Romans 2:9

Rom 2:9. Θλίψις καὶ στενοχωρία, affliction and anxiety [tribulation and anguish]. θλίψις, affliction or tribulation for the present; στενοχωρίκ, anxiety or anguish, in regard to things future; θλίψις, affliction, or tribulation, presses down; στενοχωρία, frets and harasses [œstuat et urget], Job 15:20, etc. In these words we have a proof of the avenging justice of God; for the anger of God has for its object, to teach the sinful creature, who is experiencing wrath and every species of adversity, to have himself, because in his whole conduct, he has set himself in opposition to God; and so long as the creature shrinks from this most just hatred of himself, he continues under punishment.—πᾶσαν ψυχὴν, every soul) This term adds to the universal character of the discourse, ch. Rom 13:1.—πρῶτον, first). So Psa 94:10: He that chastiseth the nations, shall he not correct (you among the people?). The Greek is a partaker [in the judgment] along with the Jew.

Rom 2:9-10. Κατεργαζομένου· ἐργαζομένῳ). The distinction between these words is more easily felt, than explained, more easily ridiculed, than refuted. There is another distinction: ἐπὶ ψυχήν is said of the punishment; for punishment falls upon it, and the soul will bear it unwillingly; παντὶ τῳ ἐργαζομένῳ, the dative of advantage, is said of the reward.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_2:9-10. Emphatic recapitulation of Rom_2:7-8, inverting the order, and in addition, giving special prominence to the universality of the retribution. The placing the penal retribution first gives to this an aspect the more threatening and alarming, especially as the terms expressing it are now accumulated in one breath.

θλῖψις κ. στενοχωρία] Tribulation and anguish, sc[625] ἔσται. The calamity is thus described as pressing upon them from without (ΘΛῖΨΙς), and as felt inwardly with the sense of its being beyond help (ΣΤΕΝΟΧ.), Rom_8:35; 2Co_4:7; 2Co_6:12; compare LXX. Isa_30:6; Deu_28:53.

ἘΠῚ ΠᾶΣΑΝ ΨΥΧῊΝ ἈΝΘΡ.] denotes not simply upon every man (so even Philippi), but upon every soul which belongs to a man who practises evil. The ψυχή is thereby designated as that which is affected by the ΘΛῖΨ. Κ. ΣΤΕΝΟΧ. (Act_2:43; Mat_26:28, al[626]); comp Winer, p. 147 [E. T. 194]. It is the part which feels the pain.[628]

πρῶτον] Quite as in Rom_1:16. The Jews, as the people of God, in possession of the revelation with its promises and threatenings, are therefore necessarily also those upon whom the retribution of judgmentnot the reward merely, but also the punishmenthas to find in the first instance its execution. In both aspects they have the priority based on their position in the history of salvation as the theocratic people, and that as certainly as God is impartial. Judaei particeps Graecus, Bengel. The Jewish conceit is counteracted in the first clause by ʼΙουδαίου τε πρῶτον, in the second by ΚΑῚ ἝΛΛΗΝΙ, and counteracted with sternly consistent earnestness. The second ΠΡῶΤΟΝ precludes our taking the first as ironical (Reiche).

εἰρήνη] welfare, by which is intended that of the Messiahs kingdom, as in Rom_8:6. It is not materially different from the ἀφθαρσία and ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝΙΟς of Rom_2:7; the totality of that which had already been described in special aspects by ΔΌΞΑ and ΤΙΜΉ (comp on Rom_2:7).

Regarding the distinction between ἘΡΓΑΖ. and ΚΑΤΕΡΓΑΖ. (works and brings to pass) see on Rom_1:27.

[625] c. scilicet.

[626] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[628] See Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, II. p. 101 ff.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 2:9 . ὀργὴ is wrath within; θυμός wrath as it overflows. θλίψις and στενοχωρία , according to Trench, Synonyms , § 55, express very nearly the same thing, under different images: the former taking the image of pressure, the latter that of confinement in a narrow space. But to draw a distinction between them, based on etymology, would be very misleading. In both pairs of words the same idea is expressed, only intensified by the reduplication. Supply ἔσται for the changed construction. κατεργαζομένου τὸ κακόν : who works at evil and works it out or accomplishes it. The Jew is put first, because as possessor of an express law this is conspicuously true of him.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 9, 10. “Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that effecteth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to every man that doeth good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek!”

The asyndeton indicates, as it always does, the more emphatic reassertion of the previous idea: “Yes, tribulation and anguish!”

