Isaiah 50:6

I gave my back to the smiters,.... To Pontius Pilate, and those he ordered to scourge him, Matthew 27:26 and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; of the beard; which, is painful, so a great indignity and affront.

I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Smiters - with scourges and with the open hand (Isaiah 52:14). Mark 14:65; Matt.

I gave my back to the smiters; I patiently yielded up myself, and turned my back to those who smote me. I was willing not only to do, but to suffer, the will of God, and the injuries of men. This and the following passages were literally fulfilled in Christ, as is expressly affirmed, ,67 27:26,30, and elsewhere; but we read of no such thing concerning Isaiah. And therefore it is most safe and reasonable to understand it of Christ; the rather, because it is not usual with the prophets to commend themselves so highly as the prophet here commends the person of whom he speaketh. Plucked off the hair; which was a contumely or punishment inflicted upon malefactors, . I hid not my face from shame, from all manner of reproachful usages; but did knowingly and willingly submit myself there unto. And spitting: spitting in a man’ s face was used in token of contempt and detestation, ; and this was literally fulfilled in Christ, .

Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.Ver. 6. I gave my back to the smiters.] Ecce pro impio pietas flagellatur, &c., saith Ambrose. "Behold the man" (as Pilate once said), "the just" man scourged "for the unjust," wisdom derided for the fool’ s sake, truth denied for the liar’ s sake, mercy afflicted for the cruel man’ s sake, life dying for the dead man’ s sake. What are all our sufferings to his? how oft have we been whipped, depiled, despitefully spat upon, &c., for his sake? Oh that I might have the maidenhead of that kind of suffering! said one of the martyrs in the Marian times; for I have not heard that you have yet whipped any. Bishop Bonner afterwards, with his own hands, whipped some, and pulled a great part of their beards off. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.] That is, from shameful spitting. See Matthew 26:48; Matthew 27:30. Discamus etiam hoc loco, saith Oecolampadius; Learn here also what is the character of a true Christian minister, namely, to express Christ to the world as much as may be, viz., by apt utterance, seasonable comforts, divine learning, ready obedience, constant patience, exemplary innocence, discreet zeal, &c. De Temp. Ser., 114.

(5, 6) The Lord God.—Jehovah Adonai, as before. The Servant continues his soliloquy. What has come to him in the morning communings with God is, as in the next verse, that he too is to bear reproach and shame, as other disciples had done before him. The writer of Psa 22:7, the much-enduring Job (Job 30:10), the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:7), were but foreshadowings of the sufferings that should fall on him. And all this the true Servant-Scholar accepts willingly. because it is his Father’s will. Here again we cannot fail to trace the influence of Isaiah’s words in all our Lord’s utterances as to His passion. (Comp. Matthew 16:21; Mark 10:34; Luke 18:32.)

Verse 6. And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair] The greatest indignity that could possibly be offered. See the note on Isaiah 7:20. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.] Another instance of the utmost contempt and detestation. It was ordered by the law of Moses as a severe punishment, carrying with it a lasting disgrace; Deuteronomy 25:9. Among the Medes it was highly offensive to spit in any one's presence, Herod. i. 99; and so likewise among the Persians, Xenophon, Cyrop. Lib. i., p. 18. "They abhor me; they flee far from me; They forbear not to spit in my face." Job 30:10. "And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?" Numbers 22:14. On which place Sir John Chardin remarks, that "spitting before any one, or spitting upon the ground in speaking of any one's actions, is through the east an expression of extreme detestation."-Harmer's Observ. ii. 509. See also, of the same notions of the Arabs in this respect, Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 26. It so evidently appears that in those countries spitting has ever been an expression of the utmost detestation, that the learned doubt whether in the passages of Scripture above quoted any thing more is meant than spitting,-not in the face, which perhaps the words do not necessarily imply,-but only in the presence of the person affronted. But in this place it certainly means spitting in the face; so it is understood in St. Luke, where our Lord plainly refers to this prophecy: "All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished; for he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, εμπτυσθησεται," Lu 18:31-32, which was in fact fulfilled; καιηρξεαντοτινεςεμπτυειναυτῳ, "and some began to spit on him," Mr 14:65; Mr 15:19. If spitting in a person's presence was such an indignity, how much more spitting in his face?

6. That persecutions were to be incurred in the performance of his work is already indicated in the last words of Isa 50:5; now the speaker declares his voluntary acquiescence in the hardships of his appointed lot. I gave my back to the smiters] In Psalms 129:3 the same figure is applied to the sufferings of Israel as a nation. to them that plucked off the hair] of the beard (cf. Ezra 9:3; Nehemiah 13:25); an extreme insult to an Oriental, to whom the beard is the symbol of dignity (see on ch. Isaiah 7:20). from shame and spitting] Numbers 12:14; Deuteronomy 25:9; Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:30.

I gave my back to the smiters - I submitted willingly to be scourged, or whipped. This is one of the parts of this chapter which can be applied to no other one but the Messiah.

6. I gave my back to the smiters — Spoken in reference to Christ’s willingly-borne sufferings. His obedience was perfect. Psalms 22:7; Psalms 69:8, find in this their perfect anti-typical fulfilment.