used absolutely, much less rb xare^ov : Kare^siv, is to detain, to delay, in LXX., Gen. xxiv. 56, ^ KaTs^srs fj,s, Hinder me not. On xaTs%ov, s/s ro --- , coming presently afterwards, depends. If there were not the rb xars^ov, the Wicked would be sooner revealed. — o'/dars, ye know) They knew from the present informa tion given to them in this epistle, and by adding a view of exist ing events. He speaks safely [with prudent caution], nor was it necessary to say anything more openly. — sv rut auroD /ca//?w, in his proper time) not sooner.
7. rap, for) Hereby is given the reason why he just before spoke of the revelation as still future [ver. 6]. For there is subjoined /JJ-DOT^/OV, the mystery, which is already present.1 — 2svspysTrai, is at work) The verb is in the middle voice (as Rom. vii. 5), with the personification, indicating the most secret con duct of the enemy. — povov, only) This word shows, not the short continuance of the person, or power, " who holdeth back" the evil, nor the speedy full realization of the event, but the fact of the person or power who holdeth it back being the one and only check to its development, eug, until, presently after, denotes delay. The subject is, he, ivho now holdeth back [* letteth'] : the predicate is elliptical, holdeth back, or continues to be in the way, till Tie be taken out of the way or ceases to exist, so that he can nowhere be a hindrance to the Iniquitous one [* Wicked']. The power of him that holdeth back, as a whole, possessed of authority [an authoritative whole], has been successively divided into many parts : and yet the Withholding power or person is but one.
8. TOTS, then) immediately. — o avo/^oi) This is the last and most weighty appellation, comprehending the force of the pre ceding ones. That unjust, iniquitous, lawless one, and (by a more nervous term used by Plautus and Nonius, ( illex*) the outlaw, yen, LXX., attftfa, ungodly, Isa. xi. 4 : He shall smite the earth with the word (rod) of His mouth (ro\j aro^arog auroD), and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the ungodly (sv vvsu-
t — ave\s? aasfiri). — ov, whom) after having long enough acted
1 Beng. means, The revelation of it is still future ; for (*/*p), though it is in a sense already present and at work, it works now only as a mystery, not as a thing revealed. — ED.
2 "H^/i, already) It is the one and the same impurity, diffusing itself over many ages. — V. g.