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The word is used of violent elemental convulsions (e.g., Matt. 24:29). nu'n de; ejphvgg. ] Hag. 2:6. But now , in relation to the Christian order as distinguished from that of Sinai ( tovte ), He hath promised , whose voice then shook the earth....

The former outward ‘shaking’ was the symbol of a second ‘shaking’ far more extensive and effective. Heaven and earth will at last be moved that men may contribute to the fulfilment of the divine purpose. And the announcement of this final catastrophe of the world, however awful in itself, is a ‘promise,’ because it is for the triumph of the cause of God that believers look.

The prophecy of Haggai (Haggai 2:6 ff., 21 ff.) deals with two main subjects, the superior glory of the second temple in spite of its apparent poverty: the permanent sovereignty of the house of David in spite of its apparent weakness. The prophet looks forward from the feeble beginnings of the new spiritual and national life to that final manifestation of the majesty and kingdom of God in which the discipline begun on Sinai is to have an end. He naturally recals in thought the phenomena which accompanied the giving of the Law; and foreshadows a correspondence between the circumstances of the first and the last scenes in the divine revelation. That which was local and preparatory at Sinai is seen in the consummation to be universal.

The quotation is adapted from the LXX. e[ti a{pax ejgw; seivsw to;n oujrano;n kai; th;n gh'n kai; th;n qavlassan kai; th;n xhravn . The interpretation of

the words w" ayhi f['m] th'a' dw[ rendered by e[ti a{pax is doubtful; but in any

case the LXX. gives the main thought. The character of this ‘shaking’ compared with that which foreshadowed it marks it as final.

For ejphvggeltai compare Rom. 4:21; Gal. 3:19 ( to whom He hath given the promise ).

Heb. 12:27. to; dev [Eti a{pax ] And the word Yet once more .... Vulg.
Quod autem...dicit. The use of this phrase shews that the second ‘shaking’ will be final. No other is to follow. All then that admits of being shaken must be for ever removed.

For a{pax see Heb. 6:4 n.; 9:26 ff.; and for dhloi' , Heb. 9:8 note. th;n tw'n saleuomevnwn ... pep. ] the removal of the things which are being shaken as of things that have been made. The convulsion is represented as in accomplishment. It is not simply possible. This vivid feature is lost in the Latin mobilium (Vulg.).
wJ" pepoihmevnwn ] The visible earth and heaven are treated as transitory forms, which only represent in time the heavenly and eternal. As the material types of spiritual realities they are spoken of characteristically as ‘made’ and so as being liable to perish. The ‘invisible’ archetypes are also, as all things, ‘made’ by God: Is. 66:22. They are not imperishable in themselves, but they abide in virtue of the divine will, which they are fitted peculiarly to express as being spiritual.

For metavqesi" compare Heb. 7:12 (11:5). The word only occurs in this Epistle in the N. T. In the LXX. it is found only in 2 Macc. 11:24. The verb occurs Acts 7:16; Gal. 1:6; Jude 4; Heb. 7:12; 11:5.

A similar idea is expressed by St John and St Paul 1 John 2:8, 17 ( paravgesqai ); 1 Cor. 7:31 ( paravgei ).
i{na meivnh/ ] The abiding of the eternal is naturally presented as the


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