Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Ver. 26. Helpeth our infirmities] Lifts with us and before us in our prayers. Or helpeth us as the nurse helpeth her little child, upholding it by the sleeve. (συναντιλαμβανεται. Beza.)
For we know not what, &c.] The flesh with her murmurings maketh such a din that we can hardly hear the voice of the Spirit, mixing with the flesh's roarings and repinings, his praying, sighs, and sobbings.
But the Spirit itself] Prayer is the breath of the Spirit, who doth super expostulate for us, υπερεντυγχανει, inditing our prayers. We cannot so much as suspirare, a sigh unless he do first inspirare, breathe out a sigh for sin, if he breathe it not into us.
With groanings that cannot be uttered] He that would have unspeakable joy,1 Peter 1:8, must by the Spirit stir up unutterable groanings.