And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And desiring to be fed [ epithumoon (G1937 ) chortastheenai (G5526 )] with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. The meaning may either be (as in Luke 15:16), that 'he was fain to feed' or 'gladly fed,' as Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, etc., take it; or he 'desired to be fed,' but was not: so Grotius, Bengel, Meyer, Trench, etc., understand it. The context seems rather to favour this latter view. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores - a touching act of brute pity in the absence of human relief. Thus have we here a case of heartless indifference, amidst luxuries of every kind, to one of God's poorest and most afflicted ones, presented daily before the view.