Then let the feast - for it was prepared by the goodness and liberality of the Host - be for those who were in need of it, and to whom it would be a feast: the poor and those afflicted - the maimed, and blind, and lame, on whom those great citizens who had been first bidden would look down. This, with reference to, and in higher spiritual explanation of, what Christ had previously said about bidding such to our feast of fellowship and love. [4476] Accordingly, the Servant is now directed to go out quickly into the (larger) streets and the (narrow) lanes of the City,' - a trait which shows that the scene is laid in the City,' the professed habitation of God. The importance of this circumstance is evident. It not only explains who the first bidden chief citizens were, but also that these poor were the despised ignorant, and the maimed, lame, and blind - such as the publicans and sinners. These are they in the streets' and lanes;' and the Servant is directed, not only to invite, but to bring them in,' as otherwise they might naturally shrink from coming to such a feast. But even so, there is yet room;' for the great Lord of the house has, in His great liberality, prepared a very great feast for very many. And so the Servant is once more sent, so that the Master's house may be filled.' But now he is bidden to go out,' outside the City, outside the Theocracy, into the highways and hedges,' to those who travel along the world's great highway, or who have fallen down weary, and rest by its hedges; into the busy, or else weary, heathen world. This reference to the heathen world is the more apparent that, according to the Talmud, [4477] there were commonly no hedges round the fields of the Jews. And this time the direction to the Servant is not, as in regard to those naturally bashful outcasts of the City - who would scarcely venture to the great house - to bring them in,' but constrain' [without a pronoun] to come in,' Not certainly as indicating their resistance and implying force, [4478] but as the moral constraint of earnest, pressing invitation, coupled with assurance both of the reality of the feast and of their welcome to it. For, these wanderers on the world's highway had, before the Servant came to them, not known anything of the Master of the house, and all was quite new and unexpected. Their being invited by a Lord Whom they had not known, perhaps never heard of before, to a City in which they were strangers, and to a feast for which - as wayfarers, or as resting by the hedges, or else as working within their enclosure - they were wholly unprepared, required special urgency, a constraining,' to make them either believe in it, or come to it from where the messengers found them, and that without preparing for it by dress or otherwise. And so the house would be filled!
Here the Parable abruptly breaks off. What follows are the words of our Lord in explanation and application of it to the company then present: For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of My supper.' And this was the final answer to this Pharisee and to those with him at that table, and to all such perversion of Christ's Words and misapplication of God's Promises as he and they were guilty of. __________________________________________________________________
[4439] St. Luke xii. 13-21.
[4440] Bekhor viii. 2; Baba B. viii.
[4441] Cases might, however, arise when the claim was doubtful, and then the inheritance would be divided (Baba B. ix. 2). The double part of an eldest son was computed in the following manner. If five sons were left, the property was divided into six parts, and the eldest son had two parts, or one-third of the property. If nine sons were left, the property was divided into ten parts, and the eldest son had two parts, or a fifth of the property. But there were important limitations to this. Thus, the law did not apply to a posthumous son, nor yet in regard to the mother's property, nor to any increase or gain that might have accrued since the father's death. For a brief summary, see Saalschütz, Mos. Recht, pp. 820 &c.