Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house;
`And he said, I pray thee, then, father, that thou mayest send him to the house of my father,
And he said, I beseech thee then, father, that thou wouldest send him to the house of my father,
Luke — Luke's 'orderly account' (1:3) follows Jesus from Bethlehem through the long travel narrative to Jerusalem and the Emmaus road.
Voices4
Your father is Abraham. How can you say, "Send him to my father's house"? You have not forgotten your father. You have not forgotten that your father destroyed you. Since he was your father, you have five brothers: sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. These are the brothers to whom formerly you were enslaved. Since they were the brothers you loved, you could not love your brother Lazarus. Naturally you could not love him as brother, because you loved them. Those brothers have no love for poverty.
Jerome· ON LAZARUS AND DIVES 86, 420patristic
Then he said, I pray thee therefore father,.... The Cambridge, copy of Beza's, and the Ethiopic version read, "father Abraham"; finding he could have no redress of his misery, nor any relief for himself, he applies for others: that thou wouldst send him to my father's house; the house of Israel and Jacob, the surviving Jews: and this agrees also with a notion of theirs, that the dead seek for mercy for them (l). The Persic and Ethiopic versions read, "that thou wouldst send Lazarus", &c. whom the one calls Gazarus, and the other Eleazar. (l) T. Bab. Taanith, fol.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)reformed
Five brethren - The number five is mentioned merely to preserve the appearance of verisimilitude in the story. It is not to be spiritualized, nor are we to suppose that it has any hidden or inscrutable meaning. May testify unto them - May bear witness to them, or may inform them of what is my situation, and the dreadful consequences of the life that I have led. It is remarkable that he did not ask to go himself. He knew that he could not be released, even for so short a time. His condition was fixed.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical
Then he said--now abandoning all hope for himself. send him to my father's house, &c.--no waking up of good in the heart of the lost, but bitter reproach against God and the old economy, as not warning him sufficiently [TRENCH]. The answer of Abraham is, They are sufficiently warned.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches7
After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions.
Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
from such men, O LORD, by Your hand— from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.
I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
This is the fate of the self-confident and their followers who endorse their sayings. Selah
For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
