lready entered the [Pg 263]
promised land, who have already come to the full enjoyment of salvation
(_full_, in so far as it is considered as a whole, and designated as
the last station; but as this last station again has several steps and
gradations, this fulness can be relative only. If it were absolute, if
nothing more of the wilderness were left, then, of course, the case
here in question could no more occur; for a salvation absolutely full
presupposes a righteousness absolutely full);--even they who have
already come to the full enjoyment of salvation, and to a degree of
righteousness corresponding to this salvation, require still the mercy
of God; for, without it, they would soon lose their salvation again.
This mercy, however, is vouchsafed to them in abundant measure. The
whole manner in which God leads those who have obtained mercy, is a
changing of the valley of trouble into a door of hope. He will order
all things in such a way, that the bond of union betwixt Him and those
for whom all things must work together for good, instead of being
broken by sin--as it would be if He were justice alone--is only the
more strengthened. The same idea occurs again in ver. 21. The new
marriage-covenant is there founded not on justice only, but on mercy
also.--The words [Hebrew: venth wmh] are commonly explained, "She sings
there," or, "She there raises alternative songs." But both of these
interpretations are unphilological. For 1. [Hebrew: wmh] does not
signify "there," but "thither." Those passages which have been appealed
to for the purpose of proving that it may also sometimes signify
"there," or "at yonder place," all belong to the same class. The
opposite of the construction of the verbs of motion with [Hebrew: b]
takes place in them. As, in these verbs, the idea of rest is, for the
sake of brevity, omitted, so here, that of motion. Thus, _e.g._, Jer.
xviii. 2, "Go down to the potter's house, and _thither_ will I cause
thee to hear My voice," is a concise mode of expression for, "I will
send My voice thither, and cause thee to hear there;" 1 Chron. iv. 41,
"Which were found thither," instead of, "which were found there when
they came thither." We might, in the case of the passage under
consideration, most easily concede what we are contending against, that
[Hebrew: wmh] is used instead of [Hebrew: wM], as a kind of grammatical
blunder; but that the writer knew the difference between these two
forms clearly appears from