Bible Commentaries
Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges
Luke 19
1. εἰσελθὼν διήρχετο. Literally, ‘having entered Jericho was passing through it.’
τὴν Ἱερειχώ. Jericho (the City of Palm trees, Deuteronomy 34:3; Judges 1:16) is about 6 miles from the Jordan, and 15 from Jerusalem. It was from a point opposite to it that Moses had viewed Canaan, Deuteronomy 34:1. When taken by Joshua the site had been cursed (Joshua 6:26): but, in the reign of Ahab, Hiel of Bethel defied and underwent the curse (1 Kings 16:34). In later times Jericho became a great and wealthy town, being fertilised by its abundant spring (2 Kings 2:21) and enriched by its palms and balsams, Jos. Antt. IV. 6; B. J. IV. 8; Sirach 24:14, “I was exalted like a palm tree in Engaddi and like a rose plant in Jericho.” The plant however usually called the rose of Jericho is the Anastatica Hierochuntia of Linnaeus. A mediaeval Itinerary says that the site—on which now stands the miserable and degraded village of Riha—was ‘most rich in flowers and odoriferous shrubs.’
2. καὶ ἰδού. The style of this chapter shews that St Luke is using a document of Aramaic origin.
ὀνόματι καλούμενος. The more classic phrase would have been ὄνομα καλ.
Ζακχαῖος. Zakkai means ‘pure.’ Ezra 2:9; Nehemiah 7:14; Jos. Vit. 46. There is a Zakkai in the Talmud, father of the famous Rabbi Jochanan, and he also lived at Jericho. The name shews that he was a Jew, and not as some have fancied a Gentile. Nothing is known of him, though the Clementines make him bishop of Caesarea (Hom. III. 63, Recogn. III. 65, Meyer).
αὐτὸς ἦν ἀρχιτελώνης. He was by position a chief tax-gatherer. For this use of αὐτὸς comp. Luke 8:41. He may even have risen as some Jews did, from the subordinate rank of the portitores to that of publicanus (Jos. B. J. II. 14, § 9). Priests (see on Luke 10:31) and publicans—the latter employed to regulate the balsam-duties, and the exports and imports between the domains of the Romans and of Antipas—were the chief classes at Jericho (Jos. Antt. XIV. 4, § 1, XV. 4, § 2; Justin Hist. VI. 3).
3. ἐζήτει ἰδεῖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν. Doubtless his riches increased the odium of his position, and being accustomed to contempt and hatred, he wished to see One who was not only a great prophet, but also kind to tax-gatherers and sinners.
τίς ἐστιν. I.e. he desired to distinguish Jesus by sight amid the crowd; or possibly rather ‘what sort of person He was.’ For the indicative comp. Acts 21:33.
ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου. In classical Greek this would be διὰ τὸν ὄχλον, but in the N.T. ἀπὸ is used in the sense of propter and prae to express the cause. See Acts 22:11; John 21:6, &c.
4. συκομορέαν. A commoner form of the name is συκόμορος. Not the same as sycamine (mulberry) of Luke 17:6, or with our sycamore (or pseudo-platanus) but the Egyptian fig, of which the low spreading branches are very easy to climb.
ἐκείνης. ‘That way.’ There is no need for the διὰ of some MSS. See Luke 5:19, ποίας. Winer, p. 738 sq.
διέρχεσθαι. To pass through the town.
5. Ζακχαῖε. Zacchaeus was so prominent a person in Jericho that we can see no difficulty in his being known to Jesus by name.
δεῖ. The word implies a moral fitness; “as if,” says Luther (quoted by Meyer), “He could not dispense with Zacchaeus, whom nevertheless every one else avoided as a great sinner.”
6. χαίρων. This public honour done by the Messiah to one so despised by all classes of his countrymen, ennobled him with a new feeling of happiness and self-respect.
7. πάντες διεγόγγυζον. ‘They all began to murmur aloud.’ See Luke 15:2. The ‘all’ is very significant as shewing how deep-seated was the national feeling which, because it was unworthy, our Lord at the very zenith of His earthly popularity thus unflinchingly braved. Many of them may not have heard His previous vindication of His object (Matthew 9:11-13).
