Luke Chapter 16, Verse 21
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21: και επιθυμων χορτασθηναι απο των ψιχιων των πιπτοντων απο της τραπεζης του πλουσιου αλλα και οι κυνες ερχομενοι απελειχον τα ελκη αυτου
21: And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the
rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
21: Desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich
man's table. And no one did give him: moreover the dogs came and licked
his sores.
The dogs came. Such was his miserable condition that even the dogs,
as if moved by pity, came and licked his sores in kindness to him.
These circumstances of his misery are very touching, and his condition,
contrasted with that of the rich man, is very striking. It is not affirmed
that the rich man was unkind to him, or drove him away, or refused to
aid him. The narrative is designed simply to show that the possession of
wealth, and all the blessings of this life, could not exempt from death
and misery, and that the lowest condition among mortals may be connected
with, life and happiness beyond the grave. There was no provision made for
the helpless poor in those days, and consequently they were often laid at
the gates of the rich, and in places of public resort, for charity. See
Acts 3:2. The gospel has been the means of all the public charity now
made for the needy, as it has of providing hospitals for those who are
sick and afflicted. No pagan nation ever had a hospital or an alms house
for the needy, the aged, the blind, the insane. Many heathen nations,
as the Hindoos and the Sandwich Islanders, destroyed their aged people;
and all left their poor to the miseries of public begging, and their
sick to the care of their friends or to private charity.
