Matthew 27:30

30 And they spat on him [and] took the reed and repeatedly struck [him] on his head.

Matthew 27:30 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 27:30

And they spit upon him
The Syriac and Persic versions add, "upon his face", which he did not hide from spitting; see ( Isaiah 1:6 ) , and so what with sweat, by being hurried from place to place, and with blood trickling down from his temples, scratched with thorns, and with the spittle of these filthy soldiers, his visage was more marred than any man's, and his form than the sons of men, ( Isaiah 52:14 ) .

And took the reed,
or "cane", which was put into his right hand,

and smote him on the head;
whereby they drove the sharp points of the thorns into it, which must give him inexpressible pain and torture.

Matthew 27:30 In-Context

28 And they stripped him [and] put a scarlet military cloak around him,

29 and weaving a crown of thorns, they put [it] on his head, and [put] a reed in his right hand. And kneeling down before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!"

30 And they spat on him [and] took the reed and repeatedly struck [him] on his head.

31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the military cloak and put his [own] clothes on him, and led him away in order to crucify [him].

32 And [as they] were going out, they found a man of Cyrene {named} Simon. They forced this man to carry his cross.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[and]" is supplied because the previous participle ("spat") has been translated as a finite verb
• [b]. The imperfect tense has been translated as iterative here ("repeatedly struck")
• [c]. *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation