SEV Biblia, Chapter 18:25
Mas a ste, no pudiendo pagar, mand su seor venderle, y a su mujer e hijos, con todo lo que tenía, y pagar.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 18:25
Verse 25. He had not to pay] That is not being able to pay. As there could not be the smallest probability that a servant, wholly dependent on his master, who was now absolutely insolvent, could ever pay a debt he had contracted of more than 67 millions! -so is it impossible for a sinner, infinitely indebted to Divine justice, ever to pay a mite out of the talent. Commanded him to be sold-his wife-children, &c.] Our Lord here alludes to an ancient custom among the Hebrews, of selling a man and his family to make payment of contracted debts. See Exodus xxii. 3; Lev. xxv. 30, 47; 2 Kings iv. 1. This custom passed from among the Jews to the Greeks and Romans. I have already remarked (see Gen. xlvii. 19) that in the Burman empire the sale of whole families, to discharge debts, is very common.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 25. But forasmuch as he had not to pay , etc.] Every sinner is insolvent; sinful man has run out the whole stock of nature, and is become a bankrupt, and has nothing to offer by way of composition; nor has he any righteousness to answer for him, nor any works of righteousness which deserve that name: and if he had, these are nothing in point of payment: for a debt of sin cannot be discharged by a debt of obedience; since God has a prior right to the latter; and in paying it, a man does but what is his duty.
Sin being committed against an infinite God, contracts the nature of an infinite debt, which cannot be paid off by a finite creature. Christ only was able to pay this debt, and he has done it for his people; and without an interest in his blood, righteousness, and satisfaction, every debtor is liable to be cast, and will be cast into the prison of hell, there to lie till the uttermost farthing of the ten thousand talents is paid, which will be to all eternity. We see what a sad condition sin has brought men into; it has stripped them of their estates and possessions; it has reduced them to want and beggary; it exposes them to a prison; to the just resentments of their creditor; to the wrath of God, and the curses of the law; and what little reason there is to think, yea, how impossible it is, that a man should be able to merit anything at the hands of God, to whom he is so greatly indebted: he must first pay his debts, which is a thing impracticable, before he can pretend to do anything deserving the notice of God; and even was he set free, and clear of all his debts, and entered upon a new life of obedience, and this strictly attended to, without contracting any debts for the future, yet all this would be but what is due to God, and could merit nothing of him; (see Luke 17:10 Romans 11:35). We see also from hence, how much the saints are obliged to Christ Jesus, and how thankful they should be to him, who became a surety for such insolvent creatures; has paid all their debts for them, and procured for them every blessing of grace they stand in need of: but think, O sinner, what thou wilt be able to say and do, when God comes to reckon with thee, and thou hast nothing to pay, nor any to pay for thee, or be thy surety; a prison must be thy portion ever. His Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had ; according to the Jewish laws, in such a case: of a mans being sold, or selling himself when poor, (see Leviticus 25:47), for the law in ( Exodus 22:3), referred to by some as an instance of this, respects the selling of a man for theft, and not for debt. Of the selling of a mans wife for the payment of his debts, I do not remember to have read any law concerning it, or instances of it; but of children being taken for bondmen by the creditor, for their fathers debts, mention is made, ( 2 Kings 4:1).
