Matthew 12:37

Mat 12:37. [580]Ἐκ, κ.τ.λ., by, etc.) Words exhibit the righteousness or unrighteousness, which is in the heart.

[580] Ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως, in the day of judgment) Oh! what a great day!—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 12:37 . ἐκ γὰρ τ . λόγων σου . Judgment by words here taught; in Mat 25:31-46 judgment by the presence or absence of kind deeds. No contradiction, for words are viewed as the index of a good or bad heart: bad positively, like that of the Pharisees, who spoke wickedly; bad negatively, like that of the thoughtless, who speak senselessly. On the teaching of this passage cf. Jas 3 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 37. By thy words thou shalt be justified] That is, the whole tenor of thy conversation will be an evidence for or against thee, in the great day. How many are there who count words for nothing! and yet eternity often depends on them. Lord, put a watch before the door of my lips! is a prayer proper for all men.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(37) By thy words thou shalt be justified.—Stripped of the after-thoughts which have gathered round it in the later controversies of theologians, the word “justified” means, as its position here shows, the opposite of “condemned,” the being “acquitted” either on a special charge or on a general trial of character. In this sense we are able to understand (without entering into the labyrinth of logomachies in which commentators on the Epistles have too often entangled themselves) how it is that men are said to be justified by faith (Rom_3:28 et al.), justified by works (Jas_2:24), justified—as here—by words. All three—faith, works, words—are alike elements of a man’s character, making or showing what he is. Faith, implying trust and therefore love, justifies as the root element of character; “words,” as its most spontaneous manifestation; works, as its more permanent results. Of the words and the works men can in some measure judge, and they are the tests by which a man should judge himself. The faith which lies deeper in the life is known only to God, and it is therefore by faith rather than by works that a man is justified before God, though the faith is no true faith unless it moulds the character and therefore enables the man to pass the other tests also.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. by thy words] i. e. thy words shall be the ground of thy acquittal or condemnation. Character shews itself by words. We often say of a friend, “We know what he will say when he hears this or that.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The queen of the south,.... Called the queen of Sheba, Kg1 10:1. Sheba was one of the sons of Joktan, a grandchild of Arphaxad, who settled in the southern parts of Arabia: hence this queen is called the queen of the south. Sheba is by the Targumist (p) called Zemargad: and this queen the queen of Zemargad: she goes by different names. According to some, her name was Maqueda (q), and, as others say, Balkis (r): a Jewish chronologer (s) tells us, that the queen of Sheba, who is called Nicolaa, of the kingdom of Jaman, or the south, came to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, and gave him much riches: and Josephus (t) calls her Nicaulis, queen of Egypt and Ethiopia; of whom it is here said, that she

shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: the meaning is, as before; that she shall rise from the dead, and stand as a witness against that generation at the day of judgment, and, by her example and practices, which will then be produced, condemn them, or aggravate their condemnation:

for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth; an hyperbolical expression, meaning a great way off from a far country, a very distant part of the world from Jerusalem, , "to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; the very phrase used by the above Jewish (u) writer.

And behold, a greater than Solomon is here; one that was infinitely greater than Solomon was, in everything; so particularly in that, in which he excelled others, and on the account of which the queen of the south came unto him, namely, wisdom: for he is the wisdom of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Jews themselves (w) own, that the king, meaning the Messiah, that shall be raised up of the seed of David, , "shall be a greater master of wisdom", or "wiser than Solomon". Now what an aggravation of the condemnation of the Jews will this be another day, that a Gentile woman, living in a foreign and distant land, should, upon the fame of the wisdom of Solomon, leave her own kingdom and country, and come to Jerusalem, to hear his wise discourses about things natural, civil, and moral; and yet the Jews, who had a greater than Solomon in the midst of them, and had no need to take much pains to come to the sight and hearing of him, yet rejected him as the Messiah, blasphemed his miracles, and despised his ministry; though it was concerned about things of a spiritual and evangelic nature, and the eternal welfare of immortal souls.

