Isaiah 50:6

6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

Isaiah 50:6 Meaning and Commentary

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. The Septuagint renders it, "and my cheeks to blows"; (eiv rapismata) , a word used by the evangelists when they speak of Christ being smitten and stricken with the palms of men's hands, and seem to refer to this passage, ( Mark 14:65 ) ( John 18:22 ) ( Micah 5:1 ) : I hid not my face from shame and spitting;
or from shameful spitting; they spit in his face, and exposed him to shame, and which was a shameful usage of him, and yet he took it patiently, ( Matthew 26:67 ) , these are all instances of great shame and reproach; as what is more reproachful among us, or more exposes a man, than to be stripped of his clothes, receive lashes on his bare back, and that in public? in which ignominious manner Christ was used: or what reckoned more scandalous, than for a man to have his beard plucked by a mob? which used to be done by rude and wanton boys, to such as were accounted idiots, and little better than brutes F24; and nothing is more affronting than to spit in a man's face. So Job was used, which he mentions as a great indignity done to him, ( Job 30:10 ) . With some people, and in some countries, particular places, that were mean and despicable, were appointed for that use particularly to spit in. Hence Aristippus the philosopher, being shown a fine room in a house, beautifully and richly paved, spat in the face of the owner of it; at which he being angry, and resenting it, the philosopher replied, that he had not a fitter place to spit in F25.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 "------------barbam tibi vellunt Lascivi pueri", Horace. "Idcirco stolidam praebet tibi vellere barbara Jupiter?" Persius, Satyr. 2.
F25 Laertius in Vita Aristippi.

Isaiah 50:6 In-Context

4 "The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned.
5 The Lord God has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away.
6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
7 "For the Lord God will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.
8 He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.