Luke 9:39

And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:37-42 How deplorable the case of this child! He was under the power of an evil spirit. Disease of that nature are more frightful than such as arise merely from natural causes. What mischief Satan does where he gets possession! But happy those that have access to Christ! He can do that for us which his disciples cannot. A word from Christ healed the child; and when our children recover from sickness, it is comfortable to receive them as healed by the hand of Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in the Matthew 17:14-21 notes, and Mark 9:14-29 notes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 9:37-45. Demoniac and Lunatic Boy Healed—Christ's Second Explicit Announcement of his Death and Resurrection.

(See on [1613]Mr 9:14-32.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 9:37"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And, lo, a spirit taketh him,.... An evil spirit, the devil, as in Luke 9:42 seizes and possesses him at once,

and he suddenly crieth out; in a most terrible manner, giving dreadful shrieks, as soon as he perceives that he is seized by the demon:

and it teareth him, that he foameth again; throws him into convulsions, so that he foams at the mouth: and so we read (t) of a son of a certain Jew, that

"a certain spirit passed before him and hurt him, convulsed his mouth, and his eyes, and his hands were convulsed, and he could not speak.''

And bruising him; by dashing him against the wall, or throwing him to the ground:

hardly departeth from him; is very loath to leave him, even after he has distressed, convulsed, and bruised him in this dreadful manner, such was his cruelty and malice; See Gill on Matthew 17:15, Mark 9:18.

(t) Zohar in Lev. fol. 21. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and {k} bruising him hardly departeth from him.

(k) As it happens in the falling sickness.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 9:39. κράζει, he (the boy) crieth.—σπαράσσει, he (the demon) teareth him.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

39. a spirit taketh him] This was the supernatural aspect of his deafness, epilepsy, and madness. St Matthew gives the natural aspect when he says, “he is a lunatic, and sore vexed, &c.,” Luke 17:15.

Luke 9:39

Vincent's Word Studies

Taketh (λαμβάνει)

See on Mark 9:18.

Suddenly (ἐξαίφνης)

Used only once outside of the writings of Luke: Mark 13:36. Naturally, frequent in medical writers, of sudden attacks of disease. Luke has more medical details in his account than the other evangelists. He mentions the sudden coming on of the fits, and their lasting a long time. Mr. Hobart remarks that Aretaeus, a physician of Luke's time, in treating of epilepsy, admits the possibility of its being produced by demoniacal agency. Epilepsy was called by physicians "the sacred disease."

Bruising (συντρῖβον)

See on bruised, Luke 4:18. The word literally means crushing together. Rev. expresses the σύν, together, by sorely. Compare the details in Mark, gnashing the teeth and pining away (Mark 9:18). The details in Mark 9:21, Mark 9:22, we might rather expect to find in Luke; especially Christ's question, how long he had been subject to these attacks. See note on Mark 9:18.