Ver. 4. The use of the Hebraic pro- phetic perfects in this passage is another mark of Jewish authorship. 6 πλοῦτος ὑμῶν: this cannot refer to wealth in the abstract because this would be out of harmony with the rest of the verse which
468
h Cf, Prov. ἔσται
1 καὶ φάγεται 5 τὰς σάρκας ὑμῶν ὡς ὃ " πῦρ."
Viz
᾿ἐθησαυρί-
XVi. 27. ae Β . ε ate 3 iRom.ii.5;caTe° ἐν ἢ ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις. 4. ἰδοὺ 7 ὁ ᾿μισθὸς ὃ τῶν ἐργατῶν cf. N ic. 3 ray] ΠῚ ἘΠῚ vi.10; τῶν ἀμησάντων τὰς "' χώρας ὑμῶν ὁ ἀφυστερημένος 5 ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν "Ὁ Matt. vi. 19. ς - ην : k Cf. v. 8, ο. 1 Lev. xix. 13; Job xxiv. 10, 11; Jer. xxii. 13; Sir. iv. 1, xxxiv. 22. πι Cf. Luke xxi. 21. 1 Om. 5. 2 φαινετε SO). 3 Pr. o vos APO, curss. 4 Add o Aeth., Thl. ἢ Add vobis iram Vulg. (om. 5, om. iram Vulg®). ὕῃμεραις εσχαταις A. ΤΕΣ: ἘΕ 7: 8 Mercedes ff.
* απεστερημενος ΑΒ’ Ε, curss.; αποστερηµενος KL; quod abnegastis ff.
10 Om. αφ υμων 77.
speaks of literal destruction; we have here precisely the same idea, as to actual . destruction, as that which occurs in the eschatological passage Enoch, xcviii. 1 ff., where in reference to foolish men “in royalty, and in grandeur, and in power, and in silver and in gold, and in purple . . .,” it says that “they will per- ish thereby together with their posses- sions and with all their glory and their splendour ”.—océonmev: am. dey. in N.T., cf. Sir. xiv. 19, wav ἔργον σηπόμε. νον ἐκλείπει.--σητόβρωτα: am. λεγ: in N.T., cf. Job xiii. 28, παλαιοῦται ὥσπερ ἱμάτιον σητόβρωτον; Sir. xlii. 13, ἀπὸ γὰρ ἱματίων ἐκπορεύεται ons. For the form of the word cf. σκωληκόβρωτος in Acts xii. 23.
Ver. 3. κατίωται: in Sir. xii. 11 we have καὶ γνώσῃ ὅτι οὐκ εἰς τέλος κατίωσεν in reference to a mirror; the Hebrew, which is followed by the Syriac,
is corrupt, but evidently read ση, which is the same word used in the pre- ceding verse (ἰοῦται); the Hebrew word may perhaps be used in the sense of “filth” (see Oxford Hebrew Lexicon, s.v.), and possibly this more general term is what was originally intended in the verse before us, since gold cannot strictly be said to rust. The word occurs in one other passage viz., in Sir., xxix. 10, but unfortunately the Hebrew for this is wanting. The force of the xara is in- tensive.—6 ios: used in iii. 8 of the poison of the tongue, in a figurative sense; the meaning ‘‘rust”’ is secondary.—eis μαρτύριον ὑμῖν ἔσται: this meta- phor is quite in the Hebrew style; ἽΝ ( = μαρτύριον), though generally used of persons, is in a fair number of instances used of inanimate things in the O.T.; cf. in the N.T. Mark vi. 11; Luke ix. 5.— φάγεται: a Hellenistic form, unclas- sical, cf. Sir. xxxiii, 23 (Sept.) wav βρῶμα φάγεται κοιλία, cf. xi. 19, xlv. 21 (Sept.).
a
--τὰς σάρκας ὑμῶν: “The plural σάρκες is used for the fleshy parts of the body both in classical and later writers - . « while the singular σάρξ is used for the whole body” (Mayor); in the Sep- tuagint we meet with a similar phrase in a number of cases, ¢.g., Mic. iii. 3. - + + κατέφαγον τὰς σάρκας τοῦ λαοῦ μου; 2 Kings ix. 36; in these and other
instances the Hebrew ἜΣ ( = σάρξ) is always in the singular (unlike “ blood,” which is often used in the plural).—dés πῦρ: this comparison must probably have been suggested by the fact that fire,
in a literal sense, often figures in apo-
calyptic pictures, cf, ε.ρ., Enoch, cii. 1, “And in those days when He brings a grievous fire upon you, whither will ye flee, and where will ye find deliver- ance?” xcviii. 3, where mention is made of * the furnace of fire,” x. 13, ‘‘ the abyss of fire”; this idea arose originally be- cause “‘Gehenna”’ was conceived of as the place of torment, and a fire in the literal sense was constantly burning in the valley of Hinnom ; the fire in the place of torment is referred to in Matt. xxv. 41 τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον, Mark ix. 44 ὅπου ὁ σκώληξ αὐτῶν οὐ τελευτᾷ καὶ τὸ πῦρ οὐ σβέννυται, Jude 7 πυρὸς αἰωνίου... See Carr’s interesting note on ὡς wip. ἐθησαυρίσατε.-- ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέ- pats: see prefatory note to this chapter.