Luke 15:12 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And the younger of them, &c.— Our Lord with great propriety makes use of the youngest son as an example of a depraved mind, youth being naturally impotent in self-government, not only through natural depravity, but through want of experience; hurried away by the impetuosity of the passions; not only deaf, but even too often rude, to the interpositions of advice, and too frequently totally abandoned to the pleasures of sense. It had been usual, in commercial states, to assign some portion to children when of age; and as the proportion was generally settled by law, the propriety of this circumstance, and of the expression, Give me that portion which falls to me, will appear in a strong and beautiful light. It seems to me, that no significant sense can be put upon the last circumstance mentioned in this verse, as referring to the dispensations of God to his creatures: it is one of those ornamental circumstances, which are frequently found in parables, and which it would be frivolous to endeavour to accommodate too scrupulously to the general design.