it is the first commandment in the decalogue which has a specific promise attached ; for the promise connected with the second commandment does not relate to the observance of that particular precept, but to keeping God’s covenant. Or it may mean that it is the first commandment of the second table of the law, and has a promise annexed; or, πρώτη may be taken here as in Mark 12, 28. 30, in the sense of chief, i. e. the first in importance. The sense would then be, ‘Honour thy father and mother; this is the prime commandment, the first in importance among those relating to our - social duties; and it has the specific promise annexed. It shall be well with thee on the earth.’ This view of the passage is on the whole to be preferred. It is not likely that Paul would call this “the first command-
ment with promise,”
when it is in fact the only com- mand in the decalogue which has any specific promise annexed to it. And to say that it is the first in order of arrangement in the second table of the law, not only adds nothing to its importance, but supposes the apostle to refer to a distinction between the two tables of the decalogue, not elsewhere recognized in Scripture.
The promise itself has a theocratical form in the Old Testament. That is, it has specific reference to pros- perity and length of days in the land which God had given to his people as their inheritance. - The apostle generalizes it by leaving out the concluding words, and makes it a promise not confined to one land or people, but to obedient children every where. If it be asked whether obedient children are in fact thus distinguished