And they spit upon him - This was a token of the deepest contempt and insult.
See the notes at Matthew 26:67.
And took the reed - The cane, probably so large as to inflict a heavy blow.
And smote him on the head - Not merely to injure him by the force of the blow, but to press the "thorns" into his head, and thus to add cruelty to insult.

And they spit upon him - "Let us pay our adoration," says the same pious writer, "and humble ourselves in silence at the sight of a spectacle which faith alone renders credible, and which our senses would hardly endure. Jesus Christ, in this condition, preaches to the kings of the earth this truth - that their scepters are but reeds, with which themselves shall be smitten, bruised, and crushed at his tribunal, if they do not use them here to the advancement of his kingdom."

And they spit upon him,.... The Syriac and Persic versions add, "upon his face", which he did not hide from spitting; see Isaiah 1:6, and so what with sweat, by being hurried from place to place, and with blood trickling down from his temples, scratched with thorns, and with the spittle of these filthy soldiers, his visage was more marred than any man's, and his form than the sons of men, Isaiah 52:14.
And took the reed, or "cane", which was put into his right hand,
and smote him on the head; whereby they drove the sharp points of the thorns into it, which must give him inexpressible pain and torture.

They spat on him. In order to show still greater contempt. Brutal as these heathen soldiers were, they were no more so than the Jewish Sanhedrim had been.