When Pilate saw he could prevail nothing
That it was to no purpose to talk to them, and in favour of Jesus; he saw they were determined upon his crucifixion, and that nothing else would satisfy them:
but that rather a tumult was made;
there was an uproar among the people, and he might fear the consequences of it, should he not grant their request; otherwise, as Philo the F16 Jew says of him, he was, (thn fusin akamphv kai meta tou anyadouv ameiliktov) , "naturally inflexible, rigid, and self-willed": but he knew the temper of these people, and had had experience of their resoluteness, when they were determined on any thing; as in the case of his introducing the golden shields into the holy city, of which the same author speaks: and was then obliged, though sore against his will, as now, to yield unto them:
He took water, and washed his hands before the multitude;
either in conformity to a custom among the Jews, whereby they testified their innocence as to the commission of murder; see ( Deuteronomy 21:6 Deuteronomy 21:7 ) ( Psalms 26:6 ) , or to a Gentile one, used when murder was committed, for the lustration or expiation of it F17:
saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person;
though this did not clear him from all guilt in this matter: he ought to have acted the part of an upright judge, and not have yielded to the unrighteous requests of the people; he ought not to have scourged an innocent man, and much less have condemned and delivered him to be crucified, as he did; though in this he bore a testimony to the innocence of Christ, and which is somewhat remarkable in him; who was, as Philo says F18, notoriously guilty of receiving bribes, of injuries, rapine, and frequent murders of persons uncondemned:
see ye [to it];
you must be answerable for this action, and all the consequences of it. The Syriac version renders it, "you have known"; and the Persic version, "you know": and the Arabic version, "you know better"; (See Gill on Matthew 27:4).