Isaiah 50:6

That persecutions were to be incurred in the performance of his work is already indicated in the last words of Isaiah 50:5; now the speaker declares his voluntary acquiescence in the hardships of his appointed lot.

I gave my back to the smiters In Psalms 129:3 the same figure is applied to the sufferings of Israel as a nation.

to them that plucked off the hair of the beard (cf. Ezra 9:3; Nehemiah 13:25); an extreme insult to an Oriental, to whom the beard is the symbol of dignity (see on ch. Isaiah 7:20).

from shame and spitting Numbers 12:14; Deuteronomy 25:9; Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:30.