The antithesis of Rom 2:7-8 is reproduced in inverse order, not only to avoid the monotony of a too exact parallelism, but chiefly because, following up Rom 2:8 (wrath and indignation), the idea of Rom 2:9 (tribulation and anguish) presented itself more naturally than that of Rom 2:10 (glory and honor and peace); comp. the same arrangement, Luk 1:51-53. The terms tribulation and anguish describe the moral and external state of the man on whom the indignation and wrath of the judge fall (Rom 2:8). Tribulation is the punishment itself (corresponding to wrath); anguish is the wringing of the heart which the punishment produces; it corresponds to the judge’s indignation. The soul is mentioned as the seat of feeling. The phrase, every soul of man, expresses the equality and universality of the treatment dealt out. Yet within this equality there is traced a sort of preference both as to judgment and salvation respectively (Rom 2:10), to the detriment and advantage of the Jew. When he says first, the apostle has no doubt in view (as in Rom 1:16) a priority in time; comp. 1Pe 4:17. Must we not, however, apply at the same time the principle laid down by Jesus, Luk 12:41-48, according to which he who receives most benefits is also the man who has the heaviest responsibility? In any case, therefore, whoever escapes judgment, it will not be the Jew; if there were but one judged, it would be he. Such is the apostle’s answer to the claim alleged, Rom 2:3 : ὅτι σὺ ἐκφεύξῃ, that thou, thou alone, shalt escape.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_2:9

Tribulation and anguish; θλῖψις, (from θλίβω, to press) means pressure, affliction; στενοχωρία straitness of place, anguish. They are often associated; see Rom_8:35; 2Co_6:4. The latter is the stronger of the two terms, as may be inferred from its always following the other, and especially from 2Co_4:8, θλιβόμενοι, ἀλλ ̓ οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι, troubled but not distressed; Every soul of man, that is, every man. Comp. Act_2:43; Rom_13:1, and the Hebrew אָדָם כָּל־נֶפֶשׁ; Rückert, Meyer, and others, give ψυχή its full force, upon every soul that belongs to a man, to express the idea that the soul and not the body is to suffer the penalty. But in Rom_13:1, ψυχή evidently stands for the whole person: let every soul, means let every person; and such is a common scriptural meaning of the word, if a soul sin, if a soul lie, if the priest buy a soul with his money, etc. Of the Jew first, and also of the Greek. It becomes now apparent that the apostle, in laying down these general principles of justice, had the Jews specially in view. God, he says, will render to every man according to his works, to the good, eternal life; to the evil, tribulation and anguish. And lest the every man should fail to arrest attention, he adds expressly, that the Jew as well as the Greek is to be thus judged. The word πρῶτον may express either order or preeminence. If the former, the sense is what is expressed by Calvin, Haec universalis est divini judicii lex, qua a Judaeis incipiet, et comprehendet totum orbem. The judgment shall begin with the Jews, and extend to the Gentiles. If the latter, the sense is, The Jew shall not only be punished as certainly as others, but more severely, because he has been more highly favored. The Jew first, is equivalent then to the Jew especially. The same remark applies to the following verse. If the Jew is faithful, he shall be specially rewarded. What is true of all men, is specially true of those to whom God has revealed himself in a peculiar manner.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tribulation and anguish--the effect of these in the sinner himself.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. Tribulation and anguish] Misery of all descriptions, without the possibility of escape, will this righteous Judge inflict upon every impenitent sinner. The Jew first, as possessing greater privileges, and having abused greater mercies; and also on the Gentile, who, though he had not the same advantages, had what God saw was sufficient for his state; and, having sinned against them, shall have punishment proportioned to his demerit.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. To the Jew first, etc. He simply places, I have no doubt, the Jew in opposition to the Gentile; for those whom he calls Greeks he will presently call Gentiles. But the Jews take the precedence in this case, for they had, in preference to others, both the promises and the threatenings of the law; as though he had said, “This is the universal rule of the divine judgment; it shall begin with the Jews, and it shall include the whole world.”

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) Upon every soul of man.—The phrase is not quite the same as “upon every man,” but more special in character, indicating the part in which the punishment will be felt.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. tribulation and anguish] Both words, in Greek as well as in English, indicate the crushing and bewildering power of great grief or pain. “Anguish” is the stronger of the two; for see 2Co_4:8, where the original of “distressed” is cognate to that of “anguish” here.

