4 for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Penury - Poverty. See this explained in the notes at Mark 12:41-44.
For all these have of their abundance,.... Which they had remaining; the same Hebrew word signifying to remain, and to abound: they had large possessions, and gave in much, and yet had a great deal left; out of which they
cast in unto the offerings of God; or "gifts of God": not as gifts unto him; or among the gifts of God; but into the treasury where the gifts, and freewill offerings were put; the same with the "Corban", in Matthew 27:6 and so the Syriac version here renders it, "the house of the offering of God": and it is expressed in the plural; because there were several chests, in which these gifts were put, for various uses; See Gill on Mark 12:41.
but she of her penury hath cast in all the living she had; See Gill on Mark 12:44.
of their abundance--their superfluity; what they had to spare," or beyond what they needed.
of her penury--or "want" (Mark 12:44) --her deficiency, of what was less than her own wants required, "all the living she had." Mark (Mark 12:44) still more emphatically, "all that she had--her whole subsistence." Note: (1) As temple offerings are needed still for the service of Christ at home and abroad, so "looking down" now, as then "up," Me "sees" who "cast in," and how much. (2) Christ's standard of commendable offering is not our superfluity, but our deficiency--not what will never be missed, but what costs us some real sacrifice, and just in proportion to the relative amount of that sacrifice. (See 2-Corinthians 8:1-3.)
*More commentary available at chapter level.