Luke 6:23

Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) Leap for joy.—The word is peculiar to St. Luke in the New Testament, and occurs elsewhere only in Luke 1:41; Luke 1:44.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:20-26 Here begins a discourse of Christ, most of which is also found in Mt 5; 7. But some think that this was preached at another time and place. All believers that take the precepts of the gospel to themselves, and live by them, may take the promises of the gospel to themselves, and live upon them. Woes are denounced against prosperous sinners as miserable people, though the world envies them. Those are blessed indeed whom Christ blesses, but those must be dreadfully miserable who fall under his woe and curse! What a vast advantage will the saint have over the sinner in the other world! and what a wide difference will there be in their rewards, how much soever the sinner may prosper, and the saint be afflicted here!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That hunger now - Matthew has it, "that hunger and thirst after righteousness." Matthew has expressed more fully what Luke has briefly, but there is no contradiction.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. leap for joy—a livelier word than "be exceeding glad" of "exult" (Mt 5:12).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 6:21"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Rejoice ye in that day,.... When they should be hated, discarded, reproached, and anathematized: and leap for joy; as if the greatest honour and happiness imaginable had been conferred on them; and as persons do, when in the greatest rapture:

for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets; See Gill on Matthew 5:12.

Geneva Study Bible

Rejoice ye in that day, and {e} leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

(e) Leap for exceeding joy, as cattle do who are spurred on by food.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 6:23. Ἐν ἐκείνῃ τ. ἡμερ.] in which they shall have thus dealt with you. σκιρτήσατε: leap for joy.

Moreover, see on Matthew 5:12; and as to the repeated γάρ, the second of which is explanatory, on Matthew 6:32; Matthew 18:11; Romans 8:6.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 6:23. σκιρτήσατε, leap for joy; the word occurs in Luke 1:41; Luke 1:44, and this and other terms found in the sermon have led some to infer that Lk. uses as his source a version of the discourse emanating from a Jewish-Christian circle. Vide the list of words in J. Weiss, Meyer, note, p. 387. Vide also Feine, Vork. Überlief.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. Rejoice ye in that day] See Acts 5:41. “We glory in tribulation;” Romans 5:3; James 1:2-3; Colossians 1:24; Hebrews 11:26. They accepted with joy that ‘ignominy of Christ’ which made the very name of ‘Christian’ a term of execration; 1 Peter 4:14; 1 Peter 4:16.

in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets] Elijah and his contemporaries, 1 Kings 19:10. Hanani imprisoned by Asa, 2 Chronicles 16:10. Micaiah imprisoned, 1 Kings 22:27. Zechariah stoned by Joash, 2 Chronicles 24:20-21. Urijah slain by Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 26:23. Jeremiah imprisoned, smitten and put in the stocks, Jeremiah 32:38. Amos slandered, expelled, and perhaps beaten to death (Amos 7). Isaiah (according to tradition) sawn asunder, Hebrews 11:37, &c. See the same reproach against the Jews in Hebrews 11:36-38; Acts 7:52; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 6:23. Ἐν, in) See Romans 2:16, note.—σκιρτήσατε, leap for joy) The reward must surely be a great one: since He who thus commands us, is One whose words contain no hyperbole.—κατὰ ταῦτα, according to these things) Characteristics and means of distinguishing character may be derived from examples: so Luke 6:26. Hebr. כָּאֵלֶּה, LXX. κατὰ ταῦτα, Numbers 28:24; but κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ is the formula, Ezekiel 45:25. And this is the reading of Epiphanius and the Cambridge MS. here.[62]

[62] BDQ read κατὰ τὰ αὐτά; ‘eadem’ in c; ‘similiter’ in a; ‘sic’ in d. But b and Vulg. have “secundum hæc;” and AP Orig. 3,466a with Rec. Text, κατὰ ταῦτα.—ED.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. Well and faithfully did his followers in after, days fulfil their Master's prophetic charge. Not only did men like Paul and his brother apostles welcome persecution "for the Name" with joy, but long after Paul and his fellows had "fallen asleep," Christians in well-nigh every populous centre of the empire followed the same glorious lead. Indeed, we find the great teachers of the faith positively condemning the fiery zeal of men and women who even too literally obeyed this and other like charges of their adored Master, who positively courted a painful martyrdom, too willingly throwing away their lives, so deeply had words like these burned into their souls. The terrible persecutions which many of the old Hebrew prophets underwent were well known. These men of God endured this treatment during several generations, while evil princes sat on the thrones of Judah and Israel. Thus Elijah mourned the wholesale massacre of his brother prophets when Ahab and Jezebel reigned (1 Kings 19:10). Urijah was slain by Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:23). Jeremiah himself underwent long and painful persecution. Amos was accused and banished, and, according to tradition, beaten to death. Isaiah, so the Jews said, was sawn asunder by order of King Manasseh. These are only a few instances of the treatment which faithful prophets of the Lord had undergone. Luke 6:23

Vincent's Word Studies

Leap for joy (σκιρτήσατε)

See Luke 1:41, Luke 1:44. Compare Matthew, be exceeding glad (ἀγαλλιἄσθε: see on 1 Peter 1:6).

Their fathers

Peculiar to Luke.