It is remarkable that the antithesis here to “eternal life” is the conscious experience of the effects of Divine anger.

doeth] The Gr. is somewhat emphatic; practiseth, worketh, worketh out. A habit of sin is intended. Same word as “worketh” in next verse.

of the Jew, &c.] Lit. both of the Jew, first, and of the Greek. The phrase is as if St Paul had been writing simply “of the Jew and of the Greek,” “of Jew and Greek alike;” and then, as by a verbal parenthesis, inserted the word “first” to emphasize what was all along most in his view in the simple phrase; viz., the special accountability of the Jew. On Jew and Greek, see on Rom_1:16.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But glory, honour, and peace,.... Which are so many words for the everlasting happiness of the saints; which is a "crown of glory that fadeth not away" Pe1 5:4); an honour exceeding that of the greatest potentates upon earth, since such that enjoy it will be kings and priests, and sit with Christ on his throne to all eternity; and is a peace that passes all understanding: all which will be rendered

to every man that doth good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; which none without Christ, and his grace, and by the strength of nature, does, or can do; not that good works are causes of salvation, but are testimonies of faith, and fruits of grace, with which salvation is connected, whether they be found in Jews or Gentiles; for neither grace nor salvation are peculiar to any nation, or set of people.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

Ver. 9. Of the Jew first] Qui ideo deteriores sunt, quia meliores esse deberent. Who are therefore worse, because they should be better. Salvian.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tribulation - This word commonly denotes affliction, or the situation of being pressed down by a burden, as of trials, calamities, etc.; and hence, to be pressed down by punishment or pain inflicted for sins. As applied to future punishment, it denotes the pressure of the calamities that will come upon the soul as the just reward of sin.

And anguish - στενοχωρία stenochōria. This noun is used in but three other places in the New Testament; Rom 8:35; 2Co 6:4; 2Co 12:10. The verb is used in 2Co 4:8; 2Co 6:12. It means literally narrowness of place, lack of room, and then the anxiety and distress of mind which a man experiences who is pressed on every side by afflictions, and trials, and want, or by punishment, and who does not know where he may turn himself to find relief. (Schleusner.) It is thus expressive of the punishment of the wicked. It means that they shall be compressed with the manifestations of God’s displeasure, so as to be in deep distress, and so as not to know where to find relief. These words affliction and anguish are often connected; Rom 8:35.

Upon every soul of man - Upon all people. In Hebrew the word “soul” often denotes the man himself. But still, the apostles, by the use of this word here, meant perhaps to signify that the punishment should not be corporeal, but afflicting the soul. It should be a spiritual punishment, a punishment of mind. (Ambrose. See Tholuck.)

Of the Jew first - Having stated the general principle of the divine administration, he comes now to make the application. To the principle there could be no objection. And the apostle now shows that it was applicable to the Jew as well as the Greek, and to the Jew pre-eminently. It was applicable first, or in an eminent degree, to the Jew, because,

He had been especially favored with light and knowledge on all these subjects.

(2)These principles were fully stated in his own Law, and were in strict accordance with all the teaching of the prophets; see the note at Rom 2:6; also Psa 7:11; Psa 9:17; Psa 139:19; Pro 14:32.

Of the Gentile - That is, of all who were not Jews. On what principles God will inflict punishment on them, he states in Rom 2:12-16. It is clear that this refers to the future punishment of the wicked, for,

(1) It stands in contrast with the eternal life of those who seek for glory Rom 2:7. If this description of the effect of sin refers to this life, then the effects spoken of in relation to the righteous refer to this life also. But in no place in the Scriptures is it said that people experience all the blessings of eternal life in this world; and the very supposition is absurd.

(2) It is not true that there is a just and complete retribution to every man, according to his deeds, in this life. Many of the wicked are prospered in life, and “there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm;” Psa 73:4. Many of the righteous pine in poverty and want and affliction, and die in the flames of persecution. Nothing is more clear than there is not in this life a full and equitable distribution of rewards and punishments; and as the proposition, of the apostle here is, that God will render to every man according to his deeds Rom 2:6, it follows that this must be accomplished in another world.

(3) The Scriptures uniformly affirm, that for the very things specified here, God will consign people to eternal death; 2Th 1:8, “In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction,” etc.; 1Pe 4:17. We may remark also, that there could be no more alarming description of future suffering than is specified in this passage. It is indignation; it is wrath; it is tribulation; it is anguish which the sinner is to endure forever. Truly people exposed to this awful doom should be alarmed, and should give diligence to escape from the woe which is to come.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Of the Jew first, and also the Greek. That is, God, as a just judge, will not have any respect to their persons, but punish or reward both Jews and Gentiles, according to their good or bad works. And salvation is now offered to both. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Tribulation and anguish; the word render is here again understood, he shall render tribulation and anguish. Some refer the former to the punishment of sin, the latter to the punishment of loss; or the one to the unquenchable fire, the other to the never dying worm: it seems to be a rhetorical exaggeration: see Psa 11:6; Mar 9:43-48.

