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Mat_24:40-41. Τότε ] then, when the second advent will have thus suddenly taken place.
παραλαμβάνεται ] is taken away, namely, by the angels who are gathering the elect together, Mat_24:31. The use of the present tense here pictures what is future as though it were already taking place. But had this referred to the being caught up in the clouds, mentioned 1Th_4:17 (Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Jansen), ἀναλαμβάνεται would have been used instead.
ἀφίεται ] is left, expressing οὐ παραλαμβάνεται in its positive form. Comp. Mat_23:38, Mat_15:14; Soph. O. R. 599. It is tantamount to saying: away! thou art not accepted. To understand the terms as directly the opposite of each other in the following sense: the one is taken captive, the other allowed to go free (Wetstein, Kuinoel), is grammatically wrong ( παραλαμβ . cannot, when standing alone, be taken as equivalent to bello capere, although it is used to denote the receiving of places into surrender, in deditionem accipere, Polyb. ii. 54. 12, iv. 63. 4, iv. 65. 6), and does violence to the context to suit the exigencies of the erroneous reference to the destruction of Jerusalem. Rather compare Joh_14:3. It is no doubt admissible to interpret the expression in the hostile sense: the one is seized (Polyb. iii. 69. 2; similarly Baumgarten-Crusius) or carried off (Mat_4:5; Mat_4:8; Num_23:27; 1Ma_3:37; 1Ma_4:1), namely, to be punished. But the ordinary explanation harmonizes better with the reference to Mat_24:31, as well as with the subsequent parable, Mat_24:45 ff., where the πιστὸς δοῦλος is first introduced.
δύο ἀλήθουσαι , κ . τ . λ .] of two who grind at the mill, one will, etc. For the construction, in which, by means of a μετάβασις ἀπὸ ὅλου εἰς μέρη , the plural-subject is broken up into two separate persons, comp. Hom. Il. vii. 306 f.: τὼ δὲ διακρινθέντε , ὁ μὲν μετὰ λαὸν Ἀχαιῶν ἤϊʼ , ὁ δʼ ἐς Τρώων ὅμαδον κίε . Plat. Phaedr. p. 248 A, al.; see Dissen, ad Pind. Ol. viii. 37; also ad Dem. de cor. p. 237 f. If we were to adopt the usual course of supplying ἔσονται from Mat_24:40, we would require to translate as follows: two will be grinding at the mill. But this supplying of ἔσονται is not at all necessary; as may be gathered from the annexing of the participle, we have in this other case, Mat_24:41, just a different mode of presenting the matter.
ἀλήθουσαι ] the hard work usually performed by the lower order of female slaves (Exo_9:5; Isa_47:2; Job_31:10; Ecc_12:3), and such as is still performed in the East by women, either singly or by two working together (Rosenmüller, Morgenl. on Exo_11:5; and on the present passage, Robinson, Paläst. II. p. 405 f.). A similar practice prevailed in ancient Greece, Hermann, Privatalterth. § 24. 8. Hemsterhuis, ad Lucian. Tim. 23. On the un-classical ἀλήθειν (for ἀλεῖν ), see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 151.
ἐν τῷ μύλῳ ] which is not to be confounded (see the critical notes) with μύλωνι (a mill-house), is the millstone (Mat_18:6) of the ordinary household hand-mill. It may denote the lower (Deu_24:6) as well as the upper stone (Isa_47:2), which latter would be more precisely designated by the term ἐπιμύλιον (Deut. as above). It is the upper that is intended in the present instance; the women sit or kneel (Robinson as above), hold the handle of the upper millstone in their hands (hence ἐν τ . μ .: with the millstone), and turn it round upon the lower, which does not move.