And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

This is a traditional formula for the atonement. The Christ accepts punishment and death so that we might be released from the burden of sin and enter into eternal life.

A trade is made - a deal is done - between one of the trinity and another. We are the beneficiaries, but otherwise not actively involved.

On a walk yesterday afternoon I decided my morning treatment of this verse was wrong.

The Hebrew for what Jennes and Handel use above is chubbuwrah rapha'. It is a simple noun-verb phrase: pain heals. The tense is not-finished. "Pain is healing," would also be accurate.

The entire verse is literally: Peace instructs, Pain heals. A still accurate, more provocative, reading could be "Peace chastens, Pain heals."

What peace? Whose pain? Who is healed? How is it accomplished? What is the purpose? These are wonderful questions that the Hebrew leaves tantalizingly open.

You may listen to this choral interlude, as part of a longer excerpt from the Messiah, performed by the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields.