Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.

naked, and ye clothed me; I was ill, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came to me.

naked, and ye put around me; I was infirm, and ye looked after me; in prison I was, and ye came unto me.

when I was ill-clad, you clothed me; when I was sick, you visited me; when I was in prison, you came to see me.'

I had no clothing, and you gave it to me: when I was ill, or in prison, you came to me.

when I was naked, you clothed me; when I fell ill, you visited me; and when I was in prison, you came to me.'

I was sick, and ye visited me - Relieving the strangers, and visiting the sick, were in high estimation among the Jews. One of their sayings on this head is worthy of notice: "He who neglects to visit the sick is like him who has shed blood." That is, as he has neglected, when it was in his power, to preserve life, he is as guilty in the sight of the Lord as he is who has committed murder. See Kypke in loco.

Naked, and ye clothed me,.... For in such a condition sometimes are the dear children of God, and members of Christ; see 1-Corinthians 4:11, when others, who, Dorcas like, have made coats and garments for them, and clothed them with them; and which will be shown another day, or taken notice of as the fruits, and so evidences of the grace of God in them,
I was sick, and ye visited me, or "looked after me", or "over me": or, as the Persic version renders it, ye had the care of me; and which is the true sense and import of the word: for it not only intends visits paid to sick persons in a Christian manner, relieving them with their substance, giving good advice, or speaking comfortable words to them; but attending them, and waiting on them, and doing such things for them which, in their weak state, they are not capable of doing for themselves. Visiting of the sick was reckoned, by the Jews, a very worthy action: they speak great things of it, and as what will be highly rewarded hereafter,
"Six things, (they say (h),) a man eats the fruit of them in this world, and there is a stable portion for him in the world to come:
and the two first of them are, "the taking in of travellers", or "strangers", which is mentioned in the preceding verse, and , "visiting the sick". One of their Rabbins (i) says,
"he that does not visit the sick, is as if he shed blood: says another, he that visits the sick is the cause of his living; and he that does not visit the sick, is the cause of his death: and, says a third, whoever visits the sick shall be preserved from the damnation of hell.
I was in prison, and ye came unto me: which has been often the lot of the saints, as it was frequently of the Apostle Paul, who had this respect shown him by many of the people of God, as by the house of Onesiphorus, and by Epaphroditus, who brought him a present from the Philippians, when in bonds; and which will be remembered another day,
(h) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol, 127. (i) T. Bab. Nedarim, fol. 40. 1. Vid. Maimon. Hilch. Ebel, c. 14. sect. 4, 5, 6.

Naked . . . sick . . . prison, and ye came unto me.