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The Hebrew word "ebedh," the plural of which is here translated "bondmen," is often applied to Christ. Isa. xlii. 1. Isa. lii. 13. Isa. xlix. 6. "To a servant of rulers." Isa. xlix. 7. Is. liii. 11. "Behold I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH." Zech. iii. 8. In 1 Kings xii. 6, 7, it is applied to King Rehoboam.
Again, the voluntariness of servants is a natural inference from the fact that the Hebrew word ebedh, uniformly rendered servant, is applied to a great variety of classes and descriptions of persons under the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, all of whom were voluntary and most of them eminently so.
But the objector asks, "Would not the Israelites use their word ebedh if they spoke of the slave of a heathen?" Answer. Their national servants or tributaries, are spoken of frequently, but domestic servants so rarely that no necessity existed, even if they were slaves, for coining a new word.
If the tongue had a sheath, as swords have scabbards, we should have some name for it: but our dictionaries give us none. Why? Because there is no such thing. But the objector asks, "Would not the Israelites use their word ebedh if they spoke of the slave of a heathen?" Answer.
As the caprices of King James' translators were not inspired, we need stand in no special awe of them. The word here rendered bondmen is uniformly rendered servants elsewhere. The Hebrew word "ebedh," the plural of which is here translated "bondmen," is in Isa. xlii. 1, applied to Christ. So Isa. lii. 13. In 1 Kings xii. 6, 7, to King Rehoboam.
To argue from the meaning of the word ebedh as used in the Old Testament, that those to whom it was applied rendered service against their will, and without pay, does violence to the scripture use of the term, sets at nought all rules of interpretation, and outrages common sense.
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