Matthew 10:42

he last word, and the most beautiful; spoken with deep pathos as an aside; about the disciples rather than to them, though heard by them. “Whosoever shall do the smallest service, were it but to give a drink to one of these little ones (ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων, cf. Matthew 25:40) in the name of a disciple, I declare solemnly even he shall without fail have his appropriate reward.” ψυχροῦ : expressive word for water, indicating the quality valued by the thirsty; literally a cup of the cool, suggesting by contrast the heat of the sun and the fierce thirst of the weary traveller. No small boon that cup in Palestine! “In this hot and dry land, where one can wander for hours without coming on a brook or an accessible cistern, you say ‘thank you' for a drink of fresh water with very different feelings than we do at home” (Furrer, Wanderungen durch das Heilige Land, p. 118). Fritzsche remarks on the paucity of particles in Matthew 10:34-42 as indicating the emotional condition of the speaker.