But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. But withal prepare me also a lodging - Does not the apostle mention this as conferring an obligation on Philemon? I will begin to repay thee by taking up my abode at thy house, as soon as I shall be enlarged from prison. But some think he wished Philemon to hire him a house, that he might have a lodging of his own when he returned to Colosse.
For I trust that through your prayers - It is very likely that this epistle was written a short time before the liberation of the apostle from his first imprisonment at Rome. See Acts 28:30, and Philippians 2:24; and that he had that liberation now in full prospect.