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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 15:12 - 15:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
12. τὸ ἐπιβάλλον μέρος τῆς οὐσίας. This would be one third (Deu 21:17). The granting of this portion corresponds to the natural gifts and blessings which God bestows on all alike, together with the light of conscience, and the rich elements of natural religion. Here we have the history of a sinful soul. Its sin (12, 13); its misery (14–16); its penitence (17–20); its forgiveness (20–24).
διεῖλεν αὐτοῖς τὸν βίον. See Luk 6:35. “The Lord is good to all,” Psa 145:9. “God is no respecter of persons,” Act 10:34. “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil, and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,” Mat 5:45. But the boon, though granted in merciful accordance with a divine plan, was in reality a bane; it is equivalent to παραδιδόναι ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις (Rom 1:24-28), though that too is often a mercifully-intended punishment.
“God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers;
And flings the thing we have asked for in our face,
A gauntlet—with a gift in it.”
E. B. BROWNING.