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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 18:7 - 18:7
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7. ὁ δὲ θεός. The argument is simply a fortiori. Even an unjust and abandoned judge grants a just petition at last out of base motives when it is often urged, to a defenceless person for whom he cares nothing; how much more shall a just and merciful God hear the cry and avenge the cause of those whom He loves?
τὴν ἐκδίκησιν τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν αὐτοῦ. The best comment is furnished by Rev 6:9-11. But the ‘avenging’ is rather the ‘vindication,’ i.e. the deliverance from the oppressor.
βοώντων αὐτῷ. ‘Shout.’ It is “strong crying,” comp. Jam 5:4, ‘the shouts of the reapers of your fields.’
καὶ μακροθυμεῖ ἐπ' αὐτοῖς. ‘And He is longsuffering in their case.’ In the A. V[324] the longsuffering of God is shewn not to His elect (though they too need and receive it, 2Pe 3:9), but to their enemies. See Sir 35:17-18—another close parallel, probably an interpolated plagiarism from this Gospel. The elect are far more eager not only for deliverance, but even for vengeance, than God is. They shew too much of the spirit which God reproves in Jonah. But God knows man’s weakness and “therefore is He patient with them and poureth His mercy upon them.” Sir 18:11. But the best supported reading is καὶ μακροθυμεῖ ἐπ' αὐτοῖς. This would denote that the longsuffering is shewn toward the elect. He is pitiful to them, in the midst of their impatience. Others take the word μακροθυμεῖ to mean ‘delay,’ and understand the previous μή; in the sense of num? ‘Does He delay in their case?’ Meyer takes it to mean ‘And is He slow (to strike) for them?’
[324] A. V. Authorised Version.