Isaiah uses this powerful word in the Suffering Servant passage to describe extreme physical disfigurement. The servant's appearance is so marred, so beyond normal human appearance, that people are appalled. This is one of the most haunting images in prophetic literature—a figure whose suffering has so distorted his physical form that he barely looks human. Christian interpretation has traditionally seen this as pointing to Christ's suffering, but the Hebrew term itself simply denotes severe disfigurement or marring.