Luke 13:16

Luke 13:16. And ought not. They were ‘hypocrites,' because they perceived the necessity in the case of the beast, but heartlessly denied it in the case of the poor woman. The contrast is marked. In the one case a dumb animal, in the other a woman, who was moreover a daughter of Abraham, one of the covenant people of God, the God of the Sabbath. The reference to her being a spiritual daughter of Abraham is not at all certain. The animal is represented as bound by a master aware of its necessities, this woman was bound by Satan. Ordinary infirmity would scarcely be thus described; some kind of possession is asserted by our Lord. In the case of the animal but a few hours would have passed since the last watering the woman had been bound for eighteen years.