Ran, and took a sponge. According to St. John, Jesus had just said, "I thirst." The sponge and the wine were provided for the purpose of ministering some relief to the crucified. Common humanity was not quite extinct even in the executioners and spectators.
Vinegar. The acid wine used by the soldiers, and called posca (see on verse 34). Put it on a reed. St. John calls it a stalk of hyssop; and if this is the caller plant, it, though of a climbing nature, can produce a stick some three or four feet long (see on verse 29).
Gave him to drink ( ἐπο ìτιζεν, imperf., was offering him to drink); perhaps with the idea of helping him to endure till Elijah came. Thus was fulfilled the psalmist's word, "In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" (Psalms 69:21).