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29 There was a pot full of cheap wine there. So someone put a piece of cloth into the wine. They fixed the cloth to the end of a branch. The branch was from a plant called hyssop. Then they lifted the cloth up to Jesus' mouth. 30 Jesus drank the wine. Then he said, ‘Everything is finished.’ He bent his head down and he let his spirit go.

A soldier puts a spear into Jesus

31 It was the day when the Jews prepare everything for their day of rest. The next day was the day for the Passover meal, so it was a very important day. The Jews did not want the men's bodies to stay on the crosses during that day of rest.[a] So they asked Pilate to tell the soldiers to break the legs of those men.[b] Then they could take the dead bodies down from the crosses.

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Footnotes

  1. 19:31 The Jewish rules said that a dead body must not remain ‘on the tree’ all night.
  2. 19:31 A person who was dying on a cross would use his legs to push his body up. This helped him to breathe, so that he could live for a longer time. If the soldiers broke the person's legs, he would die more quickly.

29 A jar of wine vinegar(A) was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”(B) With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

31 Now it was the day of Preparation,(C) and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses(D) during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.

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