And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a field, and I must needs go out and see it; I pray thee have me excused.

And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it: I pray thee, hold me excused.

And all began, without exception, to excuse themselves. The first said to him, I have bought land, and I must go out and see it; I pray thee hold me for excused.

'And they began with one consent all to excuse themselves: The first said to him, A field I bought, and I have need to go forth and see it; I beg of thee, have me excused.

"But they all without exception began to excuse themselves. The first told him, "'I have purchased a piece of land, and must of necessity go and look at it. Pray hold me excused.'

And they all gave reasons why they were not able to come. The first said to him, I have got a new field, and it is necessary for me to go and see it: I am full of regret that I am unable to come.

And at once they all began to make excuses. The first said to him: 'I bought a farm, and I need to go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.'

They all with one accord began to ask to be excused. The first said to the servant 'I have bought a field and am obliged to go and look at it. I must ask you to consider me excused.'

I have bought a piece of ground - Perhaps he had purchased it on condition that he found it as good as it had been represented to him.
I must needs go - I have necessity, or am obliged to go and see it; possibly pleading a contract or an agreement that he would go soon and examine it. However, we may learn from this that sinners sometimes plead that they are under a "necessity" to neglect the affairs of religion. The affairs of the world, they pretend, are so pressing that they cannot find time to attend to their souls. They have no time to pray, or read the Scriptures, or keep up the worship of God. In this way many lose their souls. God cannot regard such an excuse for neglecting religion with approbation. He commands us to seek "first" the kingdom of God and his righteousness, nor can he approve any excuse that people may make for not doing it.

(4) And they all with (b) one [consent] began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
(4) For the most part even those to whom God has revealed himself are so mad, that any help which they have received of God they willingly turn into obstructions and hindrances.
(b) On purpose, and a thing agreed upon before: for though they give different reasons why they cannot come, yet all of them agree in this, that they have their excuses so that they may not come to supper.

And they all with one consent began to make excuse,.... Or, "they all together", as the Vulgate Latin version, "in one", or "at once": in Jeremiah 10:8 rendered "altogether"; and so the Ethiopic version, which adds, "with one voice": but their words and language were not the same: their excuses are differently expressed. Some render , "from one hour": or the selfsame hour; immediately, directly, as soon as ever they were bidden, they began to frame excuses; they at once agreed, as by common consent, to excuse themselves from coming.
The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, or a field, and I must needs go and see it: he ought to have seen it before he bought it; and however, it was a very improper time, at evening, at supper time, as this was, to go and see a piece of ground; and at least it might have been put off till next morning; so that it was a mere excuse indeed.
I pray thee have me excused: coming to the supper: these were the principal men among the Jews, the Pharisees and rulers among the people; who were rich and covetous, worldly men; seeking their own worldly advantage more than their spiritual and eternal welfare, or the interest of God and religion.

all began to make excuse--(Compare Matthew 22:5). Three excuses, given as specimens of the rest, answer to "the care of this world" (Luke 14:18), "the deceitfulness of riches" (Luke 14:19), and "the pleasures of this life" (Luke 14:20), which "choke the word" (Matthew 13:22 and Luke 8:14). Each differs from the other, and each has its own plausibility, but all come to the same result: "We have other things to attend to, more pressing just now." Nobody is represented as saying, I will not come; nay, all the answers imply that but for certain things they would come, and when these are out of the way they will come. So it certainly is in the case intended, for the last words clearly imply that the refusers will one day become petitioners.

They all began to make excuse - One of them pleads only his own will, I go: another, a pretended necessity, I must needs go: the third, impossibility, I cannot come: all of them want the holy hatred mentioned Luke 14:26. All of them perish by things in themselves lawful. I must needs go - The most urgent worldly affairs frequently fall out just at the time when God makes the freest offers of salvation.