there might be the same cases. The middle reading [the original starting-point of the other readings] mixes the cases (nor does the word iyuv, which follows, make any difficulty. Comp. App. p. 778, Ed. II. p. 488). See above on ch. iv. 4, vii. 9, xiii. 3, No one is ignorant of the ordinary rules of construction ; but it is not with- out reason that the best manuscripts in so many places agree in so extraordinary a figure of speech. As, after long consideration, I do not think that I shall easily withdraw from the instances of this construction, so I do not obtrude them upon the notice of any one. The sense remains the same in all respects. By means of the harvest a great multitude of the righteous, and by means of the vintage a great multitude of the ungodly, is removed from the world.
US. Tijg y%g, of the earth) Thus also ver. 18, in the vintage. The earth is not here used in contradistinction to the sea : but yet the amplitude of this word is restricted in ver 20 by the city.
18. K ai aXXog ayysXog £x rou Ovffiuffrrip/oUj b1 2 3 * * * * svwv e^ovfftav srri rov Kupog, epuvfae, z.r.X.) See the general remark respecting the Latin Translator in App. Crit. Ed. ii., on this passage. 9 Em rov K-jpog is said in the singular number ; but it appears to be the singular for the plural, since the word wp, here used, has no plural. Comp. Tcbv iidaru i>, ch. xvi. 5. — roi/g fiorpvocg — ai <fru(pvXai) o fibrpvg xai jj crapuXri are often synonymous, but they sometimes differ, in the lxx.: Num. xiii. 23, lxx., (3orpvv erap’jXtjg; Gen. xl. 10,
nzmipoi oi fiorpvsg oTapvXrig. Therefore /SoV^og, the whole, a cluster : orapvXai, the parts, a grape. — r^g u/msXov, of the vine) The plural is not wanting, lxx., a) a^mXoi ; and yet in this place it is
singular : all the wicked are like one vine ; they all cohere in one mass.
*19. vE/5aXgv, cast) By the instrumentality of this angel, there- fore, the grapes will be brought from the most ample vine of the earth into one wine-press. — rqv Xy/ov rbv p.'syav) Even with the
1 t£,Yipa.v6Y), is dried) having attained to ripeness, in a good sense, for reaping. Matters at the present day reach very close to this point ; and the things which remain scarcely admit of further increase. — V. g.
2 So AC ; but Rec. Text omits 6 with B A Vulg. omit i&ihdiv: and A omits the following koci before etpcji/mev, which Vulg. retains; so Laclim. But BC support etgvi'hdev — kui\ so Tisch. — E.
3 vK'Uotaxv, are ripe) for punishment. The wickedness, — displayed by men of
every condition, who live in our age, with respect to all things which are con-
trary to faith, hope, and love, — can scarcely be thought capable of attaining to a
greater increase. The appearance of the world is most abandoned, and alto-
gether desperate. — V. g.