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Matthew 12:3
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Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

1 At that time aJesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to bpluck heads of grain and to eat.  
2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
3 But He said to them, “Have you not read awhat David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:  
4 how he entered the house of God and ate athe showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, bbut only for the priests?  
5 Or have you not read in the alaw that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple1 profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?  
6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is aOne greater than the temple.  
7 But if you had known what this means, a‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.  
8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  

Healing on the Sabbath

9 aNow when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.  
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< Matthew 12:2   Matthew 12:4 >>


Matthew 12:3

But he said unto them ... - To vindicate his disciples, he referred them to a similar case, recorded in the Old Testament, and therefore one with which they ought to have been acquainted. This was the case of David. The law commanded that twelve loaves of bread should be laid on the table in the holy place in the tabernacle, to remain a week, and then to be eaten by the "priests only." Their place was then supplied by fresh "bread." This was called the "showbread," Leviticus 24:5-9. David, fleeing before Saul, weary and hungry, had come to Ahimelech the priest; had found only this bread; had asked it of him, and had eaten it contrary to the "letter" of the law, I Samuel 21:1-7. David, among the Jews, had high authority. This act had passed uncondemned. It proved that in "cases of necessity the laws did not bind a man" - a principle which all laws admit. So the "necessity" of the disciples justified them in doing on the Sabbath what would have been otherwise unlawful.




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Matthew 12:3:

Matthew 12:1
Matthew 12:46-50
Matthew 26:2
Mark 2:23-28
Mark 2:23-28

 

<< Matthew 12:2   Matthew 12:4 >>

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