(4)
He would not for a while.--The judge was callous and dead to pity, even for that extremest wretchedness. The pleadings of the widow were simply an annoyance, which at first he bore with indifference.
Though I fear not God, nor regard man.--Here, also, there is a graphic touch of intensity. The man had passed beyond the stage of hypocrisy, conscious or unconscious, and saw himself even as others, even as God, saw him.
18:1-8 All God's people are praying people. Here earnest steadiness in prayer for spiritual mercies is taught. The widow's earnestness prevailed even with the unjust judge: she might fear lest it should set him more against her; but our earnest prayer is pleasing to our God. Even to the end there will still be ground for the same complaint of weakness of faith.
And he would not for a while,.... He would give no ear to her cries, nor take her cause in hand, nor right her wrongs, and clear her of her adversary:
but afterward he said within himself; as he was considering the matter in his own mind, and reflecting on this woman's case and the frequent application she had made to him:
though I fear not God, nor regard man; a monster in iniquity he was, to say so of himself; for though the character belongs to many, there are few that are so impudent in sin, as to take it to themselves, and glory in it.