"He was oppressed, and it was He who was afflicted,/Yet He did not open His mouth;/Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter / And like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, / So He did not open His mouth" (v. 7). He did not have any reaction toward those who were persecuting Him.
Verse 8a continues, "By oppression and by judgment He was taken away." The word oppression here means persecution. First, Christ was persecuted and then He was judged. By these two things He was taken away.
Verse 8b goes on to say, "And as for His generation, who among them had the thought/That He was cut off out of the land of the living/For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?" This means that no one understood that it was for us that Christ suffered persecution and judgment and died. Even those who were with the Lord Jesus when He was dying on the cross did not understand that He was dying for them. The stroke that should have been the due of God's people fell on Him. He suffered death for us.
Verse 10a says, "Jehovah was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief." The Hebrew words translated afflict Him with grief literally mean "make Him sick."
This verse continues with the phrase, "If You make His soul an offering for sin." The Hebrew can also be rendered "His soul would make an offering for sin." Leviticus 4 and 5 indicate that the trespass offering may be regarded as part of the sin offering. It is from sin that Christ has redeemed us. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Redemption is thus for the sin, including the trespasses, of fallen man. While Christ was on the cross, God was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief, in order to make Him an offering for sin. This is a further indication that Christ died a vicarious death for the purpose of accomplishing redemption for us.