Matthew 27:25 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

His blood be on us, and on our children. — The passionate hate of the people leads them, as if remembering the words of their own Law, to invert the prayer — which Pilate’s act had, it may be, brought to their remembrance — “Lay not innocent blood to Thy people of Israel’s charge” (Deuteronomy 21:8), into a defiant imprecation. No more fearful prayer is recorded in the history of mankind; and a natural feeling has led men to see its fulfilment in the subsequent shame and misery that were for centuries the portion of the Jewish people. We have to remember, however, that but a fractional part of the people were present; that some at least of the rulers, such as Joseph of Arimathæa, Nicodemus, and probably Gamaliel, had not consented to the deed of blood (Luke 23:51), and that even in such a case as this it is still true that “the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” (Ezekiel 18:20), except so far as he consents to it, and reproduces it.