For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
Ver. 4. For God commanded, saying] This is called the first commandment with promise, viz. the first affirmative commandment, or the first in the second table; or the first of all the ten with promise. a For that in the second commandment is rather a declaration of God's justice and mercy, and that to the observers of the whole law; but here is a particular promise made to them that keep this particular commandment.
Honour thy father and mother] Among other good offices, nourish and cherish them, as Joseph did Jacob and his family, Chepi tappam, as a man nourisheth his little ones, lovingly and tenderly, Genesis 47:12; be unto them as Obed was to Naomi, "a restorer of her life, and a nourisher of her old age," Ruth 4:15. This the apostle commends to us, as a thing not only good before men, but acceptable before God, 1 Timothy 5:4. This the stork and the mouse teach us, by their singular love to their aged sires, Plin. x. 23. Cornelius was the staff of his father's age, and thereby merited the honourable name of Scipio among the Romans. Epaminondas rejoiced in nothing more than that he had lived to cheer up the hearts of his aged parents by the reports of his victories. Our parents are our household gods, said Hierocles. b Aeneas is surnamed Pius, for his love to his father, whom he bore upon his back out of the fire of Troy. And Aristotle tells how that when from the hill Aetna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabouts, in the midst of those fearful flames God's special care of the godly shined most brightly. For the river of fire parted itself, and made a kind of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents, and pluck them out of the jaws of death. c
He that curseth father or mother] That giveth them an ill word (κακολογων), or but an ill look; for vultu saepe laeditur pietas. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." d Now they are cursed with a witness, whom the Holy Ghost thus curseth in such emphatic manner, in such exquisite terms.
a Ephesians 6:2. εντολη properly signifieth an affirmative commandment. See Dr Gouge on Dom. Duties.
b Οι γονεις ημων Θεοι εφεστιοι .
c πλησιον γαρ αυτων γενομενος πυρος ποταμος εξεσχιθη. Arist. de Mundo, cap. 6.
d Proverbs 30:17. Effossos oculos voret atro gutture corvus. Catul.