Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Matthew 5:40
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
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, quarrelsome man, insists upon having thy coat, or upper garment, let him take the next; and rather suffer thyself to be stripped naked than engage in a litigious broil with him. This also is contrary to the above canon of the Jews f347, which says; “If a man should pull another by his ear, or pluck off his hair, or spit, and his spittle should come to him, wnmm wtylj ryb[h or “should take his coat from him”, or uncover a woman’s head in the street, he shall pay four hundred “zuzim”, and all this is according to his dignity; says R. Akiba; even the poor in Israel, they consider them as if they were noblemen, who are fallen from their estates, for they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
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