9 and the king was grieved, but because of the oaths and of those reclining with him, he commanded `it' to be given;
asking favour against him, that he may send for him to Jerusalem, making an ambush to put him to death in the way. Then, indeed, Festus answered that Paul is kept in Caesarea, and himself is about speedily to go on thither, `Therefore those able among you -- saith he -- having come down together, if there be anything in this man -- let them accuse him;' and having tarried among them more than ten days, having gone down to Caesarea, on the morrow having sat upon the tribunal, he commanded Paul to be brought; and he having come, there stood round about the Jews who have come down from Jerusalem -- many and weighty charges they are bringing against Paul, which they were not able to prove, he making defence -- `Neither in regard to the law of the Jews, nor in regard to the temple, nor in regard to Caesar -- did I commit any sin.' And Festus willing to lay on the Jews a favour, answering Paul, said, `Art thou willing, to Jerusalem having gone up, there concerning these things to be judged before me?'
having given also a direction to the centurion to keep Paul, to let `him' also have liberty, and to forbid none of his own friends to minister or to come near to him. And after certain days, Felix having come with Drusilla his wife, being a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith toward Christ, and he reasoning concerning righteousness, and temperance, and the judgment that is about to be, Felix, having become afraid, answered, `For the present be going, and having got time, I will call for thee;' and at the same time also hoping that money shall be given to him by Paul, that he may release him, therefore, also sending for him the oftener, he was conversing with him; and two years having been fulfilled, Felix received a successor, Porcius Festus; Felix also willing to lay a favour on the Jews, left Paul bound.
From this `time' was Pilate seeking to release him, and the Jews were crying out, saying, `If this one thou mayest release, thou art not a friend of Caesar; every one making himself a king, doth speak against Caesar.' Pilate, therefore, having heard this word, brought Jesus without -- and he sat down upon the tribunal -- to a place called, `Pavement,' and in Hebrew, Gabbatha; and it was the preparation of the passover, and as it were the sixth hour, and he saith to the Jews, `Lo, your king!' and they cried out, `Take away, take away, crucify him;' Pilate saith to them, `Your king shall I crucify?' the chief priests answered, `We have no king except Caesar.' Then, therefore, he delivered him up to them, that he may be crucified, and they took Jesus and led `him' away,
they therefore having been gathered together, Pilate said to them, `Whom will ye I shall release to you? Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?' for he had known that because of envy they had delivered him up. And as he is sitting on the tribunal, his wife sent unto him, saying, `Nothing -- to thee and to that righteous one, for many things did I suffer to-day in a dream because of him.' And the chief priests and the elders did persuade the multitudes that they might ask for themselves Barabbas, and might destroy Jesus; and the governor answering said to them, `Which of the two will ye `that' I shall release to you?' And they said, `Barabbas.' Pilate saith to them, `What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all say to him, `Let be crucified!' And the governor said, `Why, what evil did he?' and they were crying out the more, saying, `Let be crucified.' And Pilate having seen that it profiteth nothing, but rather a tumult is made, having taken water, he did wash the hands before the multitude, saying, `I am innocent from the blood of this righteous one; ye -- ye shall see;' and all the people answering said, `His blood `is' upon us, and upon our children!' Then did he release to them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered `him' up that he may be crucified;
Then the king, when he hath heard the matter, is greatly displeased at himself, and on Daniel he hath set the heart to deliver him, and till the going up of the sun he was arranging to deliver him. Then these men have assembled near the king, and are saying to the king, `know, O king, that the law of Media and Persia `is': That any interdict and statute that the king doth establish is not to be changed.' Then the king hath said, and they have brought Daniel, and have cast `him' into a den of lions. The king hath answered and said to Daniel, `Thy God, whom thou art serving continually, Himself doth deliver thee.'
`And if her father hath disallowed her in the day of his hearing, none of her vows and her bonds which she hath bound on her soul is established, and Jehovah is propitious to her, for her father hath disallowed her. `And if she be at all to a husband, and her vows `are' on her, or a wrongful utterance `on' her lips, which she hath bound on her soul, and her husband hath heard, and in the day of his hearing, he hath kept silent at her, then have her vows been established, and her bonds which she hath bound on her soul are established. `And if in the day of her husband's hearing he disalloweth her, then he hath broken her vow which `is' on her, and the wrongful utterance of her lips which she hath bound on her soul, and Jehovah is propitious to her.
And he saith, `Thus doth God do to me, and thus He doth add -- if it remain -- the head of Elisha son of Shaphat -- upon him this day.' And Elisha is sitting in his house, and the elders are sitting with him, and `the king' sendeth a man from before him; before the messenger doth come unto him, even he himself said unto the elders, `Have ye seen that this son of the murderer hath sent to turn aside my head? see, at the coming in of the messenger, shut the door, and ye have held him fast at the door, is not the sound of the feet of his lord behind him?' He is yet speaking with them, and lo, the messenger is coming down unto him, and he saith, `Lo, this `is' the evil from Jehovah: what -- do I wait for Jehovah any more?'
