Messiah UPDATE

Er...

I reckon I've listened to Handel's Messiah a good thousand times now, and have long since grown comfortable with such pseudo-kinky humdingers as

"All we like sheep..."

and

"He gave his back to the smiters..."

What I hadn't picked up, though (and here I blame the impeccable diction in Harry Christophers' ace 2008 recording of the work) was the next line in that movement:

"He gave his back to the smiters... and his cheeks to them that pluckéd off the hair."

Which is just plain weird.