444
"Μεγάλα καὶ " θαυμαστὰ τὰ ἔργα σου,
Κύριε 6 Beds ὁ ° παντοκράτωρ":
Βδίκαιαι Ἱ καὶ ἀληθιναὶ αἱ * ὁδοί σου,
ὁ "βασιλεὺς τῶν ἐθνῶν.ὶ
4. "τίς οὐ μὴ 'φοβηθῇ, Κύριε, καὶ δοξάσει τὸ ὄνομά cou;
er / ue? OTL μονος οσιος ᾽
@ v , a ” o ‘ , we , , ὅτι " πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἤξουσι καὶ προσκυνήσουσιν ™ ἐνώπιόν
σου
χο X 5 , , > 50 ᾿ οτι τα οικαίὠώµατα σου εφανερώ ησαν.
cf. Sam. A gon. 293 f. of Col. iii. 16. cf. Lk. xviii. 7). Ps. cxlv. 17.
v Ps. lxxxvi. 9, Mic. vii. 15 f. xix. 8 (diff. sense).
q Cf. on xvi.
2,
, r Deut. XXXii. 4, Isa. XxvVi. 8, LXX,
s From Jer. x. 6-7 (om. LXX), Zech. xiv. 9; cf. on xi. 18. An instance t aor. due to ““emphat. negative or rhetorical nat. of question” (Burton, 172, u only here and xvi. 5 (N.T.) of God; cf. Deut. xxxii. 4, Ps. Sol. x.6. From
w iii. 5, XVi. ϱ. x = “ Because;" dex. =
1 The αγιων of the Textus Rec. represents a tr. of sctorum (a corruption of sclorum) = εθνων of Μ«ΑΑΡΩ, min., Me., Arm., Aeth., And., Areth., Cypr., Amb., Pr. (edd.), which has been conformed, in a:wvev (9 Ὁ, vg., Syr., S., so Selwyn, WH), to t Tim. i. 17 (cf. En. ix. 4, Tob. xiii. 6, το, Clem. Rom. lv., 1xi.).
most entirely composed of O.T. phrases. Adoration is its theme, stirred by the sense of God’s justice. Similarly the famous hymn to Shamash, the Assyrian god of justice, which represents one of the highest reaches in ancient religious literature (Jastrow, pp. 300, 301) : “‘ Eter- nally just in the heavens are thou, / Of faithful judgment towards all the world art thou.” Most editors take the phrase καὶ τὴν @d. τ. ἀ. as a gloss; but if the song has nothing to do with the Lamb, it is as silent on Moses. Since the whole section comes from the pen of the general author, and since the collocation of the two ᾠδαί (equivalent of course to a single hymn) is awkward mainly in appearance, while the omission of the Lamb’s Song would leave the section incomplete, it seems better to regard it as original rather than as a scribe’s addition like xiv. το, etc. As in xiv. I, 3, the Lamb is among his followers, yet not of them.
Ver. 4. God’s holiness is the reason why his name must be feared and mag- nified, especially when its effects are visible in the reverent homage of all nations to God (a hyperbolical statement in view of xvi. 9, etc.) at the sight of his “deeds of judgment” (δικαιώµατα-- judicial sentences, here of condemnation and penalty) inflicted on the world (cf. Dan. ix. 14 f.). The absolute and unique (note the prophet’s insertion of μόνος) reign of Yahveh was a traditional tenet of Mosaism; indeed for Orientals gener- ally the power which formed their ideal
source of righteousness and justice par- took necessarily of a monarchic charac- ter (R. S. 74 f.). To the Semites it appeared that the perfection of their god as a just king formed a ground for his ultimate sovereignty over the nations of the world. The O.T. outlook and the phraseology warn us not to press the poetical language too closely here; otherwise (cf. xiv. 6, 7) it would con- tradict, ε.ρ., the characteristic idea of the author that the bowl-plagues, in- stead of producing penitence and sub-
mission, g#ded in defiant blasphemy.— ἐνώπιόν Gov, here a reverential periphra- sis, it beim considered in the later Ο.Τ.
literature, the Targums, and the Ν.Τ. (occasionally) more respectful to wor- ship and pray before the royal god than directly to him (Dalman, i. viii. 5). For the whole conception of this dual song see Targ. Jonath. on Isa. xxvi. r and Targ. Schir Haschirim i. 1; the latter reckons ten songs altogether, (1) Adam’s at his forgiveness, (2) that of Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea, (3) that of the Israelites, when the spring of water was given them, (4) that of Moses at his death, (5) Joshua’s at Gibeon, (6) that of Barak and Deborah, (7) Hannah’s, (8) David’s, (ο) Solomon’s, and (1ο) that which the children of the captivity are to sing when the Lord frees them. It tallies with this expectation that the new song of the Apocalypse (v. 9, xiv. 3) is always a song of Christ’s redemp- tion.