And David saith to Abigail, `Blessed `is' Jehovah, God of Israel, who hath sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed `is' thy discretion, and blessed `art' thou in that thou hast restrained me this day from coming in with blood, and to restrain my hand to myself. And yet, Jehovah liveth, God of Israel, who hath kept me back from doing evil with thee, for unless thou hadst hasted, and dost come to meet me, surely there had not been left to Nabal till the light of the morning, of those sitting on the wall.'
for, Jehovah liveth, who is saving Israel: surely if it be in Jonathan my son, surely he doth certainly die;' and none is answering him out of all the people. And he saith unto all Israel, `Ye -- ye are on one side, and I and Jonathan my son are on another side;' and the people say unto Saul, `That which is good in thine eyes do.' And Saul saith unto Jehovah, God of Israel, `Give perfection;' and Jonathan and Saul are captured, and the people went out. And Saul saith, `Cast between me and Jonathan my son;' and Jonathan is captured. And Saul saith unto Jonathan, `Declare to me, what hast thou done?' and Jonathan declareth to him, and saith, `I certainly tasted with the end of the rod that `is' in my hand a little honey; lo, I die!' And Saul saith, `Thus doth God do, and thus doth He add, for thou dost certainly die, Jonathan.' And the people say unto Saul, `Doth Jonathan die who wrought this great salvation in Israel? -- a profanation! Jehovah liveth, if there falleth from the hair of his head to the earth, for with God he hath wrought this day;' and the people rescue Jonathan, and he hath not died.
what do we do for them -- for those who are left -- for wives, and we -- we have sworn by Jehovah not to give to them of our daughters for wives?' And they say, `Who is `that' one out of the tribes of Israel who hath not come up unto Jehovah to Mizpeh?' and lo, none hath come in unto the camp from Jabesh-Gilead -- unto the assembly. And the people numbered themselves, and lo, there is not there a man of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead. And the company send there twelve thousand men of the sons of valour, and command them, saying, `Go -- and ye have smitten the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead by the mouth of the sword, even the women and the infants. And this `is' the thing which ye do; every male, and every woman knowing the lying of a male, ye devote.' And they find out of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead four hundred young women, virgins, who have not known man by the lying of a male, and they bring them in unto the camp at Shiloh, which `is' in the land of Canaan. And all the company send, and speak, unto the sons of Benjamin who `are' in the rock Rimmon, and proclaim to them peace; and Benjamin turneth back at that time, and they give to them the women whom they have kept alive of the women of Jabesh-Gilead, and they have not found for `all of' them so. And the people repented concerning Benjamin, for Jehovah had made a breach among the tribes of Israel. And the elders of the company say, `What do we do to the remnant for wives -- for the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin?' And they say, `A possession of an escaped party `is' to Benjamin, and a tribe is not blotted out from Israel; and we -- we are not able to give to them wives out of our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed `is' he who is giving a wife to Benjamin.' And they say, `Lo, a festival of Jehovah `is' in Shiloh, from time to time, which `is' on the north of Beth-El, at the rising of the sun, by the highway which is going up from Beth-El to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.' And they command the sons of Benjamin, saying, `Go -- and ye have laid wait in the vineyards, and have seen, and lo, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances -- then ye have gone out from the vineyards, and caught for you each his wife out of the daughters of Shiloh, and gone to the land of Benjamin; and it hath been, when their fathers or their brethren come in to plead unto us, that we have said unto them, Favour us `by' them, for we have not taken `to' each his wife in battle, for ye -- ye have not given to them at this time `that' ye are guilty.' And the sons of Benjamin do so, and take women according to their number, out of the dancers whom they have taken violently away; and they go, and turn back unto their inheritance, and build the cities, and dwell in them.
And Jephthah voweth a vow to Jehovah, and saith, `If Thou dost at all give the Bene-Ammon into my hand -- then it hath been, that which at all cometh out from the doors of my house to meet me in my turning back in peace from the Bene-Ammon -- it hath been to Jehovah, or I have offered up for it -- a burnt-offering.'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Matthew 14
Commentary on Matthew 14 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 14
Mt 14:1-12. Herod Thinks Jesus a Resurrection of the Murdered Baptist—Account of His Imprisonment and Death. ( = Mr 6:14-29; Lu 9:7-9).
The time of this alarm of Herod Antipas appears to have been during the mission of the Twelve, and shortly after the Baptist—who had been in prison for probably more than a year—had been cruelly put to death.
Herod's Theory of the Works of Christ (Mt 14:1, 2).
1. At that time Herod the tetrarch—Herod Antipas, one of the three sons of Herod the Great, and own brother of Archelaus (Mt 2:22), who ruled as ethnarch over Galilee and Perea.
heard of the fame of Jesus—"for His name was spread abroad" (Mr 6:14).
2. And said unto his servants—his counsellors or court-ministers.
This is John the Baptist: he is risen from the dead, &c.—The murdered prophet haunted his guilty breast like a specter and seemed to him alive again and clothed with unearthly powers in the person of Jesus.
Account of the Baptist's Imprisonment and Death (Mt 14:3-12). For the exposition of this portion, see on Mr 6:17-29.
Mt 14:12-21. Hearing of the Baptist's Death, Jesus Crosses the Lake with Twelve, and Miraculously Feeds Five Thousand. ( = Mr 6:30-44; Lu 9:10-17; Joh 6:1-14).
For the exposition of this section—one of the very few where all the four Evangelists run parallel—see on Mr 6:30-44.
Mt 14:22-26. Jesus Crosses to the Western Side of the Lake Walking on the Sea—Incidents on Landing. ( = Mr 6:45; Joh 6:15-24).
For the exposition, see on Joh 6:15-24.
28. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is thou, bid me come to thee on the water—(Also see on Mr 6:50.)
29. And he said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat. he walked on the water, to go to Jesus—(Also see on Mr 6:50.)
30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me—(Also see on Mr 6:50.)
31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said to him, O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?—(Also see on Mr 6:50.)
32. And when they had come into the boat, the wind ceased—(Also see on Mr 6:50.)