Nasa is the Hebrew verb to lift, to carry, to bear. It is used for the priests carrying the Ark on their shoulders (Numbers 4:15). It is used for Moshe carrying the weight of the people (Numbers 11:11, 14). It is used for the scapegoat carrying Israel's iniquity into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:22). And it is the verb that opens Isaiah 53:4: "Surely he has nasa our griefs, and carried our sorrows."

This is the verb PSA preachers reach for to argue that the servant absorbed our punishment. But nasa does not mean to absorb a penalty. It means to carry a weight. Moshe in Numbers 11 is not being punished for the people's sins; he is carrying the weight of leading them. The priests carrying the Ark are not being punished; they are bearing a holy burden. The servant in Isaiah 53 carries the weight of his people's brokenness the way a parent bears the weight of a wayward child's collapse. Solidarity, not substitution. Carrying, not absorbing. The difference is the whole relationship.