Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 53:9

9 And he made his grave with the wicked , and with the rich in his death , because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth .

And although he did not die for his own, but only for his Peoples sins, yet he was willing to die like a malefactor, or like a sinner, as all other men are, and to be put into the grave, as they used to be; which was a farther degree of his Humiliation. He saith, he made his Grave, because this was Christs own act, and he willingly yielded up himself to death and burial. And that which follows, with the wicked, doth not note the sameness of place, as if he should be buried in the same Grave with other malefactors, but the sameness of condition: as when David prayeth Psal. 26. 9. Gather not my soul (to wit, by death) with sinners, he doth not mean it of the same Grave, but of the same state of the dead.

This passage is thought by many to signifie that Christ should be buried in the Sepulchre of Ioseph, who is said to be both rich, Mat. 27. 57. and honourable, Mark 15. 43. which they conceive to be intimated as a token of Favour and Honour shewed to him. Which to me seems not probable, partly because this disagrees with the former clause, which confefsedly speaks of the dishonour which was done to him; and partly because the burial of Christ, whatsoever Circumstances it was attended with, is ever mentioned in Scripture as a part of his Humiliation, Act. 2. 24. 27. And it seems more reasonable, and more agreeable to the usage of Holy Scripture, that this clause should design the same thing with the former, and that by rich he means the same persons whom he now called wicked, not as if all rich men were, or must needs be wicked, but because for the most part they are so; upon which ground, riches and rich men do commonly pass under an ill name in Scripture; of which see Psal. 37. 16. & 49. 6. Luk. 6. 24. & 18. 24. Iam. 1. 11. & 5. 1.

Heb. in, or at (or after, as this particle is frequently taken, as hath been already noted) his deaths: for Christs death might well be called deaths in the plural number, because he underwent many kinds of death, and many deadly dangers and pains, which are frequently called by the name of death in Scripture, of which instances have been formerly given; and he might say, with no less truth than Paul did, 1 Cor. 15. 31. I die daily, and 2 Cor. 11. 23. I was in deaths oft.

This some suppose to be added as a reason of the last branch of the foregoing clause, why God so overruled matters by his providence, that Christ should not be buried in the same Grave, or in the same ignominious manner as malefactors were, but in a more honourable manner, in Iosephs own Tomb. But the last part of the foregoing clause cannot, without violence, be pulled asunder from the former, wherewith it is so closely joined, not only by a Conjunction copulative, and, but also by being under the government of the same Verb: And therefore this latter clause of the verse, if thus rendred, must be added as the reason of what is said to be done in the former. And so the sense of the place may be thus conceived, This was all the reward of the unspotted Innocency of all his words and actions, to be thus ignominiously used: But these words may well be, and are otherwise re[illegible: 1+ letters]dred both by Jewish and Christian Interpreters, either thus, although he had done, &c. or rather thus, not for (as these two same particles placed, in the very same order, are rendred by our Translator, and others, Iob 16. 17.) any violence (or injury, or iniquity) which he had done, nor for any deceit which was in his mouth; not for his own sins, but, as hath been said before, for his Peoples [illegible: 1+ letters]ins. In which Translation there is nothing supplied but what is most frequent in Scripture use.

Marginal references: Heb. deaths.; 1 Pet. 2. 22, 1 Ioh. 3. 5.