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In this passage, it is said of a judicial victory, which cannot but come to God [i.e. God is sure to be the victor]. — h roTg Xoyoig <rou) Iiebr. TO*n, in which one passage “O'! occurs in Kal, without the participle, that is, when thou beginnest to speak , and judicially to answer man, who accuses thee, or to proceed against him. [In a general way , indeed , men acknowledge that God is just , but when the question refers to special cases , then they are wont [ they love ] to defend their own cause , V. g.] — ev r& xp/veada./ <rs) Hebr. “JLDDSJO God at once both Kp/vsi and Kfivirca. Kp/vsrou [implead in judgment] has the meaning of the middle voice, such as verbs of contending usually have : xp/vovrag applies to those who dispute in a court of law. lxx., Is. xliii. 26 ; Judg. iv. 5 ; Jer. xxv. 31. An instance in illustration is to be found in Micah vi. 2, etc. ; also in 1 Sam. xii. 7. It is inexpressible loving-kindness in God to come down [condescend to stoop] to man for the purpose of pleading with him.
5. E/ d&, but if) This new argument, urged through a Jewish person, is elicited from the verb thou mayest be justified , in the preceding verse. — n ad/xfa, unrighteousness ) of which a man is guilty through unbelief — n ipov/Mv, what shall we say) Paul shows that this, their peculiar advantage [ver. i.], does not pre- vent the Jews from being under sin. — 6 syrnpepuv) the inflicter of wrath [taketh vengeance] upon the unbelieving JewTs. The article has a particular force. The allusion is to Ps. vii. 11, 6 0so$ xpirrig d/xouog , xu) [i>7\ for ; the lxx. from the simi- larity of letters, mistaking God for not], ivaycav opyriv xatf sxuffrriv il/ispnv : God is a just judge , and ( not being substituted for God) a God inflicting wrath. — xccrd avtipunov, as a man) Man, accord- ing to the principles of human nature, might reason thus : My wickedness is subservient to the Divine glory, and makes it the more conspicuous, as darkness doth the light ; therefore, I should not be punished.
6. ’E ‘Trsij otherwise) The consequence is drawn [bound, con- nected] from the less to the greater, as it ought to be in the case of negatives. If God were to act unrighteously, in taking ven- geance on the Jew who acts unrighteously, a thing too absurd to be mentioned, He certainly could not judge the wThole world. A fiirmatively , the process of reasoning vrould take this form : He w7ho (justly) judges the whole world, will doubtless also judge
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