---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Luke 21"
description: "CHAPTER 21   :-. THE WIDOW"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/luke/21"
---

CHAPTER 21

. THE WIDOW'S
TWO MITES.

**1. looked up**—He had "sat
down over against the treasury" (), probably to rest, for He had continued long standing as
he taught in the temple court (), and "looking up He saw"—as in Zaccheus' case,
not quite casually.
**the rich,** c.—"the
people," says [Mark 12:41](../../../kjv/mark/12/41)
"cast money into the treasury, and many rich east in much"
that is, into chests deposited in one of the courts of the temple to
receive the offerings of the people towards its maintenance ([2 Kings 12:9](../../../kjv/2-kings/12/9);
[John 8:20](../../../kjv/john/8/20)).

**2. two mites**—"which make
a farthing" ([Mark 12:42](../../../kjv/mark/12/42)),
the smallest Jewish coin. "She might have kept one"
[BENGEL].

**3. And he said**—"to His
disciples," whom He "called to Him" (), to teach from it a great future lesson.
**more than . . . all**—in
proportion to her means, which is God's standard ().

**4. of their abundance**—their
*superfluity;* what they had to spare," or beyond what they
needed.
**of her penury**—or "want"
([Mark 12:44](../../../kjv/mark/12/44)) —her *deficiency,*
of what was *less* than her own wants required, "all the
living she had." Mark ([Mark 12:44](../../../kjv/mark/12/44)) still more emphatically, "all that she had—her
whole subsistence." *Note:* (1) *As temple offerings are
needed still for the service of Christ at home and abroad, so
"looking down" now, as then "up," Me "sees"
who "cast in," and how much.* (2) *Christ's standard
of commendable offering is not our superfluity, but our
deficiency*—not what will never be missed, but what costs us
some real sacrifice, and just in proportion to the relative amount of
that sacrifice. (See [Mark 12:44](../../../kjv/mark/12/44).)
[Mark 12:44](../../../kjv/mark/12/44). CHRIST'S
PROPHECY OF THE
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
AND WARNINGS TO
PREPARE FOR HIS
SECOND COMING,
SUGGESTED BY IT—HIS
DAYS AND NIGHTS
DURING HIS LAST
WEEK.

**5-7.** (See on .)

**8. the time**—of the Kingdom, in
its full glory.
**go . . . not . . . after
them**—"I come not so very soon" ([2 Thessalonians 2:1](../../../kjv/2-thessalonians/2/1);
[2 Thessalonians 2:2](../../../kjv/2-thessalonians/2/2)) [STIER].

**9-11. not terrified**—(See
[Luke 21:19](../../../kjv/luke/21/19); [Isaiah 8:11-14](../../../kjv/isaiah/8/11-14)).
**end not by and by**—or
immediately, not yet ([Matthew 24:6](../../../kjv/matthew/24/6);
[Mark 13:7](../../../kjv/mark/13/7)): that is, "Worse
must come before all is over."

**10. Nation,** c.—Matthew and
Mark ([Matthew 24:8](../../../kjv/matthew/24/8) [Mark 13:8](../../../kjv/mark/13/8))
add, "All these are the beginning of sorrows," or travail
pangs, to which heavy calamities are compared ([Mark 13:8](../../../kjv/mark/13/8), &c.).

**9-11. not terrified**—(See
[Luke 21:19](../../../kjv/luke/21/19); [Isaiah 8:11-14](../../../kjv/isaiah/8/11-14)).
**end not by and by**—or
immediately, not yet ([Matthew 24:6](../../../kjv/matthew/24/6);
[Mark 13:7](../../../kjv/mark/13/7)): that is, "Worse
must come before all is over."

**12. brought before,** &c.—The
book of Acts verifies all this.

**13. for a testimony**—an
opportunity of bearing testimony.

**18. not a hair . . . perish**—He
had just said ([Luke 21:16](../../../kjv/luke/21/16)) they
should be *put to death;* showing that this precious promise is
far above immunity from mere bodily harm, and furnishing a key to the
right interpretation of the ninety-first Psalm, and such like.
Matthew adds the following ([Luke 21:16](../../../kjv/luke/21/16)): "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of
many," the many or, the most—the generality of professed
disciples—"shall wax cold." But he that endureth to the
end shall be saved. Sad illustrations of the effect of abounding
iniquity in cooling the love of faithful disciples we have in the
*Epistle of James,* written about this period referred to, and
too frequently ever since ([Hebrews 10:38](../../../kjv/hebrews/10/38);
[Hebrews 10:39](../../../kjv/hebrews/10/39); [Revelation 2:10](../../../kjv/revelation/2/10)).
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness, and then shall the end come" ([Revelation 2:10](../../../kjv/revelation/2/10)). God never sends judgment without previous warning; and
there can be no doubt that the Jews, already dispersed over most
known countries, had nearly all heard the Gospel "as a witness,"
before the end of the Jewish state. The same principle was repeated
and will repeat itself to *the* end.

**20, 21. by armies**—encamped
armies, that is, besieged: "the abomination of desolation"
(meaning the Roman ensigns, as the symbols of an idolatrous, pagan,
unclean power) "spoken of by Daniel the prophet" () "standing where it ought not" (). "Whoso readeth [that prophecy] let him understand"
([Matthew 24:15](../../../kjv/matthew/24/15)).
**Then . . . flee,**
c.—EUSEBIUS says the
Christians fled to *Pella,* at the north extremity of Perea,
being "prophetically directed" perhaps by some prophetic
intimation still more explicit than this, which still would be their
*chart.*

**23. woe unto**—"alas for."
**with child,** c.—from the
greater suffering it would involve as also "flight in winter,
and on the sabbath," which they were to "pray" against
([Matthew 24:20](../../../kjv/matthew/24/20)), the one as more
trying to the body, the other to the soul. "For then shall be
tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor
ever shall be"—language not unusual in the Old Testament for
tremendous calamities, though of this it may perhaps be literally
said, "And except those days should be shortened, there should
no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake those days shall be
shortened" ([Matthew 24:21](../../../kjv/matthew/24/21);
[Matthew 24:22](../../../kjv/matthew/24/22)). But for this merciful
"shortening," brought about by a remarkable concurrence of
causes, the whole nation would have perished, in which there yet
remained a remnant to be afterwards gathered out. Here in Matthew and
Mark ([Matthew 24:24](../../../kjv/matthew/24/24); [Mark 13:22](../../../kjv/mark/13/22))
are some particulars about "false Christs," who should, "*if
possible*"—a precious clause—"deceive the very
elect." (Compare [2 Thessalonians 2:9-11](../../../kjv/2-thessalonians/2/9-11);
[Revelation 13:13](../../../kjv/revelation/13/13).)

**24. Jerusalem . . . trodden down . .
. until,** c.—Implying (1) that one day Jerusalem shall cease to
be "trodden down by the *Gentiles*" (), as then by pagan so now by Mohammedan unbelievers (2) that
this shall be at the "completion" of "the times of the
Gentiles," which from (taken from this) we conclude to mean till the Gentiles
have had their *full time* of that place in the Church which the
Jews in *their time* had before them—after which, the Jews
being again "grafted into their own olive tree," one Church
of Jew and Gentile together shall fill the earth (). What a vista this opens up!

**25-28. signs,** c.—Though the
grandeur of this language carries the mind over the head of all
periods but that of Christ's second coming, nearly every expression
will be found used of the Lord's coming in terrible national
judgments, as of Babylon, &c. and from [Luke 21:28](../../../kjv/luke/21/28);
[Luke 21:32](../../../kjv/luke/21/32), it seems undeniable
that its *immediate* reference was to the destruction of
Jerusalem, though its *ultimate* reference beyond doubt is to
Christ's final coming.

**28. redemption**—from the
oppression of ecclesiastical despotism and legal bondage by the total
subversion of the Jewish state and the firm establishment of the
evangelical kingdom ([Luke 21:31](../../../kjv/luke/21/31)).
But the words are of far wider and more precious import. Matthew ([Luke 21:31](../../../kjv/luke/21/31)) says, "And then shall appear *the sign* of the
Son of man in heaven," evidently something distinct from
Himself, mentioned immediately after. What this was intended to mean,
interpreters are not agreed. But as before Christ came to destroy
Jerusalem, some appalling portents were seen in the air, so before
His personal appearing it is likely that something *analogous*
will be witnessed, though of what nature it is vain to conjecture.

**32. This generation**—not "this
nation," as some interpret it, which, though admissible in
itself, seems very unnatural here. It is rather as in .

**34-37. surfeiting, and
drunkenness**—All animal excesses, quenching spirituality.
**cares of this life**—(See
on ; ).

**36. Watch . . . pray,** &c.—the
two great duties which in prospect of trial are constantly enjoined.
These warnings, suggested by the need of preparedness for the
tremendous calamities approaching, and the total wreck of the
existing state of things, are the *general improvement* of the
whole discourse, carrying the mind forward to Judgment and Vengeance
of another kind and on a grander and more awful scale—not
ecclesiastical or political but personal, not temporal but
eternal—when all safety and blessedness will be found to lie in
being able to "STAND BEFORE
THE SON OF MAN"
in the glory of His personal appearing.

**37, 38. in the daytime**—of this
His last week.
**abode in the mount**—that
is, at Bethany ([Matthew 21:17](../../../kjv/matthew/21/17)).

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