8. Tovrov , for this ) Demonstrative. He had forgotten his exaltation. — rplg) thrice , as the Lord Himself did on the Mount of Olives. Paul presented his three requests, I know not at what intervals. Then he patiently endured the thorn, when he saw, that it must be borne ; he does not seem to have been without the thorn, even then when he wrote these things and so long as he was liable to exalt himself : comp, what follows. — r'ov Kvpiov, the Lord) Christ ; see the next verse. Satan is not to be asked to spare us.
9. E7f vjxs /xo/, He said to me) when I prayed for the third time.
— d pxsT ffoi i] Z40^ My grace is sufficient for thee) A very
gracious refusal, expressed in the indicative mood. The Lord as it were put these words into Paul’s mouth, that following them up he might say: O Lord, Thy grace is sufficient for me. There may be grace, even where there is the greatest sense of pain. — ij yap dvva/xig iv dtikvuq rtXsiovrai, for [power] strength is perfected in weakness) For dvva pug several have written dvva/utg /cov, from the alliteration with puov. If Paul had written dvvapi/g /-coy, I
believe he would have subjoined iv dekvs/q1 coo. It is however here intimated, that, as is the grace of Christ , so is the power of Christ: ydp , for , here as often elsewhere, is a discriminative particle, by which a distinction is made between grace and strength. Grace is sufficient : do not ask sensible strength ; for strength [is made perfect in weakness]. So in short the particle, for , obtains the meaning of causing, not immediately, but medi- ately by the distinction between grace and strength. — iv dekvsfq, in weakness) From the fact of its being the language of the Lord, Paul often repeats this word ; ch. xi. xii. xiii. — rsXeiovrai , is per- fected) It [ 7} dbvapug] performs, it perfects all that belongs to it ;
1 This decision of the Gnomon, however , does not obscurely differ from the margin of both Ed. and from the Germ. Yer. Therefore it is not quite right to blame Bengel on this account that he wished pcov to be omitted after bkocqig (as Ernesti has it , Bibl. th. T. iv. p. 705); nay , indeed, in this very passage , he would have had occasion to free Bengel from the blame of critical pertina- city. Any one may easily suspect from Bibl. th. 1. c. that Bengel wished to strike out the particle puXhov after vibioTu, but they who use their eyes will find the contrary. — E. B.
The aov is omitted in AD later corrected, G (and acc. to Lachm. but not Tischend. B) fg Vulg Iren. Cypr. But A and Orig. 3,200c? add pov, and so Rec. Text. — Ed.