Isaiah 50:6 - Exposition

I gave my back to the smiters (see Isaiah 53:5 , ad fin.; and comp. Matthew 26:67 ; Matthew 27:26 ; John 19:1 ). My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair . This is a detail not historically recorded by the evangelists; but it may have had a literal fulfilment. Plucking off the hair was not unknown to the Jews as a punishment (see Nehemiah 13:25 ). I hid not my face from shame and spitting (see Matthew 26:67 ; Matthew 27:30 ). Spitting in the East marked at once contempt and abhorrence. It is a practice which continues to the present day.