Mark 2:24

And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:23-28 The sabbath is a sacred and Divine institution; a privilege and benefit, not a task and drudgery. God never designed it to be a burden to us, therefore we must not make it so to ourselves. The sabbath was instituted for the good of mankind, as living in society, having many wants and troubles, preparing for a state of happiness or misery. Man was not made for the sabbath, as if his keeping it could be of service to God, nor was he commanded to keep it outward observances to his real hurt. Every observance respecting it, is to be interpreted by the rule of mercy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That which is not lawful - That is, that which they esteemed to be unlawful on the "Sabbath day." It was made lawful by Moses, without any distinction of days, but "they" had denied its lawfulness on the Sabbath. Christ shows them from their own law that it was "not" unlawful.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Mr 2:23-28. Plucking Corn-ears on the Sabbath Day. ( = Mt 12:1-8; Lu 6:1-5).

See on [1410]Mt 12:1-8.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 24. See Poole on "Mark 2:23"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Pharisees said unto him,.... To Christ, the same they said to his disciples, Luke 6:2.

Behold, why do they on the sabbath day, that which is not lawful? see how they pluck the ears of corn and rub them, and eat things, which by the law, especially by the traditions of the elders, were not lawful to be done on the sabbath day; See Gill on Matthew 12:2.

Geneva Study Bible

And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 2:24. ἔλεγον αὐτῷ. In this case they speak to Christ against His disciples; indirectly against Him.—ὁ οὐκ ἔξεστιν: the offence was not trampling the grain or straw, but plucking the ears—reaping on a small scale; rubbing = threshing, in Lk.—χρείαν ἔσχε καὶ ἐπείνασεν: another example of Mk.’s duality, intelligible only if hunger was the point of the story. The verbs are singular, because David (αὐτὸς) is the hero, his followers in the background.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. that which is not lawful] They did not accuse them of theft, for the Law allowed what they were doing (Deuteronomy 23:25). They accused them of profaning the Sabbath. The Law of course forbade reaping and threshing on that day, but the Rabbis tad decided that even to pluck corn was to be construed as reaping, and to rub it as threshing. They even forbad walking on grass as a species of threshing, and would not allow so much as a fruit to be plucked from a tree on that day. See Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Matthew 12:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - That which is not lawful. The supposed unlawfulness was not the plucking of the ears of corn with the hand, which was expressly permitted by the Law (Deuteronomy 23:25), but the plucking and eating on the sabbath day. Mark 2:24