Matthew 9

Matthew 9:1

The ship was covered - So man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.

Matthew 9:3

Why are ye fearful - Then he rebuked the winds - First, he composed their spirits, and then the sea.

Matthew 9:5

The country of the Gergesenes - Or of the Gadarenes - Gergesa and Gadara were towns near each other. Hence the country between them took its name, sometimes from the one, sometimes from the other. There met him two demoniacs - St. Mark and St. Luke mention only one, who was probably the fiercer of the two, and the person who spoke to our Lord first. But this is no way inconsistent with the account which St. Matthew gives. The tombs - Doubtless those malevolent spirits love such tokens of death and destruction. Tombs were usually in those days in desert places, at a distance from towns, and were often made in the sides of caves, in the rocks and mountains. No one could pass - Safely. Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26.

Matthew 9:6

What have we to do with thee - This is a Hebrew phrase, which signifies. Why do you concern yourself about us? 2 Samuel 16:10. Before the time - The great day.

Matthew 9:7

There was a herd of many swine - Which it was not lawful for the Jews to keep. Therefore our Lord both justly and mercifully permitted them to be destroyed.

Matthew 9:8

He said, Go - A word of permission only, not command.

Matthew 9:11

They besought him to depart out of their coasts - They loved their swine so much better than their souls! How many are of the same mind!

Matthew 9:13

His own city - Capernaum, Matthew 4:13. Mark 5:18; Luke 8:37.

Matthew 9:14

Seeing their faith - Both that of the paralytic, and of them that brought him. Son - A title of tenderness and condescension. Mark 2:3; Luke 5:18.

Matthew 9:15

This man blasphemeth - Attributing to himself a power (that of forgiving sins) which belongs to God only.

Matthew 9:17

Which is easier - Do not both of them argue a Divine power? Therefore if I can heal his disease, I can forgive his sins: especially as his disease is the consequence of his sins. Therefore these must be taken away, if that is.

Matthew 9:18

On earth - Even in my state of humiliation.

Matthew 9:20

So what was to the scribes an occasion of blaspheming, was to the people an incitement to praise God.

Matthew 9:21

He saw a man named Matthew - Modestly so called by himself. The other evangelists call him by his more honourable name, Levi. Sitting - In the very height of his business, at the receipt of custom - The custom house, or place where the customs were received. Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27.

Matthew 9:22

As Jesus sat at table in the house - Of Matthew, who having invited many of his old companions, made him a feast, Mark 2:15; and that a great one, though he does not himself mention it. The publicans, or collectors of the taxes which the Jews paid the Romans, were infamous for their illegal exactions: Sinners - Open, notorious, sinners.

Matthew 9:23

The Pharisees said to his disciples, Why eateth your Master? - Thus they commonly ask our Lord, Why do thy disciples this? And his disciples, Why doth your Master?

Matthew 9:25

Go ye and learn - Ye that take upon you to teach others. I will have mercy and not sacrifice - That is, I will have mercy rather than sacrifice. I love acts of mercy better than sacrifice itself. Hosea 6:6.

Matthew 9:26

Then - While he was at table. Mark 2:18; Luke 5:33.

Matthew 9:27

The children of the bride chamber - The companions of the bridegroom. Mourn - Mourning and fasting usually go together. As if he had said, While I am with them, it is a festival time, a season of rejoicing, not mourning. But after I am gone, all my disciples likewise shall be in fastings often.

Matthew 9:28

This is one reason, - It is not a proper time for them to fast. Another is, they are not ripe for it. New cloth - The words in the original properly signify cloth that hath not passed through the fuller’s hands, and which is consequently much harsher than what has been washed and worn; and therefore yielding less than that, will tear away the edges to which it is sewed.

Matthew 9:29

New - Fermenting wine will soon burst those bottles, the leather of which is almost worn out. The word properly means vessels made of goats’ skins, wherein they formerly put wine, (and do in some countries to this day) to convey it from place to place. Put new wine into new bottles - Give harsh doctrines to such as have strength to receive them.

Matthew 9:30

Just dead - He had left her at the point of death, Mark 5:23. Probably a messenger had now informed him she was dead. Mark 5:22; Luke 8:41.

Matthew 9:32

Coming behind - Out of bashfulness and humility.

Matthew 9:34

Take courage - Probably she was struck with fear, when he turned and looked upon her, Mark 5:33; Luke 8:47; lest she should have offended him, by touching his garment privately; and the more so, because she was unclean according to the law, Leviticus 15:25.

Matthew 9:35

The minstrels - The musicians. The original word means flute players. Musical instruments were used by the Jews as well as the heathens, in their lamentations for the dead, to soothe the melancholy of surviving friends, by soft and solemn notes. And there were persons who made it their business to perform this, while others sung to their music. Flutes were used especially on the death of children; louder instruments on the death of grown persons.

Matthew 9:36

Withdraw - There is no need of you now; for the maid is not dead - Her life is not at an end; but sleepeth - This is only a temporary suspension of sense and motion, which should rather be termed sleep than death.

Matthew 9:37

The maid arose - Christ raised three dead persons to life; this child, the widow’s son, and Lazarus: one newly departed, another on the bier, the third smelling in the grave: to show us that no degree of death is so desperate as to be past his help.