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 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 De 21:6, or to a Gentile one, used when murder was committed, for the lustration or expiation of it :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 , 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 "Mt 27:4". De Legat. ad Caium, p. 1034. Vid. Ovid. Fast. l.
2. Anticlidis Redit. l. 74. Triclinius in Ajac. Sophocl. 3. 1. Ubi supra. (De Legat. ad Caium, p. 1034.