With no more trouble than he expended in digging, he might have gone to the exchangers. The verse should be read interrogatively, Didst thou indeed know this of me? Thou shouldst then have acted with time promptness and care which one observes in dealing with a hard master. To omit the interrogation is to make the Lord admit that he was a hard master.

Lit., throw or fling down, as one would throw a bag of coin upon the exchanger's table.

Exchangers (τραπεζίταις)

Taking their name from the table or counter at which they sat (τράπεζα). The Jewish bankers bore precisely the same name.

Usury (τόκῳ)

A very graphic word, meaning first child-birth, and then offspring. Hence of interest, which is the produce or offspring of capital. Originally it was only what was paid for the use of money; hence usury; but it became synonymous with extortionate interest. Rev., better, with interest. The Jewish law distinguished between interest and increase. In Rome very high interest seems to have been charged in early times. Practically usury was unlimited. It soon became the custom to charge monthly interest at one per cent a month. During the early empire legal interest stood at eight per cent., but in usurious transactions it was lent at twelve, twenty-four, and even forty-eight. The Jewish bankers of Palestine and elsewhere were engaged in the same undertakings. The law of Moses denounced usury in the transactions of Hebrews with Hebrews, but permitted it in dealing with strangers (Deuteronomy 23:19, Deuteronomy 23:20; Psalm 15:5).

The whole human race; though the word is generally employed in the New Testament to denote Gentiles as distinguished from Jews.

Separate them (αὐτοὺς)

Masculine, while the word nations is neuter. Nations are regarded as gathered collectively; but in contemplating the act of separation the Lord regards the individuals.

The sheep from the goats (or kids, so Rev. in margin)

"The bald division of men into sheep and goats is, in one sense, so easy as not to be worth performing; and in another sense it is so hard as only to be possible for something with supernatural insight" (John Morley, "Voltaire"). Goats are an appropriate figure, because the goat was regarded as a comparatively worthless animal. Hence the point of the elder son's complaint in the parable of the Prodigal: Not so much as a kid (Luke 15:29). The diminutive (ἐρίφια) expresses contempt.

Diminutive. Lit., kidlings. The sheep and goats are represented as having previously pastured together. Compare the parables of the Tares and the Net.

On the right (ἐκ δεξιῶν)

Lit., form the right side or parts. The picture to the Greek reader is that of a row, beginning at the judge's right hand.

Tynd., I was harbourless and ye lodged me. The preposition and implies along with. Ye took me with you into the household circle.

Lit., Ye looked upon. Our word visit is from the Latin viso, to look steadfastly at, and thence to visit. We retain the original thought in the popular phrases go to see one, and to look in upon one.

The word in the Greek order is emphatic: One of these my brethren, the least. So Rev., even these least.

The present tense expresses here something which, though future, is as good as present, because already determined, or because it must ensue in virtue of an unalterable law. Thus the passover is (γίνεται): it must come round at the fixed season. The Son of Man is betrayed according to the divine decree. Compare Matthew 26:24.

But the word never means palace in the New Testament. It is the court, the open court or hall, forming the centre of an oriental building, and often used as a meeting-place. Rev., court. Wyc., hall.

Rev., cruse; flask in margin. Lit., an alabaster, just as we call a drinking-vessel made of glass a glass. Luther renders glass. It was a kind of cruet, having a cylindrical form at the top. Pliny compares these vessels to a closed rosebud, and says that ointments are best preserved in them.

Wyc., Whereto this loss? Tynd., What needed this waste? See on John 12:3.

The A. V. implies that some time elapsed before Jesus was aware of the disciples' complaint. But the statement is that Jesus perceived it at once. Rev., rightly, Jesus perceiving it.

Good work (καλὸν)

Lit., beautiful, but in a moral sense: an excellent, morally beautiful deed.