20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told them.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Glorifying and praising God This is another circumstance which is fitted to be generally useful in confirming our faith. The shepherds knew with certainty that this was a work of God. Their zeal in glorifying and praising God is an implied reproof of our indolence, or rather of our ingratitude. If the cradle of Christ [1] had such an effect upon them, as to make them rise from the stable and the manger to heaven, how much more powerful ought the death and resurrection of Christ to be in raising us to God? For Christ did not only ascend from the earth, that he might draw all things after him; but he sits at the right hand of the Father, that, during our pilgrimage in the world, we may meditate with our whole heart on the heavenly life. When Luke says, that the testimony of the angel served as a rule to the shepherds in all that they did, [2] he points out the nature of true godliness. For our faith is properly aided by the works of God, when it directs everything to this end, that the truth of God, which was revealed in his word, may be brought out with greater clearness.
1 - "Si les petits drapeaux esquels estoit enveloppe l'infant Jesus;"-- "if the little rags in which the child Jesus was wrapped."
2 - "Ad quam omnia exigerent." -- "Une reigle, a laquelle ils ont rapporte tout ce qu'ils voyoyent;" -- "a rule by which they related all that they saw."
The shepherds returned - To their flocks.
Glorifying - Giving honor to God, and celebrating his praises.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising - These simple men, having satisfactory evidence of the truth of the good tidings, and feeling a Divine influence upon their own minds, returned to the care of their flocks, glorifying God for what he had shown them, and for the blessedness which they felt. "Jesus Christ, born of a woman, laid in a stable, proclaimed and ministered to by the heavenly host, should be a subject of frequent contemplation to the pastors of his Church. After having compared the predictions of the prophets with the facts stated in the evangelic history, their own souls being hereby confirmed in these sacred truths, they will return to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for what they had seen and heard in the Gospel history, just as it had been told them in the writings of the prophets; and, preaching these mysteries with the fullest conviction of their truth, they become instruments in the hands of God of begetting the same faith in their hearers; and thus the glory of God and the happiness of his people are both promoted." What subjects for contemplation! - what matter for praise!
And the shepherds returned,.... From Bethlehem, to the fields, and to their flock there,
glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard; from Joseph and Mary:
and seen; as the babe lying in the manger:
as it was told unto them; by the angel: they glorified God on account of the birth of the Messiah; and praised him, wondering at his grace, and the high honour put upon them, that they should be acquainted with it; and that there was such an exact agreement between the things they had seen, and the angel's account of them.
glorifying and praising God, &c.--The latter word, used of the song of the angels (Luke 2:13), and in Luke 19:37, and Luke 24:53, leads us to suppose that theirs was a song too, probably some canticle from the Psalter--meet vehicle for the swelling emotions of their simple hearts at what "they had heard and seen."
For all the things that they had heard - From Mary; as it was told them - By the angels.
*More commentary available at chapter level.