concerns themselves by promising. — e uXoy/ag) as concerns you, by praising and flattering. — ruv dzdxuv) TID, a word of a middle signification, pern, for the sake of euphemy (See Append.) ; which the lxx. translate dxaxog, and which occurs more than once in Proverbs. They are called axaxot, who are merely free from badness, whereas they should also be strong in prudence, and be on their guard against the xaxiav, the badness of others.
19 'Ttfaxori, obedience ) which belongs to oi uxdxoi, the simple . Their obedience itself, not merely its report, reached all, since by frequent intercourse believers from among the Romans came also to other places, and their obedience itself was observed face to face. It thus happens, that, as contagion is bad in the case of bad men, so it is good among the good, in a good sense. — ndvrag, all ) you, or others also. — d<p/xsro) Hesychius explains dfixzro by irapiyiviro. — to if v/u v, as far as you are concerned?) in opposition to those turbulent persons, who occasion him anxiety, not joy. — QsXoj de, but I wish ) an antithesis : you are evidently not wanting in obedience and dxuxia, simplicity ; but you should add to them discretion. — txxpoug, wise ) contrary to those, of whom Jeremiah speaks, iv. 22, vopol s )<u rov xaxo^oi7]gat^ rb ds xukojg tfoiriaai ovx scrsyvwtfav, they are wise to do evil , but to do good they have no knowledge . — dxzpaioug) say, if any evil presents itself : I consider this a thing, which is alien to me ; dxspa/og is taken here in a passive sense.1
20. As, but) [not and , as Engl. Yer. has it)] The power of God, not your prudence, will bring it to pass. — rrjg sipvivrig, of peace) an antithesis to seditious , ver. 17, see 1 Cor. xiv. 33. — euvTp'r^pzt) the future, shall bruise Satan, when he shall bruise His apostles [viz. those breeders of divisions , ver. 17, 18.] — rbv 2ar«vav, Satan) the sower of strifes. Once in the course of this whole epistle he names the enemy, and nine times altogether in all his epistles, he calls him Satan ; six times, the devil. Scrip- ture indeed treats of God and Christ directly ; of Satan and Antichrist indirectly. — u^o rovg nodag, under your feet) Eph. vi. 15. Every victory achieved by faith is the cause of new grief to Satan. — iv rd^si) speedily , which refers to the beginnings of bruising [Satan, viz.] in the case of sudden danger [a sudden
1 Unaffected by evil. — Ed.