From: Chris Bonds

>The quality of a rest depends entirely on what comes before and after.
>Handel has some of the most powerful rests in tonal music.  Example: in
>the chorus "All We Like Sheep" in the final slow section, the chorus sings
>"And the Lord hath laid on him....[rest]...the iniquity of us all." This is
>the tension created by putting a rest between a dissonant chord and its
>resolution.

Technically, this would be a censura since there is no rest here: 2/2
time signature; "Him" is a whole note tied to the following half-note;
the second half of this measure picks up with another half-note on "the."

Mark K. Ehlert