Exodus 20:12

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Ver. 12. Honour thy father, &c.] Philo well! observeth, that this fifth commandment, which therefore he maketh a branch of the first table, and so divides the tables equally, is a mixed commandment, εντολη μικτη; and differs somewhat from the rest of those in the second table. They consider man as our neighbour, in nature like us: this, as God's deputy, by him set over us, and in his name, and by his authority, performing offices about us.

That thy days may be long.] A good child lengtheneth his father's days; therefore God promiseth to lengthen his. Ill children, as they bring their parents' "gray hairs with sorrow to the grave"; so they are many times cut off in the midst of their days, as Abimelech was: God rendering upon him the evil that he did to his father. Jdg 9:56 Besides the punishment they have in their posterity, to whom they have been peremptores potius quam parentes. a One complained, that never father had so undutiful a child as he had: yes, said his son, with less grace than truth, my grandfather had. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exo 20:17 "

a Bernard.