Verse 8
8. And Zaccheus stood As they arrived at his door followed by the murmuring crowd.
I give to the poor Zaccheus is not, as some strangely construe him, telling what he has heretofore been accustomed to do; but what it is now a part of his new life to do. I hereby give.
If I have A sorrowful and delicate way of confessing that, though not his uniform custom, yet it had been done.
By false accusation Accusing him of selling his property to avoid his taxes, and so making gain from his penalty. The Greek word for the perpetrators of this kind of false accusation is a compound, fig-exposer; and was the epithet applied in Athens to a class of informers who exposed those who imported figs without paying the duties.
Fourfold The Roman law of forfeit prescribed a fourfold restoration. But the law regarding the extortion of publicans simply required a restoration of the defrauded sum. David, in his excitement at the parable of Nathan, pronounced a sentence of fourfold restoration, which lighted upon himself. 2 Samuel 12:6. Moses required in cases of forfeit the restoration of a double amount. Exodus 22:4; Exodus 22:9. But Zaccheus doubles that double from his full repentant heart. The man who feels the evil of sin, and longs for a deliverance, will feel that restoration is not a law of hardship, but a relief and a delight. Though Zaccheus here probably intended no defence against the murmurers, (for there is no proof that he heard their cavils,) yet his words might well have shamed them into silence.
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