Luke 18:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And the publican, standing afar off,— Impressed with a deep sense of his sins, the publican appeared so vile in his own sight, that he would not go up among the people of God, but stood afar off, in the court of the Gentiles, perhaps without the stone-wall, called by the apostle the middle wall of partition, which the Gentiles and unclean Israelites were not permitted to pass. Here, with eyes fixed on the ground, smiting on his breast, he by that action made a public acknowledgment of his great transgressions before all who were in sight of him, and, in the bitterness of his soul, earnestly cried for mercy. He too, as well as the Pharisee, pronounced his devotions aloud; but inregard that his prayer was a confession of his sin, his speaking it aloud proceeded not from vanity, but from the anguish of his soul: for instead of doing him honour, this prayer tended to abase him greatly, as he mentioned no mixture of good to palliate the evils of his past life; but openly acknowledged that he was a sinner, and sought refuge in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, the great propitiation, and the alone foundation of his hope. And that he did not act the hypocrite, was evident from the place which he chose for his devotions, where there were few to behold him, from the melancholy of his countenance, and from his whole deportment. The word αμαρτωλος, as here, often signifies an abandoned profligate, a grievous sinner. See Matthew 9:10-11. Luke 6:32-33; Luke 6:49.