John Gill Commentary Matthew 21:35

"And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another." — Matthew 21:35 (ASV)

And the husbandmen took his servants They seized and laid hold of them in a rude and violent manner: so far were they from treating these servants with respect, as they ought to have done; considering whose they were, from whom they came, and upon what account; and also so far from delivering to them the fruit due to their master, or excusing their inability to make a suitable return, as might be expected, they use them very roughly:

and beat one ; either with the fist, as Jeremiah was struck by Pashur, the son of Immer, the priest, one of these husbandmen, (Jeremiah 20:1Jeremiah 20:2) and as Micaiah was smitten on the cheek by Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, the false prophet, (2 Chronicles 18:23) or with a scourge, and may refer to the punishment of beating with forty stripes, save one, by which the skin was flayed off; as the word here signifies; for some of these servants had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, (Hebrews 11:36) .

And killed another; that is, with the sword. There were four kinds of death in the power of the sanhedrim, of which this is one, and what follows is another; and were these, stoning, burning, killing (i.e. beheading with the sword), and strangling: the manner of executing this punishment here expressed, was this:``They cut off the person's head (Pyyob) , "with a sword", in the manner the government orders it. R. Judah says, this is indecent (i.e. to cut off his head standing, they do not do so), but they put his head upon a block, and cut it off with an axe; they reply to him, there is no death more abominable than this ^F24 .'' So the prophets, in the time of Elijah, were killed with the sword, (1 Kings 19:14) see also (Daniel 11:33) .

And stoned another ; as they did Zechariah, (2 Chronicles 24:21) and doubtless many others; since Jerusalem had the character of killing the prophets, and stoning them that were sent unto her, (Matthew 23:37) these seemed such that were stoned, but not killed; but as Mark says, were wounded in the head with the stones thrown at them, and shamefully handled, and sadly abused.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 1, 3.