Today, I started Fredrik Hagglund’s Isaiah 53 in the Light of Homecoming after Exile. On page 4, he states his thesis. For Hagglund, Isaiah 40-52 describes a glorious scenario of Israel’s restoration from exile. But the restoration of Israel to her land turns out not to be glorious because the native Israelites did not embrace the returning exiles, who suffered for their guilt. As a result, there were the divisions among the Israelites that are recorded in Third Isaiah. So, for Hagglund, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is the returning exiles.
We’ll see how this plays out! He may say that the exiles suffered God’s punishment, whereas the Israelites who remained in the land did not, and so the exiles suffered for the natives.