It is true that only two transgressions are here specified for which their perpetrators are to be pursued and over taken by the curse namely, perjury and theft; but these two are most probably mentioned as samples and sum maries of the whole. For the expression " everyone that sweareth " must be understood as explained in the 4th verse, as " swearing falsely by the Name of Jehovah" and is thus a violation of the Third Command, which is found in the first table of the law which summarises man's duty to God; and " everyone that stealeth " breaks the Eighth Commandment, which is found on the second table, which summarises man's duty to his neighbour.[1] So that Baumgarten and Hengstenberg are not far wrong when they write that one side of the roll contained the judgments of God against the transgressors of the Command, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might"; and on the other the judgments against the transgressors of the Command, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Against all such the megillah, with its awful contents, " gpeth forth" being set in motion (as we see from the 4th verse) by " Jehovah of hosts "; and is therefore seen " fly ing " that is, travelling rapidly over the whole land,[2] and
- ↑ Baumgarten points out that the prophet selects the middle Command from each of the tables.
- ↑ pN, eretz, means earth as well as land, and several commentators have defended the rendering in the A.V., " over the face of the whole earth." But the translation adopted in the R.V. is doubtless the correct one first, because, as Pusey points out, those upon whom the curse was to fall were those who swore falsely by the Name of Jehovah, which was true of Judah only; secondly, as Keil observes, in the vision of the Ephah, which is closely connected with that of the Flying Roll, " the land " is contrasted with "the land of Shinar." The reference to the two tables of the law also confines the vision primarily to those who were under the law. Yet it is true also that " since the moral law abides under the gospel there is an ultimate application in these two visions in the 5th chapter also to Christendom, which was to spread over the whole earth." Remember, dear reader, whatever the primary application of this vision, that God's curse will finally overtake all workers of iniquity, and that He will " render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life; but to them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil
