“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.
Parallel Translations
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“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.
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But wo be to you that are ryche: for ye have therin youre consolacion.
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But wo be to you that are rich: for ye haue receiued your consolation.
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Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Luke 6:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 6:2 Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
- Psalms 49:6-7 Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches— none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him.
- 1 Timothy 6:17 Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy;
- James 5:1-6 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.
- Psalms 49:16-19 Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul— and men praise you when you do well for yourself— he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.
- Luke 18:23-25 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was very rich. Jesus, seeing that he became very sad, said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into God’s Kingdom! For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.”
- James 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?
- Proverbs 1:32 For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.
- Amos 6:1-6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come! Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border? Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall; who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
- Job 21:7-15 “Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry. They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance. They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol. They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
- Psalms 73:3-12 For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.
- Amos 4:1-3 Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!” The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold, “The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks. You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon,” says Yahweh.
- Matthew 6:5 “When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
- Matthew 6:16 “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
- Luke 12:15-21 He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.” He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly. He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’ He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
- Luke 16:19-25 “Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was taken to his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.’ “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted, and you are in anguish.
- Jeremiah 5:4-6 Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God. I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.
- Haggai 2:9 ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says Yahweh of Armies; ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ says Yahweh of Armies.”
- Revelation 18:6-8 Return to her just as she returned, and repay her double as she did, and according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double. However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’ Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, you reap now of your riches, all…
That is, you reap now of your riches, all the commodities and blessings you are ever likely to have, and therefore, you have not to look for any other reward, Matt. 6:2.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 24 But woe unto you that are rich! for…
24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.
Ver. 24. But woe unto you that are rich] sc. In this world only, and not to Godward. {See Trapp on "Jas 5:1"} {See Trapp on "Jas 5:3"} {See Trapp on "Jas 5:3"} Every grain of riches hath a vermin of pride and ambition in it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Not because you are rich, but because you are…
Not because you are rich, but because you are not rich towards God, because you look upon your riches as your portion, as your consolation; or, you that are rich in the opinion of your own righteousness.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. That though St. Luke omits divers…
Observe here, 1. That though St. Luke omits divers of the beatitudes mentioned by St. Matthew, chap. 5, yet he recites the woes which St. Matthew omitted. If we will understand our Saviour’s doctrine fully, we must consult all the evangelists thoroughly.
Observe, 2. These woes are not to be understood absolutely, but restrainedly: the woes do not belong to men because they are rich, because they are full, because they do laugh; but because they place their happiness in these things; take up with them for their portions, and rejoice in them as their chief good, valuing themselves by what they have in hand, not by what they have in hope.
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He that is rich and righteous, he that is great and gracious, he that has his hands full of this world, and his heart empty of pride and vain confidence; he that laughs when God smiles, he that expresses himself joyfully when God expresses himself graciously, such a man is rich in grace, who is thus gracious in the midst of riches. For to be rich and holy, argues much riches of holiness.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Woe unto you that are full,.... Not so much…
Woe unto you that are full,.... Not so much with the plenty and affluence of the things of this life, as of themselves, and their own righteousness, and so with conceit, vanity, and pride, and have no appetite for spiritual things, nor do they hunger and thirst after Christ, and the grace that is in him:
for ye shall hunger; not that they shall truly and spiritually desire an interest in Christ, and his righteousness, or heaven and eternal life hereafter; but they shall be in starving and famishing circumstances; and whilst the saints are feeding upon the joys and glories of the other world, compared to a banquet, they shall be without, and have no share in these things; Isa 65:13.
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Woe unto you that laugh now; at sin, rejoice in iniquity, make a mock at it, instead of mourning for it; or that glory in themselves, and in their righteousness, and rejoice in their boastings:
for ye shall mourn and weep; shall be cast into outer darkness, where are weeping, waiting, and gnashing of teeth; and for all the fire they have kindled, and sparks they have encompassed themselves with, and danced in and about, this they shall have at the hand of God, they shall lie down in sorrow, and ever continue in it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Miserable are ye rich - If ye have received…
Miserable are ye rich - If ye have received or sought your consolation or happiness therein.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 24. - 26. But wo unto you that…
Verse 24. - 26. But wo unto you that are rich!] The Pharisees, who were laden with the spoils of the people which they received in gifts, c. These three verses are not found in the sermon, as recorded by Matthew. They seem to be spoken chiefly to the scribes and Pharisees, who, in order to be pleasing to all, spoke to every one what he liked best and by finesse, flattery, and lies, found out the method of gaining and keeping the good opinion of the multitude.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Luk 6:24-25. But wo, &c. — Here we see…
Luk 6:24-25. But wo, &c. — Here we see that this discourse differs very materially from the sermon on the mount; there our Lord pronounced blessings only, here he denounces curses; or, to speak more properly, he compassionately bewails the condition of persons of a contrary character to that of those pronounced happy in the preceding verses. For, as Grotius justly observes, the expression, ουαι υμιν, wo unto you, “vox est dolentis, non irâ incensi,” is the expression of one lamenting, [or bewailing the unhappy condition of another,] not of one inflamed with anger. It is like that used by our Lord, Mat 24:19, wo to them that are with child, &c., in those days; an expression which no one can understand otherwise than as a declaration of the unhappiness of women in these circumstances, at such a time of general calamity as is referred to. The parallel passage in Luk 23:29 where we have the same prophecy, makes this evident. As our Lord, therefore, in the former sentences, pronounces the poor, the needy, the mournful, and the persecuted happy, so he here pronounces the rich, the jovial, and the applauded, miserable; the circumstances in which such are placed being peculiarly insnaring, and the danger being great lest they should be so taken up with the transient pleasures of time, as to forget and forfeit everlasting happiness. His words may be thus paraphrased: Miserable are ye rich — If ye have received or sought your consolation or happiness in your riches. Miserable are you that are full — Of meat and drink, and worldly goods, and take up with these things as your portion; for you shall ere long hunger — Shall fall into a state of great indigence and misery, aggravated by all the plenty which you enjoyed and abused. Miserable are you that laugh — That spend your lives in mirth and gayety, or are of a light, trifling spirit; for you shall mourn and weep — You have reason to expect a portion in those doleful regions, where, without intermission and without end, you shall be abandoned to weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. “Our Lord’s malediction,” [declaration,] says a modern author, “is not inconsistent with the apostle’s precepts, which command Christians always to rejoice. Neither is the mirth against which the wo is here denounced to be understood of that constant cheerfulness of temper, which arises to true Christians from the comfortable and cheerful doctrines with which they are enlightened by the gospel, the assurance they have of reconciliation with God, the hope they have of everlasting life and the pleasure they enjoy in the practice of piety and the other duties of religion. But it is to be understood of that turbulent, carnal mirth, that levity and vanity of spirit, which arises, not from any solid foundation, but from sensual pleasure, or those vain amusements of life by which the giddy and the gay contrive to make away their time; that sort of mirth which dissipates thought, leaves no time for consideration, and gives them an utter aversion to all serious reflections.” Persons who continue to indulge themselves in this sort of mirth through life, shall weep and mourn eternally, when they are excluded from the joys of heaven, and banished for ever from the presence of God, by the light of whose countenance all the blessed are enlightened, and made transcendently happy.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Jesus Christ having declared how meritorious poverty of spirit…
Jesus Christ having declared how meritorious poverty of spirit was to eternal life, proceeds to denounce heavy chastisements upon the rich and proud. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas) --- Although in great riches there are great inducements to sin, yet there are not wanting even in that state great incitements to virtue; neither is this woe aimed against those who abound in affluence; but against "those who abuse that affluence which Providence has bestowed upon them: Non enim census, sed affectus, in crimine est." (St. Ambrose)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain rich . . . full . . . laugh--who…
rich . . . full . . . laugh--who have all their good things and joyous feelings here and now, in perishable objects.
received your consolation--(see on Luk 16:25).
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shall hunger--their inward craving strong as ever, but the materials of satisfaction forever gone.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 24-26. We have no hesitation still to assume, as…
24-26. We have no hesitation still to assume, as in the notes of the parallel passage in Matthew, that our Saviour pronounced for each Blessed an antithetical Woe, which Matthew wholly omits and Luke but partially supplies. And if these are two reports of the same discourse, then what we have noted in Matthew holds good, namely, that the limitation of the objects and sphere of both benedictions and woes are within the compass of religious things, it of course follows that the riches, the laughter, the fulness condemned by the woes, are things adverse in spirit to right and holiness. It is not riches or laughter in themselves, but the wantonness of spirit, the revelry of heart, in the spirit of a wicked and riotous age, against which our Lord threatens a future destitution and mourning.
The contrast between these blessings and woes coincides with the great antithesis between right and wrong, between religion and irreligion, between holiness and wickedness, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, which must ever appear to the pure eye in the entire history, temporal and eternal, of God and man.
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The term woe is indeed softer than the term cursed, pronounced by Jesus, as judge, in the sentence of the final day, in Mat_25:41. This word woe blends compassion with judgment; for it is pronounced in the day of grace and mercy; yet it indicates a destiny as terrible and as irrevocable, though uttered in a tone of genuine pathos, as that final Depart ye cursed. From that unmitigated finality, though pronounced by the same lips, all pathos has departed; for the era of judgment without mercy has arrived.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 24. But woe] While sin lasts, there must still…
24. But woe] While sin lasts, there must still be woes over against Beatitudes, as Ebal stands for ever opposite to Gerizim. In St Matthew also we find (Matthew 23) eight woes as well as eight Beatitudes. See too Jer_17:5-8, but there the “cursed” precedes the “blessed.”
woe unto you that are rich] The ‘woe !’ is not necessarily or wholly denunciatory; it is also the cry of compassion, and of course it only applies—not to a Chuzas or a Nicodemus or a Joseph of Arimathaea,—but to those rich who are not poor in spirit, but trust in riches (Mar_10:24), or are not rich towards God (Luk_12:21) and have not got the true riches (Luk_16:11; Amo_6:1; Jas_5:1). Observe the many parallels between the Epistle of St James and the Sermon on the Mount, Jas_1:2; Jas_1:4-5; Jas_1:9; Jas_1:20; Jas_2:13-14; Jas_2:17-18; Jas_4:4; Jas_4:10-11; Jas_5:2; Jas_5:10; Jas_5:12.
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ye have received your consolation] Rather, ye have to the full, Php_4:18; comp. Luk_16:25, “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst good things.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (24) But woe unto you that are rich!—Better, woe…
(24) But woe unto you that are rich!—Better, woe for you, the tone being, as sometimes (though, as Matthew 23 shows, not uniformly) with this expression, one of pity rather than denunciation. (Comp. Mat_23:13; Mar_13:17; Luk_21:23.) We enter here on what is a distinct feature of the Sermon on the Plain—the woes that, as it were, balance the beatitudes. It obviously lay in St. Luke’s purpose, as a physician of the soul, to treasure up and record all our Lord’s warnings against the perilous temptations that wealth brings with it. The truth thus stated in its naked awfulness is reproduced afterwards in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luk_16:19).
Ye have received your consolation.—Better, simply, ye have your consolation—i.e., all that you understand or care for, all, therefore, that you can have. The thought appears again in the words of Abraham, “Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things” (Luk_16:25). The verb is the same as in “they have their reward,” in Mat_6:2; Mat_6:5.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But woe unto you that are rich! for ye…
But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. These "rich" referred to here signify men of good social position. These, as a class, opposed Jesus with a bitter and unreasoning opposition. Again the same warning cry to the so-called fortunate ones of this world is re-echoed with greater force in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. "Thou in thy lifetime," said Abraham, speaking from Paradise to the poor lost Dives, "receivedst thy good things;" and yet the very characters represented in that most awful of the parable-stories of the pitiful Lord correct any false notion which, from words like these, men may entertain respecting the condemnation of the rich and great because they are rich and great. Abraham, who speaks the grave stern words, was himself a sheik of great power and consideration, and at the same time very rich. Prophets and apostles, as well as the Son of God, never ceased to warn men of the danger of misusing wealth and power; but at the same time they always represented these dangerous gifts as gifts from God, capable of a noble use, and, if nobly used, these teachers sent by God pointed out, these gifts would bring to the men who so used them a proportional reward.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain But woe unto you that are rich! for ye…
Luk_6:24
But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation
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The danger of riches
Unless we were accustomed to read the New Testament from our childhood, I think we should be very much struck with the warnings it contains, not only against the love of riches, but the very possession of them.
That our Lord meant to speak of riches as being in some sense a calamity to the Christian is plain from His praises and recommendations of poverty.
1. The most obvious danger which worldly possessions present to our spiritual welfare is that they become practically a substitute in our hearts for that one object to which our supreme devotion is due. They are present; God is unseen. They are means at hand of effecting what we want; whether God will hear our petitions for these wants is uncertain. Thus they minister to the corrupt inclinations of our nature.
2. This, then, was some part of our Saviours meaning, when He connects together the having with the trusting in riches.
3. The danger of possessing riches is the carnal security to which they lead; that of desiring or pursuing them is that an object of this world is thus set before us as the end and aim of life. It is a part of Christian caution to see to it that our engagements do not become pursuits. Engagements are oar portion, but pursuits are for the most part of our own choosing.
4. Money is a sort of creation, and gives the acquirer, even more than the possessor, an imagination of his own power; and tends to make him idolize self. And if such be the result of gain on an individual, doubtless it will be the same on a nation; and if the peril be so great in the one case, why should it be less in the other? (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
The perils of rich men
1. One of the principal perils of rich men arises from their very exemption from many temptations to gross sin. Hence they are apt to think too well of themselves.
2. The rich man finds it very easy to do many kindly acts. It is very natural, therefore, that he should regard his own character and life complacently, and that he should think severely of the selfishness of these less fortunate than himself.
3. The rich mans Bible, with its morocco binding and gilt edges, has very much less in it than the poor mans Bible, bound in sheep. Pages which are read and re-read, which are marked, and scored, and thumbed in the one, are virtually mere blank paper in the other.
4. As the rich man loses many of the revelations of Gods sympathy, compassion, and care, which inspire the poor with intense and passionate gratitude, so he loses some of the most urgent motives to communion with God, which often make the poor man devout. (R. IV. Dale, LL. D.)
Danger of rich men
A holy woman was wont to say of the rich: They are hemmed round with no common misery; they go down to hell without thinking of it, because their staircase thither is of gold and porphyry. ( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Riches; or, a knife for the canker
To the love of money we trace the melancholy apostasy of Demas, the awful perfidity of Judas, the fatal lie of Ananias and Sapphira--all, and some of them distinguished, professors of religion. Be on your guard. Watch and pray. Their history is written for our instruction. Nor need any of His people who allow the love of money to entwine itself around their hearts, expect that in saving them God will do otherwise than the woodman, who, seeking to save a tree, applies his knife to the canker thai eats into its heart, or the ivy that has climbed its trunk and is choking it in its close embraces. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Smothered by wealth
Many of you are in imminent peril God is multiplying the sources of your power. Your resources are becoming numerous as the sands of the sea. I am not sorry, I am glad; but I am anxious that you should rise up in the midst of these things, and show yourselves greater than prosperity, and stronger and better on account of it. I dread to see a man smothered under his wealth. When a man, driving from the meadow, sits and sings cheerily upon his vast load of fragrant hay, how every one, looking upon him, thinks of his happiness and content l But by and by, at an unlucky jog, down goes the wheel and over goes the load, and the man is at the bottom, with all the hay upon him. Just in that way rich men are in danger of being smothered. The whole wain of your prosperity may capsize, and the superincumbent mass may hide from you the air and the sun of a true life. (H. W. Beecher.)
Ye have received your consolation
Let the full force of the word consolation be observed. It is used by way of contrast to the comfort which is promised to the Christian in the Beatitudes. Comfort, in the fulness of that word, as including help, guidance, encouragement, and support, is the peculiar promise of the gospel. There is then something very fearful in the intimation of the text, that those who have riches thereby receive their portion, such as it is, in full, instead of the heavenly gift of the gospel. The same doctrine is implied in our Lords words in the parable of Dives and Lazarus: Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
Conjunction and separation of woe and riches
We will therefore show--
I. In what conjunction these two, woe and riches, do stand.
II. How they may be sundered: find out why riches are so dangerous to receive, and how we may receive them without any danger. And with these we shall exercise your devotion at this time. Woe to rich men; which cannot be literally and generally true: for all rich men are not accursed. But it is the safest way to remove men as far from danger as may be. It is safest for some men to conceive feasting unlawful, that they may avoid gluttony; or sports unlawful, that they may not be wantons; to be afraid of an oath, that they may not be perjured; not to flatter themselves too much in the lawfulness of war, that they delight not in blood, but rather remember the lesson of Moses, or indeed of God: When thou goest out with the host against thine enemies, then keep thee from all wickedness (Deu_23:9).
