Isaiah 53:2

“For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, &c.] Which springs out of the earth without notice; low in its beginning, slow in its growth, liable to be crushed with the foot, or destroyed with the frost, and no great probability of its coming to any perfection; or rather as a little “sucker”, as the wordf1044 signifies, which grows out of the root of a tree, at some little distance from it, of which no notice or care is taken, nor anything hoped for from it; and the figure denotes the mean and unpromising appearance of Christ at his incarnation; which is the reason given why the Jews in general disbelieved, rejected, and despised him; for this phrase of “growing up” does not design his…”

“tender plant--Messiah grew silently and insensibly, as a sucker from an ancient stock, seemingly dead (namely, the house of David, then in a decayed state) (see on Isa 11:1). shall grow . . . hath--rather, "grew up . . . had." before him--before Jehovah. Though unknown to the world (Joh 1:11), Messiah was observed by God, who ordered the most minute circumstances attending His growth. root--that is, sprout from a root. form--beautiful form: sorrow had marred His once beautiful form. and when we shall see--rather, joined with the previous words, "Nor comeliness (attractiveness) that we should look (with delight) on Him." there is--rather, "was." The studied reticence of the New Testament as…”

“For he shall grow up before him - In this verse, the prophet describes the humble appearance of the Messiah, and the fact that there was nothing in his personal aspect that corresponded to the expectations that bad been formed of him; nothing that should lead them to desire him as their expected deliverer, but everything that could induce them to reject him. He would be of so humble an origin, and with so little that was magnificent in his external appear ance, that the nation would despise him. The word rendered ‘he shall grow up’ (ויעל vaya‛al, from עלה ‛âlâh), means properly, “to go up, to ascend.” Here it evidently applies to the Redeemer as growing up in the manner of a shoot or…”

“As a root - And the reason why the Jews will generally reject their Messiah, is, because he shall not come into the world with secular pomp, but he shall grow up, (or spring up, out of the ground) before him, (before the unbelieving Jews, of whom he spake Isa 53:1, and that in the singular number, as here, who were witnesses of his mean original; and therefore despised him) as a tender plant (small and inconsiderable) and as a root, or branch, grows out of a dry, barren ground. No form - His bodily presence shall be mean and contemptible. No beauty - This the prophet speaks in the person of the unbelieving Jews. We - Our people, the Jewish nation. Isaiah 53:3”

“53:2 a tender green shoot . . . in dry ground: Such a plant is vulnerable to extinction (cp. 37:27). It can hardly stay alive for itself, let alone provide anything for anyone else. • nothing beautiful or majestic: The servant appeared to have no greatness or self-evident royal splendor (see 52:13-15). • nothing to attract us to him: People like their leaders to be physically attractive and personally charismatic. The servant would be neither.”

“he shall grow: Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Eze 17:22-24; Zac 6:12; Mar 6:3; Luk 2:7, Luk 2:39, Luk 2:40, Luk 2:51, Luk 2:52; Luk 9:58; Rom 8:3; Phi 2:6, Phi 2:7 he hath no: Isa 52:14; Mar 9:12; Joh 1:10-14, Joh 9:28, Joh 9:29, Joh 18:40, Joh 19:5, Joh 19:14, Joh 19:15; Pe1 2:14 Isaiah 53:3”

“The confession, which follows, grows out of the great lamentation depicted by Zechariah in Zac 12:11. "And he sprang up like a layer-shoot before Him, and like a root-sprout out of dry ground: he had no form, and no beauty; and we looked, and there was no look, such that we could have found pleasure in him." Isa 53:2, as a sequel to Isa 53:1, looks back to the past, and describes how the arm of Jehovah manifested itself in the servant's course of life from the very beginning, though imperceptibly at first, and unobserved by those who merely noticed the outside. The suffix of לפניו cannot refer to the subject of the interrogative sentence, as Hahn and Hofmann suppose, for the answer to the…”