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9 Yet Michael the arch

angel, when contending

with the devil, he disputed about the body of Mofes, durit not bring againft him a railing accufation, but faid, The Lord rebuke thee.

9 Ὁ δὲ Μιχαηλ ὁ αρχαί γελά, ότε τω διαβολῳ διάκρινομενος διελέγετο περι τε Μωσέως σώματος, εκ ετολ

μησε κρίσιν επενεγκείν βλασ
φημίας,
αλλ' ειπεν Επιτιι

μησαι σοι Κύριος.

compounded word, denotes the Sodomites committing whoredom out of the order of nature. They committed the unnatural crime which hath taken its name from them.

4. Are fet forth, deryμa, an example. See 2 Pet. ii. 6. - The burning of the cities of the plain, being reprefented here as an example, or type, of that punishment by fire which at the general judgment God will inflict on the wicked, the confideration thereof fhould terrify the ungodly of every defcription, and bring them to repentance. For when God is about to punish them in that dreadful manner, will they be able to flee from him, or 1esist him?

Ver. 8.-1. In like manner indeed, these alfo fall be punished. I put a full point after the words xa to: and to finish the fentence, I fupply the words, fhall be punished, from the end of the foregoing verfe with which this claufe is connected in the fenfe, being the reddition to the claufe in the beginning of ver. 7.-'s σodoμa xas yoμoppa fince, or, as Sodom and Gomorrha are fet forth as an example, &c. ver. 8. oμows. perta In like manner certainly thefe alfo fhall be punished.-In the next claufe of this 8th verfe, a new fentiment is introduced, which there. fore should have been made the beginning of the verse.

2. Being caft into a deep fleep. This is the proper literal translation. of the word Una Covo, as Beza hath fhewed. Befides in other paffages of fcripture, the wicked are reprefented as faft afleep. See Rom. xiii. 11. 1 Theff. v. 6

3. And defpife government, (fee 2 Pet. ii. 10. note 2. ) and revile dignities: dotas de Bhanus literally they revile glories, that is those who poffefs the glory of the magiftrate's office. This must be the meaning of dogs, as diftinguished from xugorna, government.-The Jews fancying it finful to obey the heathen magiftrates, defpifed both them and their office. The ungodly teachers of whom Jude speaks, carried the matter fill farther: They reviled all magiftrates whatever, as enemies to the natural liberty of mankind.

Ver. 9.

1. But Michael the archangel. Michael is mentioned, Dan. X. 12. 21, xii. 1. as flanding up in defence of, the children of Daniel's people-Because it is faid, Rev. xii. 7. That Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon and his angels, Eftius conjectures that Michael is the chief, or prince of all the angels. But this argument is not conclufive. Because the book of Daniel is the firft facred writing in which proper names are given to particular angels, fome have fancied,

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9 (A) But Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he difputed about the body of Mofes, did not attempt to bring against him a reviling accufation,+ but faid, The Lord rebuke thee.

2

9 But how different was the conduct of Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he difputed about the reftoration of the Jewish church and state by Joshua the high priest, Zechar. iii. 1. Though that malicious fpirit was clothed with no authority of office, he did not attempt to bring against him a reviling accufation; but mildly faid, The Lord rebuke thee Satan.

that during the Babylonifh captivity the Jews invented these names or learned them from the Chaldeans. But this feems an unfounded conjecture. For the angel who appeared to Zacharias, Luke i. 19. called himfelf Gabriel, which fhews that that name was not of Chaldean invention.

