodious, well-ordered, that took in no human discord and did nothing out of measure but maintained in all things, as it were, harmony toward the Father; for, as he says, "he that is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth; he that comes from heaven testifies of what he has seen and heard."”

“In reality, the people were subject to another curse, which says, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all that is written in the book of the law." To this curse, I say, people were subject, for no person had continued in or was a keeper of the whole law. But Christ exchanged this curse for the other, "Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree." … It was necessary for him who is about to relieve us from a curse to be himself free of it. But he received another instead of ours. Therefore Christ took on himself just such curse and thereby relieved us from the curse. It was like an innocent person deciding to die for another sentenced to death, and so rescuing him from punishment. For Christ took on him not the curse of transgression but the other curse, in order to remove that of others. For "he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."”

“And he gave his grave to the wicked He subjected himself to be buried according to anything the wicked of the heathens (nations [mss., K’li Paz]) would decree upon him, for they would penalize him with death and the burial of donkeys in the intestines of the dogs. to the wicked According to the will of the wicked, he was willing to be buried, and he would not deny the living God. and to the wealthy with his kinds of death and to the will of the ruler he subjected himself to all kinds of death that he decreed upon him, because he did not wish to agree to (denial) [of the Torah] to commit evil and to rob like all the heathens (nations [mss., K’li Paz]) among whom he lived. and there was no deceit in his mouth to accept idolatry (to accept a pagan deity as God [Parshandatha]).”

“Some refer this verse to those Israelites that die in exile; others derive במתיו from במה high place; comp. במתימו their high places (Deut. 33:29), and refer it to the building erected over the grave; so that קברו=במתיו his tomb. רשע=עשיר Wicked. The heathen nations that are rich in comparison with Israel are meant. I think that this verse describes the trouble of the Israelites in exile, which is so great, that they long to die with the nations; comp. Let me die with the Philistines (Jud. 16:20). As to ויתן he longed to give; comp. וילחם and he intended to fight (Jos. 24:9). That this longing for death is caused by the great pains, may be inferred from the words which follow: because he had done no violence. The heathen nations oppress Israel without cause; he neither deserves such ill-treatment, by any wrong act nor by any ambiguous, deceitful word. If the objection should be made that בׇּמוׂת does not change in the construct state into בְּמוׂת, as is the case in בְּמׂתׇיו, I answer, that this noun has two forms in the plural, like סריס officer: סׇרִיסֵי (Gen. 40:7); and סְרִיסֵי (Est. 6:14)”

“Who has believed? Here he begins to set down remedies against the obstacles spoken of: and first, against sin, he promises the passion of Christ; second, against dejection, he promises exaltation, chapter 54: Give praise, thou barren; third, against poverty, he promises the free enjoyment of things, (chapter 55), All you that thirst. On the first point, two things. First he shows the loftiness of the mystery, because it is not easily believed even by report. By report — of those things which we have heard from you concerning Christ. (Abdias): We have heard a report, etc.; Habacuc 3: Lord, I have heard your hearing, and I feared. Nor is it easily seen — and the arm, that is, the Son of God, the power of God. Job 40: If you have an arm like God. Second, he pursues the order of what came to pass: and first, setting forth a likeness as to his exaltation: and he shall ascend — being born from his mother's womb, rising again from death, ascending from the world into heaven, and into the faith of the nations — like a young shoot, which grows upward and multiplies broadly. Above, 11: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise out of his root. And as to his humanity: and as a root out of thirsty ground — that is, out of ground without moisture, which by reason of its dryness appears unlovely; so too he himself was born of his mother without male moisture. Apocalypse, last chapter: I am the root of David. Second, he sets down the exposition of the likeness: there is not. And first as to his humiliation; second as to his exaltation, from anguish. On the first, two things. First he describes Christ's humility; second, the meekness of the humbled one, he was offered. On the first, three things. First he describes the office of humility; second, the contempt of the humbled one, and as it were hidden; third, the fruit of the humiliation, but he was wounded. On the first, two things. First his humility is shown as to the concealment of his majesty: there is not to him beauty — as to the abundance of interior goods — nor comeliness — as to the abundance of exterior