Luke 14:18 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

They all with one consent... — The Greek phrase, as the italics show, is elliptical; but the English idiom expresses its meaning whether we take the omitted noun to be “voice,” or “consent” or “mind.”

To make excuse. — To beg off would, perhaps, be too colloquial, but it exactly expresses the force of the Greek verb.

I have bought a piece of ground. — The Greek noun implies a little more than the English — better, perhaps, a farm (see Notes on Mark 6:36); and the tense in each case is strictly one in which a man naturally speaks of the immediate past — “I bought but now.”

Luke 14:18

18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.