The translation of the apostle in all things material answereth the original in the psalm. Verses 25-28, 2) Kupie, ‘ Thou, Lord,” is supplied out of the verse foregoing, “I said, O my God.” 2722 YOST 22, “of old,” “before it was ;” that is, xar dpyes, or M72, “in the beginning.” And our translators needed not to have used any difference of expression in the psalm and this place of the apostle, as they do;—there, “of old;” here, “in the beginning.” “Thou hast founded” (not “laid the foundation of”) “the earth; and the heavens are the works ;”— mw22, “the work,” which the Greek renders “ works,” because of their variety,— “ of thy hands.”
“They shall perish, 729 TFSi,’ “ but thou shalt stand,” or “dost abide.” The word used in our translation of the psalm (“endure”) doth ill answer the original, but the margin gives relief. Psalm, “ Yea all of them shall wax old like a garment ;” here, “ And they all shall wax old as doth a garment:” a little variety without difference, and that needless, the Greek text exactly expressing the Hebrew. “And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up;” perbnin ;_« shalt thou change them.” The change of a vesture, whereunto the change of the heavens is compared, being by folding up and laying aside, at least from former use, the apostle instead of ZareZers, “thou shalt change,” renders the word by agers, “thou shalt fold” (or “ roll”) “them up.” 87 TPS}, “ et tu ipse,” zal od 6 eiros,—* and thou art he.” “And thy years shall have no end,’—* shall not fail ;? "52 S?, “ shall not consume.” ?
There is no question but that these words do sufficiently prove the pre-eminence of him of whom they are spoken, incomparably above all creatures whatever. Two things, therefore, are questioned by the
? Various Reapines.—Griesbach, Knapp, and Stuart, on the strength of mss. D. E., and a few others, read dseusveic, instead of d:apéverc, the future instead of the present. 'Tischendorf retains dse¢vers. The Peschito version has it * Thou art permanent.”
Expositron.—The manifestations of the Deity were made in the person of Him who, in the fulness of time, became incarnate as the promised Messiah. In ‘the deliverance from Egypt, and the march through the wilderness, he was known as “the angel of the covenant,” and sometimes appeared in a visible form. The blessing for which the author of the psalm prays, is the improvement and deliyer-
VER. 10-12.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 197
enemies of the truth contained in them:—1. Whether they were originally spoken at all of Christ, which the present Jews deny. 2. Whether they were spoken all of Christ, which is questioned by the Socinians. These inquiries being first satisfied, the words shall be opened, and the force of the apostle’s argument from thence declared.
1. That what is spoken in this psalm doth properly respect the Messiah is denied by the present Jews. That it was owned by the ancient Hebrews is sufficiently evident from hence, that the apostle, dealing with them on their own principles, urgeth them with the testimony of it. The psalm also itself gives us light enough into the same instruction. It is partly ewctical, partly prophetical; both parts suited unto the condition of the church when the temple was wasted, and Zion lay in the dust during the Babylonish captivity. In the prophetical-part there are three things signal :—
(1.) The redemption of the people, with the re-edification of the temple, as a type of that spiritual temple and worship which were afterwards to be erected: as verse 13, “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come:” and verse 16, “When the Lorp shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.”
(2.) The calling of the Gentiles to the church and worship of God: Verse 15, “The heathen shall fear the name of the Lorp, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.” Verses 21, 22, “To declare the name of the LorD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lorn.”
(3.) Hereby the creation of a new people, a new world, is brought in: Verse 18, “This shall be written for the generation to come” (the world to come): “and the people that shall be created” (the new creation of Jews and Gentiles) “ shall praise the Lorn.” These are the heads of the prophetical part of the psalm, and they all re- spect things everywhere peculiarly assigned unto the Son, who was to be incarnate, or the days of the Messiah, which is all one; for,—
[1.] The redemption and deliverance of the church out of trouble is his proper work. Wherever it is mentioned, it is he who is in- tended, Ps. xcviii. So signally, Zech. ii, 8-13, and other places innumerable.
-[2.] The bringing in of the Gentiles is acknowledged by all the
ance of the chosen people, by that God who had directed providence for that end. But with regard to the Divine Father, the Scriptures assure us that “no one hath seen him, or can see him.” Can we, then, avoid inferring that the object of the afflicted psalmist’s prayers was that same Divine Person who had allowed himself to be seen in a glorious human form by Abraham, by Jacob, by Moses, etc. ?—Pye Smith.