Handel-messiah-23-he-was-despised - Classical Music - 12.17 - Handel's Messiah – Sacrificial Mission Of The Messiah No.23 "He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). "He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; he hid not his face from shame and spitting" (Isaiah 50:6).