should wrath cease, but a brother should be put right without delay, and reconciliation take place, especially with a neighbour whom you will not see afterwards in this life,1 or whom you have seen for the first time in the street, at an entertainment, or in the market-place.
27. MJJ«, Neither) Place is given to the devil by persisting in anger, especially during the night ; comp. [the Rulers] of the darkness, ch. vi. 12.2 — pyre is used as xa/ /&«), ver. 30.
28. *o xXsflvwv, ivlw stole) This a milder expression than 6 xXgflrnjg, the thief. The participle is that of the imperfect tense, while the present here is not excluded. — /^aXXov ds) but even rather [let him labour more] than [he would] if he had not stolen. In every kind of sin which a man has committed, he ought afterwards to practise the contrary virtue. — xo-T/arw, let him labour} Often theft and idleness go together. — rt> ayadbv, good) An antithesis to theft, first committed in an evil hour with thievish hand [lit. with a hand covered with pitch3]. — rate, xepffh, with the hands) which he had abused in committing theft. — iva e%i>ij that he may have) The law of restitution ought not to be too strictly urged against the law of love. [He who has stolen should also excercise liberality beyond the restitution of what was taken away. — Y. g.]
29. 2a,<jrpbS) corrupt) Having the savour of oldness [of " the old man"], ver. 22 ; without grace, insipid, Col. iv. 6. Its oppo-
latter not so. See Mark iii. 5, where 6p'/yj is applied to the sinless Jesus. The sense is not, Your anger shall not be imputed to you if you put it away before nightfall ; but let no -ret /jo/jy/ff^oV, irritation or exasperation) mingle with your anger, even though your anger be righteous,. Trench, Syn. Gr. Test. Engl. V. loses this point by translating wrath. However, I think there is also included the notion, that even righteous anger, if kept up too long, is likely in us to degenerate into irritation. — ED.
1 Beng. seems by this to take the sun going down as also figurative, for life coming to a close without a reconciliation.
2 This reference also implies that Beng. takes the night, during which anger is retained, as figurative of the darkness over which the devil is prince. This does not exclude the literal sense. The literal keeping of anger during the night is typical of spiritual giving place to the devil, the ruler of dark ness. — ED.
3 Said of hands to which others' property seems to stick ; thievish — Mart, viii. 59.— ED.