Every soul of man; a double Hebraism: first, the soul is put for the person, as Gen 12:5; 14:21; 17:14; 36:6; 46:26. Secondly, every soul of man, is put for the soul of every man; as before, Rom 1:18, all unrighteousness of men, is put for the unrighteousness of all men. The soul of man shall not be punished only, but chiefly.

Of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; the Jew is first placed in order of punishment, because he better knew God’s will, and had more helps: see Mat 11:22,24; Lu 12:47.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Tribulation and anguish—Nominatives to shall be, understood. As indignation and wrath are tempers in the Divine mind, so tribulation and anguish are the results produced in the persons of the guilty.

Jew first— Priority of offer, not superiority of reward or penalty. From this paragraph it is plain that in the system under Christ the Head men are born into a scene of probation. That is, our human system is a system of free agents upon whose will and determination it depends whether they attain eternal bliss or eternal woe.

This presupposes in man a free responsible will, with the full power in the given moral alternatives to decide either way. He decides for right with the full power of deciding for the wrong instead, and is therefore praiseworthy. Or he decides for wrong, while in possession of the power for having instead decided for right, and is therefore responsible and condemnable. If he does not possess this alternative power of choice for either way, but must choose but one sole way, (without any power of choosing otherwise,) then he is an intellectual machine, and is irresponsible; that is, unless he has flung away his power, in which case he is still responsible. Since man is not a free being, and there is no true responsible probation, unless his will is thus free, we may add that he is not free in the following cases:

1. If while God professes to hold him free in a real probation He determines and decrees beforehand which way man shall choose. There is no probation where man’s action is thus previously fixed. That probation may be a fine piece of machinery, like a panorama, or an orrery, or the solar system itself, but it is no free probationary government.

2. If such be, by the nature of things, the force of motives on the human will as to fix with absolute necessity the determinations of a man’s will, just as the springs fix the strokes of a clock-hammer, without adequate power to strike any otherwise, then man is only a spiritual and bodily machine, and is no more responsible than a clock, and there is no true probation.

3. If the will of man by its own intrinsic nature always acts by fixed laws of so called invariable certainty, precisely according to the measure of motive force, man is not a free being. True and free certainty is the will-be, the future of an event apart from any fixed law. A future event that will be is certain, whether it is certain according to a fixed law, or whether it is a free certainty apart from and without such regulative law. If the will of man is under a certainty previously and eternal, fixed by law, it is not free. If that law be that he shall act according to the precise force of motives and no otherwise, then he is not free, and there is no true probation.

In these three cases, then—namely, where either man’s actions are previously determined, decreed, or fore-ordained by Omnipotence; or where man’s actions are fixed by the necessitating force of presented motives; or where by its own intrinsic nature man’s will always acts with invariable law in accordance with force of motive—in all these three cases there is no divine government, but only a vast machinery! There is no merit, no demerit. There is no desert of reward or penalty. The judgment day is no just reality. All is fatalism. And since God’s own will is also bound by similar laws, so God is subject to the same universal eternal fatalism! Such is not the system of the New Testament.

Dr. Hodge, indeed, argues: “Surely there is such a thing as being made willing without being forced. There is a middle ground between moral suasion and coercion. God supersedes the necessity of forcing, by making us willing in the day of his power.” Our reply is: In the sinner’s act of acceptance of God’s saving grace, we promptly deny any “make-willing” on the part of God which excludes man’s power of not-willing or refusing. God demands a free acceptance. He does not make a farce of our probation by first requiring our free will-ing, and then imposing upon us a “make-willing.” The free will-ing and the “make-willing” are incompatible.

From all this it moreover follows that if man be created, or if he be born into existence, without the power (either by nature or by supernatural provision) to do right and please God, he is not responsible or justly punishable. And if through his whole existence he never had power to will good, Divine Justice can never condemn him for any evil willing.

If for the fall of Adam, or any reason whatever, the whole human race is born unable to do good, it cannot, then, be damned for not doing good. To select or elect a part from this incapable whole, and oblige it to do good by power, is to make machines of that part. To leave the rest in incapacity for good, and then reprobate, that is, damn them for their evil, would be an infinite injustice, which it is an awful thing to charge upon a righteous God.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of the Jew first - Here we have the first express mention of the Jews in this chapter. And it is introduced with great propriety. Their having been trained up in the true religion, and having had Christ and his apostles first sent to them, will place them in the foremost rank of the criminals that obey not the truth.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