παρά. ‘At the house of.’ It depends on καταλῦσαι. Comp. 2 Timothy 4:13, ἀπέλιπον παρὰ Κάρπῳ. Acts 9:43.
καταλῦσαι. ‘To put up’ as though at a guest-chamber, Luke 2:7; Mark 14:14. Comp. Luke 9:12. The word means originally ‘to loosen harness.’
8. σταθείς. The word means ‘taking his position’ in sight of all the crowd; see Luke 18:11.
πρὸς τὸν κύριον. Not to the crowd who had nothing but contempt and hatred for him, but to Him who loved the nobler self which He saw in him, and of whose notice he desired to be more worthy.
τὰ ἡμίσεια. A vast sacrifice for one whose very position shewed that he had not been indifferent to wealth. ἡμίσεια is the reading of אBL. In classic Greek it is a fem. sing. but was used by later writers as a neut. plural.
δίδωμι. I now propose to give; a purpose not a past habit.
εἵ τινός τι ἐσυκοφάντησα. ‘Whatever I wrongfully exacted.’ The εἴ τι for ὅ, τι a little softens the bitterness of the confession. For the verb see Luke 3:14.
τετραπλοῦν. Far more therefore than was required by the Mosaic Law, which only demanded the restitution of a fifth part beyond the principal, Numbers 5:7; 1 Samuel 12:3 (but comp. Exodus 22:1). The words neither deny nor affirm that any part of his wealth had been thus dishonestly gained.
9. υἱὸς Ἀβραάμ. Used here in the high spiritual sense (Romans 4:11-12; Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:7) though also true (as the name Zacchaeus shews) in the literal sense. See Luke 1:55, Luke 3:8, Luke 13:16.
11. προσθεὶς εἶπεν παραβολήν. A Hebraism. Genesis 38:5.
διὰ τὸ ἐγγὺς εἶναι. Probably therefore the parable was spoken on the journey. Jericho was 150 stades from Jerusalem. Jos. B. J. IV. 8, § 3.
ἀναφαίνεσθαι. Literally, ‘be manifested to view.’ The disciples had the same excited anticipation after the Resurrection, Acts 1:6-7. Our Lord was always careful to lead them away from false material hopes. The lessons of the parable are patient waiting and active work, and it was intended to check the effervescent enthusiasm of Messianic temporal hopes.
12. ἄνθρωπός τις εὐγενής. This would seem a most unintelligible incident if we did not know what suggested it. The Evangelists throw no gleam of light upon it, and the fact that we can from contemporary secular history not only explain it, but even trace (without the slightest aid from any of the Gospels) the exact circumstances which suggested it at this very place and time, is one of the many invaluable independent circumstances which enable us to prove from history the absolute truthfulness of these records. Two ‘nobles’—Herod the Great and his son Archelaus—had actually gone from Jericho to a far country, even to Rome, for the express purpose of ‘receiving a kingdom’ from the all-powerful Caesar (Jos. Antt. XIV. 14, XVII. 9, § 4: comp. 1 Maccabees 8:13), and the same thing was subsequently done by Antipas (id. Antt. XVIII. 5, § 1). It is deeply interesting to see how Jesus thus utilises any incident—social or political—as a vehicle for spiritual instruction. Probably if we knew the events of His day more minutely, we should see the origin of many others of the parables. The facts here alluded to would naturally be brought both to His mind, and to those of the Galilaeans, by the sight of the magnificent palace at Jericho which Archelaus had rebuilt. (Jos. Antt. XVII. 13, § 1.) How little the incidental machinery of parables should be theologically pressed, we may see from the fact that here our Lord takes the movements and the actions of a cruel and bad prince like Archelaus, to shadow forth certain truths of His own ministry (compare the Parables of the Unjust Steward and the Unjust Judge).
13. δέκα δούλους ἑαυτοῦ. ‘Ten slaves of his own;’ for such a noble would count his servants by hundreds. The men being slaves the sums entrusted to them are small.
