Israel, the Righteous, the Prophets, and the Messiah as the Servant(s) of the Lord

Abstract This essay explores the rationale behind the different interpretations of the servant of the Lord in Targum Jonathan Isaiah. In order to facilitate understanding of this material, I survey the use of the designation “servant(s) of the Lord ” in the Hebrew Bible and then discuss the rationale behind the use of singulars and plurals in the Targum’s translation of Isaiah 40–55. After this, I analyze the relevant passages within the Targum, suggesting that the scribes interpret the figure of the servant to have four different referents: the nation of Israel, the righteous, the prophets, and the messiah. Throughout this analysis, I attend to the features of the text that appear to have influenced the scribes to identify the servant in these ways. I conclude by reviewing the most important factors contributing to these decisions and then highlighting the coherence between my observations and some recent works on the scribes’ hermeneutical orientation.