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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Luke 19:8 - 19:8
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Stood (statheis). Apparently Jesus and Zacchaeus had come to the house of Zacchaeus and were about to enter when the murmur became such a roar that Zacchaeus turned round and faced the crowd.
If I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man (ei tinos ti esukophantēsa). A most significant admission and confession. It is a condition of the first class (ei and the aorist active indicative) that assumes it to be true. His own conscience was at work. He may have heard audible murmurs from the crowd. For the verb sukophantein, see discussion on Luk 3:14, the only two instances in the N.T. He had extorted money wrongfully as they all knew.
I return fourfold (apodidōmi tetraploun). I offer to do it here and now on this spot. This was the Mosaic law (Exo 22:1; Num 5:6.). Restitution is good proof of a change of heart. D. L. Moody used to preach it with great power. Without this the offer of Zacchaeus to give half his goods to the poor would be less effective. “It is an odd coincidence, nothing more, that the fig-mulberry (sycamore) should occur in connexion with the fig-shewer (sycophant).”