Matthew 9:36

Mat_9:36

But when He saw the multitudes.

Christs look of sympathy

I. What he saw.

1. Not reasons for admiration.

2. Not grounds for discouragement.

3. But a call for pity.

II. The condition of the people.

1. Faint.

2. Scattered.

3. Shepherdless.

III. His compassion enlisted for their succour.

1. The grace of the Father.

2. His own prevailing intercession.

3. The gifts of the Spirit.

4. The service of His messengers. (H. A. Cornell.)

Compassion for souls

I. The sight which presented itself to our Lord. Christ was moved with the sight of physical suffering; here it was spiritual disease.

1. The number of the sheep.

2. The condition of the sheep.

3. The reason of their condition-their having no shepherd.

II. The effect which this sight had upon our Lord. The fact that our Lord felt compassion when He saw the fearful sight. Unless there is a feeling of compassion there will be no spiritual effort. (E. Bayley, M. A.)

Partied views of humanity

There are men who take partial views and come to partial and, therefore, erroneous conclusions about everything. There are those who seat themselves within some vernal enclosure or summer paradise, and say, with a foolish chuckle, that the earth is not so bad a place after all. They see a bed of blooming flowers, fiery-hued or gentle-tinted, and they hear birds in the branches twittering, trilling, singing, and making melody in their hearts, and they say the earth is a very lovely place, notwithstanding all the croakers say to the contrary. Now observe how they confound the partial term with the larger word. They see a garden and then speak of the earth, they see a bed of geraniums and then speak of the globe; there is no balance in their sentences, their words do not correspond with one another at both ends of their declarations. The garden is beautiful, the flowers are lovely beyond all that it is possible for the colouring of human heart fully to represent. The painter paints the form, but he cannot touch the fragrance. We admire their poetical sympathy within given limits, but go beyond the garden wall, go into the rough streets, go into the desolate places, take in the wilderness, throw the line around the entirety, bring the whole elements within your purview, and then say what it is. The angel sees it, and says, Mourning and lamentation and woe. Jesus sees it, and cannot cease His prayer; Jesus looks upon it, and is moved with compassion. (Dr. Parker.)

A Christ-like judgment of men

I. Christ teaching us how to look at men.

II. Christ teaching us how to peel at such a sight.

III. Christ teaching us what to do with the emotion.

1. Personal work.

2. Prayer.

3. Help. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

A portrait of Jesus

His compassion manifested in-

I. The great transactions of His life.

II. The foresights of compassion.

1. The Bible for our guidance.

2. The minister to speak to man.

3. The Holy Spirit to comfort.

4. The mercy-seat as our resort.

5. The promises as our food.

6. The ordinances.

III. Our personal recollections prove this compassion.

1. He tempered our convictions with intervals of hope.

2. He has moderated our afflictions.

3. He has put us to graduated tasks. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Emotion leading to action

You cannot indulge in the luxury of feeling (if you will excuse a Lancashire metaphor), that you do not use to drive your spindles, without doing yourselves harm; it is never intended to be blown off as waste steam and allowed to vanish into the air. It is meant to be conserved and guided, and to have something done with it. Therefore, do not get into the habit of indulging in that sentimental contemplation of the missionaries and heathenism. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Compassion sustains service

Nothing but compassion will carry you through any tragedy in life; you cannot go through it merely for its own sake. The hireling will fall asleep over the sick child, but the mother will drive sleep away from her dwelling-place till she has rescued her little one from the power of the enemy, if it be within the scope of her endurance and skill to win so great a triumph. Her compassion keeps her awake, her love makes the night as the day, her pity stops the clock, so that she takes no note of time. Every other emotion grows dumb; wonder must sometimes close its eyes, admiration palls upon itself, sates its appetite and dies of the satiety, but compassion grows by what it feeds on, and is of the very nature of the love of God. He grows in the development of his compassion; he will-succeed yet. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_9:36-38

Preparing for change.—We seem here to be like men arriving at a new stage on their journey. At such a juncture they naturally ask, on the one hand, how far they have reached; and, on the other, what is required by them more. With regard to our Saviour’s ministry, we shall find that both these questions are answered for us in the passage before us.

I. The nature of the position arrived at.—This was a position in which, on the one hand, there were great evidences of success. Twice before we have had special mention of such evidences. One (Mat_4:25) just before the delivery of the Sermon on the Mount. One (Mat_8:18) before leaving Capernaum for “the other side.” So also here, as it were, we see the Saviour stirred by like evidence of success on seeing the “multitudes” at His feet. To a feeling heart it is always affecting to see a vast assemblage of souls. Still more to know that they have assembled together to hear what can be said to them by that heart. Much must have been done by it already, very much, before they were brought to that point. A position, on the other hand, in which there were still greater evidences of necessity. For what, in fact, and as they were were these vast multitudes like? They were like those who had already received very much; but who also, on that very account, were in need of still more. They were like unnumbered “sheep,” who, just because of their numbers, needed tending the more. They were like plenteous crops which, because of their plenteousness, needed reaping the more. If it was affecting, therefore, to see their abundance, it was still more so to see their condition. So many sheep waiting to be tended, and no one to do it! So many harvests asking to be reaped, and no one to reply! No one at any rate, in such way as that Master-shepherd desired; and desired so because only His wisdom knew as well the depth as the reality of their need. Oh! for more and better means of following up this success!

II. The nature of the requirements thus brought into view.—These are shown by reverting again to the nature of the comparisons which are here employed by our Lord. To what, e.g. are we pointed, on the one hand, by the figure of “sheep?” What do “sheep” need but to be shepherded? To be under pastoral care? Also to be so in such degree as both their condition and their numbers demand? Being so many, and being so exposed, and being also so recently “found” and acquired, as it were, and not having as yet gone very much farther—if all so far—as to “know the voice” of their shepherd, they required attention, so to speak, at every moment and side. Instead of which, as things were, the Saviour beheld them “fainting and scattered abroad”—fainting (so some) because “fleeced” (?)—deprived of support rather than supplied with it—scattered from the fold, not gathered into it. Under that aspect the great need was that of “pastors and teachers” (Eph_4:11) to labour under the Saviour. On the other side what are we pointed to by the similitude of the “harvest”? Is it not to the fact that amongst those vast multitudes gathered together before the Saviour (representatives of others beside) there were very many who could hardly yet be rightly described as His “sheep.” They were rather ready to hear than hearers already; disciples rather in desire than in attainments; souls that “had need” of being made acquainted with the first principles of the kingdom of God (Heb_5:12). Little was possessed by such but the desire to possess. If they were to be taught, there must be some to teach them. If they were to be “gathered in,” there must be those to do it. Under this head, therefore, the great need was that of “evangelists” and preachers of Christ—reapers rather than shepherds—the men of the sickle rather than those of the crook.

This being so, what ought to be done? What ought first to be done? The close of this passage teaches to pray. “Pray ye, therefore”—because of these things—before anything else. This is the first lesson taught by this Scripture. In all your necessities begin with prayer. Too often too many of us only bring it in last. “There is nothing left but to pray”—we sometimes hear said of the sick. “I am sure I have tried all and every one. I see nothing now but to pray.” Observe here, therefore, how exactly different was the way of our Lord. Whether, on the one hand, with His counsel, in teaching His disciples. Whether, on the other hand, with Himself as we find at this very time from Luk_6:12-13. Why go to prayer first? Because it takes us at once to the right quarters. Who so certain to know about the harvest and all its needs as the Lord of the harvest? Who so likely to be interested in them? Who so able to help? Who so able, especially in this case where the need of help is extreme; where labourers have to be even “thrust forth” (Mat_9:38) to this work? Who so able to do this as He who sent Saul of Tarsus into His harvest? Also, because it is not only worse than idle to begin anywhere else; but self-sufficient and presumptuous and distrustful also in an equal degree.

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat_9:36-38. Motives to missionary work.—The two emblems Christ uses present most strikingly the great motives to missionary work.

I. Compassion for the lost.

II. Zeal for the Divine glory.—“Sheep having no shepherd”—this appeals to our human sympathies; the Lord of the harvest deprived of His harvest for want of labourers to gather it in—this appeals to our love and loyalty to God.—J. M. Gibson, D.D.

Compassion for the multitude.—Under two aspects the state of the people appeared to the Saviour’s eye and affected His heart.

I. As scattered sheep having no shepherd.—In all antiquity, both heathen and Hebrew, it was usual to speak of nations as flocks and their rulers as shepherds. A people without instruction, guidance, and motive, were sheep without a shepherd. The Old Testament uses this mode of speech frequently. In the time of our Saviour’s sojourn in Galilee the rulers, priests, and scribes were bound to shepherd the people, to watch over them, and feed them with knowledge, disclosing to them the love of the Divine Shepherd of Israel. But these men went about to establish their own righteousness, exalting and pleasing themselves, while the people were perishing for lack of knowledge.

1. The eye of Christ, while fixed on men’s outward condition, is fastened most earnestly on their moral and spiritual condition.—So should ours be.

2. The Lord spoke of the fault of the shepherds rather than of the sheep.—i.e. He will reckon most strictly with men that have positions of trust and opportunities of usefulness.

3. The cure of moral and spiritual neglect must be gradual.—Why did not the Son of God, at one stroke, with Divine power, remedy all that was wrong? Conversions may be in the twinkling of an eye, but much has to be done and taught before, and much after.

II. As a plenteous harvest spoiling for want of reapers.

1. Labourers are needed.

2. The Spirit of God blesses the pains we take to bring our instruments to the best efficiency.

3. But men are demanded sent by the Lord of the harvest Himself.—How to get them is clearly indicated in Mat_9:38. There is another array of reapers coming for whom you do not need to pray (Mat_13:41).—Donald Fraser, D.D.

Mat_9:36. Compassion for the multitude.—This compassion is:—

I. The incident of brotherhood.—The one great mark of the humanity of Jesus is the perfect naturalness of the feeling which it expresses the moment the scene calls it forth. Nothing is ever arranged for. Nothing is ever got up. As He goes, that happens which sets the fountain playing. That is Christ’s brotherhood, and Christ’s brotherhood is not a thing of yesterday, it is to-day too. He is what He was. “I am He that liveth and was dead.” Wherever there is the Christ-spirit there is the sense of kinship with the struggling, with the weary, with the restless, with the ever moving multitudes.

II. The mainspring of action.—Human action, like human life, is very complex. Motives are various. There is a man who does kind things now and again. He does generous things even now and again, but it is by a sort of fluke. He is, perhaps, religious in a sense, but he is essentially selfish. The mainspring is self. And the multitudes—why, they are only to him what he can get out of them! His interest does not really travel beyond that. There is another man. Occasionally he does a hard thing; occasionally he speaks a harsh word and his judgment is harsh, but it is a mistake. In the core of his being he is a really generous-souled man. And yet, because Christ loved the multitudes so well, He never pandered to them. That is what a great many people are doing in this day. It is very very difficult to find persons who will speak honestly and deal faithfully and truly with the multitudes.

III. The revelation of God.—He who is thus moved is the very brightness of the Father’s glory. All love in us is a reflection of a love that is greater than ours. But Christ is more than a reflection; He is the exact likeness. He is God in our very flesh. What you behold in Him is the sign of that which God eternal is.—J. M. Lang, D.D.

Multitudes.—A right view of a multitude cannot but deeply affect a right-hearted man.

1. Diversified histories.

2. Conflicting emotions.

3. Opposite relations to God and truth.

4. Different destinies.—J. Parker, D.D.

Pity.—Balzac, in “The Alchemist,” in depicting an ideally perfect love, makes the object of it deformed, thus profoundly indicating that love is not at its height and perfection without the element of pity (T. T. Munger). Nothing but the infinite Pity is sufficient for the infinite pathos of human life.—Shorthouse’s “John Inglesant.”

Mat_9:37-38. The abundance of the harvest and the scarcity of the labourers.

—

I. The harvest.

II. The labourers.

III. The Saviour’s plan for increasing the number of the labourers.—

1. Where persons offer this prayer in sincerity, they make a solemn acknowledgment that God must do all the work.

2. They mean that, when God raises up men, they will furnish the means to convey them to the heathen, and support them when they get there.

3. When young men utter this prayer, they mean that, if it is the will of God, they are ready to become labourers.

4. When Christian parents offer up this prayer they express their willingness that their children should go.—Richard Knill.

Mat_9:38. The Lord of the harvest.—

I. The seed is His.

II. The field is His.

III. The harvest is His.—J. P. Lange, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matthew

A CHRISTLIKE JUDGMENT OF MEN

Mat 9:36.

In the course of our Lord’s wandering life of teaching and healing, there had naturally gathered around Him a large number of persons who followed Him from place to place, and we have here cast into a symbol the impression produced upon Him by their outward condition. That is to say, He sees them lying there weary, and footsore, and travel-stained. They have flung themselves down by the wayside. There is no leader or guide, no Joshua or director to order their march; they are a worn-out, tired, unregulated mob, and the sight smites upon His eye, and it smites upon His heart. He says to Himself, if I may venture to put words into His lips, ‘There are a worse weariness, and a worse wandering, and a worse anarchy, and a worse disorder afflicting men than that poor mob of tired pedestrians shows.’ Matthew, who was always fond of showing the links and connections between the Old Testament and the New, casts our Lord’s impression of what He then saw into language borrowed from the prophecy of Ezekiel {Eze 34:12}, which tells of a flock that is scattered in a dark and cloudy day, that is broken, and torn, and driven away. I venture to see in the text three points: {1} Christ teaching us how to look at men; {2} Christ teaching us how to feel at such a sight; and {3} Christ teaching us what to do with the feeling. ‘When He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion, because they fainted and were scattered abroad.’ ‘Then He said unto His disciples, the harvest is plenteous, the labourers are few, pray ye the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers unto the harvest.’ And then there follows, ‘And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out.’ There are, then, these three points;-just a word or two about each of them.

I. Here we have our Lord teaching us how to look at men.

The picture of my text is, of course, in its broad outlines, very clear and intelligible, but there may be a little difficulty as to the precise force of the language. The obscurity of it is in some degree reflected in the margin of our Bibles; so, perhaps, you will permit one word of an expository nature. The description of the flock, ‘Because they fainted and were scattered abroad,’ is couched in the original in a couple of words, one of which means properly ‘torn’ or ‘fainting,’ according as one or other of two readings of the text is adopted, and the other means ‘lying down.’ Now, the former of these gives a very pathetic picture if we apply it to the individuals that made up the flock. We have then the image of the poor sheep that has lost its way, struggling through briars and thorns, getting out of them with its fleece all torn and hanging in strips dangling at its heels, or of it as lacerated by the beasts of the field to whom it is a prey. If we take the metaphor, as seems more probably to be intended, as applying not so much to the individuals as to the flock, then it comes to mean ‘torn asunder,’ ‘thrown apart,’ and gives us the notion of anarchic confusion into which the flock comes if there be no shepherd to lead it. Then the other word, which our Bible translates ‘were scattered abroad,’ seems to mean more properly ‘lying down,’ and it gives the idea of the poor, wearied creature, after all its struggles and wanderings, utterly beaten and dejected, having lost its way, at its wits’ end and resourceless, flinging itself down there in despair, and panting its timid life out anywhere where it finds itself. So it comes to be a picture of the utter weariness and hopelessness of all men’s efforts apart from that Guide and Shepherd, who alone can lead them in the way. And then both of these miserable states, the laceration if you take the one explanation, the disintegration and casting apart if you take the other, the weariness and exhaustion, are traced to their source, they are ‘as sheep having no shepherd.’ He has gone, and so all this comes. With this explanation we may take the points of view that are thus suggested simply as they lie before us.

First of all, notice how here, as always to Jesus Christ, the outward was nothing, except as a symbol and manifestation of the inward; how the thing that He saw in a man was not the external accidents of circumstance or position, for His true, clear gaze and His loving, wise heart went straight to the essence of the matter, and dealt with the man not according to what he might happen to be in the categories of earth, but to what he was in the categories of heaven. All the same to Him whether it was some poor harlot, or a rabbi; all the same to Him whether it was Pilate on the judgment-seat, or the penitent thief hanging at His side. These gauds and shows were nothing; sheer away He cut them all, and went down to the hidden heart of the man, and He allocated and ranged them according to that. Christian men and women, do you try to do the same thing, and to get rid of all these superficial veils and curtains with which we drape ourselves and attitudinise in the world, and to see men as Christ saw them, both in regard to your judgment of them, and in regard to your judgment of yourselves? ‘I am a scholar and a wise man; a great thinker; a rich merchant; a man of rising importance and influence.’ Very well; what does that matter? ‘I am ignorant or a pauper’; be it so. Let us get below all that. The one question worth asking and worth answering is, ‘How am I affected towards Him?’ There are many temporary and local principles of arrangement and order among men; but they will all vanish some day, and there will be one regulating and arranging principle, and it is this: ‘Do I love God in Jesus Christ, or do I not?’ Oh! for myself, for yourself, and for all our outlook towards others, let us not forget that the inmost, deepest, hidden man of the heart is the man, and that all else is naught, and that its whole character is absolutely determined by its relation to Jesus Christ.

But this is somewhat aside from my main purpose, which is rather briefly to expand the various phases which, as I have already suggested, are included in such an emblem. The first of them is this: Try to think for yourselves of the condition of humanity as apart from Christ-shepherdless. That old metaphor of a shepherd which comes out of the Old Testament is there sometimes used to indicate a prophet, and sometimes to indicate a king. I suppose we may put both of these uses together, as far as our present purposes are concerned; and this is what I want to insist upon. I dare say some people here will think it is very old-fashioned, very narrow in these broad and liberal days; but what I would say is this, that unless Jesus Christ is both Guide and Teacher, we have neither guide nor teacher but are shepherdless without Him. There are plenty of rulers. There was no lack of other authority in the days of His flesh. There were crowds of rabbis, guides, and directors. The life of the nation was throttled by the authorities that had planted themselves upon its back, and yet Christ saw that there were none of those who were fit for the work, or afforded the adequate guidance. And so it is, now and always. There have been hosts of men who have sought to impose their authority upon an era. Where is there one that has swayed passion, that has ruled hearts, that has impressed his own image on the will, that has made obedience an honour, and absolute, abject devotion to his command a very patent of nobility? Here, and nowhere beside. Besides that Christ there is no ruler amongst men who can come to them and say to his servant, ‘Go,’ and he goeth, and to this man, ‘Do this,’ and he doeth it. Obedience to any besides is treason against the dignity of our own nature; disobedience to Him is both treason against our nature and blasphemy against God. ‘Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ, Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.’ There is the deepest reason for His rule.

And as for ‘teacher,’ whom are we to put up beside Him? Is it to be these dim figures of religious reformers that are gliding, ghostlike, to their doom, being wrapped round and round about by ever thicker and thicker folds of the inevitable oblivion that swallows all that is human? Brethren, by common consent it is Christ or nobody. Aaron dies upon Hor; Moses dies upon Pisgah; the teachers, the leaders, the guides, the under-shepherds, pass away one by one; and if this Christ be but a Man and a Teacher, He too will pass away. Shall I be thought very blind to the signs of the times if I say that I see no sign of His dominion being exhausted, of His influence being diminished, of His guidance being capable of being dispensed with? You may say, ‘Oh, we do not want any teacher or guide; we do not want a shepherd.’ I am not going to enter upon that question now at all, except just to say this, that the instincts of humanity rise up in contradiction, as it seems to me, of that cold and cheerless creed, and that we have this fact staring us in the face, that men are made capable of a devotion and submission the most passionate, the most absolute, the most mighty force in their lives, to human guides and ensamples, and that it is all wasted unless there be somewhere a Man, our Brother, who shall come to us and say, ‘All that ever went before Me are thieves and robbers; I am the Good Shepherd; follow Me, and ye shall not walk in darkness,’ ‘He saw the multitudes as sheep having no shepherd.’

Still further, take that other phase of the metaphor which, as I suggested, the text includes, namely, the idea of disintegration, the rending apart of social ties and union, unless there be the centre of unity in the shepherd of the flock. ‘I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,’ says the old prophecy. Of course, for what is there to hold them together unless it be their guide and their director? So we are brought face to face with this plain prosaic rendering of the metaphor-that but for the centre of unity provided for mankind in the person and work of Jesus Christ, there is no satisfaction of the deep hunger for unity and society with which in that case God would have cursed mankind. For whilst there are many other bonds most true, most blessed, God-given, and mighty, such as that of the sacred unity of the family, and that of the nation and many others of which we need not speak, yet all these are constantly being disintegrated by the unresting waves of that gnawing sea of selfishness, if I may so say, which, like the waters upon our eastern coasts, eats and eats for ever at the base of the cliffs, so that society in all its forms, whether it be built upon identity of opinion, which is perhaps the shabbiest bond of all, or whether it be built upon purposes of mutual action, which is a great deal better, or whether it be built upon hatred of other people, which is the modern form of patriotism, or whether it be built upon the domestic affections, which are the purest and highest of all-all the other bonds of society, such as creeds, schools, nations, associations, leagues, families, denominations, all go sooner or later. The base is eaten out of them, because every man that belongs to them has in him that tyrannous, dominant self, which is ever seeking to assert its own supremacy. Here is Babel, with its half-finished tower, built on slime; and there is Pentecost, with its great Spirit; here is the confusion, there is the unifying; here the disintegration, there the power that draws them all together. ‘They were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd,’ and one looks out over the world and sees great tracts of country and long dismal generations of time, in which the very thought of unity and charity and human bonds knitting men together has faded from the consciousness of the race, and then one turns to blessed, sweet, simple words that say, ‘there shall be one flock and one shepherd,’ and ‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ Drawing thus, He will draw them into the eternal, mighty bond of union that shall never be broken, and is all the more precious and all the more true because it is not a unity like the vulgar unities that express themselves in external associations. You know, of course or if you do not know it will be a good thing that you should know, that that verse in John’s Gospel which I have quoted has been terribly mangled by a little slip of our translators. Christ said, ‘Other sheep I must bring which are not of this fold,’ the fold being the external unity of the Jewish church-an enclosure made of hurdles that you can stick in the ground. ‘I shall bring them,’ says He, ‘and there shall be one’-{not, as our Bible says, ‘fold,’-but something far better}-’there shall be one flock’; which becomes a unity not by wattling round about it on the outside, but by a shepherd standing in the middle. ‘There shall be one flock and one shepherd’-a unity which is neither the destruction of the variety of the churches, nor the crushing of men, nationalities, and types of character all down into one dead level beneath the heel of a conqueror, but the unity which subsists in the many operations of the one Spirit, and is expressed by all the forms of the one inspired grace.

Then passing by altogether the other idea which I said was only doubtfully suggested by the words-namely, that of laceration and wounding-let me say a word about the last of the aspects of humanity when Christless, which is set forth in this text, and that is, the dejected weariness arising from the fruitless wanderings wherewith men are cursed. As a verse in the Book of Proverbs puts it, ‘The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because they know not how to go to the city.’ Putting aside the metaphor, the plain truth which it embodies is just this, that there is in all men’s souls a deep longing after peace and rest, after goodness and beauty and truth, and that all the strenuous efforts to satisfy these longings, either by social reforms or by individual culture and discipline, are pathetically vain and profitless, because there is none to guide them. The sheep go wandering in any direction, and with no goal; and wherever one has jumped, a dozen others will go after him, and so they are wearied out long before the day’s journey is ended, and they never reach the goal. Put that into less vivid, and, therefore, as people generally suppose, more accurate, language, and it is a statement of the universal law of human history that, after any epoch of great aspirations and strong excitement of the noblest parts of human nature, there has always come a reaction of corruption and a collapse from weariness. What did ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ end in? A guillotine. What do all similar epochs end in, when they do not take the Christ to march ahead of them? An utter disgust and disillusion, and a despair of all progress. That is why wild revolutionists in their youth are always obstinate Conservatives in their old age. The wandering sheep are footsore, and they fling themselves down by the wayside. That is why heathenism presents to us the aspect that it does. There is nothing about it that seems to me more tragical than the weary languor that besets it. Do you ever think of the depth of pathetic, tragic meaning that there is in that verse in one of the Psalms, ‘Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death’? There they sit, because there is no hope in rising and moving. They would have to grope if they arose, and so with folded hands they sit like the Buddha, which one great section of heathenism has taken as being the true emblem and ideal of the noblest life. Absolute passivity lays hold upon them all-torpor, stagnation, no dream of advance or progress. The sheep are dejected, despairing, anarchic, disintegrated, lacerated, guideless, and shepherdless-away from Christ. So He thought them. God give you and me grace, dear brethren, to see, as Christ saw, the condition of humanity and our own apart from Him.

II. And now let me say a word in the next place as to the second movement of His mind and heart here. He teaches us not only how to think of men, but how that sight should touch us.

‘He was moved with compassion on them when He saw the multitude’-with the eye of a god, I was going to say, and the heart of a man. Pity belongs to the idea of divinity; compassion belongs to the idea of divinity incarnate; and the motion that passed across His heart is the motion that I would seek may pass, with its sweet and healing breath, across yours and mine. The right emotion for a Christian looking on the Christless crowds is pity, not aversion; pity, not anger; pity, not curiosity; pity, not indifference. How many of us walk the streets of the towns in which our lot is cast, and never know one touch of that emotion, when we look at these people here in England torn, and anarchic, and wearied, and shepherdless, within sound of our psalm-singing in our chapels? Why, on any Sunday there are thousands of men and women standing about the streets who, we may be sure, have not seen the inside of a church or a chapel since they were married, and that not one in five hundred of all the good people that are going with their prayer-books and hymn-books to church and chapel ever think anything about them as they pass them by; and some of them, perhaps, if they come to any especially disreputable one, will gather up their skirts and keep on the safe side of the pavement, and there an end of it. But Jesus Christ had no aversions. His white purity was a great deal nearer to the blackness of the woman that was a sinner, than was the leprous whiteness of the whited sepulchre of the self-righteous Pharisee. He had neither aversion, nor anger, nor indifference.

And, if I might venture to touch upon another matter, compassion and not curiosity is an especial lesson for the day to the more thoughtful and cultivated amongst our congregations. I have just said that the appropriate Christian feeling in contemplating the state of the sheep without the Shepherd is compassion, not curiosity. That reminder is particularly needful in view of the prominence to-day of investigations into the new science of Comparative Religion. I speak with most unfeigned respect of it and of its teachers, and gratefully hail the wonderful light that it is casting upon ideas underlying the strange and often savage and obscene rites of heathenism; but it has a side of danger in it against which I would warn you all, especially young, reading men and women. The time has not yet come when we can afford to let such investigations be our principal occupation in the face of heathenism. If idolatry was dead we could afford to do that, but it is alive-the more’s the pity; and it is not only a curious instance of the workings of man’s intelligence, and a great apocalypse of earlier stages of society, but, besides that, it is a lie that is deceiving and damning our brethren, and we have got to kill it first and dissect it afterwards. So I say, do not only think of heathenism in its various forms as a subject for speculation and analysis; as much as you like of that, only do not let it drive out the other thing, and after you have tried to understand it, then come back to my text, ‘He was moved with compassion.’ And so pity, and neither anger, nor aversion, nor curiosity, nor indifference is what I urge as the Christian emotion.

III. Let us take this text as teaching us how Christ would have us act, after such emotion built and based upon such a look.

It is perfectly legitimate, although it is by no means the highest motive, to appeal to feeling as a stimulus to action. We have a right to base our urging of Christian men and women to missionary work either at home or abroad, upon the ground of the condition of the men to whom the Gospel has to be carried. I know that if taken alone it is a very inadequate motive. I believe that any failure that may be manifest in the interest of Christian people in missionary work is largely traceable to the blunder we have made in dwelling on superficial motives more than we ought to have done, in proportion to the degree in which we have dwelt on the deepest. We have been gathering the surface-water instead of going right down to the green sand, to which the artesian well must be sunk if the stream is to come up without pumping or wasting. So I say that a deeper reason than the sorrow and darkness of the heathen is-’the love of Christ constraineth me’; but yet the first is a legitimate one. Only remember this, that Bishop Butler taught us long ago, that if you excite emotions which are intended to lead to action, and the action does not follow, the excitation of the emotion without its appropriate action makes the heart a great deal harder than it was before. That is why it is playing with edged tools to speak so much to our Christian audiences, as we sometimes hear done, about the condition of the heathen as a stimulus to missionary work. If a man does not respond and do something, some crust of callousness and coldness comes over his own heart. You cannot indulge in the luxury of emotion which you do not use to drive your spindles, without doing yourselves harm. It is never intended to be blown off as waste steam and allowed to vanish into the air. It is meant to be conserved and guided, and to have something done with it. Therefore beware of sentimental contemplation of the sad condition of the shepherdless sheep which does not move you to do anything to help them.

One word more. Take my text as a guide to the form of action into which we are to cast the emotions that should spring from this gaze upon the world. I will only name three points. Christ opened His mouth and spake to them, and taught them many things; Christ said to His disciples, ‘Pray ye the Lord of the harvest’; and Christ sent out His apostles to preach the Kingdom. These three things in their bearing upon us are-personal work, prayer, help to send forth Christ’s messengers. There is nothing like personal work for making a man understand and feel the miseries of his fellows. Christian men and women, it is your first business everywhere to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, and no prayers and no subscriptions absolve you from that. In this army a man cannot buy himself off and send in a substitute at the cost of an annual guinea. If Christ sent the apostles, do you hold up the hands of the apostles’ successors, and so by God’s grace you and I may help on the coming of that blessed day when there shall be one flock and one Shepherd, and when ‘the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne’-for the Shepherd is Himself a lamb-’shall feed them and lead them, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 9

The King's Ambassadors - Mat_9:36-38; Mat_10:1-42

I - THE MISSION. {Mat_9:36-38 - Mat_10:1-5}

So far the King Himself has done all the work of the kingdom. But it has grown upon Him, so that He can no longer do it without assistance; He must therefore provide Himself with deputies. His doing so will be the first step in the organisation of His world-wide kingdom. He reveals, however, no plan laid down to meet all possible emergencies. It is enough to provide for necessities as they develop themselves. He constructs no mechanism beforehand into the different parts of which life may be afterwards guided or forced; His only care is about the life, knowing well that if only this be full and strong, the appropriate organization will be ready when it is needed.

In conformity with this principle He does not make His arrangements, necessary as they manifestly are, without first providing that they shall not be mechanical, but vital, that they shall originate, not as a contrivance of mind, but as an outflow of soul. First, we are informed by the Evangelist that the soul of the Master Himself was stirred with compassion as He looked upon the multitude, and thought how much they needed in the way of shepherding, and how little it was possible for them to have. It was no matter of planning for the extension of His kingdom; it was a great yearning over the sheep that were scattered, and torn, {Mat_9:36, Gk. of oldest MSS.} and lost. {Mat_10:6} But it is not enough that the Masters heart should be touched: the disciples also must be moved. So He turns their thoughts in the same direction, urging them to observe how plenteous the harvest, how few the labourers; and therefore to pray that the lack may be speedily supplied. He sets them thinking and praying about it-the only way to lay foundations for that which shall be true and lasting. Let it be observed further, that the two emblems He uses present most strikingly the great motives to missionary work: compassion for the lost, and zeal for the Divine glory. "Sheep having no shepherd,"-this appeals to our human sympathies; the Lord of the harvest deprived of His harvest for want of labourers to gather it in, -this appeals to our love and loyalty to God.

The result of their thought and prayer presently appears; for we read in the next sentence of the setting apart of the twelve disciples to the work. It does not follow, because the narrative is continuous, that the events recorded were; it is probable that an interval elapsed which would be largely spent in prayer, according to the word of the Master.

This is the first mention of the Twelve in this Gospel; but it is evident that the number had been already made up, for they are spoken of as "His twelve disciples." It would appear from the second and third gospels that, immediately before the delivery of the Sermon on the Mount, the Twelve were chosen from the whole number of disciples to be constantly with Him, as witnesses of His works and learners of His doctrine. By this time they had been so far instructed and trained by their companionship with Christ, that they could be safely intrusted with a mission by themselves; accordingly, He for the first time gives them power to do deeds of mercy of the same sort as those which He Himself had been doing, as signs of the kingdom of heaven.

As the apostles have not been mentioned before, their names are appropriately given here. The number "twelve" was no doubt significant, as suggestive of the twelve tribes of Israel; but there was plainly no attempt to have the tribes represented separately. It would seem as if all were Galileans, except one, and that one was Judas Iscariot (i.e., the man of Kerioth, supposed to be a town in Judea). The reason of this almost exclusive choice of Galileans is in all probability to be found in the simple fact that there were none other available. There had been those, in the course of His Judean ministry, who had after a certain fashion believed on Him; but there was not one of them whom He could trust with such work as this. {Joh_2:23-25} It may be thought, indeed, that surely there might have been some better representative-at least, than Judas proved himself to be-of the southern tribes; but why should we think so? We have no reason to suppose that Judas was a traitor at heart when he was chosen. Perhaps there was in him at that time the making of as grand an apostle as the best of them. It was not long, indeed, before the demon in him began to betray itself to the searching glance of the Master {Joh_6:70} but had he only in the power of the Master he followed, cast that demon out of his own heart, as possibly enough he may have helped in this very mission to cast demons out of others, all would have been well. The subsequent fall of the traitor does not by any means show that Christ now made a mistaken choice; it only shows that the highest privileges and opportunities may, by the tolerance of sin in the heart, be not only all in vain, but may lead to a condemnation and ruin more terrible by far than would have been possible without them.

Not only was the apostolate Galilean, - it was plebeian, and that without a solitary exception. It seems to include not a single person of recognised rank or position. Again, we believe that this is to be accounted for by the simple fact that there were none of these available. We cannot suppose that if there had been a disciple like Paul in the ranks, the Master would have hesitated to give him a place in the sacred college; but, seeing there was none, He would not go out of His way to secure a representative of the learned or the great. Had Nicodemus been bold enough to come out decidedly on the Lords side, or had Joseph of Arimathea developed earlier that splendid courage which he showed when the Masters work on earth was done, we can scarcely doubt that their names might have been included in the roll. But there is no such name; and now, as we look back, was it not better so? Otherwise there could not have been such a wonderful illustration of the great fact that "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty"; there could not otherwise have been the same invincible evidence that the work these men did was not the work of men, but was indeed and in truth the doing of God.

Though they were all from the lower ranks of life, they were characterised by great varieties of gifts and dispositions. Some of them, indeed, are scarcely known to us at all. It may be that they were more or less ordinary men, who made no special mark; but it would be rash to set this down as certain, or even as probable, seeing that our records of the time are so scanty, and are manifestly constructed with the idea, not of giving to every man his due-as would be the poor ideal of a mere writer of history-but of making nothing of the men, and everything of the cause and of the Master in Whose great Personality theirs was merged. But those of them who do appear in the records are men of such varied dispositions and powers that the Twelve might after all have been a fair miniature of the Church at large. Some of the selections seem very strange. We have already referred to Judas the traitor. But there were those among them who must have been far less likely men than he. There were two in particular, the choice of whom seemed to violate all dictates of wisdom and prudence. These were Matthew the publican and Simon the Cananean or Zealot. To have a publican, hated as the whole class was, among the apostles, was apparently to invite the hostility and contempt of the great majority of the nation, and especially of those who were strongly national in feeling. On the other hand, to invite one who was known as a Zealot a radical and revolutionist in politics, a man who had identified himself with the wildest schemes for the overthrow of the Government, was to provoke the opposition of all the law-abiding and peace-loving people of the time. Yet how could the heavenly King have more effectually shown that His kingdom was not of this world, that the petty party spirit of the day had no place in it whatever, that it mattered not what a man had been, if now he was renewed in the spirit of his mind, and consecrated in heart and soul and life to do the will of God and serve his Master Christ?

So it has come to pass that, though these twelve men had nothing at all to recommend them to the favour of the world, and though there was very much from every worldly point of view to create the strongest prejudices against them and to militate against their influence, yet they have, by the grace of their Divine Master, so triumphed over all, that when we think of them now, it is not as fishermen, nor as publican or Zealot-even the traitor has simply dropped out of sight-we see before us only "the glorious company of the apostles"!

II-THE COMMISSION. {Mat_10:5-42}

"These twelve Jesus sent forth" (in pairs, as we learn elsewhere, and as is indicated here, perhaps, by the grouping in the list), "and charged them." This leads us to look at their commission. It begins with a limitation, which, however, was only to be temporary. The time had not yet come for the opening of the door to the Gentiles. Besides this, we must remember that the Saviours heart was yearning over His own people. This appears in the tender way He speaks of them as "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Moreover, the apostles were by no means ready, with all their national prejudices still rank in them, to be intrusted with so delicate and difficult a duty as getting into communication with an alien race. Accordingly their field is strictly limited to their own countrymen.

There seems to have been a limitation also in their message. They had themselves been to some extent instructed in regard to the nature of the kingdom, its blessedness, its righteousness, its leading principles and features; but, though they may have begun to get some glimpse of the truth in regard to these great matters, they certainly had not yet made it their own; accordingly they are given, as the substance of their preaching, only the simple announcement, with which the Baptist had also begun his ministry, and with which Christ commenced His: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Though there seems to have been a limitation on the teaching side, there was none on the side of healing, for their Lord empowers them to do the very same things for the relief of their suffering fellow-countrymen as they had seen Himself doing. We have already seen how much teaching there was in these signs of the kingdom; and we can well believe that it was far better, considering the stage of advancement the apostles had reached, that reliance should be placed on the light such deeds of mercy would necessarily throw on the nature of the kingdom, than on any exposition which, apart from their Master, they could at that time have been able to give. Above all it is to be clear that the privileges of the kingdom are free to all; its blessings are to be dispensed without money and without price: "Freely ye have received, freely give."

How, then, were they to be supported? About this they were to give themselves no concern. They were now to put in practice the great command, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness," relying on the promise, "all these things shall be added unto you." But in no miraculous way are they to look for the provision of their wants. They are to be maintained by those among whom and for whom they labour. This was to be no burden, but a privilege, reserved for those who were found "worthy." {Mat_10:11} Nor was it to be divided among as many as possible. They were to stay on with the same person who first received them, as the one whom the Master had chosen for the honour; while, if any refused to recognise it as a privilege, there was to be no weak solicitation, but a dignified withdrawal. The regulations throughout are manifestly intended to keep most vividly before their minds that they went not in their own names, nor in their own strength, nor at their own charges, -that they were ambassadors of a King, clothed with His authority, armed with His power, vested with His rights; so that there is a manifest appropriateness in the solemn words with which this part of the commission closes: "Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city" which rejects you. {Mat_10:15}

The part of the charge which follows, and which the limitation of our plan will not allow us to illustrate point by point, bears not so much on the work more immediately before them as on the whole work of their apostolate. It may have been spoken, as some suppose, later on, and only put here as germane to the occasion; for, as we have seen, the arrangement of this gospel is not chronological, but is largely topical. Still there seems no very strong reason for supposing that the entire discourse was not spoken at this very time; for why should not the apostles in the very beginning of their way have some idea of what it would cost them to accept the work to which they were now called?

The leading thoughts are these: They must expect to be exposed to trial and suffering in the prosecution of their mission. The Master Himself was sorely tried, and the servant must not expect exemption. He is not indeed to court trials, or to submit to persecutions which are not inevitable: "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." On the other hand, when the path of duty lies evidently through trial or danger, he must not shirk it, but face it boldly; and in all emergencies he is to place implicit confidence in Him Whose servant he is: "When they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak" (R.V.). "The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore." There is no way of avoiding the cross; and they would be quite unworthy of their Master should they seek to avoid it. Yet there is a great reward for those who bravely take it up and patiently bear it to the end. It is the way to higher honour, {Mat_10:32} and to the only life that is worthy of the name; {Mat_10:39} while to turn away from it is to choose a path which leads to shame {Mat_10:33} and death. {Mat_10:39}

The passage, taken up, as so much of it has been, with the anticipations of ill-treatment which the apostles will receive in setting out as sheep in the midst of wolves, closes most appropriately and beautifully with a series of blessings on those who will treat them well, ending with the encouraging assurance that even a cup of cold water given to a thirsty disciple will not be forgotten of God.

The lessons on Christian work with which this passage abounds are so numerous that it would be vain to attempt to unfold them. It is not merely a record of facts; it is an embodiment of great principles which are to govern the disciples of Christ in their service to the end of the world. If only the Church as a whole were to think and pray as Christ taught His disciples to think and pray before this great event; and then if the labourers whom God has sent, or would, in answer to the prayers of the Church, immediately send, into His harvest were to act-not necessarily according to the letter, but in every part according to the spirit of these instructions, - using their own faculties with all the wisdom of the serpent, and trusting to Divine grace and power with all the simplicity of the dove-it would not be long before all the scattered sheep were gathered into the fold, all the ripe sheaves garnered for the Lord of the harvest!

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

9:36 like sheep without a shepherd: Jesus lamented the Pharisees’ pastoral negligence (see 12:11-12; 18:12). Their attacks against Jesus were a clear indication of their hard-hearted rejection of God. The crowds languished due to pastoral neglect and mistreatment (10:5-6; 15:12-14; 23:4; Zech 11:16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 9:36. Ἐσπλαγχνίσθη, He was moved with compassion) The disposition of Jesus was most fruitful in works of mercy.[433]—ἐσκυλμένοι, tired out) walking with difficulty; a word especially suitable to this passage, concerning which see the Gnomon Mar 5:35. The reading, ἐκλελυμένοι, is clearly deficient in authority.[434]—ἐῤῥιμμένοι, cast down) i.e. lying down. A further step in the path of misery,[435] and yet such a condition is already the prelude of approaching help. Cf. concerning the harvest, Joh 4:35.—ὡσεὶ πρόβατα μὴ ἔχοντα ποιμένα, as sheep not having a shepherd) Cf. Num 27:17, S. V.—ὡσεὶ πρόβατα οἷς οὐκ ἔστι ποιμήν, as sheep for whom there is not a shepherd.—ποιμὴν is properly a shepherd of sheep. Concerning sheep, cf. ch. Mat 10:6.

[433] It was a striking work of mercy to bring wretched souls to a state of spiritual soundness by praying or teaching.—V. g.

[434] E.M. ἐκλελυμένοι.—(I. B.)

[435] In this condition properly are those, who are destitute of the knowledge of Christ.—V. g.

BCDabc (‘vexati’) Vulg. Hil. read ἐσκυλμένοι: d, ‘fatigati.’ Rec. Text has ἐκλελυμένοι, evidently a marginal gloss to get rid of the strange expression, ἐσκυλμένοι. Σκύλλω Th. σκῦλον, torn off skin, as exuviœ from exuo. Here, worn out, as tired sheep, with the φόοτια of the Pharisees.—ED.

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

Mat_9:36. Ἰδὼν δέ] in the course of this journey.

τοὺς ὄχλους] who were following Him

ἐσκυλμένοι] What is meant is not a herd torn by wolves (Bretschneider), which would neither suit the words nor be a fitting illustration of the crowds that followed Him; but a dense flock of sheep which, from having no shepherd, and consequently no protection, help, pasture, and guidance, are in a distressing, painful condition (vexati, Vulg.); and ἐῤῥιμμένοι, not scattered (Luther, Beza, Kuinoel, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bleek), which is not the meaning of ῥίπτειν, nor even neglecti (Soph. Aj. 1250), like the German weggeworfen (castaway), (Kypke, Fritzsche, de Wette), which would be too feeble, coming after ἐσκυλμ.; but prostrati, thrown down, stretched upon the ground (frequently in the LXX. and Apocrypha), like sheep exhausted, that are unable to walk any farther (Vulg.: jacentes). Comp. Xenoph. Mem. iii. 1. 7; Herodian, iii. 12. 18, vi. 8. 15; Polyb. v. 48. 2. Jesus was moved with compassion for them, because they happened to be in such a plight (essent; notice how He has expressed His pity in this illustration), and then utters what follows about the harvest and the labourers. We have therefore to regard ἐσκυλμ. and ἐῤῥιμμ. as illustrations of spiritual misery, which are naturally suggested by the sight of the exhausted and prostrate multitudes (that had followed Him for a long distance).

The form ῥεριμμένοι (Lachm. with spir. len.) is found only in D. See Lobeck, Paral. p. 13; Kühner, I. p. 508; and for the usual spir. asp., Göttling, Accentl. p. 205. On the form ἐριμμένοι, adopted by Tischendorf after B C א, etc., consult Kühner, I. p. 903.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 9:36 . ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους : in the course of His wanderings Jesus had opportunities of observing the condition of the people, and at length arrived at a clear, definite view as to the moral and religious situation . It was very sombre, such as to move His compassion ( ἐσπλαγ · χνίσθη , post classical, in Gospels only). The state of things suggested two pictures to His mind: a neglected flock of sheep, and a harvest going to waste for lack of reapers. Both imply, not only a pitiful plight of the people, but a blameworthy neglect of duty on the part of their religious guides the shepherds by profession without the shepherd heart, the spiritual husbandmen without an eye for the whitening fields and skill to handle the sickle. The Pharisaic comments on the Capernaum mission festival (Mat 9:11 ) were sufficient to justify the adverse judgment. Their question on that occasion meant much, and would not be forgotten by Jesus. ἐσκυλμένοι , ἐριμμένοι , graphic words, clear as to general import, though variously understood as to their precise meaning. The former may mean “flayed” (from σκῦλον , Holtz., H. C.), or “hunted” and tired out (Weiss-Meyer), the practical sense is “exhausted by long, aimless wandering, foot-sore and fleece-torn”. The other points to the natural sequel lying down, scattered about ( ῥίπτω ), here one, there another, on the hill side, just where they found themselves unable to go a step further. A flock can get into such a condition only when it has no shepherd to care for it and guide it to the pastures.

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

Although the ordinary pastors cease, yet Christ hath not cast off the care of his Church.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted--This reading, however, has hardly any authority at all. The true reading doubtless is, "were harassed."

and were scattered abroad--rather, "lying about," "abandoned," or "neglected."

as sheep, having no shepherd--their pitiable condition as wearied under bodily fatigue, a vast disorganized mass, being but a faint picture of their wretchedness as the victims of pharisaic guidance; their souls uncared for, yet drawn after and hanging upon Him. This moved the Redeemer's compassion.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 36. Moved with compassion] εσπλαγχνισθη, from σπλαγχνον a bowel. The Jews esteemed the bowels to be the seat of sympathy and the tender passions, and so applied the organ to the sense.

επλαγχνιζομαι signifies, says Mintert, "to be moved with pity from the very inmost bowels. It is an emphatic word, signifying a vehement affection of commiseration, by which the bowels and especially the heart is moved." Both this verb and the noun seem to be derived from σπαω, to draw; the whole intestinal canal, in the peristaltic motion of the bowels, being drawn, affected, and agitated with the sight of a distressed or miserable object. Pity increases this motion of the bowels, and produces considerable pain: hence σπλαγχνιζομαι, to have the bowels moved, signifies to feel pity or compassion at seeing the miseries of others.

They fainted] Instead of εκλελυμενοι, fainted, all the best MSS., versions, and fathers, read εσκυλμενοι, grieved and melancholy. Kypke says σκυλλειν properly signifies, to pluck off the hair, as persons do in extreme sorrow or distress. The margin says, They were tired and lay down.

And were scattered abroad] εππιμμενοι, thrown down, or, all along. They were utterly neglected as to the interests of their souls, and rejected by the proud and disdained Pharisees. This people (οχλος, this mob) that knoweth not the law, is accursed, Joh 7:49. Thus those execrable men spoke of the souls that God had made, and of whom they should have been the instructers.

Those teachers, in name, have left their successors behind them; but, as in the days of Christ, so now, God has in his mercy rescued the flock out of the hands of those who only fed upon their flesh, and clothed themselves with their wool. The days in which a man was obliged to give his property to what was called THE Church, for the salvation of his soul, Christ being left out of the question, are, thank God, nearly over and gone. Jesus is the true Shepherd; without him there is nothing but fainting, fatigue, vexation, and dispersion. O that we may be led out and in by him, and find pasture!

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

(36) He was moved with compassion.—The words that follow are so vivid and emphatic that we may well believe them to have had their starting-point in our Lord’s own expression of His feelings. We find Him using the identical words in Mat_15:32, and Mar_8:2 : “I have compassion on the multitude.”

They fainted.—The English represents the received printed text of the Greek Testament at the beginning of the seventeenth century. There is, however, an immense preponderance of authority in favour of another reading, which gives the passive participle of the verb translated “trouble” in Mar_5:35, Luk_7:6, and meaning literally “flayed,” and thence figuratively “tormented, worried, vexed.” They were not merely as sheep that have grown weary and faint, hungry, looking up and yet not fed, but were as those that have been harassed by the wolf—the prey of thieves and robbers. (Comp. Joh_10:8-12.)

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

36. fainted] The word in the received text has no MS. authority; read harassed.

scattered abroad] Rather, perhaps, neglected, set at nought, rejected by the national teachers.

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.

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,.... By "the Lord of the harvest" is either meant God the Father, whose are all the elect, who has a hearty concern for them, and will have them all gathered in, not one of them shall be left; or the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who has the care and charge of the whole election of grace; and who as he must, he will bring them all in; and who has power of sending forth labourers, as the following chapter shows; and so this is a proof of prayer being made to Christ;

that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. This is the petition the disciples of Christ were put upon making to the Lord of the harvest, on consideration of the present condition multitudes of souls were in: they could not make, qualify, and send out ministers themselves; this is not man's work, but God's: he only is able to furnish with ministerial gifts, to work upon, and powerfully incline the hearts of men to this service, to call and send them forth into it, and to assist and succeed them in it. The persons desired to be sent are "labourers"; faithful, diligent, and industrious preachers of the Gospel; such as lay out themselves, their time, talents, and strength, in their master's service; and do not indulge themselves in sloth and idleness: the place they are desired to be sent into is, "into the harvest"; into the field of the world, where God's elect lie, and there labour in preaching the Gospel; hoping for a divine blessing, and an almighty power to attend their ministrations, for the conversion of sinners, and edification of saints. The request the disciples are directed to make, concerning these persons for this work, is, that the Lord of the harvest would "send", or "thrust" them "forth"; implying power and efficacy, and authority, on the part of the sender; and backwardness on the part of those that are sent, through modesty: a sense of the greatness of the work, and of their own unworthiness and unfitness for it. Very opportunely did our Lord move his disciples to put up this petition, and was done, no question, with a view to, and to prepare for, his mission of the twelve to preach the Gospel, of which there is an account in the next chapter.

Next: Matthew Chapter 10

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

36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Ver. 36. He was moved with compassion] His eye so affected his heart, that it even yearned (εσπλαγχνισθη) towards these silly souls. Ingemuit miserans graviter dextramque tetendit. (Virgil.)

As sheep without a shepherd] Their pastors were impostors, as Bernard complained of those in his time their Episcopi; Aposcopi (as Espencaeus hath it), their overseers, attendants. That judgment was now befallen them that Moses of old deprecated, Num 27:17. And this troubled our Saviour more than their bodily bondage to the Romans, which yet was very grievous.

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.

But when he saw the multitudes - That followed him from place to place. When he saw their anxiety to be instructed and saved.

He was moved with compassion on them - He pitied them.

Because they fainted - The word used here refers to the weariness and fatigue which results from labor and being burdened. He saw the people burdened with the rites of religion and the doctrines of the Pharisees; sinking down under their ignorance and the weight of their traditions; neglected by those who ought to have been enlightened teachers; and scattered and driven out without care and attention. With great beauty he compares them to sheep wandering without a shepherd. Judea was a land of flocks and herds. The faithful shepherd, by day and night, was with his flock. He defended it, made it to lie down in green pastures, and led it beside the still waters, Psa 23:2. Without his care the sheep would stray away. They were in danger of wild beasts. They panted in the summer sun, and they did not know where the cooling shade and stream was. So, said the Saviour, is it with this people. No wonder that the compassionate Redeemer was moved with pity.

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

He had compassion on them. The bowels of his compassion yearned to see multitudes cast down and oppressed, like sheep that are without a shepherd. The Pharisees indeed were their shepherds; but they acted the part of ravenous wolves, not only neglecting to lead the people to virtue, but even hindering, as much as they could, their advancement in good; for when the admiring multitude cried out, "Never did the like appear in Israel," they immediately decried it, saying, "By the prince of devils he casteth out devils." (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxiii.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Mark hath something of this, Mar 6:34. It pitied him, who came down from heaven to earth to seek and to save lost souls, to see what a company of people followed him, willing to be instructed, because they were εκλελυμενοι, or, as some read it, εσκυλμενοι, tired and wearied with running after him to hear the gospel, and ερριμμενοι,

scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Had then the Jews at this time no ministry? They had the temple at Jerusalem, scribes, and Pharisees, and priests; synagogues in other places, where the law was read and interpreted. Christ accounts those people to have no ministers who have no good ones; but either dumb dogs, that cannot bark, or lazy ones, that will not. Such was the generality of the Jewish ministry at this time. This moved the bowels of Christ (so the word signifies). It is a great misery when the congregation of the Lord are as sheep which have no shepherd, Num 27:17; and so they are when they have no true prophets of the Lord to instruct them, 1Ki 22:17.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

36. When he saw the multitudes — That is, whenever, during his circuit, he saw the vast congregations attracted by the fame of his works and listening with ready ear to his words. He was moved with compassion — A tender pity would arise in his heart, day after day, at the sight of the successive crowds. Because they fainted — The epithet fainted is applied to them in their character of sheep, who are worried and exhausted in the way.

Having no shepherd — Even Moses is no shepherd to them, for the Galileans were half Gentile in their views. Their professed religious teachers were rather wolves than shepherds, who fed upon rather than fed the flock. The words of truth and mercy from the lips of Jesus were new to their ears and hearts. Doubtless the evangelist, in this verse, expresses the feeling of the Saviour in the very words which fell from his own lips.

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

But when he saw the multitudes. The substance of this verse is found in Mar_6:34 on the return of the apostles, equivalent to our Mat_14:13, seq. (cf. supra). According to the context, the multitudes here spoken of are those of the various cities and villages through which he had passed. He was moved with compassion on (for, Revised Version) them (esplagcnisyh peri autwn). After the vivid Hebrew metaphor, (Gen_43:30) which the LXX seldom ventured to translate literally, but which is common in the New Testament writings. Because they fainted. So the Received Text, (eklelumenoi , cf. Mat_15:32) but the Revised Version, with manuscripts, "were distressed" (eskulmenoi). Skullw , which in the classics is equivalent, to

(1) "flay,

(2) "mangle," is found only in the sense of

(3) "trouble or harass," in the New Testament

Mar_5:35 parallel passage: Luk_8:49; Luk_7:6. And were scattered abroad; Revised Version simply, and scattered. (For the thought, cf. Eze_34:5; also Num_27:17 2Ch_18:16; and its parallel passage, 1Ki_22:17) The two participles express different aspects of their now normal and continuous state (hsan eskulmenoi kai erimmenoi). Yet the Authorized Version margin, "and lay down," is probably nearer the meaning of erimmenoi here than the Authorized Version and Revised Version; cf. RAPC 1Ma 11:4 ("They showed him the temple of Dagon burnt... and the bodies cast out"); Jer_14:16 ("The people... shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem... and they shall have none to bury them"), whine the thought is hardly "scattered," but "cast out and lying prostrate." So here the people are pictured as sheep harassed and prostrated by fatigue, etc.; cf. Vulgate, vexati et jacentes. As sheep having no shepherd; not having a shepherd (Revised Version); cf. the Old Testament passages just referred to.

Vers. 36-38. The sheep and the harvest.

Jesus is moved with compassion at the sight of the multitude. There is always something pathetic in such a sight. The needs of the people made it especially so for Christ. To him the people are of deepest interest. His heart goes out, not to favourites, not to a few select, refined, or saintly souls, but to the multitude. As he gazes at the great moving mass of humanity, it calls up to his mind two images. First, it seems like a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Then it appears as a harvest-field waiting for the reapers.

I THE PITEOUS HELPLESSNESS OF THE SHEEP.

1. The sheep are without a shepherd. There were official teachers, men trained in the Law and appointed to instruct the ignorant. But these men were not true pastors. They were well meaning, many of them. But they had no charm wherewith to draw the people; they did not know the green pastures and the still waters. Therefore Jesus found the people shepherdless. Without Christ the world is lost. No human leader is sufficient for its needs.

2. The sheep are distressed. They are trained to follow their leader. He knows where the best pasturage is; he can protect the helpless creatures from danger. Men and women need firm guidance, spiritual pasturage, and heavenly protection. We cannot go as solitary pilgrims dependent on our own resources.

3. The sheep are scattered. They were not drawn together by the voice of a trusted shepherd. So they wandered foolishly and aimlessly. The world without Christ is disunited. In thought and conduct men wander from one another, and the social bond is broken when the Divine bond is disregarded.

4. The sheep need a shepherd. Jesus saw the need, and he came to supply it. Later in his ministry he proclaimed himself as the good Shepherd. (Joh_10:11) Moreover, he expects his ministers to be first of all pastors to the people, feeding his sheep. (Joh_21:17)

II THE GLORIOUS PROSPECT OF THE HARVEST. The image changes. Instead of a scattered flock of bleating sheep spread over the hillside, we see waving fields of corn, ripe for the harvest, only needing the reapers to gather in its golden wealth.

1. There is a harvest in the world. This is a cheering thought. Regarded from one point of view, men are like sheep their need is great; looked at from another standpoint, they are indeed a harvest-field with boundless possibilities. When the industry of China, the speculation of India, the endurance of Africa, are won to Christ, and when the boundless energy of the West is all gathered into his garner, great will be the wealth of the kingdom of heaven. The world is worth winning for Christ. He counts his wealth by the souls he possesses.

2. The harvest is plenteous.

(1) It covers a vast area. The greater part of the world is not yet Christian.

(2) It includes a multitude of souls. Christ has not come to save a few; he aims at the plenteous harvest of many souls.

(3) It contains many forms of good. There is great wealth in this harvest-field of the world. Christ would have the heroism, the industry, the art, the literature, of the world gathered into his kingdom.

3. Many labourers are needed. Jesus was the Sower. (Mat_13:3) His disciples are the reapers. Never was so large a harvest-field open for the sickle as in our own day; never were so many labourers needed. The great want of the world is apostolic missionaries, men and women with the spirit of Christ in them. W.F.A.

Vers. 36-38. The mournful picture redeemed by compassion.

Notice, in introduction, how the language which here describes the compassion that moved the vast heart of Christ leads us to most grateful apprehension of the sweet condescending sympathy (not only of Jesus Christ with humanity, but) of Jesus Christ"s humanity with our own. How delicately in touch with this latter is it said that the fountains of compassion in that vast heart were freshly opened, freshly drawn upon, as Jesus "saw;" saw the multitudes;" saw the multitudes all "a-faint;" "scattered abroad;" "saw" a picture a picture that arrested the eye, that rivetted the thought, that stirred the heart! Yes, a picture; but one that was mournful, and that made mournful exceedingly this its subject, "as sheep having no shepherd." Notice, then

I HOW THE LONGEST LABOUR, THE HARDEST TOIL, THE MOST TRIED PATIENCE, THE KEENEST SENSITIVENESS AS TO PERVERSITY, BLINDNESS, HARDNESS OF HEART, NEED.NOT STAUNCH DRY A CHRISTIAN COMPASSION, BUT MUST NEEDS MAKE IT FLOW THE MORE FREELY FORTH.

II HOW THE BEHOLDING AND THE MOVED CONTEMPLATIVE BEHOLDING OF THE MOUNTAIN MASSES OF HUMAN SIN, WANT, MISERY, SHOULD HAVE FOR THEIR LEGITIMATE CHRISTIAN ACTION, NOT DESPAIR, NOT DESPONDENCY, NOT SO MUCH AS ONE FOREBODING, FEARFUL DOUBT BUT THE CALMEST CONVICTION THAT THEY STRETCH A VAST AND A HOPEFUL HARVEST-FIELD BEFORE THE AGONIZED EYE.

III HOW THIS HARVEST-FIELD IS ONE TO BE WORKED IN, AND REAPED, NOT BY THE ANGELS, BUT BY MEN; WHO MUST BE PREPARED TO BE "LABOURERS," AND MUST BE LABOURERS, AND MUST BE APPLIED FOR BY PRAYER ON THE PART OF THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY THE INSUFFICIENT LABOURERS, TO HIM, WHO WILL BE FOUND TO BE, AND WHO IS, THE LORD OF THE HARVEST. B.