δέκα μνᾶς. The mina was 100 drachmas (Luke 15:8), and was worth £3. 6s. 8d. in nominal value. The word is a corruption of the Hebrew maneh. (2 Chronicles 9:16.) A comparison of this parable with that of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) will shew the wide diversities between the two. Archelaus did actually leave money in the charge of some of his servants, especially entrusting Philippus to look after his pecuniary interests in his absence.
πραγματεύσασθε. ‘Trade,’ negotiamini. Tyndale and the Genevan have ‘buy and sell.’ The “occupy” of the A. V331 (in the sense of the Latin occupare) is found also in Cranmer and the Rhemish; comp. Psalms 107:23, “that … occupy their business in great waters” (Prayer-Book). For the command see 1 Peter 4:10.
ἐν ᾧ ἔρχομαι. This reading (ἐν ᾧ, אABD, &c.) would mean ‘while I am on my journey,’ literally ‘during which I return.’ If we adopt the reading ἔως ἔρχομαι it means ‘till I come (which is quite certain)’ (John 21:22). A contingent return would be expressed by ἕως ἂν ἔλθω.
14. ἐμίσουν αὐτόν. And this was not strange, seeing that the very beginning of his reign had been signalised by a hideous massacre of his subjects. (Jos. Antt. XVII. 9, § 3.)
πρεσβείαν ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ. ‘An embassy to follow him’ (Luke 14:32). Vulg332 legationem. Here again the incident would be entirely obscure, if we did not know from Josephus that the Jews did send an embassy of 50 to Augustus—who were met on their arrival at Rome by 8000 Jews—to recount the cruelties of Archelaus, and plead for deliverance from him and the Herods generally. (Jos. Antt. XVII. 11, § 1, &c.) Although not immediately successful, the embassy was one of the circumstances which led to his ultimate deposition.
τοῦτον. The ‘this’ is supremely contemptuous. For the fact shadowed forth see John 15:18; John 19:14-15; John 19:21.
15. λαβόντα τὴν βασιλείαν. Not however the coveted title of king, which was refused him.
γνοῖ. This seems to be the true reading both here and in Mark 5:43. It is for γνοίη. So we find γνοῖμεν for γνοίημεν in Plutarch.
τίς τί. Comp. Mark 15:34. This mixture of two questions is quite classical. See Soph. Aj. 454, &c.
διεπραγματεύσατο. A compound form of the verb in Luke 19:13. The calling of the servants corresponds to the “Give an account of thy stewardship” of Luke 16:2.
16. προσηργήσατο. Literally, “earned in addition.” As though there were no merit of his own in the matter.
17. ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ. See Luke 12:48, Luke 16:10.
ἐπάνω δέκα πόλεων. Another strange touch explained by the history of the times. Archelaus had actually assigned the government of cities to his adherents who had proved faithful (Jos. Antt. XIV. 14, § 3, &c.), and this was not an uncommon plan among the Herodian princes. “We shall also reign with Him,” 2 Timothy 2:12. The somewhat awkward Greek phrase shews how closely St Luke is adhering to his Aramaic document.
20. σουδαρίῳ. A Latin word, which, like many others, passed into Greek and even into Semitic languages (comp. λεγεών, ἀσσάριον). These Latinisms are most common in St Mark.
21. ἐφοβούμην … σε. A sure sign that he did not love him, 1 John 4:18.
αἴρεις ὃ οὐκ ἔθηκας. A typical description of injustice forbidden alike by Jewish and Greek laws (Jos. c. Ap. II. 130). One of Solon’s laws was ἃ μὴ ἔθου μὴ ἀνέλῃ.
23. ἐπὶ τράπεζαν. ‘Into a bank.’ The Greek word for a banker is τραπεζίτης. This touch contains the germ of the unrecorded saying (ἄγραφον δόγμα) of our Lord, which is one of the most certainly genuine of those which are preserved by tradition—“Shew yourselves approved money-changers” (γίνεσθε τραπεζῖται δόκιμοι).
σὺν τόκῳ ἂν αὐτὸ ἔπραξα. ‘I might have exacted it with interest’ (see Luke 3:13).
24. ἄρατε κ.τ.λ. Here our Lord leaves the historical groundwork. Compare Matthew 21:43, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Luke 8:18.
