And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way. Jericho, the second city of Judea, was a city of the priests and Levites, and thousands of them lived there.
And when he saw him - so it was not inadvertently that he acted.
He passed by on the other side - although the law expressly required the opposite treatment even of the beast not only of their brethren but of their enemy (Deuteronomy 22:4; Exodus 23:4-5; and compare Isaiah 58:7).