unbelievers, but to believers.' By tongues^ however, is not to be understood the gift of tongues, but, as v. 21 requires, foreign languages, i. e. languages unknown to the hearers. The meaning is, that when a people are disobedient, God sends them teachers whom they cannot understand; when they are obedient, he sends them prophets speaking their own language. This is the natural conclusion from the premises contained in v. 21. When the Hebrews were disobedient God sent foreigners among them; when obedient, he sent them prophets. Wherefore^ i. e. hence it follows, that unin- telligible teachers are for the unbelieving ; those who can be understood are for the believing. This view is also consistent with what follows, which is designed to show that speaking in a language which those who hear cannot understand is the cause of evil ; whereas speaking intelligibly is the source of good. It must be remembered that it is not the gift of tongues of which the apostle speaks, but speaking to people in a language which they do not understand. And therefore this interpretation does not imply any disparagement of the gift in question. When used aright, that is, when employed in addressing those to whom the language used was intelligi- ble, it was prophecy. The obscurity of the passage arises in a great measure from the ambiguity of the expression to speah with tongues. It means to speak in foreign or unknown lan- guages. But a language may be said to be unknown either in reference to the speaker or to the hearer. It is said to be unknown to the speaker, if not previously acquired ; and it is said to be unknown to the hearers if they do not understand it. The apostle uses the expression sometimes in one sense and sometimes in the other. When it is said that the apostles, on the day of Pentecost, spake with tongues, it means that they used languages which they had never learned ; but when Paul says he would rather speak five words intelligibly than ten thousand words with a tongue, he means' in a language unknown to the hearers. Speaking with tongues in the one sense, was a grace and a blessing ; in the other sense, it was a folly and a curse. It was of speaking with tongues in the lat- ter sense the apostle treats in these verses.
23. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and aU speak with tongues, and there come in (those that are) unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad ?