justice (his just claim to maintenance) by a somewhat unfavour able term.
10. "Ore, when) They had already seen the necessity of this commandment among the Thessalonians. — si Tig ou 0'ehei, if any will not) To be unwilling is a fault. — ^ds saQteru, let him not eat) An Enthymeme.1 Supply, But every man eats : therefore let every man labour. Paul does not mean, that such a man should have his food immediately withdrawn from him by others ; but he proves from the necessity of eating the necessity of labouring, by throwing out this pleasantry, let such a one shoiv himself as an angel.2 There is a similar Enthymeme at 1 Cor. xi. 6.3
11. ' AXXa, but) From a state of idleness, the disposition of men is naturally prone to pass to the indulgence of curiosity. For nature always seeks something to do.4 — ffepiepyafyftevovg) busy- bodies [curiously-inquisitive]) Opposed to doing one' sown business,5 1 Thess. iv. 11.
12. Mere* ^ffu^/ac, with quietness) Laying aside curiosity \_over- officiousness or inquisitiveness]. — laurwv, their own) not another's.
13. K«XoflrwoDiTg£, doing well) even with the industry of your hands.
14. 6A/a rrtg gV/<rroX?js roDrov <ty//,£/oD<j$£, note this man by (this) letter) This same epistle is meant ; comp. 1 Thess. v. 27, where the article has the same demonstrative meaning : w^ticvodt, mark, with a note of censure ; using this epistle for the sake of ad monishing him, and inculcating it upon him. Comp. DJ!> Wi, Kai eysvqQqffav ev ffri/ttiu (said of Korah and his company), and they became a sign, Num. xxvi. 10. The signification of the verb
iv is akin to this. It may be done to others either
1 This is the oratorical Enthymeme, wherein the argument is confirmed from its contrary. The logical Enthymeme is a covert syllogism. — ED.
2 i.e. Let him do without food, as the angels do. — ED.
3 " If the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn." (But she is not shorn ; therefore let her be covered). — ED.
* And if not doing one's own business, a man for want of something to do meddles with his neighbour's business. For "Nature abhors a vacuum."