Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 15:13

"And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country; and there he wasted his substance with riotous living." — Luke 15:13 (ASV)

Took his journey into a far country.—Such instances of emigration were, we may believe, familiar occurrences in most towns of Galilee and Judea. The young man left his home and started, intent on pleasure or on gain, for Alexandria, or Rome, or Corinth; and rumour came home of riotous living and a fortune wasted on harlots, Sabbaths broken, synagogues unvisited, and perhaps even participation in idol feasts.

In the interpretation that lies below the surface, the “far country” is the state of the human spirit, or of the Gentile world, in their wanderings far from God. The “riotous living” is the reckless waste of noble gifts and highest energies on unbridled sensuality of life, or sensuous, that is, idolatrous, forms of worship. The fearful history traced in Romans 1:19-32 is an all too faithful picture of the wanderings of the younger son.

Riotous.—The exact meaning of the word is prodigal, thriftless.