1. But so far is the world from having that opinion of riches, that they have goodly and glorious titles bestowed upon them. They commend themselves unto us under the honest names of thrift, and frugality, and wisdom. What poor glass is a diamond, to him that is familiar with virtue! What trash is riches, to him who is filled with grace! What nicknames are the empty titles of secular honours, to him that knoweth the glory of a saint l What a nothing is the world, to him that hath studied heaven!
2. Further yet: Riches are accounted as necessaries, and as ornaments of virtue; and under that name we receive and entertain them.
3. Again: Riches are not only not necessary to religion and virtue, but rather a hindrance. They take us down from our third heaven, and take us off from the contemplation of future happiness, and bind our thoughts to the vanities of the earth, which so press them down and weary them that they cannot aspire. They are retinacula spei, fetters of our hope. For now where is our hope? (Job_17:15.) Even in the bowels of the earth.They are degraders of our faith. For whilst we walk in this vain shadow, how many degrees doth our faith fall back! The more we trust in uncertain riches the less we trust in God (1Ti_6:17). They are coolers and abaters of our charity: for, they make us ungrateful to God, severe to ourselves, and cruel to our brethren.
4. Further yet: As riches are a hindrance and obstacle to good, so are they instrumental to evil. They facilitate and help it forward, and are as the midwife to bring it to its birth, which otherwise peradventure had died in the womb, in the thought, and never seen the sun. If sin make our members the weapons of unrighteousness, riches are the handle without which they cannot well be managed. Every man cannot grind the face of the poor, every man cannot take his brother by the throat, every man cannot go into the foolish womans house, every man cannot bribe a judge, every man cannot be as wicked as he would. And it may seem to be a part of Gods restraining grace, to take riches from some men, as he took off the wheels of Pharaohs chariots, that they may not pursue their brethren. But when the purse is full, the heart will more easily vent all the poison it hath, in a reproach, in contempt, in a blow, in an injury, in oppression.
II. You have seen the rich and woe in a sad conjunction, a most malignant one as any astrology hath discovered. I am unwilling to leave them so; and therefore, in the last place, I must find out some means to put them asunder, that we may receive riches without danger; which is indeed to lead the camel through the needles eye.
1. We must bring riches into a subordination, nay, into a subjection, to Christianity. We may be rich, if we can be poor.
2. That the mind may be rightly affected, we must root out of it all love of riches. For if we set our hearts upon them, the love of them will estrange us from Christ, and make us idolaters.
3. I must bring you yet further, from not loving, not desiring riches, to contemning of them. For though I have emptied my store, and cast it before the wind, yet till I have made riches the object of my fear, till I can say within myself, This lordship may undo me, These riches may beggar me, This money may destroy me--till in this respect I make it the object of my contempt, and look upon it as a bait of Satan, I am not so far removed but that still the woe hangeth over me. For as, when a man taketh a wedge of lead upon his shoulders, it presseth and boweth his body to the earth; but if he put it under his feet, it will lift and keep him from the ground: so, when we place riches above us, and look upon them as upon our heaven; when we prefer them before salvation, and make gain our godliness; it must needs be that they will press us down to hell: but if we keep them below as slaves, and tread them under our feet, and contemn them as dung in comparison of Christ, they will then lift us up as high as heaven.
4. Therefore, in the last place, let me commend unto you a godly jealousy of yourselves. Suspicion in such a case as this is very useful.
