John Gill Commentary Luke 5

And it came to pass, that as the people pressed upon him ,
&c.] As Christ went through Galilee, and preached in the synagogues there, great crowds of people attended on him, and they followed him wherever he went. So large were their numbers, and so very eager were they to see him, and hear him, that they were even troublesome to him, and bore hard upon him, and were ready to press him down, though they had no ill design upon him, but only

to hear the word of God ;
the scriptures of the Old Testament explained, and the doctrines of the Gospel preached; and which were preached by him, as never were before or since, and in such a manner as were not by the Scribes and Pharisees; and both the matter and manner of his ministry drew a vast concourse of people after him:

he stood by the lake of Gennesaret ;
the same with the sea of Chinnereth, (Numbers 34:11) (Joshua 12:3) (13:27) where the Targums of Onkelos, Jonathan, and the Jerusalem, call it, (rowngd amy) , "the sea of Geausar" or "Gennesaret": and so it is elsewhere called ^F1 , and is the same which is called the sea of Galilee, and of Tiberias, (John 6:1) (21:1) and is, by other writers ^F2 , as here, called the lake of Gennesaret, and said to be sixteen miles long, and six broad. Josephus says ^F3 , it is forty furlongs broad, and an hundred long.

The Jews say ^F4 , that ``the holy, blessed God created seven seas, but chose none of them all, but the sea of Gennesaret.'' And indeed, it was a place chosen by Christ, and honoured, and made famous by him, by his preaching at it, his miracles upon it, and showing himself there after his resurrection.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Targum in Ezek. xxxix. 11. Zohar in Gen. fol. 3. 2. & 17. 2. & in Exod. fol. 52. 4. & 61. 4.
• F2: Plin. l. 5. c. 15. Solin, c. 48. Ptolom. l. 5. c. 15.
• F3: De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 18.
• F4: Pirke Eliezer, c. 18.

And saw two ships standing by the lake
Or two fishing boats; which were, as the Arabic version renders it, "detained by anchors at the shore of the lake"; the one belonging to Peter and Andrew, and the other to Zebedee, and his two sons, James and John:

but the fishermen were gone out of them ;
that is, either the above persons, or their servants:

and were washing their nets ;
on shore; they having gathered a great deal of soil and filthiness, but had caught no fish; and therefore were cleansing their nets, in order to lay them up, finding it to be in vain to make any further attempts with them at present; and which considered, makes the following miracle the more illustrious.

And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's ,
etc.] Simon Peter's, and Andrew his brother's, who were both together at this time, though the last is not here mentioned:

and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land :
as Simon was the owner of the vessel, Christ desired him; he asked the favour of him to put off a little way from shore; though the Arabic and Ethiopic versions render it, "he commanded him", being his Lord and master: To which the Syriac and Persic versions agree; only they make the orders to be given not to Simon singly, but to others, to all in the boat; the former rendering it, and he said, or ordered, that they should carry him a little way from the dry land to the waters; and the latter thus, and said, carry you the ship from dry land a little into the sea.

And which adds, agreeable to the sense enough, though it is not in the text, "when they had executed his command": had done as he entreated, or ordered, and put off the vessel a little way from the shore:

he sat down and taught the people out of the ship ;
for the boat was not carried neither out of sight, nor beyond the hearing of the people: this method Christ took at another time, and that for convenience, as now; see (Matthew 13:1–3) and whereas he sat while he taught, this was according to the then custom of the times with the Jews; (See Gill on Matthew 5:1).

Now when he had left speaking
Teaching the people, and preaching the word of God unto them out of the ship, as they stood on the shore before him.

He said unto Simon, launch out into the deep ;
he spoke to Simon Peter, being the master of the vessel, to thrust it out, or put it off further into deep water, more convenient for fishing;

and let down your nets for a draught ;
of fishes: his meaning is, that he would give orders to his servants, to put out the vessel to sea, to take their nets and cast them into the sea, in order to take and draw up a quantity of fish, which was their business.

And Simon answering said unto him, master
Or Rabbi, as the Syriac version renders it: he knew him to be the Messiah, the king of Israel, and a teacher sent from God:

we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing ;
which carries in it an objection to what Christ advised and directed to: they had been fishing that "night", which was the best time for catching fish; and they had been at it all the night, and had "laboured" hard; and were even "fatigued", and quite wearied out; and what was most discouraging of all, their labour was in vain; they had caught "nothing":

nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net ;
which showed faith in Christ, and obedience to him: thus the faithful preachers of the Gospel, sometimes labour and toil in the ministry of the word a great while, with little or no success; and are discouraged from going on, and would be tempted to leave off, were it not for the commission and word of command they have received from Christ, which they dare not be disobedient to; and for the word of promise he has given them, to be with them, on which they depend.