9. “Tribulation and anguish upon every soul, that worketh out the evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.” Jew here represents the whole world who claim to be godly; the Greek, the non-professors. “Worketh out the evil” has a final signification, i. e., indicating the ultimate destiny of every soul. As you observe the people within the circle of your acquaintance, you will find the general trend either to the good or the bad developing a finale, one way or the other, before they leave the world. All wind up this life confirmed either in holiness and God or this world and Satan. The church means “the called out of the world,” while sanctification means taking the world out of you and thus perfecting your separation from the world and Satan, who is its god. One way or the other there is in every case a “working out” of the problem for salvation or damnation.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek ;

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Tribulation and anguish. God, the righteous ruler, is displeased and indignant, and hence sends the sore punishment of “tribulation and anguish.” “One refers to the external weight of affliction; the other to the inward sense of that weight.” Upon every soul. Upon every evil doer, whether Jew or Gentile. Of the Jew first. The Jew stood first in opportunity (1:16); hence is first in responsibility. The Greek. The whole Gentile world is meant, as in 1:16; the great race whose culture had spread over the world being taken as the representative of all but the Jews. The emphatic thought is that the Jew, as well as the Gentile, shall be rendered unto according to his works.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

9. θλίψις καὶ στενοχωρία. These words must be separated from ὀ. κ. θ.: they begin the second pair of antitheses; the adoption of the false and wrong aim worries and narrows the whole life; cf. Rom 8:35; 2Co 4:8; 2Co 6:12. But the direct reference here again is to the final state, consequent on judgment.

ἐπὶ π. ψ. κ.τ.λ. pick up and enforce τοῖς ἐξ ἐρ. κ.τ.λ. and emphasise the universality of the judgment and the single condition τὰ ἔργα; the underlying thought then comes to the surface in Ἰουδαίου κ.τ.λ.; for this pair of antitheses the dominant thought is the universality of the judgment, as in the first pair its certainty and quality.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. θλῖψ. κ. στεν.] An expression from the LXX (see reff.): the former signifying more the outward weight of objective infliction,—the latter the subjective feeling of the pressure. It is possible, in the case of the suffering Christian, for the former to exist without the latter: so 2Co 4:8, ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι, ἀλλʼ οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι. But here the objective weight of infliction and the subjective weight of anguish, are co-existent.

ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ψ. ἀνθ.] probably a periphrasis for the sake of emphasis and solemnity. Had it been (as Fritzsche and Meyer) to indicate that the soul is the suffering part of the man (nearly so Olsh.), it should have been as De W. observes, ἐπὶ ψυχὴν παντὸς ἀνθρ., or ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ψυχὴν ἀνθρώπων (see reff.).

κατεργ.] κατεργάζομαι and ἐργάζομαι seem to have but this slight difference,—that κατεργάζομαι, answering rather to our ‘commit,’ is more naturally used of evil, as manifested and judged of by separate acts among men, whereas ἐργάζομαι, answering to our ‘work,’ is used indifferently of both good and evil. That this is not always kept to, see reff., especially ch. 7:18, and Plato Legg. iii. p. 686, end, in both which places, however, definite acts are spoken of. The pres. part. denotes the status or habit of the man.

Ἰουδ. τε πρῶτον] Because the Jew has so much greater advantages, and better opportunities of knowing the divine will: and, therefore, pre-eminent responsibility.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. θλῖψις καὶ στενοχωρία: tribulatio (pressura in the African form of the Old Latin) et angustia Vulg., whence our word ‘anguish’: στενοχωρία is the stronger word = ‘torturing confinement’ (cf. 2Co 4:8). But the etymological sense is probably lost in usage: calamitas et angustiae h. e. summa calamitas Fri. p. 106.

For similar combinations (‘day of tribulation and pain,’ ‘of tribulation and great shame,’ ‘of suffering and tribulation,’ ‘of anguish and affliction,’ &c.) see Charles’ note on Enoch xlv. 2.

κατεργαζομένου = ‘carry to the end’; κατά either strengthening the force of the simple vb., as per in perficere, or giving it a bad sense, as in perpetrare Fri. p. 107.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tribulation and anguish [θλιψις και στενοχωρια] . For tribulation, see on Mt 13:21. Stenocwria anguish, which occurs only in Paul (viii. 35; 2Co 6:4; 2Co 12:10), literally means narrowness of place. The dominant idea is constraint. In Deu 23:53, 57, it describes the confinement of a siege. Trench remarks : "The fitness of this image is attested by the frequency with which, on the other hand, a state of joy is expressed in the Psalms and elsewhere, as a bringing into a large room," Psa 117:5; 2Sa 22:20. Aquinas says : loetitia est latitia, joy is breadth.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.