These children, by the Jewish writers f1020 , are said to be the children of Obadiah, who contracted the debt to feed the prophets in a cave, when they were persecuted by Jezebel; and the creditor, according to them, was Jehoram, the son of Ahab, who lent him money on usury for this purpose, in his fathers time; and now Obadiah being dead, he takes his children for the debt, and makes them bondmen; see also ( Nehemiah 5:5). There seems to be an allusion to this practice, in ( Isaiah 50:1), and it was not only the custom of the Jews to come upon children for the debts of parents, but of other nations: with the Athenians, if a father could not pay his debts, the son was obliged to pay, and in the mean while to be kept in bonds till he did f1021 : and as Grotius, in ( 2 Kings 4:1) proves from Plutarch and Dionysius Halicarnassensis, children were sold by the creditors of their parents, as in Asia, at Athens, and at Rome. Now this expresses the state of bondage, sin, as a debt, brings men into; they become slaves to their own lusts, vassals of Satan, and in bondage to the law; and also the ruin and destruction it exposes them to; as, the curse and condemnation of the law, the wrath of God, eternal death, even the destruction of body and soul in hell: and payment to be made by punishment, which will always be making, and never finished. This order of the king was not intended to be executed, as the sequel shows; but declares the will of God, that the sad and woeful condition of man should be set before him by the ministers of the word; signifying what his state is, how deserving of vengeance, and what must be his portion, if grace prevent not: the view of which is to vindicate the rights of law and justice, to express the sinners deserts, and move him to apply to the Lord for grace and mercy, which effect it had.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 21-35 - Though we live wholly on mercy and forgiveness, we are backward to forgive the offences of our brethren. This parable shows how muc provocation God has from his family on earth, and how untoward his servants are. There are three things in the parable: 1. The master' wonderful clemency. The debt of sin is so great, that we are not able to pay it. See here what every sin deserves; this is the wages of sin to be sold as a slave. It is the folly of many who are under stron convictions of their sins, to fancy they can make God satisfaction for the wrong they have done him. 2. The servant's unreasonable severit toward his fellow-servant, notwithstanding his lord's clemency towar him. Not that we may make light of wronging our neighbour, for that is also a sin against God; but we should not aggravate our neighbour' wronging us, nor study revenge. Let our complaints, both of the wickedness of the wicked, and of the afflictions of the afflicted, be brought to God, and left with him. 3. The master reproved his servant' cruelty. The greatness of sin magnifies the riches of pardoning mercy and the comfortable sense of pardoning mercy, does much to dispose ou hearts to forgive our brethren. We are not to suppose that God actuall forgives men, and afterwards reckons their guilt to them to condem them; but this latter part of the parable shows the false conclusion many draw as to their sins being pardoned, though their after-conduc shows that they never entered into the spirit, or experienced the sanctifying grace of the gospel. We do not forgive our offendin brother aright, if we do not forgive from the heart. Yet this is no enough; we must seek the welfare even of those who offend us. Ho justly will those be condemned, who, though they bear the Christia name, persist in unmerciful treatment of their brethren! The humble sinner relies only on free, abounding mercy, through the ransom of the death of Christ. Let us seek more and more for the renewing grace of God, to teach us to forgive others as we hope for forgiveness from him __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
μη 3361 PRT-N εχοντος 2192 5723 V-PAP-GSM δε 1161 CONJ αυτου 846 P-GSM αποδουναι 591 5629 V-2AAN εκελευσεν 2753 5656 V-AAI-3S αυτον 846 P-ASM ο 3588 T-NSM κυριος 2962 N-NSM αυτου 846 P-GSM πραθηναι 4097 5683 V-APN και 2532 CONJ την 3588 T-ASF γυναικα 1135 N-ASF αυτου 846 P-GSM και 2532 CONJ τα 3588 T-APN τεκνα 5043 N-APN και 2532 CONJ παντα 3956 A-APN οσα 3745 K-APN ειχεν 2192 5707 V-IAI-3S και 2532 CONJ αποδοθηναι 591 5683 V-APN
Vincent's NT Word Studies
25. To be sold. According to the law of Moses: Exod. xxii. 3; Leviticus xxv. 39, 47.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
18:25 {Had not wherewith to pay} (me econtos autou apodounai). There is no "wherewith" in the Greek. this idiom is seen in #Lu 7:42; 14:14; Heb 6:13. Genitive absolute though auton in the same clause as often in the N.T. {To be sold} (praqenai). First aorist passive infinitive of pipraskw. this was according to the law (#Ex 22:3; Le 25:39,47). Wife and children were treated as property in those primitive times.
