13 And after not many days the younger son gathering all together went away into a country a long way off, and there dissipated his property, living in debauchery.
Now there was a rich man and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, making good cheer in splendour every day.
And he said also to [his] disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and *he* was accused to him as wasting his goods.
As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.
Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father; but he that is a companion of harlots destroyeth [his] substance.
Rejoice, young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment. Then remove discontent from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; for childhood and youth are vanity.
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that corrupt themselves! They have forsaken Jehovah; they have despised the Holy One of Israel; they are turned away backward.
and behold joy and rejoicing, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: -- Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
Come, [say they,] I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, [and] much more abundant.
Thus saith Jehovah: What injustice have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and become vain?
Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, at the time he was leading thee in the way? And now, what hast thou to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor? And what hast thou to do with the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? Thine own wickedness chastiseth thee, and thy backslidings reprove thee: know then and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
O generation, mark ye the word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Wherefore say my people, We have dominion; we will come no more unto thee?
Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves from the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the lute, [and] invent them instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but are not grieved for the breach of Joseph. Therefore shall they now go captive, with the first that go captive, and the revelry of them that stretched themselves shall pass away.
O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
but when this thy son, who has devoured thy substance with harlots, is come, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
There is costly store and oil in the dwelling of a wise [man]; but a foolish man swalloweth it up.
He that loveth mirth shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.
for by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a loaf of bread, and another's wife doth hunt for the precious soul.
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel; lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil [come] into the house of a stranger; and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed; and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me; I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
The wicked [saith], in the haughtiness of his countenance, He doth not search out: all his thoughts are, There is no God! His ways always succeed; thy judgments are far above out of his sight; [as for] all his adversaries, he puffeth at them. He saith in his heart, I shall not be moved; from generation to generation I shall be in no adversity.
Who said unto ùGod, Depart from us! and what could the Almighty do to them? Yet he filled their houses with good. But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel. And he built again the high places that Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, of which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. And he built altars to all the host of heaven in both courts of the house of Jehovah. He also caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he used magic and divination and sorcery, and appointed necromancers and soothsayers: he wrought evil beyond measure in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. And he set the graven image of the idol that he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever; neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land that I have appointed to your fathers; if they will only take heed to do all that I commanded them through Moses, according to all the law and the statutes and the ordinances. And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations that Jehovah had destroyed from before the children of Israel. And Jehovah spoke to Manasseh and to his people; but they did not hearken.
As in the day, let us walk becomingly; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and lasciviousness, not in strife and emulation. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not take forethought for the flesh to [fulfil its] lusts.
For the time past [is] sufficient [for us] to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, walking in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-drinking, revels, drinkings, and unhallowed idolatries. Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with [them] to the same sink of corruption, speaking injuriously [of you];
and, coming, he has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who [were] afar off, and [the glad tidings of] peace to those [who were] nigh.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Luke 15
Commentary on Luke 15 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 15
Evil manners, we say, beget good laws; so, in this chapter, the murmuring of the scribes and Pharisees at the grace of Christ, and the favour he showed to publicans and sinners, gave occasion for a more full discovery of that grace than perhaps otherwise we should have had in these three parables which we have in this chapter, the scope of all of which is the same, to show, not only what God had said and sworn in the Old Testament, that he had no pleasure in the death and ruin of sinners, but that he had great pleasure in their return and repentance, and rejoices in the gracious entertainment he gives them thereupon. Here is,
Luk 15:1-10
Here is,
Luk 15:11-32
We have here the parable of the prodigal son, the scope of which is the same with those before, to show how pleasing to God the conversion of sinners is, of great sinners, and how ready he is to receive and entertain such, upon their repentance; but the circumstances of the parable do much more largely and fully set forth the riches of gospel grace than those did, and it has been, and will be while the world stands, of unspeakable use to poor sinners, both to direct and to encourage them in repenting and returning to God. Now,
The younger son is the prodigal, whose character and case are here designed to represent that of a sinner, that of every one of us in our natural state, but especially of some. Now we are to observe concerning him,
Now the condition of the prodigal in this ramble of his represents to us a sinful state, that miserable state into which man is fallen.