THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE - Chapter 13 - Verse 16

Verse 16. A daughter of Abraham. A descendant of Abraham. See Barnes "Mt 1:1".

She was therefore a Jewess; and the ruler of the synagogue, professing a peculiar regard for the Jewish people, considering them as peculiarly favoured of God, should have rejoiced that she was loosed from this infirmity.

Whom Satan hath bound. Satan is the name given to the prince or leader of evil spirits, called also the devil, Beelzebub, and the old serpent., Mt 12:24; Re 12:9; 20:2.

By his binding her is meant that he had inflicted this disease upon her. It was not properly a possession of the devil, for that commonly produced derangement; but God had suffered him to afflict her in this manner, similar to the way in which he was permitted to try Job. See Barnes "Job 1:12; 2:6,7".

It is no more improbable that God would suffer Satan to inflict pain, than that he would suffer a wicked man to do it; yet nothing is more common than for one man to be the occasion of bringing on a disease in another which may terminate only with the life. He that seduces a virtuous man and leads him to intemperance, or he that wounds him or strikes him, may disable him as much as Satan did this woman. If God permits it in one case, he may, for the same reason, in another.

{q} "daughter of Abraham" Lu 19:9