Then shall they who in the times of tribulation have led many to the knowledge of salvation receive the glorious reward of their faithfulness. With this thought the angel closes the announcement of the future. המשׂכּילים refers back to Daniel 11:33-35, and is here, as there, not limited to the teachers, but denotes the intelligent who, by instructing their contemporaries by means of word and deed, have awakened them to stedfastness and fidelity to their confession in the times of tribulation and have strengthened their faith, and some of whom have in war sealed their testimony with their blood. These shall shine in eternal life with heavenly splendour. The splendour of the vault of heaven (cf. Exodus 24:10) is a figure of the glory which Christ designates as a light like the sun ("The righteous shall shine forth as the sun," Matthew 13:43, referring to the passage before us). Cf. for this figure also Revelation 2:28 and 1 Corinthians 15:40. By the expression הרבּים מצדּיקי Kranichfeld would understand such as take away the sins of the people in the offering up of sacrifice, i.e., the priests who attend to the offering of the sacrifices, because the expression is borrowed from Isaiah 53:11, "where it is predicated of the Messianic priest κατ ̓ἐξοχὴν, in the fullest sense of the word, what is said here of the common priests." But this interpretation is not satisfactory. In Isaiah 53:11 the Servant of Jehovah justifies many, not by the sacrifice, but by His righteousness, by this, that He, as צדּיק who has done no sin, takes upon Himself the sins of the people and gives His soul an offering for sin. הצּדּיק is neither in the law of sacrifices nor anywhere in the O.T. named as the effect of the sacrifice, but always only עון שׂאת (נשׂא) (to take up, take away iniquity) and כּפּר, and in the expiatory sacrifices with the constant addition לו (<) ונסלח; cf. Leviticus 4:26, Leviticus 4:31, Leviticus 4:35; Leviticus 5:10,Leviticus 5:16; Psalm 32:1.

Nor is the practice of offering sacrifice anywhere described as a הצּדּיק. This word signifies to assist in obtaining, or to lead to, righteousness, and is here to be read in this general interpretation, and not to be identified with the Pauline δικαιοῦσθαι. The מצדּיקים are those who by their צדקה, i.e., by their fidelity to the law, led others to צדקה, showed them by their example and teaching the way to righteousness.

The salvation of the people, which the end shall bring in, consists accordingly in the consummation of the people of God by the resurrection of the dead and the judgment dividing the pious from the godless, according to which the pious shall be raised to eternal life, and the godless shall be given up to everlasting shame and contempt. But the leaders of the people who, amid the wars and conflicts of this life, have turned many to righteousness, shall shine in the imperishable glory of heaven.

Hosea 10:8 Parallel Commentaries

high places.

Hosea 10:5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it...

Hosea 4:15 Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not you to Gilgal, neither go you up to Bethaven, nor swear...

Hosea 5:8 Blow you the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after you, O Benjamin.

the sin.

Deuteronomy 9:21 And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small...

1 Kings 12:28-30 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem...

1 Kings 13:34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.

1 Kings 14:16 And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.

Amos 8:14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, The manner of Beersheba lives...

Micah 1:5,13 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob...

the thorn.

Hosea 9:6 For, see, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them...

Isaiah 32:13 On the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city:

Isaiah 34:13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons...

their altars.

1 Kings 13:2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus said the LORD; Behold...

2 Kings 23:15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made...

2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the images in pieces...

2 Chronicles 34:5-7 And he burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem...

they shall.

Isaiah 2:19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty...

Luke 23:30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

Revelation 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne...

Revelation 9:6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.