23/,HXXa£;ai', they changed), with the utmost folly, Ps. cvi. 20; Jer. ii. 11. The impiety being one and the same, and the punishment one and the same, have three successive stages. In the first, these words are the emphatic ones, viz., naphta, in ver. 21 ; naphiuv, in ver. 24 ; sho^a&av, and ho^av, and art/xa^sffOai rd adfLara, in ver. 21, 23, 24. In the second stage, iLsrrfxXa^av is emphatic, and the repetition of this verb, not, however, without a difference between the simple and compound forms [fXXa^av r. ho^av, ver. 23 ; jaer^XX a%av r. (p\j(smrtv yjpr\<siv, ver. 26, the corres- ponding sin and punishment], gives the meaning of like for like [ talionis , their punishment being like their sin], ver. 25, 26 ; as napd changes its meaning, when repeated in the same place [ fapd r. HTiffavra, ver. 25; napd <pv<nv, ver. 26]. In the third, ovn edoxffi a<rav, and dhon/fiov, ver. 28, are emphatic. In the several cases, the word ‘rap'shux s expresses the punishment. If a man worships not God as God, he is so far left to himself, that he casts away his manhood, and departs as far as possible from God, after whose image he was made. — rr\v 86g av rov dtpQdprov, the glory of the incorruptible) The perfections of God are expressed either in positive or negative terms. The Hebrew language abounds in positive terms, and generally renders negatives by a peri- phrasis.— h ), Hebrew 3, [So, after the verb to change with, or for ] the Latin pro, cum; so, sv, ver. 25 [changed the truth of God into a lie]. — avSpdvou — sptferuv, like to man — to creeping things) A descending climax ; corruptible is to be construed also with birds, etc. They often mixed together the form of man, birdj quadruped, and serpent. — o/xoidfA an e/novog, in the likeness of an image) Image is the concrete ; likeness the abstract, opposed to ho£p, the glory ; the greater the resemblance of the image to the creature, the more manifest is the aberration from the truth.
24. A i6, wherefore) One punishment of sin arises from its physical consequences, ver. 27, note, [that recompense of their error, which] was meet; another, moreover, from retributive jus- tice, as in this passage. — h ra?g Wi^iiiatg, in the lusts) sv, not hg. A/ i^u/A/a/, the lusts, were already present there. The men themselves were such as were the gods that they framed. — dna&a pciav, uncleanness) Impiety and impurity are frequently joined together, 1 Thess. iv. 5 ; as are also the knowledge of God and purity of mind, Matt. v. 8 ; 1 John iii. 2, etc. —
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