Parallel passage: Luke 12:26, Luke 12:27. Luke's is longer and seemingly more original. But in the absence of external evidence, it must always be a matter of opinion whether Matthew has compressed the longer form of the words, or vice versa.
And why take ye thought for raiment? In verses 25-27 our Lord had spoken of food; in verses 28-30 he speaks of dress. He insists on the needlessness (verse 28) and on the comparative uselessness (verse 29) of anxiety about it, since even the king who had the greatest opportunities could not vie in clothing with a single lily.
Flowers have this glorious clothing (verse 30), though they are so perishable: much more shall you be clothed. Consider (verse 26, note). The lilies ( τὰ κρίνα). Though there are many kinds of lilies in Palestine, and some of brilliant colouring (particularly the purple and white Huleh lily found round Nazareth), yet none of them grows in such abundance as to give the tone to the colouring of the flowers generally.
It seems, therefore, probable that the word is employed loosely. So, perhaps, in the LXX. of Exodus 25:31, Exodus 25:33, Exodus 25:34, and other passages, where it represents the "flowers" ( חרַףֶּ) on the candlestick.
It appears, too, that נשֶׁוֹשׁ ("lily," Authorized Version in Canticles) is also used by the Arabs of any bright flower. If a single species is to be thought of, Canon Tristram would prefer the Anemone coronaria of our gardens, which is "the most gorgeously painted, the most conspicuous in spring, and the most universally spread of all the floral treasures of the Holy Land".
Of the field. Matthew only in this phrase (but cf. verse 30, note). Its insertion emphasizes the spontaneity of origin, the absence of cultivation, the "waste" as not grown for the comfort or pleasure of man.
How they grow. Professor Drummond's beautiful remarks upon this verse ('Natural Law,' etc.) do not belong to exegesis, but to homily, for the stress of our Lord's words lies on "grow," not on "how;" he is thinking of the fact, net the manner of their growth.
They toil not; to produce the raw material. Neither do they spin; to manufacture it when produced. "Illud virorum est, qui agrum colunt; hoc mulierum domisedarum" (Wetstein).