goods: for beauty properly regards loveliness as to the proportion of the members, but comeliness regards the fittingness of color and of the other things surrounding it. He had, indeed, beauty, for he was beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Psalm 44); but it lay hidden on account of the weakness he had assumed. He had comeliness, for strength and comeliness are his clothing, Proverbs, last chapter; but it lay hidden on account of the poverty he kept. Whence Canticles 2: Let your voice sound in my ears. And therefore we — who were then unbelieving and afterward converted, in whose person he speaks — saw him, bodily, and there was no — magnificent — appearance, according to what is said, that the beauty of Priam was worthy of empire. Second, his humility is shown as to the manifestation of weakness: and we desired him, awaiting him with desire as a great redeemer. Aggeus 2: Behold, the desired of all nations shall come. And in dignity, against which we saw him despised, inglorious, the most abject of men, on account of the most shameful kind of death. Wisdom 2: Let us condemn him to a most shameful death. Proverbs 30: I am the most foolish of men. Great also in prosperity; against which we find him a man of sorrows, as it were wretched, full of sorrows. Lamentations 1: O all you who pass by the way, attend and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow. Great also in power; against which we find him knowing infirmity, by experience. 2 Corinthians, last chapter: For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. And as it were hidden. Here he shows the contempt of the humbled one: and first as to the majesty concealed in the withdrawal of honor, as it were hidden — majesty lying concealed beneath the weakness of the flesh. Whence we esteemed him not — not paying him the honor due. Above, 45: Truly you are a hidden God. Second, as to the weakness displayed, setting down the sign of that weakness: truly — as a true man — infirmities: weaknesses, such as hunger and thirst, he bore, he sustained; sorrows, sensible ones, in the passion; and sadness — or, taking infirmities as sins — he took away from us, or, in our place, he sustained the punishments. 1 Peter 2: He bore our sins upon the wood. Setting down also the contempt: and we esteemed him as it were a leper, unclean and a sinner, and therefore struck by God — for his own sins, as to the punishments — and humbled, as to the disgraces. Job 22: For your very great malice, and your infinite iniquities. And 39: They abhor, etc. Note on that word: And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? — that Christ is the arm, first, for scourging the demons. Psalm 88: With the arm of your strength you have scattered your enemies. Second, for supporting the weak. Above, 40: In his arm he will lift up the lambs. Third, for defending the faithful. Wisdom 5: His right hand shall rule them. Likewise on that word, young shoot — that Christ is the rod, first, for striking. Numbers 24: A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a rod shall spring up from Israel; second, for sustaining. Psalm 22: Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me. Third, for directing. Psalm 44: The rod of your direction. Likewise on that word, a root out of the ground — that Christ is the root, first, on account of its being hidden. Ecclesiasticus 1: To whom has the root of wisdom been revealed? Second, on account of the ministering of nourishment. Jeremias 17: He shall be like a tree that sends out its roots toward moisture. Third, on account of the sustaining of the whole tree. Romans 11: You do not carry the root. But he was wounded. Here he sets down the fruit of the humiliation, or of the passion: and first he assigns the moving reason: but he, not as we thought, was wounded — with thorns, nails, the lance — for our iniquities, to be taken away. Bruised — with scourges and blows. Or, wounded, as to what is said, struck; bruised, as to what is said, humbled. Lamentations 4: The spirit of our mouth, Christ the Lord. Second, he shows the benefit that follows, in the reconciliation of peace: the chastisement of peace — that is, he himself, for us, sustained the chastisement of correction; through which peace we have access to God. Romans 5: For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son; and in the restoration of lost health, by his bruise, which he had from the rods. 1 Peter 2: By whose bruise you were healed. Psalm 102: Who is propitious to all your iniquities, who heals all your infirmities. Third, he shows the necessity impending on our part, because all were infirm: whence all need a physician, and no other could supply a sufficient remedy. Romans 3: For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek: for all have sinned, and need penance. All we like sheep — 1 Peter 2: You were once as sheep not having a shepherd. He was offered. Here he shows the meekness of the sufferer; and first he sets forth this meekness itself, and first as to his voluntary offering of himself: he was offered — to God the Father, for us, as a victim; Psalm 53: I will freely sacrifice to you. Second, as to his patient