What Does Isaiah 50:6 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The root of “gave” also means “set” or “place,” making the back and cheeks the precise places where violence lands.
THE MEANING
You encounter violence here in the body itself: a back is struck, cheeks are plucked, and a face is met with shame and spitting. The speaker does not hide his face, so the humiliation stays visible in the words rather than becoming an abstraction.
THE ROOT
נָתַתִּי
nātattî
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew verb means “I gave” and can also carry the sense of setting or placing. The speaker’s back and cheeks are the direct objects of that giving, so the verse names where the violence lands without turning the violence into a gift.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The same verb family makes the speaker’s bodily exposure an act of giving or placing before the attackers.
mattānāh: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the root’s sense of giving; here, however, what is given over is the speaker’s body to harm, not a benevolent gift.
הִסְתַּרְתִּי
histartî
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide or conceal.
“hid” in this verse is histartî. The Hebrew says, “I did not hide my face,” using a verb from the root of hiding and concealed places. Its negation keeps the face visible in the sentence, with shame and spitting named plainly.
ALSO GROWS
sēter: A hiding place or secret.
סֵתֶר
This branch names what can be concealed; the verse says the speaker’s face is not concealed from humiliation.
mistār: A hiding place or concealed place.
מִסְתָּר
The word’s hiding-place sense sharpens the force of “I hid not”: the face remains exposed rather than tucked away.
THE PATTERN
Contempt becomes concrete when Scripture names what is done to a body.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands,THE THREAD
They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.The same Hebrew root נתן (natan, give or place) appears in both verses. Isaiah names the speaker giving his back and cheeks to violence; Psalm 69 names others giving him gall and vinegar, showing the root’s plain sense of what is put before someone, whether welcome or cruel.
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