9. Ka/ fiXerrovtiv — xa/ ovn a<pv]<fo\)<si) The present, followed by ano- ther tense. Thus soon after, yodpovffi xa/ si xppavQrimrcu. Comp. ch. xii. 4, xiii. 12. — iifispag rpsTg ri/xiffv) 3^ days , not 3 or 4. This pas- sage, even by itself, affords an irrefragable proof, how scrupulously, that is, how exactly, the interpreter, who trembles at the words of the Lord, ought to take prophetic numbers, without proverbial roundness of numbers. See Erkl. Offenb., p. 99.
11. Uvsu/&a So the Septuagint, Gen. vi. 17. — slcrfkkv uvroTg) Wolf \ who is in other respects thoroughly acquainted with Greek, thinks that this reading is unsupported by any example. But Plu- tarch^ nvllofisvoig rovro , dsivbv e/<frj?Je fi Teog : Herodotus , a much more ancient authority, roTei saskdsTv rjbovijv : Plato, sidspytrai a vrti b'sog. But nevertheless this is rather too remote from the Hebrew idiom. I should prefer to admit el^Xkv h ai/roTg,1 03, from the Alex, and Augustan copy, especially since the copyists may easily have written the syllable Iv once only, when it ought to be read twice. Thus Luke ix. 46, sierjXk 6s biaXoyw/xbg sv avroTg , where also sv is omitted in two copies, of Selden and Wolf.
13. ’Ovo/^ara ai iQpojffuv yjkidbsg scrra) A frequent apposition: bdbs xa yiXidbsg eatppccyiff/Psvoi, ch. vii. 5, 6 ; rpsTg yjXidbag -rapa/SoXae, 1 Kings iv. 32 ; -^vydg dvbpuv s xccrov yjkidbag^ 1 Chron. V. 21. — xa/ o/ Xo/cro/, and the remnant ) who survived from the decimation ; [that is, sixty- three thousand men. A most ample conversion ! — V. g.] Baal Turim (as Lightfoot teaches in his Chron. of the New Testament, on John iii.) on Num. xxiv. 8, upon these words , u He shall consume the nations His enemies, and shall break their bones,” remarks , that the letter ¥ is gifted with a certain peculiar sign [significancy], which shows beforehand that He will root out the seven nations ( namely , of the Canaanites), and in time to come Tnj^) the remaining
sixty-three nations, that is , all the nations of the world. This passage of the Apocalypse softens the sadness of the omen.2 3 — sbuzav bo%ocv} they gave glory) A mark of their conversion : Jer. xiii. 16. — ri 0f& rov ovpotvov, to the God of heaven) He is called the Lord of the earth , ver. 4, when He declares His authority on the earth by the two witnesses against the disobedient : He is called the God of heaven , when He not only gives rain from heaven , after a most disastrous
1 Ev oivTolg is the reading of A : Avrolg, C : E/V ocvtov;, B : “ in eos,” h Vulg. :
’Ett’ ecvrovg, Rec. Text. — E.
3 ipQoiSot iytvovTo, were affrighted ) This is more desirable to be heard of than the other : in whose case no change takes place, and who do not at all reverence God : Ps. lv 19. Compare also Apoc. xvi. 9. — V. g.