suffering: and he opened not his mouth — as one contradicting and contending: even before Herod he answered nothing, Luke 23. Lamentations 4: Out of the mouth of the Most High, etc. Second, he sets down a likeness: as a sheep to the slaughter — because he was killed without resistance — and as a lamb, suffering injury without contradiction. Jeremias 11: I am as a lamb that is carried to be a victim. Note on that word, the most abject — that Christ was the most abject, first on account of the bitterness of his sorrow. Lamentations 1: O all you who pass by the way, attend and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow. Second, on account of the shamefulness of his death. Wisdom 2: Let us condemn him to a most shameful death. Third, on account of the greatness of the crime laid upon him. Proverbs 30: I am the most foolish of men, and the wisdom of men is not with me. Likewise on that word, a man of sorrows — that Christ was full of sorrows, first on account of the necessity of the malady. Above, 1: From the sole of the foot even to the crown there is no soundness in it. Second, on account of the outpouring of graces. John 1: Of his fullness we have all received grace. Third, on account of our obligation. 2 Corinthians 5: For this Christ has died, etc. From anguish. Having set down the humility of the passion, here he begins to set forth the glory of the exaltation, which is the reward of the passion, as is said, Philippians 2: For which cause God has exalted him. And first as to the escaping of dangers; second as to the vengeance upon his enemies, and he shall give the wicked; third as to the justification of men, if he shall lay down; fourth as to the victory over rebels, therefore will I distribute. On the first, two things. First he sets down the reward: from anguish — of the passion; from judgment — the unjust judgment by which he was judged by others — he was taken up, in the resurrection. Proverbs 11: The just man is delivered out of anguish. Second, he sets down the merit, setting forth the dignity of the sufferer, so that from the condition of the person the merit of the passion might be weighed: his generation — the eternal one, by which he is from the Father without a mother, or the temporal one, by which he is from a mother without a father — who? As it were no one, by natural reason, although in some measure by divine inspiration. Ecclesiasticus 43: Who has seen him, and shall declare? Setting down also the passion inflicted upon him: for he was cut off — by death, at the hands of the Jews — out of the land of the living — out of this life. Jeremias 12: Come, let us put wood into his bread, and root him out of the land of the living. Setting down also, on the part of God the Father, the acceptance of the passion: for the wickedness I struck — I permitted him to be struck. 1 Peter 3: Christ once for our sins, etc. And he shall give the wicked. Here he sets down the second point, namely the vengeance upon those who persecuted him: and first he sets down the reward: and he shall give the wicked — the Jews, into the hands of the Romans — for burial — because they had him guarded in the sepulcher. Proverbs 21: For the just shall be given, etc. Second, he sets down the merit as to the innocence of his life: because he did no iniquity — as to the sin of deed; in his mouth — as to the sin of the mouth. 1 Peter 2: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. And as to his obedience unto death: and the Lord — the Father — willed. And he himself was obedient to the Father even unto death. Philippians 2: Become obedient unto death. 1 Corinthians 1: That which is weak of God is stronger than men. If he shall lay down. Here he sets down the third point, namely that through him the justification of men was accomplished: and first he sets down the reward against the sorrow of death, if he shall lay down — of his own will. John 10: I lay down my life. He shall see a long-lived seed — unto the end of the world, sons being regenerated for him by the power of his death. John 12: Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground be dead, itself remains alone; but if it be dead, it brings forth much fruit. And the will shall be directed — shall be fulfilled — in his hand — in his work. 1 Thessalonians 4: This is the will of God, your sanctification. And against the labor of teaching: because he labored — in preaching and going about — he shall see — the nations converted to him — and shall be satisfied — as one having what he intends. John 4: I have food to eat which you know not. Second, he sets down the merit as to the exercise of preaching: by knowledge — that is, by teaching. Romans 5: Justified freely by faith. John 6: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And as to the torment of death: iniquities — that is, the punishments for iniquities. Above, 46: I have made, I will bear. Therefore will I distribute. Here he sets down the fourth point, namely the victory over enemies: and first he sets down the subjection of the enemies: therefore will I distribute — as it were, I will give him his portion — the many — who shall believe in him — and he shall divide the spoils of the strong — that is, of those held captive by the demons — to his disciples, setting different ones over different nations. Osee 13: He shall snatch away the treasure of every desirable vessel. Psalm 67: The king of powers, of the beloved, beloved, and of the beauty of the house, to divide the spoils. Second, he sets down the reason of the subjection: as to death, because he delivered — and as to the kind of death, and with the wicked. Luke 23: And there were crucified with him two malefactors. Psalm 87: I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit. Third, the salvation of those subjected. For he did not subject them to himself as a tyrant, to torment them, but to save them. And he himself bore the sin of many — efficiently, though of all sufficiently — took it away, and prayed for the transgressors. Luke 23: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

“And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,.... These words are generally supposed to refer to a fact that was afterwards done; that Christ, who died with wicked men, as if he himself had been one, was buried in a rich man's grave. Could the words admit of the following transposition, they would exactly agree with it, "and he made his grave with the rich; and with the wicked in his death"; for he died between two thieves, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathaea, a rich man. Or the meaning perhaps in general is, that, after his death, both rich men and wicked men were concerned in his sepulchre, and about his grave; two rich men, Nicodemus and Joseph, in taking down his body from the cross, in embalming it, and in laying it in the tomb of the latter; and wicked men, Roman soldiers, were employed in guarding the sepulchre, that his disciples might not take away the body. Or the sense is, "he" the people, the nation of the Jews, through whose enmity against him he suffered death, "gave", intended, and designed, that "his grave" should be with "the wicked"; and therefore accused him to the Roman governor, and got him condemned capitally, and condemned to a Roman death, crucifixion, that he might be buried where such sort of persons usually were; and then it may be supplied, "but he made it"; that is, God ordered and appointed, in his overruling providence, that it should be "with the rich in his death", as it was. Aben Ezra observes, that the word which we translate "in his death", signifies a structure over a grave, "a sepulchral monument"; and then it may be rendered impersonally thus, "his grave was put or placed with the wicked, but his tomb", or sepulchral monument, was "with the rich"; his grave was indeed put under the care and custody of the wicked soldiers; yet a famous tomb being erected over it, at the expense of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathaea, which was designed for himself, made the burial of Christ honourable: which honour was done him, because he had done no violence: or injury to any man's person or property; had not been guilty of rapine and oppression, theft and robbery; murder and cruelty; he had not been a stirrer up of sedition, an encourager of mobs, riots, and tumults, to the harm of the civil government: neither was any deceit in his mouth: no false doctrine was delivered by him; he was no deceiver of the people, as he was charged; he did not attempt to seduce them from the true worship of God, or persuade them to believe anything contrary to the law of Moses, and the prophets; he was no enemy to church or state, nor indeed guilty of any manner of sin, nor given to any arts of trick and dissimulation; see Pe1 2:22. Some render the words, "though" (y) "he had done no violence", &c. and connect them with the following. (y) "quamvis", Vatablus, Calvin, Noldius; "licet", Syr. Interpr.”

“Death. Hebrew, “and he made his grave with the wicked men, and with the rich man, in his death.” (Haydock) — Grave and death seem to be transposed; and we might better read, “He was taken up with wicked men in his death, and with a rich man was his sepulchre.” This indeed is only a conjecture, but well grounded in the context. See Josue xxiv. 19. (Kennicott) — Septuagint, “and I will give the wicked for his grave, and the rich men for his death.” (Haydock) — The rich man may denote the small number of Jews who embraced the faith. (Calmet) — They esteemed themselves rich, and were highly favoured by God; yet they were blinded, (Haydock) and given up to the Romans, in punishment of their deicide, Matthew xxvii. 25. The Church is gathered both from Jews and Gentiles, ver. 10. (Calmet) (St. Jerome) — “He will send to hell the wicked,” (Chaldean) who slew him. (Menochius) — Christ was buried where malefactors were generally, yet honourably, in the tomb of Joseph [of Arimathea]. (Worthington) (Matthew xxvii. 57.)”

“He assigned His grave with the wicked. As His death was that of a malefactor, so His burial was deemed like theirs, although His tomb soon became honored. St. Jerome understands the Gentilee by the wicked, and the Jews by the rich, since they had many privileges : "The Lord suffered and was buried, in order that He might gather to Himself a church of both peoples."”

