1Who has believed our message?
To whom has Yahweh’s arm been revealed?
2For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of suffering
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn’t respect him.
4Surely he has borne our sickness
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way;
and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed,
yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he didn’t open his mouth.
8He was taken away by oppression and judgment.
As for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring.
He will prolong his days
and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
and he will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.
He will divide the plunder with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was counted with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sins of many
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Joseph of Arimathaea was a member of the Sanhedrin (Luke 23:50) and also was a secret disciple of Jesus Christ (John 19:38). Joseph is described as being “rich” in Matthew 27:57. Luke 23:50 tells us that he was “a council member, good and just man … [who was] waiting for the kingdom of God."
During the trials of Jesus, Joseph did not consent to the “decision and deed” of the Sanhedrin (Luke 23:51). Once Christ had died Joseph put aside his “fear of the Jews” (John 19:38) and requested that the body of Jesus be given to him for burial rather than tossed out like a criminal. This act put him squarely against the Sanhedrin. Matthew 27:59 tells us that Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus “in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock.” This act fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 53:9 which says “He made His grave with the rich."
According to tradition Philip the Apostle sent Joseph to Britain in A.D. 63, where he supposedly founded the first Christian settlement in Britain, near the current site of Glastonbury
(Meiklejohn, "of Aramathea"; Marshall, et al., New Bible Dictionary, 611).