Isa 66:24, Luk 16:23-26 | Barnes

Isaiah 66:24

Luke 16:23-26

Verse 23. In hell. The word here translated hell (Hades) means literally a dark, obscure place; the place where departed spirits go, but especially the place where wicked spirits go. Job 10:21 also Job 10:22, Isa 14:9. The following circumstances are related of it in this parable:

1st. It is far off from the abodes of the righteous. Lazarus was seen afar off.

2nd. It is a place of torment.

3rd. There is a great gulf fixed between that and heaven, Lk 16:26.

4th. The suffering is great. It is represented by torment in a flame, Lk 16:24.

5th. There will be no escape from it, Lk 16:26. The word hell here means, therefore, that dark, obscure, and miserable place, far from heaven, where the wicked shall be punished for ever.

He lifted up his eyes. A phrase in common use among the Hebrews, meaning he looked, Gen 13:10, 18:2, 31:10, Dan 8:3, Lk 6:20.

Being in torment. The word torment means pain, anguish (Mt 4:24); particularly the pain inflicted by the ancients in order to induce men to make confession of their crimes. These torments or tortures were the keenest that they could inflict, such as the rack, or scourging, or burning; and the use of the word here denotes that the sufferings of the wicked can be represented only by the extremest forms of human suffering.

And seeth Abraham, &c. This was an aggravation of his misery. One of the first things that occurred in hell was to look up, and see the poor man that lay at his gate completely happy. What a contrast! Just now he was rolling in wealth, and the poor man was at his gate. He had no expectation of these sufferings' now they have come upon him, and Lazarus is happy and for ever fixed in the paradise of God. It is more, perhaps, than we are authorized to infer, that the wicked will see those who are in paradise. That they will know that they are there is certain; but we are not to suppose that they will be so near together as to be seen, or as to make conversation possible. These circumstances mean that there will be a separation, and that the wicked in hell will be conscious that the righteous, though on earth they were poor or despised, will be in heaven. Heaven and hell will be far from each other, and it will be no small part of the misery of the one that it is far and for ever removed from the other.

(r) "tormented" Rev 14:10,11. Verse 24. Father Abraham. The Jews considered it a signal honour that Abraham was their father--that is, that they were descendants from him. Though this man was now in misery, yet he seems not to have abandoned the idea of his relation to the father of the faithful. The Jews supposed that departed spirits might know and converse with each other. See Lightfoot on this place. Our Saviour speaks in conformity with that prevailing opinion; and as it was not easy to convey ideas about the spiritual world without some such representation, he therefore speaks in the language which was usual in his time. We are not, however, to suppose that this was literally true, but only that it was designed to represent more clearly the sufferings of the rich man in hell.

Have mercy on me. Pity me. The rich man is not represented as calling on God. The mercy of God will be at an end when the soul is lost. Nor did he ask to be released from that place. Lost spirits know that their sufferings will have no end, and that it would be in vain to ask to escape the place of torment. Nor does he ask to be admitted where Lazarus was. He had no desire to be in a holy place, and he well knew that there was no restoration to those who once sink down to hell.

Send Lazarus. This shows how low he was reduced, and how the circumstances of men change when they die. Just before, Lazarus was laid at his gate full of sores; now he is happy in heaven. Just before, he had nothing to give, and the rich man could expect to derive no benefit from him; now he asks, as the highest favour, that he might come and render him relief. Soon the poorest man on earth, if he is a friend of God, will have mercies which the rich, if unprepared to die, can never obtain. The rich will no longer despise such men; they would then be glad of their friendship, and would beg for the slightest favour at their hands.

Dip the tip, &c. This was a small favour to ask, and it shows the greatness of his distress when so small a thing would be considered a great relief.

Cool my tongue. The effect of great heat on the body is to produce almost insupportable thirst. Those who travel in burning deserts thus suffer inexpressibly when they are deprived of water. So pain of any kind produces thirst, and particularly of connected with fever. The sufferings of the rich man are therefore represented as producing burning thirst, so much that even a drop of water would be refreshing to his tongue. We can scarce form an idea of more distress and misery than where this is continued from one day to another without relief. We are not to suppose that he had been guilty of any particular wickedness with his tongue as the cause of this. It is simply an idea to represent the natural effect of great suffering, and especially suffering in the midst of great heat.

I am tormented. I am in anguish--in insupportable distress.

In this flame. The lost are often represented as suffering in flames, because fire is an image of the severest pain that we know. It is not certain, however, that the wicked will be doomed to suffer in material fire. Mk 9:44.

(r) "tormented in this flame" Is 66:24, Mk 9:44 Verse 25. Son. This is a representation designed to correspond with the word father. He was a descendant of Abraham--a Jew--and Abraham is represented as calling this thing to his remembrance. It would not lessen his sorrows to remember that he was a son of Abraham, and that he ought to have lived worthy of that relation to him.

Remember. This is a cutting word in this place. One of the chief torments of hell will be the remembrance of what was enjoyed and of what was done in this world. Nor will it be any mitigation of the suffering to spend an eternity where there will be nothing else to do, day or night, but to remember what urns done, and what might have been, if the life had been right.

Thy good things. That is, property, splendour, honour.

Evil things. Poverty, contempt, and disease.

But now, &c. How changed the scene! How different the condition! And how much better was the portion of Lazarus, after all, than that of the rich man! It is probable that Lazarus had the most real happiness in the land of the living, for riches without the love of God can never confer happiness like the favour of God, even in poverty. But the comforts of the rich man are now gone for ever, and the joys of Lazarus have just commenced. One is to be comforted, and the other to be tormented, to all eternity. How much better, therefore, is poverty, with the friendship of God, than riches, with all that the world can bestow! And how foolish to seek our chief pleasures only in this life!

(s) "in thy lifetime" Job 21:13, Ps 73:12-19, Lk 6:24 Verse 26. A great gulf. The word translated gulf means chasm, or the broad, yawning space between two elevated objects. In this place it means that there is no way of passing from one to the other.

Fixed. Strengthened--made firm or immovable. It is so established that it will never be movable or passable. It will for ever divide heaven and hell.

Which would pass. We are not to press this passage literally, as if those who are in heaven would desire to go and visit the wicked in the world of woe. The simple meaning of the statement is, that there can be no communication between the one and the other --there can be no passing from one to the other. It is impossible to conceive that the righteous would desire to leave their abodes in glory to go and dwell in the world of woe; nor can we suppose that they would wish to go for any reason unless it were possible to furnish relief. That will be out of the question. Not even a drop of water will be furnished as a relief to the sufferer.

Neither can they pass to us, &c. There can be no doubt that the wicked will desire to pass the gulf that divides them from heaven. They would be glad to be in a state of happiness; but all such wishes will be vain. How, in the face of the solemn statement of the Saviour here, can men believe that there will be a restoration of all the wicked to heaven? He solemnly assures us that there can be no passage from that world of woe to the abodes of the blessed; yet, in the face of this, many Universalists hold that hell will yet be vacated of its guilty millions, and that all its miserable inhabitants will be received to heaven! Who shall conduct them across this gulf, when Jesus Christ says it cannot be passed? Who shall build a bridge over that yawning chasm which he says is "fixed?" No: if there is anything certain from the Scripture, it is that they who enter hell return no more; they who sink there sink for ever.

(t) "neither can they pass to us" Eze 28:24