ing to Biblical
scholars and antiquarians, but the solution of it is by no means
necessary to the perception or the application of our Lord's meaning in
the parable. The sense is completely obtained by taking the ten
thousand talents as a vast but indefinite sum. A hundred talents of
silver constituted the hire of a great army, 2 Chron. xxv. 6; and
notwithstanding the lavish use of gold in the construction of the
Tent-Temple in the wilderness, only twenty-nine talents were employed in
all (Ex. xxxviii. 24). Besides the distinction between gold and silver,
other variations occur in the value of a talent, depending upon time,
place, and other circumstances. In any view of its worth, however, the
disparity between the sum which this servant owed to the master, and the
trifling amount which a fellow-servant owed to him, is as great as the
imagination can effectually grasp; larger numbers would not sensibly
intensify the impression.

"One was brought to him:" this servant would not have come to the king
of his own accord; but he could not escape the interview and the
reckoning. Aware of his enormous debt, he would fain have kept out of
his master's way, but could not. God looks on the heart, and grasps the
conscience, whether the man will or be unwilling.

The punishment is very severe, but in accordance with law and custom. No
complaint is made against the sentence as if it were unjust in
principle, or excessive in degree: the culprit appeals only to the mercy
of the judge, and thus the righteousness of the verdict is tacitly
acknowledged.

His promise to pay means nothing more than his desire to escape. He made
the promise, not in the expectation of being able to perform it, but as
the most likely means of escaping from punishment. His worship was
prompted by selfish fear, not by filial love. He did not know his
master's heart: he thought he would gain his object most readily by
leading the king to expect payment in full.

The king did not grant his servant's request: he did more; he forgave
that servant all. The absolved debtor, as soon as he obtained his
liberty, went out, and met a fellow-servant, who owed him an hundred
pence. I suppose, if that fellow-servant had come to him while yet he
was in his master's presence, he would not have dared to act the tyrant;
but "out of sight, out of mind." He forgot his own prayer, and his
lord's compassion. He grasped the fellow-servant by the throat and threw
him into prison,