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not put out of joint, but rather be healed.

12:12. diov ...] Wherefore since discipline is necessary, painful, and salutary, provide, as you can, that it may be effectual. Strengthen where it is possible those who are called to endure it; and remove from their way stumbling-blocks which can be removed.

The Apostle urges those who were themselves in danger to help others in like peril. Such efforts are the surest support of the tempted.

The figurative language which he borrows from various parts of the O.
T. suggests the manifold strengthening of powers for conflict (‘hands’) and for progress (‘knees’); and also the removal of external difficulties.
AiJ me;n cei're" ejnergeiva", oiJ de; povde" kinhvsew" suvmbolon (Theophylact).

The images are found Is. 35:3; Ecclus. 25:23. For pareimevna" and paralelumevna compare Deut. 32:36; 2 Sam. 4:1 (LXX.); for ajnorqwvsate (Vulg. erigite ) Ps. 20:9 (19:9); Lk. 13:13; Acts 15:16 (Amos 9:11).

Heb. 12:13. kai; troc. ...] Vulg. et gressus rectos facite pedibus vestris.
The phrase is taken from Prov. 4:26 ojrqa;" trocia;" poivei soi'" posi; kai; ta;"

oJdouv" sou kateuvqune ( Úl-,g“r" lG§"[]m' sLeP'£ i.e. make plain (straight) the path of

thy foot). The words may be rendered ‘make straight paths for your feet,’ i.e. for the feet of the whole society to tread in; or ‘ with your feet,’ as giving a good example to others. Chrysostom says apparently in the latter sense: ojrqav, fhsiv, badivzete w{ste mh; ejpitaqh'nai th;n cwleivan ; and this is the meaning given by the Latin Vulgate. But the context favours the first rendering. The thought seems to be that of a road prepared to walk in without windings or stumbling-blocks: Matt. 3:3.

For the image generally compare Philo, de migrat. Abr. § 26 (i. p. 458
M.).

The word trociav ( orbita, wheel-track ) is found in LXX. only in the book

of Proverbs as the translation of lG:[]m' , H5047 (Prov. 2:15; 4:11; 5:6, 21).

The common reading ( poihvsate ) gives an accidental hexameter. i{na mh; to; c. ] that the limb which is lame be not put out of joint. The more exact form would be i{na to; c. mh; ejktr. , but the negative is attracted (as it were) to the final particle. Comp. 1 Tim. 6:1. By to; cwlovn (Vulg. claudicans ) the Apostle describes the lame member in the Church, who is unable to stand or walk firmly on his way. Compare 1 Kings 18:21. The ‘halting’ of the Hebrews ‘between two opinions’ is the characteristic type of their weakness.

The word ejktrevpesqai is elsewhere found in the Greek Scriptures in the sense of ‘being turned out of the way’; and it is commonly so interpreted here (Vulg. erret ); but there is no obvious fitness in adding to ‘lameness’ the idea of ‘straying,’ and the sense ‘put out of joint’ has adequate support, and the addition of ijaqh'/ , which has no connexion with ‘straying,’ seems to require it. Hippocr. de offic. med. vi. p. 745 H. (in discussing the treatment of injured limbs) qevsi" de; malqakhv, oJmalhv, ajnavrropo" toi'sin ejxevcousi tou' swvmato", oi|on ptevrnh/ kai; ijscivw/, wJ" mhvte ajnakla'tai mhvte ejktrevpetai (?- htai ).

(2) Heb. 12:14-17. The necessity of peace and purity. The special exhortations which arose directly from circumstances of trial and discipline lead on to directions of a general character. The duty of mutual help (v. 13) naturally suggests the consideration of the power of mutual influence (vv. 14-18); and this, in the actual state of society, gives occasion to a solemn warning as to the irremediable consequences of


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