25. εἶπαν αὐτῷ. Perhaps the officials round the king; but as this verse is purely parenthetical, it may not impossibly be an interpellation of the crowd, expressive of their vivid interest in the narrative.
27. τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου τούτους. They had once been ‘citizens,’ Luke 19:14.
κατασφάξατε. ‘Slaughter them.’ Archelaus had similarly put some of his political opponents to death. This, too, corresponds to ulterior truths—the ruin and massacre of the unbelieving Jews. Comp. 1 Corinthians 15:25.
ἔμπροσθέν μου. ‘Before my eyes.’ The ‘nobleman’ resembles the tyrant Archelaus, who like Caligula may have delighted in the personal inspection of the executions which he ordered.
28. ἐπορεύετο ἔμπροσθεν. Literally, “He began to journey in front of them.” Perhaps during the delivery of the parable, He had paused to let the crowd gather round Him.
ἀναβαίνων. The road from Jericho to Jerusalem is a continual ascent. See Luke 10:30-31.
29. Βηθφαγή. The site is not identified, but it seems to have been regarded as a suburb of Jerusalem. The name means House of (unripe) Figs.
καὶ Βηθανίαν. Perhaps the House of Dates, but this is very uncertain. The mention of Bethany after Bethphage is surprising. Here, however, St Luke omits the supper in the house of ‘Simon the leper’ (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-19) and the anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany. Jesus arrived at Bethany before sunset on Friday, Nisan 8 (March 31, A.D. 30), and therefore before the Sabbath began. Here the throng of Galilaean pilgrims would leave Him to go to their friends in Jerusalem, or to make booths for themselves in the valley of the Kidron and on the slopes of Olivet. The Sabbath was spent in quiet. The supper was in the evening, otherwise the Jews could not have come from Jerusalem, as the distance exceeded a Sabbath day’s journey. It was on the next morning (Palm Sunday) that our Lord started for Jerusalem. His stay at Bethany may have been due to friendship, or may have been dictated by prudence. It was the brooding over the imagined loss of the value of the precious ointment—an assault of Satan at the weakest point—which first drove Judas to his secret interview with the Sadducean priests.
Ἐλαιών. Nom. sing. Olivetum, olive-grove. St Luke uses this form, not the gen. plur. ἐλαιῶν. See Luke 21:37; Acts 1:12, and Jos. Antt. VII. 9, § 2, ἐλαιῶνος ὄρος. The name is here regarded as a sound, and therefore is not put in the accusative. Comp. ἦν ὄνομα τῷ δούλῳ ΄άλχος, John 18:10. See Winer, p. 226.
δύο τῶν μαθητῶν. The minute touch of description in Mark 11:4 has led to the conjecture that Peter was one of these two.
30. πῶλον δεδεμένον. St Luke is here less circumstantial than the other Evangelists, and does not refer to the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9.
οὐδεὶς … ἐκάθισεν. And therefore adapted for a sacred use. See Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7.
35. ἐπιρίψαντες … τὰ ἱμάτια. To do Jesus royal honour. Comp. 2 Kings 9:13. Vulg333 jactantes. The verb which is a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον in the N.T. implies hasty action.
ἐπεβίβασαν. It is clear that He rode upon the unused foal, which was probably led by the bridle, while it is possible that the mother went by its side. St Matthew, however, alone (apparently) mentions two animals (Luke 21:2; Luke 21:7), and possibly this may have been due to some confusion arising out of the Hebrew parallelism (Zechariah 9:9, “riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, son of she-asses”) in the translation into Greek from an Aramaic document. The ass in the East is not a despised animal (Genesis 22:3; Genesis 49:14; Judges 5:10), and it is only because it was despised by Gentiles that Josephus substitutes for it ‘horse’ or ‘beast of burden,’ and the Seventy (LXX334) soften it down into ‘foal,’ &c. The Gentile world abounded in sneers against this narrative, and had all sorts of absurd stories about the Jews and the ass, or ass’s head, which they were supposed to worship (Jos. c. Ap. II. 10; Tac. Hist. v. 3. 4). The Christians were also called ass-worshippers (Tert. Apol. 16; Minuc. Fel. Oct. 9), and this calumny is alluded to in one of the hideously blasphemous wall caricatures (Graffiti). (See however King’s Gnostics, p. 90; Lundy, Monumental Christianity, p. 60.)
36. τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν. As well as leaves of trees and branches of the palms, which they tore off and kept strewing as they went along (Matthew 21:8), as in the reception of Mordecai (Targum on Esther 10:1) and of the Maccabees (2 Maccabees 10:7). The very same mode of shewing honour was adopted when Mr Farran, the consul at Damascus, visited Jerusalem in 1834, at a time of great distress.
37. πρὸς τῇ καταβάσει. ‘Close to the descent;’ i.e. at the brow of the hill, at the spot where the main road from Bethany sweeps round the shoulder of the hill, and the city first bursts full on the view. At this point the palm-bearing procession from the city seems to have met the rejoicing crowd of the Galilaean pilgrims who had started with Jesus from Bethany.
38. εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος. The various cries recorded by the three Evangelists all come from the Great Hallel (Psalms 113-118). St John alone (Luke 12:17 reading ὅτι) points out that the Messianic enthusiasm had been mainly kindled by the raising of Lazarus. St Luke omits Hosanna, which would have been unintelligible to his Greek readers.
ἐν ὑψίστοις. Sub. τόποις as in Luke 2:14. Comp. ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, Ephesians 1:3.
39. ἐπιτίμησον τοῖς μαθηταῖς σου. St Matthew puts into the mouth of “the Chief Priests and Scribes” the ruder interpellation, “Hearest thou what these say?”
40. ἐὰν … σιωπήσουσιν. Such a construction as ἐὰν with the indicative would of course be impossible in classical Greek. It is only explicable by excluding the conditional particle from any influence over the verb—“if (under whatever circumstances) these shall keep silent.”
οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν. This is the reading of אBL for κεκράξονται, which is used by earlier and classic writers as the ordinary future of κράζω, as it is also in the LXX335 There seems to be an allusion to the passage, “For the stone shall cry out of the wall,” which occurs amid denunciations of destruction on covetousness and cruelty in Habakkuk 2:11. It is also found in the Talmud.
41. ἰδὼν τὴν πόλιν. The Temple was at that time magnificent with gilding and white marble, which flashed resplendently in the spring sunlight (Jos. B. J. Luke 19:5, § 6), and the city was very unlike the crumbling and squalid city of to-day. But that “mass of gold and snow” woke no pride in the Saviour’s heart. Few scenes are more striking than this burst of anguish in the very midst of the exulting procession.
ἔκλαυσεν. Not merely ἐδάκρυσεν ‘shed silent tears,’ as at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35), but ἔκλαυσεν ‘wept aloud;’ and that although not all the agonies and insults of four days later could wring from Him one tear or sigh.
42. καί γε ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ σου. Isaiah 55:6; 2 Corinthians 6:2. καί γε is an uncertain reading (omitted in BD) and is only found in Acts 2:18. The day of Chorazin and Bethsaida was past already.
τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην σου. Perhaps with a paronomasia on the name of Salem or ‘Peace,’ and on the sound though not the derivation of Jerusalem (Yeroo Shalom, ‘they shall see peace,’ comp. Psalms 122:6-7). Such plays on words often spring from deep emotion. (See my Chapters on Language, pp. 269–276.) Isaiah 48:18, “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river.”
νῦν δέ. ‘But as things now are.’ The sense is partly causal. The previous sentence is not concluded, by the figure called aposiopesis; in which the apodosis of a sentence is suppressed by the emotion of the speaker. Comp. Luke 13:9, Luke 22:42; Winer, p. 750.
ἐκρύβη. ‘They were hid,’ i.e. the present state of things proves the divine decree by which they were destined to be hidden from thee.
43. ἡμέραι. Often used of troublous times, like the Latin tempora.
