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— ovx eyjre 5?) See App. Crit., Ed. ii., on this passage.1 — did, on ac- count of) This agrees (coheres) with the threefold clause, and ye have not; and ye cannot obtain; but ye have not. — /4 r\ uireTaQai, your not asking) For the lustful, the murderer, and the contentious man, cannot pray.
3. K ai ov \u/Jj(3 avers, and ye receive not) He does not here say, ye have not. To ask and to receive are relative terms. — uire/'ffde, ye ask) Now he refutes others who wish to appear somewhat better than these.
4. M or/oi %ai /xoiydkideg, ye adulterers and adulteresses) Men and women are involved in such a war, and break the promise which they have made to God. — r\ piklu rov kog/aov, the friendship of this world) The way of the world is pleasure , ver. 3. — -e yfpu, enmity) 1 J ohn ii. 15. '^yfpd (the adjective, hostile) is the reading of Steph. i. Lat.
1 have passed this by, as it injures the sense : for syQpcc and <piXid ( hatred and friendship) are opposed to each other.2 — og dv ovv, whoso- ever therefore) In this second clause, something is added over and above to the former sentence, by the introduction of the words (3ov\?i()ri, shall wish , and Ttadierarai, becomes . — iy^pog, an enemy) who will obtain nothing by prayer. — xa&'iGrarat) a middle verb, that is, renders himself.
5. Ke vug) in vain , without effect , so that it matters nothing to guilt or to salvation. Whatever things the Scripture says are serious. We ought to reverence every word. — keys/, saith) not kake?, speaks , saith the things which follow. — npbg <pQovov) against envy. This noun (pdovog) does not occur in the Septuagint, and it does not seem pro- bable that James should have wished to make so great a change in this verse, and yet, in ver. 6, have made an exact quotation from another passage. We may infer from this, that the quotation here is from the Scriptures of the New Testament : for the writings of the New Testament, as well as the Old, are reckoned in the Scriptures ;
2 Pet. iii. 16. Some refer it to Gen. vi. 5, 3 ; or to Num. xi. 29 ; or to Prov. xxi. 10 ; or to some lost book. But the words of James are near enough to Gal. v. 17, and following verses; where <p06vo /, envyings , are placed among the works of the flesh, and the spirit is said to have desires contrary to the flesh, and they who are led by this spirit are not under the law , but under grace. But this passage agrees especially with 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2, 5. Laying
1 AB Vulg. omit Ss. Rec. Text retains it without any very old authority. — E.
2 Lachm. with Vulg. accents it e^poi, inimical. But Tisch., with G and many versions, tx,0pa.. — E.
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