petition is opposed to the much speaking of the heathen, men tioned in ver. 7, which principally referred to the same object ; l and it is placed first amongst those petitions which refer to our selves, because the natural life is prior to the spiritual. Every want of ours is cared for in this prayer. — r^uv, of or belonging to us) our, sc. earthly. But the spiritual bread is the bread of God, i.e. that which is [given] by God, and [cometh forth] from God. — tirtovaiov, daily) This adjective is derived CCTO rr^c, emovffqg, from the following day, and is composed of IT/ and /oD<ra.2 For from £/'//,/, to be (from which also comes ffepiovcioc) or from ousia, essence or private property, would be composed, tnovaiog, in the same manner as svovpdvios, etc. : since although s<!ti does not always lose the / in composition before a vowel, it does lose it in tirttriv, as also in &«/,«,/ from which this adjective must be ori ginally derived according to this hypothesis. Our heavenly Father gives each day what is needed each day. Nor is it necessary that He should give it before. This His paternal and providential distribution suggests the expression JT/OUOVO?, for the coming day. The continuance, therefore, of our indi gence, and of God's fatherly beneficence as from year to year, so from day to day, is denoted by this phrase. Cf. 2 Kings xxv. 30. — Xoyov qfAspcis ev fifj^ipcf. avrov, the proportion for the day on its day. Cf. Acts vi. 1, diaxovia neidiyMfn^j daily ministration. The bread, as a whole, is appointed us for all our days ; but the "giving" of it is distributed through the several days of our life, so as to take place each day. Both these ideas are expressed by the word ixiovmos. What was necessary for the support of my life on any particular day, needed not to be given me on the day before that, but on that very day ; and what was necessary on the following day, was given soon enough on that day, and so on. The sense therefore of eiriovffiog extends more widely with regard both to the past and the future, than that of " eras- tinus," to-morrow's. — ffq/Aipov, to-day) In Luke xi. 3, we find r& xa(? qpzpav, day by day. Day by day we say and pray, " to day" Our confidence and contentedness (ai/rapxe/a)3 are thus expressed. Thus in James ii. 15, we have
1 viz. the cares of this life. — ED.
2 The feminine of iu», the participle present of elpi to go. — (I. B.) 8 See p. 150 and f.n. 3.— (I. B.)