“Rather, "His grave was appointed," or "they appointed Him His grave" [HENGSTENBERG]; that is, they intended (by crucifying Him with two thieves, Mat 27:38) that He should have His grave "with the wicked." Compare Joh 19:31, the denial of honorable burial being accounted a great ignominy (see on Isa 14:19; Jer 26:23). and with . . . rich--rather, "but He was with a rich man," &c. GESENIUS, for the parallelism to "the wicked," translates "ungodly" (the effect of riches being to make one ungodly); but the Hebrew everywhere means "rich," never by itself ungodly; the parallelism, too, is one of contrast; namely, between their design and the fact, as it was ordered by God (Mat 27:57; Mar 15:43-46; Joh 19:39-40); two rich men honored Him at His death, Joseph of ArimathÃ&brvbra, and Nicodemus. in his death--Hebrew, "deaths." LOWTH translates, "His tomb"; bamoth, from a different root, meaning "high places," and so mounds for sepulture (Eze 43:7). But all the versions oppose this, and the Hebrew hardly admits it. Rather translate, "after His death" [HENGSTENBERG]; as we say, "at His death." The plural, "deaths," intensifies the force; as Adam by sin "dying died" (Gen 2:17, Margin); that is, incurred death, physical and spiritual. So Messiah, His substitute, endured death in both senses; spiritual, during His temporary abandonment by the Father; physical, when He gave up the ghost. because--rather, as the sense demands (so in Job 16:17), "although He had done no," &c. [HENGSTENBERG], (Pe1 2:20-22; Jo1 3:5). violence--that is, wrong.”

“After this description in Isa 53:7 of the patience with which He suffered, and in Isa 53:8 of the manner in which He died, there follows a retrospective glance at His burial. "And they assigned Him His grave with sinners, and with a rich man in His martyrdom, because He had done no wrong, and there was no deceit in His mouth." The subject to ויּתּן (assigned) is not Jehovah, although this would not be impossible, since נגע has Jehovah as the latent subject; but it would be irreconcilable with Isa 53:10, where Jehovah is introduced as the subject with antithetical prominence. It would be better to assume that "my people" is the subject; but as this would make it appear as if the statement introduced in Isa 53:8 with kı̄ (for) were continued here, we seem compelled to refer it to dōrō (His generation), which occurs in the principal clause. No objection could be offered to our regarding "His own generation" as the subject; but dōrō is somewhat too far removed for this; and if the prophet had had the contemporaries of the sufferer in his mind, he would most likely have used a plural verb (vayyittenū). Some, therefore, supply a personal subject of the most general kind to yittēn (which occurs even with a neuter subject, like the German es gibt, Fr. il y a, Eng. "there is;" cf., Pro 13:10): "they (on) gave;" and looking at the history of the fulfilment, we confess that this is the rendering we prefer. In fact, without the commentary supplied by the fulfilment, it would be impossible to understand Isa 53:9 at all. The earlier translators did great violence to the text, and yet failed to bring out any admissible thought. And the explanation which is most generally adopted now, viz., that עשׁיר is the synonymous parallel to רשׁעי (as even Luther rendered it, "and died like a rich man," with the marginal gloss, "a rich man who sets all his heart upon riches, i.e., a wicked man"), is also untenable; for even granting that ‛âshīr could be proved by examples to be sometimes used as synonymous with רשׁע, as עני and אביון are as synonyms of צדּיק, this would be just the passage in which it would be least possible to sustain any such use of the word; since he who finds his grave with rich men, whether with the godly or the ungodly, would thereby have received a decent, and even honourable burial. This is so thoroughly sustained by experience, as to need no confirmation from such passages as Job 21:32. Hitzig has very good ground, therefore, for opposing this "synonymous" explanation; but when he adopts the rendering lapsator, after the Arabic ‛tūr, this is quite as much in opposition to Arabic usage (according to which this word merely signifies a person who falls into error, and makes a mistake in speaking), as it is to the Hebrew. Ewald changes עשׁיר into עשּׁהיק (a word which has no existence); and Bttcher alters it into רע עשׂי, which is comparatively the best suggestion of all. Hofmann connects the two words בּמותיו עשׁיר, "men who have become rich through the murders that they have treacherously caused" (though without being able to adduce any proof that mōth is ever applied to the death which one person