and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of children and nursing babies, you have perfected praise’?”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 16. Have you never read: Out of the mouth, and so forth The words are Psalm 8:3, which some apply to the praises the people gave to David, when he had conquered Goliath, but Christ applies them to the present circumstances. Witham.—It is here said, that from the mouth of children the Almighty, had perfected praise, as in Psalms 8:3 in the Septuagint, to shew that their words did not proceed from their own minds, but that their tender tongues were employed by the power of God to sound forth his praise. Saint John Chrysostom hom. lxviii.—It is evident from this and various other texts, that we ought to read the Old Testament with an eye to Christ, who was the end of the law.