whilst He is commanding us to pray, He implants the desire, to which it is He too that hearkens. See ch. x. 1. These same persons who are commanded to pray [for labourers], are presently appointed labourers themselves (ibid.) — Kup/ou, the Lord} see ch. x. 1, xiii. 37. Christ is the Lord of the harvest. — onus Jx/SaXX?),1 to send forth) ex/3aXXs/i<2 does not always imply force, as it does in ver. 33.
1. Ka/, and) This is clearly connected with the end of ch. ix., as the repeated mention of sheep indicates. He sends, before He is greatly entreated to do so. — KpoffxaXiffd'Aivos, having called to Him) solemnly.3 All did not hear and see all things toge ther. — ro\tg dudtxa /AaSjjrdj, the twelve disciples)* In the following verse they are called the twelve apostles. Matthew the apostle calls them apostles once, sc. in the present passage, where they
1 E. M. £*/3«Aj}.— (I. B.)
2 See Author's Preface, Sect. xiv. and footnotes. — (I. B.)
3 This is that remarkable embassy or mission, to which the Lord appeals in Luke xxii. 35. He sent forth the Seventy also without purse, scrip, and shoes, Luke x. 4. But in Luke xxii. 35 He is speaking not of the Seventy, but of the Apostles. We have the return of the Apostles recorded in Mark vi. 30, Luke ix. 10. In the intervening period, the Lord is represented more than once as having had the disciples present with Him, Matt. xii. 1, 49, xiii. 10 ; Mark vi. 1. I feel well persuaded, that no considerable portion of that time elapsed, without the Saviour having had present with Him at least some of His Apostles, as witnesses of those most important things, which He during that time both spake and performed. Nor even was the whole body of the Apostles long away from Him ; comp. ver. 23. Meanwhile they re turned one after the other : in which way it may have happened that some individuals out of the Twelve are named oi §&>§£xa ; or even it may have been that, coming and going from time to time, they took their turns with the Lord, when making His journeys, until at length it was the privilege of them all to be with Him together again. It seems indeed to be tacitly intimated in Luke ix. 10, that their actual return took place somewhat earlier, their narration or report of their proceedings following subsequently more than once. — Harm., p. 292.
4 The election of whom as Apostles, the sacred writer takes for granted as having taken place before the sermon on the mountain. — V. g.