περιβαλοῦσιν … χάρακά σοι. ‘Shall surround thee with a palisade,’ Isaiah 29:3-4; Isaiah 37:33, LXX336 χάραξ in Polybius means a palisaded mound. Literally fulfilled forty years afterwards at the siege of Jerusalem, when Titus surrounded the city first with a palisaded mound (vallum and agger), and then with a wall of masonry. Hence the ‘pale’ of Wyclif and the ‘mound’ of Tyndale were better than the ‘trench’ of the A.V337, Genevan, and Rhemish. The Jews in one of their furious sorties destroyed this χάραξ, and then Titus built the wall.
συνέξουσίν σε πάντοθεν. The blockade established was so terribly rigid that myriads of the Jews perished of starvation.
44. ἐδαφιοῦσίν σε. Titus, if we may trust Josephus, accomplished this prophecy wholly against his will, being driven to the utter subversion and destruction of the city, by the desperate obstinacy of the Jews. Sulpicius Severus (Hist. II.), who is supposed to be here incorporating a fragment of Tacitus, says, “alii et Titus ipse ever tendum templum in primis censebant quo plenius Judaeorum et Christianorum religio tolleretur.” Josephus says that it was so frightfully desolated by the siege, that any Jew coming suddenly upon it would have asked what place it was (Jos. B. J. VI. 1, § 1). It was again laid waste in the rebellion under Barcochba.
καὶ τὰ τέκνα σου. This is joined with ἐδαφιοῦσιν by syllepsis (not as Meyer says by zeugma), ‘They shall level thee to the ground, and extirpate thy children.’ The word ‘children’ here merely means inhabitants (Luke 13:34; Matthew 23:37). The verb which is applied to children in Psalms 137:9 does not occur again in the N.T. The siege began at the Passover, and hence it is said that nearly 3,000,000 Jews were crowded into the city.
οὐκ ἀφήσουσιν λίθον κ.τ.λ. The subsequent attempt of the Jews to rebuild the Temple was frustrated by the outburst of subterranean fires. See Gibbon, ch. 23. II. 309 (ed. Milman). Comp. Micah 3:12.
τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς σου. See Isaiah 29:2-4; Hosea 10:14-15. For the word ‘visitation’ see 1 Peter 2:12; Sirach 18:20. The ‘visitation’ which they had neglected was one of mercy, Luke 1:68; Acts 1:20; 1 Timothy 3:1. The word is used for ‘oversight,’ ‘bishopric.’
45. εἰς τὸ ἱερόν. The procession of Galilaean pilgrims would leave Jesus at the foot of Mount Moriah—(the ‘Mountain of the House,’ Isaiah 2:2), beyond which none might advance with dusty feet or stained by travel. Jesus would enter by the Shushan gate.
ἐκβάλλειν. As He had also done at the beginning of His ministry, John 2:15. The needs of the pilgrims—the money which had to be changed—the purchase of cattle for sacrifice, &c.—had made the cloisters, precincts, and even the outer court of the Temple a scene of noisy and greedy barter, as the nave of St Paul’s used to be a few generations ago. For further details, see Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17.
46. οἶκος προσευχῆς. Isaiah 56:7. See on Luke 1:10, Luke 18:10.
σπήλαιον λῃστῶν. ‘A brigands’ cave.’ Our Lord had seen many of these brigands’ caves (Jos. Antt. I. 12) on the steep rocky sides of the Wady Hamâm and elsewhere. Comp. Jeremiah 7:11, “Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes?” It became still more a murderers’ cave when the sicarii made its pavement swim with blood (Jos. B. J. IV. 3, §§ 7, 10).
48. ἐξεκρέματο αὐτοῦ. Literally, “were hanging from him,” i.e. hung on His lips; “pendet ab ore,” Verg. Aen. IV. 79. The word occurs here only in the N.T., but is found in Genesis 44:30, LXX338 Scarcely a single version preserves the vivid metaphor of the original; most of them coldly paraphrase it, like the A.V339 Tyndale and Cranmer have ‘stuck by him,’ and Vulg340 suspensus erat.
“On thee the loyal-hearted hung.”
TENNYSON.
“Hanged on Him, as the bee doth on the flower, the babe on the breast, the little bird on the bill of her dam. Christ drew the people after Him by the golden chain of His heavenly eloquence.” J. Trapp.
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