Matthew 6:28

In the textus receptus the verbs are in the sing. according to rule: this and τὰ ἑαυτῆς Matthew 6:34 are grammatical corrections.

28. ἐνδύματος. The birds are an example of God’s care in providing food, the flowers of His care in providing apparel. The Creator promises that the care shown to the lowliest of his works shall be extended to the noblest.

τὰ κρίνα τοῦ�, identified by Dr Thomson (Land and Book, p. 256) with a species of lily found in the neighbourhood of Hûlêh. He speaks of having met with ‘this incomparable flower, in all its loveliness … around the northern base of Tabor, and on the hills of Nazareth, where our Lord spent His youth.’ Canon Tristram (Nat. Hist. of the Bible) claims this honour for the beautiful and varied anemone coronaria. ‘If in the wondrous richness of bloom which characterises the Land of Israel in spring any one plant can claim preeminence, it is the anemone, the most natural flower for our Lord to pluck and seize upon as an illustration, whether walking in the fields or sitting on the hill-side.’

αὐξάνουσιν … κοπιῶσιν … νήθουσιν. Two reasons are assigned for the use of the plural verb after a neuter plural signifying material objects: either (1) the various parts of the subject are thought of separately rather than collectively; or (2) the action predicated of the subject is conceived as being repeated at successive periods. It may perhaps be a refinement to appeal to these reasons in this particular case, though both apply: probably the preceding structure, Matthew 6:26, influences the syntax here. Other instances of this anomaly in the N.T. are 1 Timothy 5:25, τὰ ἄλλως ἔχοντα (ἔργα) κρυβῆναι οὐ δύνανται. Revelation 1:19, ἃ εἶδες καὶ ἃ εἰσίν.