inflicts upon another). At any rate, all these attempts spring from the indisputable assumption, that to be rich is not in itself a sin which deserves a dishonourable burial, to say nothing of its receiving one. If, therefore, רשׁיעם and עשׁיר are not kindred ideas, they must be antithetical; but it is no easier to establish a purely ethical antithesis than an ethical coincidence. If, however, we take the word רשׁעים as suggesting the idea of persons found guilty, or criminals (an explanation which the juridical context of the passage well sustains; see at Isa 50:9), we get a contrast which our own usage of speech also draws between a rich man who is living in the enjoyment of his own possessions, and a delinquent who has become impoverished to the utmost, through hatred, condemnation, ruin. And if we reflect that the Jewish rulers would have given to Jesus the same dishonourable burial as to the two thieves, but that the Roman authorities handed over the body to Joseph the Arimathaean, a "rich man" (Mat 27:57), who placed it in the sepulchre in his own garden, we see an agreement at once between the gospel history and the prophetic words, which could only be the work of the God of both the prophecy and its fulfilment, inasmuch as no suspicion could possibly arise of there having been any human design of bringing the former into conformity with the latter. But if it be objected, that according to the parallel the ‛âshı̄r must be regarded as dead, quite as much as the reshâ‛ı̄m, we admit the force of this objection, and should explain it in this way: "They assigned Him His grave with criminals, and after He had actually died a martyr's death, with a rich man;" i.e., He was to have lain where the bodies of criminals lie, but He was really laid in a grave that was intended for the corpse of a rich man. (Note: A clairvoyant once said of the Lord: "Died like a criminal; buried like a prince of the earth" (vid., Psychol. pp. 262, 364).) The rendering adopted by Vitringa and others, "and He was with a rich man in his death," is open to this objection, that such a clause, to be quite free from ambiguity, would require במויתו הוּא ואת־עשׁיר. Hengstenberg and Stier very properly refer both ויתן and קברו, which must be repeated in thought, to the second clause as well as the first. The rendering tumulum ejus must be rejected, since bâmâh never has this meaning; and בּמתיו, which is the pointing sustained by three Codd., would not be mausolea, but a lofty burial-hill, after the fashion of the Hnengrber (certain "giants' graves," or barrows, in Holstein and Saxony). (Note: The usage of the language shows clearly that bâmâh had originally the meaning of "height" (e.g., Sa2 1:19). The primary meaning suggested by Bttcher, of locus clausus, septus (from בום = מהב, Arab. bhm), cannot be sustained. We still hold that בם is the expanded בא, and במה an ascent, steep place, or stair. In the Talmud, bâmâh is equivalent to βωμός, an altar, and בּימה (Syr. bim) equivalent to the βῆμα of the orator and judge; βωμός, root βα, like the Hebrew bâmâh, signifies literally an elevation, and actually occurs in the sense of a sepulchral hill, which this never has, not even in Eze 43:7.) מותי is a plur. exaggerativus here, as in Eze 28:10 (compare memōthē in Eze 28:8 and Jer 16:4); it is applied to a violent death, the very pain of which makes it like dying again and again. The first clause states with whom they at first assigned Him His grave; the second with whom it was assigned Him, after He had really died a painful death. "Of course," as F. Philippi observes, "this was not a thorough compensation for the ignominy of having died the death of a criminal; but the honourable burial, granted to one who had been ignominiously put to death, showed that there must be something very remarkable about Him. It was the beginning of the glorification which commenced with His death." If we have correctly interpreted the second clause, there can be no doubt in our minds, since we cannot shake the word of God like a kaleidoscope, and multiply the sensus complex, as Stier does, that לא על (= לא על־אשׁר) does not mean "notwithstanding that not," as in Job 16:17, but "because not," like על־בּלי in Gen 31:20. The reason why the Servant of God received such honourable treatment immediately after His ignominious martyrdom, was to be found in His freedom from sin, in the fact that He had done no wrong, and there was no deceit in His mouth (lxx and Pe1 2:22, where the clause is correctly rendered οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῶ στόματι αὐτοῦ). His actions were invariably prompted by pure love, and His speech consisted of unclouded sincerity and truth.”