In victory (es vixos). Lit., wnto victory, so that victory is to be established.
55. O death, where, etc. From Hos. xiii. 14, a free vers- ion of the Sept.: “Where is thy penalty, O Death? Where thy sting, O Hades? Web.: Where are thy plagues, O Death ? Where thy pestilence, O Sheol ?
O grave (addy). Which is the reading of the Septuagint. The correct reading is Savare O death. So Rev. Hades does not occur in Paul’s writings. In Rom. x.7 he uses abyss. Ed- wards thinks that this is intentional, and suggests that Paul, writing to Greeks, may have shunned the ill-omened name which people dreaded to utter. So Plato: ‘“ People in general use the word (Pluto) as a euphemism for Hades, which their fears lead them to derive erroneously from dedys the invis- able” (“ Cratylus,” 403).
Sting (xévrpov). In the Septuagint for the Hebrew pesti- lence. See on Apoc. ix. 9. The image is that of a beast with a sting; not death with @ goad, driving men.
57. Giveth. The present participle marking the certainty of the future victory.* Contrast Sir Walter Raleigh’s words
* Edwards and Godet explain the present tense as indicating the dasly vic- tory of the resurrection-life in believers, which destroys the power of sin and
Cu. XVI] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 287
in concluding his “History of the World.” “It is therefore Death alone that can make any man suddenly know himself. He tells the proud and insolent that they are but abjects, and humbles them at the instant; makes them ery, complain, and repent; yea, even to hate their forepassed happiness. He takes the account of the rich, and proves him a beggar—a naked beggar—which hath interest in nothing, but in the gravel that fills his mouth. He holds a glass before the eyes of the most beautiful, and makes them see therein their de- formity and rottenness; and they acknowledge it.
“*O eloquent, just and mighty Death! whom none could ad- vise, thou hast persuaded ; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and am- bition of man; and covered it all over with these two narrow words: Hic Jacrr.”
58. Stedfast, unmovable. The former refers to their firm establishment in the faith ; the latter to that establishment as related to assault from temptation or persecution. Fixedness is a condition of abounding in work. All activity has its centre in rest.*