2. When contending with the devil he difputed about the body of Mofes. In the paffages of Daniel's prophecy quoted in the preceding note, Michael is spoken of as one of the chief angels who took care of the Ifraelites as a nation. He may therefore have been the angel of the Lord, before whom Joshua the high priest is faid, Zech. iii. 1. to have. food, Satan being at his right hand to refift him, namely in his defign of reftoring the Jewith church and ftate, called by Jude the body of Mofes, juft as the Chriftian church is called by Paul the body of Chrift. Zechariah adds, And the Lord, that is, the angel of the Lord, as is plain from ver. 1. faid unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord, that hath chofen Jerufalem, rebuke thee. -Le Clerc gives a differ ent interpretation of this paffage. By Satan in Zechariah's vilion, and Amoños in Jude's epiftle, he undertands Tatuai and Shetherboznai, the king of Perfia's lieutenants, who oppofed the reftoration of Jerufalem, and who on that account might be called Satan or the adverfary of the Jews, in the fame manner that Peter was called Satan by his matter, for oppofing his fuffering at Jerufalem. According to this interpretation, Jude's meaning is, that the angel in Zechariah's vifion brought no reviling accufation against the adverfaries of the Jews, but reproved them with modelty on account of their being magiltrates. This, Jude mentioned to fhew the ungodly teachers who reviled the Roman magiftrates, that they were culpable in doing what the angels who, as Peter obferveth, 2 Ep. ii. 11. are greater in power than they, did not attempt to do.

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Beza, Eftius, Tillotfon, and others. by the body of Mofes about which the devil contended with Michael, understand his dead body, which they fuppofe the devil contended fhould be buried publicly, on pretence of doing honour to Mofes; but that his intention was to give the Ifraelites an opportunity of raifing his body and worshipping it: That Michael knowing this, rebuked the devil in the words mentioned by Jude; and to prevent the Ifraelites from committing idolatry, buried

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buried Mofes's body fo privately that none of the Ifraelites ever knew where his fepulchre was.-Vitringa, instead of the body of Mofes, propofes to read, the body of fofbua; but without any authority whatever. The firft mentioned account of this tranfaction, which was given long ago by Ephraim the Syrian, (See Lardner, Canon iii. c. 21. p. 345, 346.) is now adopted by many.

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3. Did not attempt to bring against him. In the common English tranflation it is, durft not bring, as if Michael had been afraid of the devil, which certainly is an improper idea. The tranflation of ex Tun, which I have given, is fupported by Blackwall, Sacr. Claffics, vol. 2. p. 155.-Tillotfon's remark, (Pofthum. ferm. 31.) on this text deferves a place here. Michael's duty reftrained him; and probably his difcretion too. As he durft not offend God in doing a thing fo much beneath the dignity and perfection of his nature, fo ❝he could not but think that the devil would have been too hard for "him at railing; a thing to which, as the angels have no difpofition, "fo I believe they have no talent, no faculty at it: The cool con"fideration whereof fhould make all men, efpecially those who call "themfelves divines, and efpecially in controverfies about religion, "afhamed and afraid of this manner of difputing."

4. A reviling accufation; xgow ETTEVεy Chachuas, literally to bring against him a fentence of reviling; a form of expreffion founded on this, that whoever reviles or fpeaks evil of another, doth in effect judge and condemn him.-Doddridge thinks the tranflation might run, did not venture to pass a judgment upon his blafphemy, but referred him to the judgment of God by faying, the Lord rebuke thee. But this tranflation requires the addition of two words not in the text; and without any neceffity. That author in his note on the paffage faith, "If the an "gels do not rail even against the devil, how much lefs ought we against men in authority, even fuppofing them in fome things to "behave amifs. Wherefore, to do it when they behave well, must ❝ be a wickednefs much more aggravated."

Ver. 10. What things they know naturally as animals void of reason, by thefe they defroy themfelves. Here Jude infinuates, That thefe un

godly

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10 Yet thefe ungodly teachers, notwithstanding their pretensions to superior illumination and knowledge, revile laws and magiflrates, whofe origin and usefulness indeed they do notknow. But the ufe of the members of their body, which they know only by inftinct as animals void of reafon, by perverting thefe to gluttony, drunkennefs, and luft, they destroy both their foul and their body.

11 Wo is their portion; for in deftroying the fouls of their brethren by their falfe doctrine, they have followed Cain in the murder of his brother; and by mifreprefenting the oracles of God for the fake of gain, they have run far in the error which Balaam followed for hire; and, on pretence of fuperior illumination oppofing the apoftles of Chrift, they fball perish, as the men who perifhed in the rebellion of Korah.

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godly teachers, notwithstanding they made high pretenfions to knowledge, had no knowledge, at leaft concerning the ufe of their body, but what they derived from natural instinct, as brute animals: That they made their lufts the only rule of their actions: That they coupled with women promifcuroufly like the brute beafts and That, instead of ufing the knowledge they derived from inftinct rightly, they there by deftroyed both their foul and their body. In this paffage the apofile ftrongly condemned the lafcivious practices of the Nicolaitans, and of all the ungodly teachers who defended the promifcuous ufe of women; and confuted the argument taken from natural appetite, by which they vindicated their common whoredoms. If these teachers had had any true knowledge, they would have known that reafon is given to enable men to reftrain the exceffes of their natural appetites, and to lead them to the right ufe of the members of their body, as well as of the faculties of their mind.

Ver. 11.

--1. Wo is to them. The fubftantive verb wanting in this fentence may bé taken either from the prefent of the indicative, or from the prefent of the optative mode. In the fecond way 821 auto; must be tranflated as in our Bible Woe be to them, and is a curfe. But in the firft way it fhould be translated as I have done Wo is to them, and is only a declaration of the mifery which was to come on them. Ac. cordingly, the phrafe is thus ufed by our Lord, Matth. xxiv. 19. Wo unto them who are with child, and to them who give fuck in thofe days. For

certainly

12 These are spots in your feafts of charity, when they fealt with you, Feed ing themfelves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds:

trees whofe fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the

roots;

12 Οὗτοι εισιν εν ταις απ γαπαις ύμων σπιλάδες, συνευωχεμενοι, αφόβως ἑαυτες ποιμαίνοντες" νεφέλαι ανυ δροι, ύπο ανεμων περιφερο δενδρα φθινοπωρινα Evas* άκαρπα δις αποθανονται εκε ριζώθοντα

certainly this was no wish of punishment, fince to be with child and to give fuck in thofe days, was no crime. But it was a declaration of the mifery which was coming on perfons in that helplefs condition. See Luke vi. 24. for another example of this ufe of a

2. And have run far in the error of Balaam's hire. The word xunov which I have tranflated have, run far, literally fignifies, effufi funt, vagantur, in allufion to the running of liquors, which follow no certain courfe when they are poured out. The apoftle's meaning is, they have gone far in the fin which Balaam committed for hire, when he counfelled Balak to tempt the Ifraelites to commit fornication and idolatry. The ungodly teachers in the first age, ftrongly actuated by Balaam's paffion for riches, drew money from their difciples by allowing them to indulge their lufts without rettraint. Hence what is here called the error of Balaam's hire, is called, Rev. ii. 14. his docrine: And 2 Pet. ii. 15. his way: And the ungodly teachers are there faid to have followed in it. See notes 1, 2. on that paffage of Peter.

3. And have perifked. Here, as in many paffages of fcripture, a thing is faid to have happened, which was only to happen. This manner of expreffion was used to fhew the abfolute certainty of the thing fpoken of. Have perifbed, therefore, means fhall certainly perib. See Eff. iv. 10. 2.

4. In the rebellion of Korah. Literally, avroya fignifies contradiction. But when princes and magiftrates are contradicted, it is rebellion. Wherefore avroya here, may very properly be tranflated rebellion; And λaov artikeyorra, Rom. x. 21. a rebelling people.--By declaring that the ungodly teachers were to perifh in the rebellion of Korah, Jude infinuated that thefe men, by oppofing the apoftles of Chrift, were guilty of a rebellion fimilar to that of Korah and his companions, who oppofed Mofes and Aaron on pretence that they were no more commiffioned by God, the one to be a prince, the other a priest, than the reft of the congregation, who were all holy, Numb. xvi. 3. 13.-By comparing the ungodly teachers to Cain, to Balaam, and to Korah, Jude hath reprefented them as guilty of murder, covetoufnefs, and ambition.

Ver. 12.-1. These men are, σminades, spots. The word ominades, ́ properly fignifies rocks in the fea, which when they rife above its fur

face

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