Luke 12:25-28

“ Which of you, with taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? 26. If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27. Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more you, O ye of little faith? ” Luke 12:25 expresses in a general way the idea of the inefficacy of human cares. Μεριμνῶν, participle present: by means of disquieting oneself. ῾Ηλικία might refer to age; we should then require to take πῆχυς, cubit, in a figurative sense (Psa 39:6). But the word seems to us to be connected with what is said about the growth of plants, which is sometimes so rapid; it is therefore more natural to give ἡλικία its ordinary sense of stature. Πῆχυς, cubit, thus preserves its literal meaning. Plants which give themselves no care, yet make enormous increase, while ye by your anxieties do not in the least hasten your growth. Luke 12:25-26 correspond to Luke 12:23. Your anxieties will not procure for you an increase of stature; how much less advantages of higher value! The example which follows, taken from nature (Luke 12:27), corresponds with that of Luke 12:24. After reading the delicious piece of M. F. Bovet (Voyage en Terre-Sainte, p. 383), it is hard to give up the idea that by the lily of the fields we are to understand the beautiful red anemone (anemone coronaria) with which the meadows throughout all Palestine are enamelled. Yet Jesus may possibly mean either the magnificent white lily (lilium candidum), or the splendid red lily (lilium rubrum), which are found, though more rarely, in that country (Winer, Lexicon, ad h. v.).

From want of wood, ovens in the East are fed with herbs.