John Gill Commentary Luke 13:15

"But the Lord answered him, and said, Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?" — Luke 13:15 (ASV)

The Lord then answered him and said
Though he did not direct his speech to him, he knew that he struck at him, and suggested that he was a violator of the sabbath, as well as the people: and therefore in defence of himself, and of what he had done, and to expose the hypocrisy of this man, made answer as follows,

you hypocrite ;
the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read in the plural, "hypocrites"; as do the Complutensian edition, and four ancient copies of Beza's, and the Alexandrian copy; but the Syriac and Persic versions read in the singular, "hypocrite"; as this man was, who covered his malice and envy at Christ, with a show of zeal for the sabbath day; and yet did that upon it, which must be allowed by themselves, and others, to be a much greater violation of the sabbath, than this cure could ever be thought to be:

does not each one of you, on the sabbath day, loose their ox, or
their ass, from the stall ,
or rack, where it is fastened with a rope;

and lead it away to watering ?
to some place of water, where it may drink, after having filled itself at the rack:

It is certain that this was agreeable to their own canons and practice, that beasts may be led out on a sabbath day. For they deliver various rules concerning leading them out, specifying what they might and might not be brought out with, and particularly mentioning asses and heifers among others^F17. They also speak of leading them to water, not only for them to drink, but also to wash their chains in it. These chains, it seems, received pollution, needed washing, and this might be done on a sabbath day^F18.

Furthermore, they allow that not only may a beast be led out to watering, but a man might fill a vessel of water and pour it out into a trough for it, provided he did not directly set it before it^F19. The rule is this: ``a man may not fill water (a vessel of it), and put it on a sabbath day before his beast, but he may fill it, and pour it out, and it may drink of it.''

And particularly on a feast day, their rule is: ``they do not water nor slay beasts of the desert, but they water and slay domestic ones. Domestic ones are such as lie in the city (i.e. as Maimonides says^F21, within the sabbatical border, 2000 cubits from the city), and those of the desert are such as lie in pastures.''^F20 And therefore very justly does our Lord observe to the ruler of the synagogue their own practices towards a beast, in defence of his works of mercy to men.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F17: Misn. Sahbat, c. 5. sect. 1, 2, 3, 4. & 18. 2. T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 51. 2. & Piske Tosephot in ib. art. 226, 227, 228, 233.
• F18: Bartenora in Misn. Sabbat, c. 5. sect. 1.
• F19: T. Bab. Erubin, fol. 20. 2.
• F20: Misn. Betza, c. 5. sect. 7.
• F21: In ib.