Luke 15:9

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:1-10 The parable of the lost sheep is very applicable to the great work of man's redemption. The lost sheep represents the sinner as departed from God, and exposed to certain ruin if not brought back to him, yet not desirous to return. Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. In the parable of the lost piece of silver, that which is lost, is one piece, of small value compared with the rest. Yet the woman seeks diligently till she finds it. This represents the various means and methods God makes use of to bring lost souls home to himself, and the Saviour's joy on their return to him. How careful then should we be that our repentance is unto salvation!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ten pieces of silver - In the original, ten "drachmas." The drachma was about the value of fifteen cents, and consequently the whole sum was about a dollar and a half, or six shillings. The sum was small, but it was all she had. The loss of one piece, therefore, was severely felt.

There is joy in the presence ... - Jesus in this parable expresses the same sentiment which he did in the preceding. A woman would have more immediate, present, joy at finding a lost piece, than she would in the possession of those which had not been lost. "So," says Christ, there is joy among the angels at the recovery of a single sinner.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 15:8-10. II. The Lost Coin.

8. sweep the house—"not done without dust on man's part" [Bengel].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 15:8"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends,.... See Gill on Luke 15:6 a parable somewhat like to this, the Jews (x) have on those words in Proverbs 2:4 "If thou seekest her as silver", &c.

"it is like to a man that has lost a "shekel", (a piece of money,) or beryl rings, within his house; he lights up many lamps and many candles, until he lights on them; and lo, these things much more: for if a man for the things of the temporary life of this world, lights many lamps and candles, until he lights upon them and finds them; the words of the law, since they are the life of this world, and the life of the world to come, shouldest thou not search after them as for hidden treasure?''

(x) Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 1. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 15:9. συγκαλεῖ: this calling together of friends and neighbours (feminine in this case, τὰς φ. καὶ τὰς γ.) peculiarly natural in the case of a woman; hence perhaps the reading of T.R., συγκαλεῖται, the middle being more subjective. The finding would appeal specially to feminine sympathies, if the lost drachma was not part of a hoard to meet some debt, but belonged to a string of coins worn as an ornament round the head, then as now, by married women in the East, as Tristram suggests (Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, p. 76). This view, favoured by Farrar, is ignored by most commentators.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. I have found the piece which I had lost] She does not say ‘my piece.’ If the woman be intended to represent the Church, the loss of the ‘piece’ entrusted to her may be in part, at least, her own fault.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 15:9. Συγκαλεῖται, calleth together) forthwith.—τὰς φίλας καὶ τὰς γείτονας; female friends and neighbours) The angelic forces, viewed in themselves, have no distinction of sex. They are, however, regarded as acting either at home or abroad; Hebrews 1:14, note: when abroad, they are represented in man’s attire, which is suited to war: when at home, in the attire suited to peace, and which is that usually assigned to women.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 9, 10. - And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Again, as in the parable of the lost sheep, we find this longing for sympathy; again the finding of this sympathy in heavenly places, among heavenly beings, is especially recorded. There is a slight difference in the language of rejoicing here. In the first parable it was, "Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost;" here, "...for I have found the piece which I had lost." In the first it was the anguish of the sheep which was the central point of the story; in the second it was the distress of the woman who had lost something; hence this difference in the wording. "What grandeur belongs to the picture of this humble rejoicing which this poor woman celebrates with her neighbours, when it becomes the transparency through which we get a glimpse of God himself, rejoicing with his elect and his angels over the salvation of a single sinner!" (Godet). Luke 15:9

Vincent's Word Studies

Her friends

Female friends, for the noun is used in the feminine form.

Ilost

Through her own carelessness. Of the sheep, Jesus says "was lost." "A sheep strays of itself, but a piece of money could only be lost by a certain negligence on the part of such as should have kept it" (Trench). In the one case, the attention is fastened on the condition of the thing lost; in the other, upon the sorrow of the one who has lost.