The Unusual Case Where An Old Testament Verse Is Quoted By Another Old Testament Verse

When we talk about the Bible quoting itself, we are almost always talking about the New Testament quoting a passage from the Old Testament. A very unusual case would be the Old Testament quoting itself. An example of this would be Isaiah 53 twice quoting from the story of the scapegoat in Leviticus 16. Isaiah 53:6c “and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” is an obvious reference to Leviticus 16:21 “all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat” and Isaiah 53:11c “he shall bear their iniquities” is a quote of Leviticus 16:22 “the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities.”

What can we learn from this occurrence? First, the scapegoat is a type of Christ in the normal sense of the word; that is, an analogy / parallel is being made between the two by God’s word. Second, the way Jesus bears our sins is in the sense that our sins were laid on Him. We know this because that is the sense in which the scapegoat (the parallel) bore the Israelites’ sins; their sins were put on the scapegoat (in type).

In light of this type, how can so many gospel preachers deny Isaiah 53:6c that in reality God “laid on him the iniquity of us all”? What does that mean? I hesitate to say because Christians need to learn to accept what a verse plainly says even if they don’t understand its full import. But the just previous verse provides ample explanation: “The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him” (NASB). “The punishment that brought us peace was on him” (NIV).

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