Matthew 9:38 - Exposition

Pray ye . Express it as your personal need ( δεήθητε , here only in the New Testament outside the writings of St. Luke and St. Paul). Therefore . Since more workers are so greatly needed. The Lord of the harvest; cf. Clem. Romans, § 34, who illustrates the thought by a most interesting composite quotation of Isaiah 40:10 ( Isaiah 62:11 ; Proverbs 24:12 )and Revelation 22:12 . That he will (omit with the Revised Version) send forth . ( ὅπως ἐκβάλῃ ; ut ejieiat , Vulgate [Wordsworth and White], ut mittat , Vulgate [ordinary edition].) The verb suggests alike his constraining power and their separation from their previous position (cf. Matthew 7:4 ). Mr. J. A. Robinson's note, however, in the Cambridge 'Texts and Studies,' I. 3:124, shows that one must not lay much stress on the thought of constraint. Labourers into his harvest.