(p) In 1 Chron. i. 9. & 2 Chron. ix. 1. (q) Ludolph. Hist. Aethiop. 1. 2. c. 3. & not. in Claud. Confess. sect. 1. (r) Pocock. Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 59. (s) Juchasin, fol. 136. 1. (t) Antiqu. 1. 8. c. 2. (u) Juchasin, fol. 136. 1. (w) Maimon. Hilchot. Teshuba, c. 9. sect. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Ver. 37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified] Our Saviour insists upon this subject because by words they had sinned against the Holy Ghost. A man’s most and worst sins be his words. St Paul, making the anatomy of a natural man, stands more on the organ of speech than all the other members, Rom 3:4; St James saith, "that the tongue is" not a city or country, but "a world of iniquity," Jas 3:6. It can run all the world over, and bite at everybody, when the devil fires it especially. Peraldus (tom. i. 264) reckons up twenty-four different sins of the tongue: he might have made them more. God hath set a double hedge before it, of teeth and lips, to keep it up; he hath also placed it between the head and the heart that it might take counsel of both. Children he will not suffer to speak till they have understanding and wit; and those that are deaf are also dumb, because they cannot hear instruction, nor learn wisdom, that they may speak advisedly.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By thy words thou shalt be justified ... - That is, “words” are the indication of the true principles of the heart; by “words” the heart shall be known, as the tree is by its fruit. If they are true, proper, chaste, instructive, pious, they will prove that the heart is right. If false, envious, malignant, and impious, they will prove that the heart is wrong, and will therefore be among the causes of condemnation. It is not meant that words will be the only thing that will condemn man, but that they will be an important part of the things for which he shall be condemned. See Jam 3:3-12.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified — This explains the preceding verse. By our words, however unimportant, we shall be justified or condemned, according as they are good or evil.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For by (ek) referring to, as it were, the source of the verdictthy words (twn logoi sou); thy, individualizing. Ob-nerve the change from rhma (ver. 36), which might in itself refer to the utterance of a madman, or to a parrot-like quotation. But by here using logoi our Lord shows that he is thinking of utterances of the reason. sentences spoken with a knowledge of their meaning, and forming parts of what are virtually, though not literally, discourses. A rhma may be the merely mechanical utterance of the lips, logoi imply consciousness. The presence of logon in the preceding clause is probably entirely accidental. Thou shalt be justified (Mat_11:19, note) enim aliud sermones sancti quam tides sonans" (Calovius, in Meyer)and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (ver. 7, note).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For by thy words (as well as thy tempers and works) thou shalt then be either acquitted or condemned. - Your words as well as actions shall be produced in evidence for or against you, to prove whether you was a true believer or not. And according to that evidence you will either be acquitted or condemned in the great day.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Observe here, The argument which our Saviour uses to move us to watchfulness over our words: by our words we shall be justified; not meritoriously, but declaratively: good words declare goodness in ourselves, and we shall be declared good to others by our words, if our words and actions do correspond and agree with one another.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue; that is, according to the right or wrong using of the tongue, we may judge and gather whether men are dead or alive as to God; and bound for heaven or hell.

Doubtless justification or condemnation will pass upon men at the day of judgment, according to the state of the person, and frame of the heart; now our words will justify or condemn us in that day, as evidences of the state and frame of the soul. We used to say, such witnesses hanged a man; that is, the evidence they gave cast and condemned him.

O think of this seriously: if words evidence the state of thy soul, what a hellish state must thy soul be in, who hast inured thyself to the language of hell, to oaths and curses; sins whereby the devil cheats men more than by any sins whatsoever! They are damned for them, yet get nothing by them, neither profit nor pleasure.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. By thy words shalt thou be justified, etc. Acquitted or condemned in the day of judgment. To justify is the opposite of to condemn. Those who confess Christ with the mouth (Rom. 10:9) shall be saved; those who deny him will be lost. Words have a weighty influence on our eternal destiny.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

37.] The λόγος being the περίσσευμα τῆς καρδίας, is a specimen of what is within; is the outward utterance of the man, and on this ground will form a subject of strict enquiry in the great day, being a considerable and weighty part of our works.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.