Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
Ver. 3. I go a fishing, &c.] Being not yet employed in the public ministry, he would not be idle, and that he might not be chargeable to the Church. This life is in Isaiah called, "The life of our hands," because it is to be maintained by the labour of our hands. We are to earn ere we eat,2 Thessalonians 3:8. Res age tutus eris. Undertake wil will be safe to do. Ovid.
And that night they caught nothing] Labour we never so hard, unless God bless it, and stop that hole in the bottom of the bag, Haggai 1:6, those secret issues and drains of expense, at which men's estates run out, we shall be forced to say with Severus the emperor, Omnia feci et nihil profuit. Everything I have done and nothing profited. (Spartian.)