of the nature of things) ; fire will be that, by which the elements shall melt away. The same word is used, Wisdom vii. 17. It is a most elegant metaphor. For as a letter on a parchment,1 so is a star in the heaven. — ’ipya, the works of nature and art.
11. Avopevuv, since they are being dissolved ) The present tense; as though it wTere now taking place : thus in ver. 12, yarai, are melt- ing. On the fourth of the six days of creation, the stars also wrere made, Gen. i. 16. They also shall be dissolved together with the earth. They are mistaken, who restrict the history of the creation and the description of this destruction only to the earth and to the quarter of the heaven which is nearer to the earth, but feign that the stars are more ancient than the earth, and that they will sur- vive the earth. It is not to the heaven only which surrounds the earth, but to the heavens , that both dissolution and restoration are ascribed, ver. 10 and 13. — hi?, ought you to be) This is the com- mandment mentioned in ver. 2. Others thus place the stops — ii/xug ; — ivffefieioug Kpoffhoxuvrag.2 — uvccorpo<pa,?g , in your conversations ) [ i.e . dealings and whole walk] as regards the affairs of men. — tvet- fieiuig, in all godliness ) as regards divine things.
12. Tijv ‘Totpouff/av, the coming) This depends upon looking for and hastening , taken together : when ye offer prayers for His speedy coming. He who eagerly desires anything, urges forward the mat- ter itself, if he is able, to a speedy accomplishment. ’Zvre-jhu is used writh an Accusative, Septuagint ; Esth. v. 5 ; Isa. xvi. 5. The par- ticiple includes the statement of the cause, as in ver. 14. — rov 0eoD, of God) The expression, the day of God , is of rare occurrence. For diei Dei (the day of God), the Latin translator, or a very early copyist, wrote diei Domini 3 ( the day of the Lord), probably for the sake of a more easy pronunciation. This reading was adopted in some Greek manuscripts, which everywhere follow7 the Latin read- ings. On the other hand, one Latin manuscript at Lovain has in the margin diei Dei. God grants to men many thousand days : one, and that the last, is the great day of God Himself. — hi fjv, on account of which) viz. coming . An instance of the figure Chiasmus, con- sisting of four parts : what manner of persons — looking for — on account of which — but new heavens. The first part is deduced from the third, and the second from the fourth. — Kupov/Mvor xautfou/uva)
1 Elementum was used of a letter of the Alphabet. — E.
2 Tisch. and Lachra. read no interrogation. — E.
s AB Vulg., in some MSS. have ©eov. But C and Amiat. MS. (the oldest) of Vulg. have Kvplov. — E