Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Which devour widows' houses - Which devour the families of widows, or the means of supporting their families. This they did under pretence of counseling them in the knowledge of the law and in the management of their estates. They took advantage of their ignorance and their unprotected state, and either extorted large sums for their counsel, or perverted the property to their own use.
No wonder that our Saviour denounced them! If there is any sin of special enormity, it is that of taking advantage of the circumstances of the poor, the needy, and the helpless, to wrong them out of the pittance on which they depend for the support of their families; and as God is the friend of the widow and the fatherless, it may be expected that such will be visited with heavy condemnation.
For a pretence - For show, or "pretending" great devotion.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Mark 12:40:
Micah 2:3
Matthew 17:9
1 Thessalonians 2:5
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