Luke 12:59

I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(59) I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence . . .—See Note on Matthew 5:26. St. Luke substitutes the yet smaller coin, the “mite,” or half-quadrans (see Note on Mark 12:42), for the “farthing” of St. Matthew.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:54-59 Christ would have the people to be as wise in the concerns of their souls as they are in outward affairs. Let them hasten to obtain peace with God before it is too late. If any man has found that God has set himself against him concerning his sins, let him apply to him as God in Christ reconciling the world to himself. While we are alive, we are in the way, and now is our time.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 5:25-26.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

58. When thou goest, &c.—(See on [1654]Mt 5:25, 26). The urgency of the case with them, and the necessity, for their own safety, of immediate decision, was the object of these striking words.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 12:57"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I tell thee,.... The Syriac version before these words, prefixes an "Amen", or "verily", for the sake of the stronger affirmation, which seems to be taken from Matthew 5:26

thou shalt not depart thence; get out of prison:

till thou hast paid the very last mite: of the sum in debate, which was what the Jews call a "prutah", and that was the eighth part of an Italian farthing, and half a common farthing; See Gill on Mark 12:42, with this agrees what Mainonides says (y), that

"when he that lends, requires what he has lent, though he is rich, and the borrower is distressed, and straitened for food, there is no mercy showed him in judgment, but his debt is, demanded of him, , "unto the last prutah, or mite".''

(y) Hilchot M. vah. c. 1. sect. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 12:59. λεπτὸν, the half of a κοδράντης (Mt.’s word), making the necessity of full payment in order to release from prison still more emphatic.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

59. till thou hast paid the very last mite] Mite is lepton (minutum), the smallest of all coins, Mark 12:42. If it be asked, ‘can this ever be paid?’ the answer of course is, as far as the parable is concerned, ‘it depends entirely on whether the debt be great or small.’ As far as the application of the parable is concerned, the answer lies out of the contemplated horizon of the illustration, nor is there any formal answer to it. But if it be asserted that no man’s debt to God, which he has incurred by his sins, however ‘common to man,’ can ever be paid by him, we are at least permitted to find hope in the thought that Christ has paid our debt for us (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6). The general lesson is that of which Scripture is full, “Seek ye the Lord while He maybe found,” Is. Iv. 6; Psalm 32:6; Hebrews 4:7.

Luke 12:59