Matthew 5:40

“And if any man will sue thee at the law, etc.] Or “will contend with thee”, or as the Syriac renders it, Æm[ ˆwdnd, “will strive”, or “litigate with thee”; not contest the matter, or try the cause in an open court of judicature, a sense our version inclines to; but will wrangle and quarrel in a private way, in order to take away thy coat, by force and violence, let him have thy cloak also; do not forbid, or hinder him from taking it; (see <420629>Luke 6:29). The “coat”, is the same with tylj, “the upper garment”: and what we render a “cloak”, answers to qwlj, “the inward garment”; by which words Sangari expresses the passage in the place before cited: and the sense is, if a wrangling,…”

“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take way thy coat--the inner garment; in pledge for a debt (Exo 22:26-27). let him have thy cloak also--the outer and more costly garment. This overcoat was not allowed to be retained over night as a pledge from the poor because they used it for a bed covering.”

“An eye for an eye ... - This command is found in Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21. In these places it was given as a rule to regulate the decisions of judges. They were to take eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, and to inflict burning for burning. As a judicial rule it is not unjust. Christ finds no fault with the rule as applied to magistrates, and does not take upon himself to repeal it. But instead of confining it to magistrates, the Jews had extended it to private conduct, and made it the rule by which to take revenge. They considered themselves justified by this rule to inflict the same injury on others that they had received. Our Saviour remonstrates against this. He…”

“Where the damage is not great, choose rather to suffer it, though possibly it may on that account be repeated, than to demand an eye for an eye, to enter into a rigorous prosecution of the offender. The meaning of the whole passage seems to be, rather than return evil for evil, when the wrong is purely personal, submit to one bodily wrong after another, give up one part of your goods after another, submit to one instance of compulsion after another. That the words are not literally to be understood, appears from the behaviour of our Lord himself, Joh 18:22-23. Matthew 5:42”

“Luk 6:29; Co1 6:7 Matthew 5:41”