Objection: Gesenius’s Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament Says that "Healed” in Isaiah 53:5 Means “Pardoned”

The word “healed” in Isaiah 53:5 is the Hebrew word rapha, which is also translated physician.  The fact that a commentator tried to force his predisposition on things does not change what the actual Hebrew word was.  You would not go to a medical doctor to get forgiven for your sins, would you?  I have devoted the section “Healed” Defined to showing you how the word rapha and its Greek counterpart ioamai are used in Scripture.

If Mr. Gesenius is right, a lot of Scriptures are now very interesting.  Let’s see how they would pan out if rapha really means pardoned in the Gesenius Rapha-Pardoned Version (GRPV):

“And Joseph commanded his servants the pardoners to embalm his father: and the pardoners embalmed Israel” – Genesis 50:2 (GRPV)

“The flesh also, in which, even the skin thereof, was a boil, and is pardoned…” – Leviticus 13:18 (GRPV)

“And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is pardoned.” – Leviticus 14:48 (GRPV)

“The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be pardoned.” – Deuteronomy 28:27 (GRPV)

“And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he pardoned the altar of the LORD that was broken down.” – 1 Kings 18:30 (GRPV)

“So the waters were pardoned unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.” – 2 Kings 2:22 (GRPV)

“And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the pardoners.” – 2 Chronicles 16:12 (GRPV)

“Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: pardon the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.” – Psalm 60:2 (GRPV)

“Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who pardons all thy diseases;” – Psalm 103:3 (GRPV)

“He pardoneth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” – Psalm 147:3 (GRPV)

“For they have pardoned the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” – Jeremiah 8:11 (GRPV)

“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no pardoner there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” – Jeremiah 8:22 (GRPV)

“Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be pardoned? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?” – Jeremiah 15:18 (GRPV)

“And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be pardoned again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.” – Jeremiah 19:11 (GRPV)

“For I will restore health unto thee, and I will pardon thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” – Jeremiah 30:17 (GRPV)

“The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye pardoned that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.” – Ezekiel 34:4 (GRPV)

“But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be pardoned; they shall be given to salt.” – Ezekiel 47:11 (GRPV)

I could list a lot of similar verses, but these should be enough to make my point.  I will definitely stick with heal / healed / physician as opposed to pardon / pardoned / pardoner as the proper translation of rapha.

Mr. Gesenius’s book is old (early 1800’s), so it may be a “classic,” but “old” does not necessarily mean “right.”  Mary Baker Eddy and Joseph Smith wrote some “old” works in the 1800’s that were totally heretical!

For notes on the context of Isaiah 53:5, see Isaiah’s Prophecy of Redemption.