I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Ver. 6. I gave my back to the smiters.] Ecce pro impio pietas flagellatur, &c., saith Ambrose. a "Behold the man" (as Pilate once said), "the just" man scourged "for the unjust," 1Pe 3:18 wisdom derided for the fool's sake, truth denied for the liar's sake, mercy afflicted for the cruel man's sake, life dying for the dead man's sake. What are all our sufferings to his? how oft have we been whipped, depiled, despitefully spat upon, &c., for his sake? Oh that I might have the maidenhead of that kind of suffering! said one of the martyrs in the Marian times; for I have not heard that you have yet whipped any. Bishop Bonner afterwards, with his own hands, whipped some, and pulled a great part of their beards off.
I hid not my face from shame and spitting.] That is, from shameful spitting. See Matthew 26:48; Matthew 27:30. See Trapp on " Mat 26:48 " See Trapp on " Mat 27:30 " Discamus etiam hoc loco, saith Oecolampadius; Learn here also what is the character of a true Christian minister, namely, to express Christ to the world as much as may be, viz., by apt utterance, seasonable comforts, divine learning, ready obedience, constant patience, exemplary innocence, discreet zeal, &c.
a De Temp. Ser., 114.