Matthew 12:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

When the Pharisees saw it, they said, &c.— The Jews were allowed by the law, when they came into the standing corn of their neighbours, to pluck some ears, and eat them, Deuteronomy 23:25. But as they were by the same law forbid to reap on the sabbath-day, the Pharisees, perversely enough, accounted this action of the disciples to be a kind of reaping. They looked also upon the rubbing the ears of corn in their hands as a breach of the law, because they were not allowed by it to dress their victual on the sabbath-day. See Beausobre and Lenfant, Introduction, p. 159.