He was oppressed. As Israel under the Egyptian taskmasters (Exodus 3:7). The cruel ill usage in the high priest's house, and before Herod is, perhaps, specially pointed at. He was afflicted; rather, he abased himself (comp.
Isaiah 31:4 and Exodus 10:3). The position of the emphatic pronoun (hu') between the first participle and the second detaches the second clause from the first and conjoins it with the third. Otherwise the rendering of the Authorized Version might stand.
Translate, He was oppressed, but he abased himself and opened not his mouth. The silence of Jesus before his judges (Matthew 26:22, Matthew 26:23; Matthew 27:14), when he could so easily have vindicated himself from every charge, was a self-abasement.
It seemed like an admission of guilt. He opened not his mouth (comp. Psalms 38:13, Psalms 38:14; Psalms 39:2, Psalms 39:9). The contrast of the Servant's silence and passivity with men's ordinary vehemence of self-assertion under ill usage is most striking.
Who was ever silent but he under such extremity of provocation? He is brought as a lamb; rather, as the lamb. The Paschal lamb is, perhaps, intended, or, at any rate, the lamb of sacrifice. The prophet has often seen the dumb, innocent lamb led in silence to the altar, to be slain there, and thinks of that touching sight.
It was probably the use of this imagery here which caused the Baptist to term our Lord "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). As a sheep before her shearers. A second image, a reflex of the first, somewhat weaker, as so often in Isaiah (Isaiah 1:22, Isaiah 1:30; Isaiah 5:18, Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 8:14; Isaiah 10:24, Isaiah 10:27, Isaiah 10:34; Isaiah 11:8; Isaiah 13:14; Isaiah 24:13; Isaiah 25:7, etc.
).