SERVANT OF YAHWEH (Hebr. 'Ebbedh Jahweh). — A figure described in four poems of Isaiah: 1) 42:1–7 (9); 2) 49:1–7 (9); 3) 50:4–9; 4) 52:13–53:12. He is called “servant” by Yahweh; He is His beloved, to whom from the womb He entrusts the mission of promulgating justice (the Law) to the nations, of enlightening and saving them, of bringing back the “Remnant of Israel” and of comforting the afflicted; He is gentle with the weak. Instructed by Yahweh as a disciple, He is obedient in teaching and in enduring unheard-of blows and humiliations to fulfill His mission. Yahweh reveals the astonishment of the nations at the enormity of His suffering and the grandeur of His consequent exaltation (cf. Isa. 50:5–6; 52:14; 53:1–12). The prophet describes the wretched life, the deformities that the body of the Servant of Yahweh undergoes to expiate the sins of the perverse people who condemned and violently suppressed Him, despite His innocence and meekness, and buried Him with the wicked and with the rich. Yahweh grants Him immense posterity and accepts His expiation and intercession for sinners.
Tradition attributes the poems to the prophet Isaiah; many critics deny this. There is debate over whether the Servant of Yahweh poems were originally a distinct little poem and what their sequence, extent, and dramatic form might have been. Countless hypotheses exist for the identification of the Servant of Yahweh. C. R. North classifies the various identifications proposed by those who do not follow the messianic interpretation as follows: a) historical Israel, the ideal Israel, the pious Israelites, the order of the prophets. b) A historical person; proposed names include Isaiah, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Job, Moses, Jehoiachin, Cyrus, Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel, Meshullam (Isa. 42:19), Nehemiah, Eleazar, an unknown scribe, an unknown contemporary of the author. c) The author of the poems, who either foretold his own death or did not compose the fourth poem. d) A mythological figure modeled on the myths of Tammuz-Adonis or derived from the Babylonian ritual of the humiliation of the king during the New Year festival. e) An ideal and abstract figure; recent scholars compare it to the myths of Ras Shamra (Nyberg, Engnell) or to the Teacher of Righteousness of the Qumran texts.
SERVANT OF YAHWEH — SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD