Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Moved with compassion - , from , a bowel. The Jews esteemed the bowels to be the seat of sympathy and the tender passions, and so applied the organ to the sense.
signifies, says Mintert, "to be moved with pity from the very inmost bowels. It is an emphatic word, signifying a vehement affection of commiseration, by which the bowels and especially the heart is moved." Both this verb and the noun seem to be derived from , to draw; the whole intestinal canal, in the peristaltic motion of the bowels, being drawn, affected, and agitated with the sight of a distressed or miserable object. Pity increases this motion of the bowels, and produces considerable pain: hence , to have the bowels moved, signifies to feel pity or compassion at seeing the miseries of others.
They fainted - Instead of , fainted, all the best MSS., versions, and fathers, read , grieved and melancholy. Kypke says properly signifies, to pluck off the hair, as persons do in extreme sorrow or distress. The margin says, They were tired and lay down.
And were scattered abroad - , thrown down, or, all along. They were utterly neglected as to the interests of their souls, and rejected by the proud and disdained Pharisees. This people ( , this mob) that knoweth not the law, is accursed, John 7:49. Thus those execrable men spoke of the souls that God had made, and of whom they should have been the instructors.
Those teachers, in name, have left their successors behind them; but, as in the days of Christ, so now, God has in his mercy rescued the flock out of the hands of those who only fed upon their flesh, and clothed themselves with their wool. The days in which a man was obliged to give his property to what was called The Church, for the salvation of his soul, Christ being left out of the question, are, thank God, nearly over and gone. Jesus is the true Shepherd; without him there is nothing but fainting, fatigue, vexation, and dispersion. O that we may be led out and in by him, and find pasture!
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Matthew 9:36:
Numbers 27:17
Matthew 14:14
Matthew 18:12
2 Corinthians 6:12
2 Corinthians 7:15
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