Luke 6:24

“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

BSB

But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.

KJV

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

ASV

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

BBE

But unhappy are you who have wealth: for you have been comforted now.

Original Greek

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The early church

But although in the abundance of wealth many are the allurements to crime, yet many also are the incitements to virtue. Although virtue requires no support, and the offering of the poor man is more commendable than the liberality of the rich, still it is not those who possess riches, but those who know not how to use them, that are condemned by the authority of the heavenly sentence. For as that poor man is more praiseworthy who gives without grudging, so is the rich man more guilty, who ought to return thanks for what he has received, and not to hide without using it the sum which was given him for the common good. It is not therefore the money, but the heart of the possessor which is in fault. And though there be no heavier punishment than to be preserving with anxious fear what is to serve for the advantage of successors, yet since the covetous desires are fed by a certain pleasure of amassing, they who have had their consolation in the present life, have lost an eternal reward. We may here however understand by the rich man the Jewish people, or the heretics, or at least the Pharisees, who, rejoicing in an abundance of words, and a kind of hereditary pride of eloquence, have overstepped the simplicity of true faith, and gained to themselves useless treasures.
Ambrose of Milan · d. 397Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
And mark, that Matthew by rewards called the people to virtue and faith, but Luke also frightened them from their sins and iniquities by the denunciation of future punishment.
Ambrose of Milan · d. 397Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
For this expression, woe, is always said in the Scriptures to those who cannot escape from future punishment.
John Chrysostom · d. 407Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
Having said before that poverty for God's sake is the cause of every good thing, and that hunger and weeping will not be without the reward of the saints, he goes on to denounce the opposite to these as the source of condemnation and punishment. But woe unto you rich, for ye have your consolation.
Cyril of Alexandria · d. 444Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 20–26

Here begins a discourse of Christ, most of which is also found in Mt 5; 7. But some think that this was preached at another time and place. All believers that take the precepts of the gospel to themselves, and live by them, may take the promises of the gospel to themselves, and live upon them. Woes are denounced against prosperous sinners as miserable people, though the world envies them. Those are blessed indeed whom Christ blesses, but those must be dreadfully miserable who fall under his woe and curse! What a vast advantage will the saint have over the sinner in the other world! and what a wide difference will there be in their rewards, how much soever the sinner may prosper, and the saint be afflicted here!

Read Matthew Henry on Luke 6 →

Cross-references

19

Topics

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.