Ver. 36-Luk_10:2. But while serving there as an introduction to the rest of the speech, the reason for it is so much more self-evident here that St. Matthew seems to have recorded it in its original connexion. Our Lord himself, feeling the shepherdless condition of the people, desires to call out the interest of his disciples in it. He wants them to realize both the need of the people and the possibility that lay before the workmen. Changing the metaphor, he bids them pray him, who alone has the right and power, to send more workmen to reap these fields.

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest of human souls. (Joh_4:35-38) Truly. So also the Revised Version; too strong a rendering of men . Is plenteous, (cf. Mat_10:23; Bengel) but the labourers are few. Who besides himself? John the Baptist, some who had been healed, e.g. the Gadarene demoniac (Mar_5:20, possibly also the blind men of ver. 31), and perhaps a few unknown true believers. Not the twelve, for these are evidently distinguished, and only to be included under the labourers spoken of in the end of the next verse. If, however, the utterance was originally spoken to the seventy (vide supra), the reference would be to the twelve.

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

Because they were faint - In soul rather than in body. As sheep having no shepherd - And yet they had many teachers; they had scribes in every city. But they had none who cared for their souls, and none that were able, if they had been willing, to have wrought any deliverance. They had no pastors after God's own heart.

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

Christ’s compassion:

v. 36. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.

v. 37. Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest, truly, is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

v. 38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.

Christ’s ministry brought Him into the most intimate touch with the people, gave Him the clearest insight into their moral and religious condition. Two pictures were suggested to His mind: A flock of sheep neglected in the desert, and a harvest going to waste for lack of reapers. The people whom He met were faint, overdriven, afflicted, beaten down, exhausted by long, aimless driving, completely worn out and scattered about. They had no faithful shepherds. The Pharisees and scribes vexed, worried their souls with their legal flaying, gave them thousands of precepts regulating the very minutest details of their lives, but neither taught them where to get the strength nor gave them the comfort of the Gospel. Most of the people were in the direst spiritual distress. A pitiful spectacle! But this is to arouse them to action. The harvest of God is always great, since He wants all men to be saved. When the souls have grown weary and surfeited with the husks of human doctrines and traditions of men, they are more apt to feel and realize their need of the Gospel of Jesus, as in the case of many of the Jewish nation, The laborers, that are in full sympathy with the Gospel-teachings, that are willing to work for Christ, are few. At that time only the Lord and here and there a true Israelite were laboring for the Kingdom. There is needed some of Christ’s compassion, some of that divine commiseration which moved the heart of Christ; there is needed some of that willingness to work and, if need be, to suffer, which characterized the ministry of Christ; and there is needed, lastly, the force of heaven-storming prayers to the Lord of the harvest, to the great Lord of the Kingdom, that He Himself would thrust out, that He will urge and make willing the hearts of the laborers as He sends them forth to reap the souls for His eternal kingdom.

Summary.Jesus heals a paralytic, calls Matthew, takes dinner with him, and gives a lesson on humility and fasting, raises the daughter of Jairus, heals the woman with the issue of blood, gives sight to two blind men, drives out a dumb demon, and draws a lesson from His ministry

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. The Lord seldom looked upon a crowd of the poor, lost, human beings without being moved with tender compassion. Because they fainted, and were … as sheep having no shepherd. A figure representing their spiritual condition. They “fainted” under the burdens placed on them by pretended shepherds, Pharisees and scribes. They wandered, as sheep left without care.

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.

36. ἐσκυλμένοι. A certain change for ἐκλελυμένοι.

ἐριμμένοι, for ἐρριμμένοι, in accordance with the more ancient MSS; but D* has ῥεριμμένοι.

36. ἐσπλαγχνίσθη. σπλάγχνα = the nobler organs, heart, liver, lungs, then specially the heart as the seat of various emotions. In a literal sense Act 1:18; in the sense of ‘pity’ frequent in St Paul’s epistles. In the classics the meaning is extended to other feelings: μὴ πρὸς ὀργὴν σπλάγχνα θερμήνῃς, Aristoph. Ranæ, 844. ἀνδρὸς σπλάγχνον ἐκμαθεῖν, Eur. Med. 220. The verb, which is post-classical, is confined to the sense of ‘feeling pity,’ and occurs in the Synoptic Gospels only.

ἐσκυλμένοι. ‘Worn out, harassed.’ The literal meaning of σκύλλειν is ‘to flay,’ then to ‘vex,’ or ‘harass,’ τί ἔτι σκύλλεις τὸν διδάσκαλον, Mar 5:35. It is a striking instance of the softening and refining process in the meaning of words: cp. ἐρεύγομαι, χορτάζω.

ἐριμμένοι. Either (1) ‘prostrate,’ or (2) ‘neglected,’ set at naught by the national teachers.

μὴ ἔχοντα. ‘When they have no shepherd,’ the condition that excites pity is expressed by μή, οὐκ ἔχοντα would indicate the fact simply.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36. τοὺς ὄχλους] Wherever He went, in all the cities.

ἐσκυλμένοι] ‘Vexati,’—harassed,—plagued,—viz. literally, with weariness in following Him; or spiritually, with the tyranny of the Scribes and Pharisees, their φορτία βαρέα, ch. 23:4.

ἐριμμένοι] ‘Temere projecti,’ ‘abjecti,’ ‘neglecti,’ as sheep would be who had wandered from their pasture. The context shews that our Lord’s compassion was excited by their being without competent spiritual leaders and teachers.

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

(E) 36. And when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and cast down as sheep that have not a shepherd.]—ἐσπλαγχνίσθη] σπλαγχνίζεσθαι occurs 5 times in Mt., 4 in Mk., 3 in Lk., in Testaments of XII. Patriarchs, in LXX. A, Pro 17:5, Pro 17:2 Mac 6:8, in Symm., 1 S 23:21, and Eze 24:21.—ἐσκυλμένοι] σκύλλειν in Æsch. and the Anthol. = to “flay” or “mangle.” In the N.T. to “annoy,” “importune,” Mar 5:35, Luk 7:6, Luk 8:49. In Berlin Papyri, 757. 14 (12 a.d.), to “plunder”; in a 4th cent. papyrus (Fayûm Towns, 134. 2), σκῦλον σεαυτού = to “hasten”; cf. ποίησον αὐτὸν σκυλῆναι = “make him concern himself,” Ox. Pap. i. 123. 10. The substantive σκυλμός means “vexations,” Artemid. 11. xxxi.; “fatigue” of a journey, Fayûm Towns, iii. 5; “insolence,” Tebtunis Pap. 41. 7, b.c. 119; “violence,” ib. 48. 22, b.c. 113. Used here of the common people, it describes their religious condition. They were harassed, importuned, bewildered by those who should have taught them; hindered from entering into the kingdom of heaven (23:13), laden with the burdens which the Pharisees laid upon them (23:4). ἐριμμένοι denotes men cast down and prostrate on the ground, whether from drunkenness, Polyb. v. 48. 2, or from mortal wounds. Here “mentally dejected.”—ὡσεὶ πρόβατα μὴ ἔχοντα ποιμένα] An Old Testament simile. Cf. Num 27:17, Num 27:1 K 22:17, Eze 34:5. The words are anticipated here from Mar 6:34.

36. ἐσκυλμένοι] א B C D al; ἐκλελυμένοι, L

M the Second Gospel.

1 Which is easier. The reply expected is that it is easier to say Thy sins are forgiven, because such a claim could be neither proved nor disproved. On the other hand, to say Arise and walk would be to court ridicule when failure followed. Hence in v. 6 Christ supports His right to make the apparently easier statement, by demonstrating His power to make the seemingly harder.

Hor. Syn. Horœ Synopticœ (Hawkins).

al i.e. with other uncial MSS.

S Syriac version: Peshitta.

1 For Mk as resting on an Aramaic basis, see Expository Tmes, xiii. 328 ff., and, more recently, Wellhausen’s Commentary.

Dalm. Dalman.

L the Matthæan Logia.

LXX. The Septuagint Version.

E editorial passages.

S Syriac version: Sinaitic MS.

B. Babylonian Talmud.

Ox. Pap. Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

Plut. Plutarch.

DB. Dictionary of the Bible (Hastings).

Luc. Lucian.

1 See Abbott, Johannine Vocabulary, 1811, “Gk. usage seems to demand some such rendering as ‘roar.’”

Polyb. Polybius.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fainted [ησαν εσκυλμενοι] . Rev., better, were distressed. Note the verb with the participle, denoting their habitual condition. The word originally means to flay, rend, or mangle. Aeschylus uses it of the tearing of dead bodies by fish (" Persae, " 577). As appropriate to the figure of sheep, it might be rendered here fleeced. Wyc., they were travailed.

Scattered [ερριμμενοι] . So A. V. and Rev. The word is the perfect participle passive of rJiptw, to throw or cast, and means thrown down, prostrated. So Wyc., lying. It is not the dispersion one from another, but their prostration in themselves that is meant. They have cast themselves down for very weariness.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.