The publicans — were officers of the revenue, farmers, or receivers of the public money: men employed by the Romans to gather the taxes and customs, which they exacted of the nations they had conquered. These were generally odious for their extortion and oppression, and were reckoned by the Jews as the very scum of the earth.
Related Commentaries of Matthew 5:46
Matthew 5:46
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?