Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 25:13
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
13. Watch therefore ] Our Lord’s explanation of the parable, shewing the true purport of it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Watch, therefore … – This is the scope or design of the whole parable. This is the great truth that Christ wished to inculcate, and all parts of the parable are to be interpreted in reference to this admonition. Like the virgins, many are professedly going to meet the Bridegroom – the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the coming of the bridegroom, his advent will be sudden. It will be to many at an unexpected time. Many, even professing Christians, will be engaged in the business of the world; thoughtless about eternity; not expecting his approach, and not prepared. They will only profess to know him, but in works they will deny him. So death will come. All approaches of the Son of God to judge men are sudden, and to many unexpected. So many, when they shall see him coming, at death or the judgment, will begin, like the foolish virgins, to be active, and to prepare to die; but it will be too late. They that are ready will enter in, and heaven will be closed forever against all others. The coming of the Saviour is certain. The precise time when he will come is not certain. As the virgins should all have watched and been ready, so should we. They who are Christians should be ever watchful; and they who are not should lose no time to be ready, for in such an hour as they think not the Son of man shall come.
The Son of man cometh – This refers, doubtless, to his coming in the day of judgment. The circumstances of the parable do not seem at all to apply to his coming to destroy Jerusalem, but are aptly expressive of his advent to judge the world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. Watch therefore] If to watch be to employ ourselves chiefly about the business of our salvation, alas! how few of those who are called Christians are there who do watch! How many who slumber! How many who are asleep! How many seized with a lethargy! How many quite dead!
Wherein the Son of man cometh.] These words are omitted by many excellent MSS., most of the versions, and several of the fathers. Griesbach has left them out of the text: Grotius, Hammond, Mill, and Bengel, approve of the omission.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
13. Watch therefore; for ye knowneither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comethThis,the moral or practical lesson of the whole parable, needs no comment.
Mt25:14-30. PARABLE OF THETALENTS.
This parable, while closelyresembling it, is yet a different one from that of THEPOUNDS, in Lu19:11-27; though CALVIN,OLSHAUSEN, MEYER,and others identify thembut not DEWETTE and NEANDER.For the difference between the two parables, see the openingremarks on that of The Pounds. While, as TRENCHobserves with his usual felicity, “the virgins were representedas waiting for their Lord, we have the servants workingfor Him; there the inward spiritual life of the faithful wasdescribed; here his external activity. It is not, therefore,without good reason that they appear in their actual orderthat ofthe Virgins first, and of the Talents followingsince it is thesole condition of a profitable outward activity for the kingdom ofGod, that the life of God be diligently maintained within the heart.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Watch therefore,…. In ordinances, in prayer, public and private, in hearing the word, at the Lord’s supper, and in every religious exercise; over the heart, the thoughts and affections of it; over words, actions, life, and conversation; and against all sin and unbelief, Satan’s temptations, the world, and its charms and snares, false teachers, and their doctrines, and for the bridegroom’s coming. This is the use and application of the whole parable, and shows the general design of it; the reason to enforce watchfulness follows:
for ye know neither the day nor the hour; of death, or of judgment, or of the coming of the son of man, of one or the other; for it is added,
wherein the son of man cometh: that he will come is certain, and that quickly; the time is fixed, but when it will be is unknown; and therefore it becomes us to be our watch and guard. This last clause is not in the Vulgate Latin, nor in the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, and was wanting in three of Beza’s copies, but is in most Greek copies, and in Munster’s Hebrew Gospel, and seems to be necessary.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Watch therefore ( ). This is the refrain with all the parables. Lack of foresight is inexcusable. Ignorance of the time of the second coming is not an excuse for neglect, but a reason for readiness. Every preacher goes up against this trait in human nature, putting off till another time what should be done today.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
13. Watch therefore day nor the hour Watch through your life, for you will certainly watch in the spirit-world.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Watch therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”
And then Jesus applies the main lesson of the Parable. All must watch in full preparedness so that they will be ready for His coming, for they do not know the day or the hour when He will come (compare Mat 24:36; Mat 24:42; Mat 24:44; Mat 24:50). And watching does not just mean ‘looking out’, it involves being ready and fully prepared.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Ver. 13. Watch therefore ] Lest ye smart for it, when God shall send out summons for sleepers. This is an exhortation answerable to that Mat 24:42 , and the upshot of that, this, and the ensuing parable. See Trapp on “ Mat 24:42 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 25:13 . he moral, , watch; not directed against sleep (Mat 25:5 ) but against lack of forethought. The reference of the parable to the Parusia , according to Weiss (Meyer), is imposed upon it by the evangelist.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Watch. This is the great lesson of the parable.
neither = not. Greek. ou, as in Mat 25:6.
wherein = in (Greek. en. App-104.) which.
the Son of man. See App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 25:13. , watch ye) He who watches will have not only his lamp burning, but also oil in his vessel: he who has oil in his vessel is not greatly held, even by sleep; see Mat 25:5.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Son of man
Also Mat 24:31. (See Scofield “Mat 8:20”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Mat 24:42-44, Mar 13:33-37, Luk 21:36, Act 20:31, 1Co 16:13, 1Th 5:6, 2Ti 4:5, 1Pe 4:7, 1Pe 5:8, Rev 16:15
Reciprocal: Eze 1:26 – the likeness of a Mat 10:23 – till Mat 24:36 – General Mat 24:44 – General Mat 26:38 – tarry Mat 26:41 – Watch Mar 13:32 – of Mar 14:38 – Watch Luk 12:40 – General 1Th 5:2 – the day Rev 3:2 – watchful Rev 3:3 – know Rev 14:7 – hour
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:13. Watch therefore are the words that express the lesson intended by the parable. It is the same that was set forth by the parable of the unfaithful servant in the closing verses of the preceding chapter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 25:13. Watch therefore. The same admonition as in chap. Mat 24:42; Mat 24:44. Wherein the Son of man cometh is omitted by the best authorities. This makes the exhortation more general. The coming of our Lord, in so far as individuals are concerned, is the day of death. Then the door, is shut: the door of repentance, of hope, of salvation, shut by Him that shutteth and none can open, watch therefore, that the Christian profession is supplied by the oil of the Spirit, so that His sudden unexpected coming may not find us without oil for our lamps.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here we have our Lord’s application of the foregoing parable, to be always upon our watch, continually upon our guard, to meet the Bridegroom in death and judgment, because we know not the time of his coming and approach.
Learn hence, That watchfulness and prepared readiness is a great duty that lies upon all those who believe and look for Christ’s coming and appearance.
Happy souls! who are found in a posture of readiness at the Bridegroom’s approach, standing, with lamps trimmed, loins girded, lights burning! that is, improving and exercising their graces, abounding in all the fruits of the Spirit, and in all the substantial virtues of a good life: such, and only such, shall have an entrance abundantly administered unto them into the everlasting kingdom.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 25:13. Watch, therefore, &c. See, therefore, that your mind be always awake and watchful, and that you maintain an habitual readiness for the coming of the bridegroom, not presuming on preparations to be made hereafter, lest you meet with a sad disappointment: for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh To receive his prepared people to himself, and for ever to exclude the backslider, the hypocrite, and the sinner, from the glories and joys of his heavenly kingdom; or when he cometh to call you hence by death, or to summon you to his bar. Remember your life is a vapour, which appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth; work while it is day, before the night come when you cannot work. Take care especially that you have oil in your vessels, and that you keep your lamp burning, for unless you attend to these things you watch in vain; these being the great, and indeed the only distinguishing difference between the wise and the foolish virgins here spoken of. Upon the whole, in this parable the characters and final judgment of the subjects of the kingdom of heaven are described, that is to say, of persons who have enjoyed the outward dispensation of the gospel, and by professing themselves to be Christians, pretended to honour Christ. Some, with the fair light of an outward profession in their hands, have the principles of the divine life in their hearts, a stock of oil to keep that light continually burning, both pure and clear, by which means they persevere in holiness to the end. But others, having the blaze of a profession, and nothing to keep it alive, it must needs end in smoke and darkness, failing them when they have most occasion for it. The midnight cry, raised at the coming of the bridegroom, shows, not only that the day of judgment will take place when by the generality it is not looked for, but how suddenly and unexpectedly some are called away by death, so that little or no preparation can be made for the awful event in the confusion and perplexity of a death-bed sickness. In this parable, therefore, our Lord has taught us that unless we persevere in grace, having it always in possession, and even in exercise, as occasion requires, we shall be excluded from the abodes of the blessed without remedy, though we may have expressed considerable zeal and diligence in the service of Christ for a time: also, that the grace of other men, and their piety and virtue, will stand us in no stead at the hour of death or at the day of judgment. To conclude, as the parable represents the suddenness with which Christ frequently comes to call individual persons off the stage of life, it shows us both the folly and danger of delaying true and vital religion to a deathbed, and powerfully enforces habitual watchfulness upon all men, in every age, from the consideration of the uncertainty of human life; and strongly enforces the advice of Eliphaz, Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace; and more especially the declaration and exhortation of Christ, Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown: for, if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
This is the lesson the disciples were to learn from this parable. Disciples need to prepare for Messiah’s appearing as well as to anticipate that event. Jesus was not calling for alertness in this parable, remaining awake when others sleep, as important as that is. He was calling for preparation. Preparing involves trusting in Jesus as the Messiah. Many Jews in Jesus’ day were anticipating the appearance of Messiah and the inauguration of the kingdom. However they did not prepare as John the Baptist, Jesus, and Jesus’ disciples urged them to. Those who did became believing disciples of Jesus. Likewise the same two types of Jews will exist during the Tribulation before Messiah appears the second time. The prudent disciple is the one who makes the necessary preparation by trusting in Jesus.