5. I am unwilling to leave the rich and the woe so near together, but would set them at that distance that they may never meet. To conclude then: Let us not be too familiar with riches, lest whilst we embrace them we take the plague, and the woe enter into our very bowels. The love of the world is a catching disease, and it is drawn on with dallying, with a very look. We do not traffic for gold where there are no mines: nor can we find God in the world. He that maketh Him his purchase, will find business enough to take up his thoughts, and little time left for conference and commerce in the world, scarce any time to look upon it, but by the by and in the passage, as we use to look upon a stranger. A look is dangerous; a look of liking is too much: but a look Of love will bury us in the world, where we are sown in power, but are raised in weakness; sown in glory, but are raised in dishonour. We rest and sleep in this dust; and when we awake, the woe which hung over our heads falleth upon us. (A. Farindon, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 24–26. Woe unto you that are rich! Matthew omits…
24–26. Woe unto you that are rich! Matthew omits these woes. Woe unto all whose heart is set upon their riches and who take their delight and consolation in them. The woe rests upon all who are engaged in the greedy chase after wealth, or make it their great good. See Mark 10:24 and 1 Tim. 6:9, 10, 17.
Woe unto ye that are full now! Because, satisfied, they do not hunger after righteousness (Matt. 5:6). Such shall hunger when stripped of all that is earthly. Woe unto you, ye that laugh now! Give themselves to merriment, seeking fun and enjoyment instead of preparation.
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When all men shall speak well of you! Those who seek to be universally popular. Whoever does his duty will meet those who oppose him. Christ was reviled and slandered. These four woes are addressed to four classes: (1) Those who worship wealth; (2) those satisfied with their present life; (3) those who live for present enjoyment; (4) those whose aim is human praise and adulation.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain A threefold woe:
A threefold woe:
v. 24. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.
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v. 25. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.
v. 26. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Woe unto you rich people! for you have your solace in advance. This is spoken, as often in Scripture, Mar 10:23; 1Ti 6:9, of those that place their trust in their money. The Christian that is rich does not think of putting his faith in mammon. He knows that he is not in reality the owner of the goods entered under his name, but the steward of God, with the greater responsibilities, the greater the amount of riches which men call his. And he must give an account on the last day. Those people, therefore, that consider their wealth their own to do with as they please, and who use it with this idea in mind, to receive their good things in the present lifetime, Luk 16:25, have the only solace that they will ever get, Job 31:24. They may seem satisfied and try to persuade themselves and others that they are happy; but what about the world to come? Woe unto you that are filled up; for ye shall hunger. Those that seek the satisfaction of all their desires in this life and are rewarded in such a way that they get all that they have longed for, have their ambition realized. But they will have to suffer hunger throughout eternity. Woe unto you that laugh now; for ye shall mourn and weep. Those that have the motto: Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall be dead, and live in accordance with it, may assume a boisterous happiness in the enjoyment of the pleasures of this world. But the time is coming when they must render account of every moment foolishly spent in the lust of the flesh, in the lust of the eyes, in the pride of life. Then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The last woe is one directed especially to the apostles. If every one speaks well of them, praises them, the chances are that they have omitted some part of their duty, that pertaining to the fearless denunciation of sin. That has ever been a special feature of the false prophet’s work that they preach to the itching ears of the people, 2Ti 4:3; Eze 13:18-20; Isa 56:10. That is no recommendation, but the strongest censure that could be spoken upon a pastor’s work, that he hurts no one, and that no one hurts him.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 woe to you
woe to you
"how terrible it is for you." This phrase is repeated three times. It is the opposite of "blessed are you." Each time, it indicates that God's anger is directed at the people, or that something negative or bad awaits them.
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woe to you who are rich
"how terrible it is for you who are rich" or "trouble will come to you who are rich"
your comfort
"what comforts you" or "what satisfies you" or "what makes you happy"
who are full now
"whose stomachs are full now" or "who eat much now"
who laugh now
"who are happy now"
translationWords
woe
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:24-26 Promises of blessing for the poor and oppressed…
6:24-26 Promises of blessing for the poor and oppressed are balanced in Luke with predictions of sorrow for the rich and powerful. Those who trust in themselves will be humbled, while those who depend on God will be blessed. The Old Testament prophets often pronounced woes against nations and rulers who oppressed God’s people and rejected his sovereignty (e.g., Isa 3:11; 5:8; Jer 50:27; Zech 11:17).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.