Abstract
This chapter examines the “Suffering Servant” as a figure with disabilities in Isaiah 53 of the Hebrew Bible. It first considers Bernhard Duhm's theory of four distinct “servant songs” within Isaiah, in which he identified the servant as a person with a skin anomaly. It then argues that Isaiah 53 uses imagery that often describes the social and political experiences of persons with disabilities in other biblical and ancient Near Eastern contexts. It also discusses reading strategies employed by scholars to interpret the servant as an otherwise able-bodied figure who either suffers an injury, dies, recovers from his disability or injury, or is imprisoned. Such strategies have led to interpretations of the servant's suffering as related to almost anything but a disability.
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