5 But by your hard and unchanged heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the revelation of God's judging in righteousness;
Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house?
The Lord is able to keep the upright safe in the time of testing, and to keep evil-doers under punishment till the day of judging;
As it is said, Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart, as when you made him angry.
But give comfort to one another every day as long as it is still Today; so that no one among you may be made hard by the deceit of sin:
God will be judge of every work, with every secret thing, good or evil.
For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses.
And the angels who did not keep to their kingdom but went out from the place which was theirs, he has put in eternal chains and in dark night till the great day of the judging.
But the present heaven and the present earth have been kept for destruction by fire, which is waiting for them on the day of the judging and destruction of evil men.
For it is my desire, brothers, that this secret may be clear to you, so that you may not have pride in your knowledge, that Israel has been made hard in part, till all the Gentiles have come in;
What if God, desiring to let his wrath and his power be seen, for a long time put up with the vessels of wrath which were ready for destruction:
But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing; And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies.
But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became hard with pride, he was put down from his place as king, and they took his glory from him:
Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass;
A man hating sharp words and making his heart hard, will suddenly be broken and will not be made well again.
In the day of his wrath kings will be wounded by the Lord at your right hand.
Let not your hearts be hard, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the waste land;
And he took up arms against King Nebuchadnezzar, though he had made him take an oath by God; but he made his neck stiff and his heart hard, turning away from the Lord, the God of Israel.
Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place, which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from you.
For the Lord made them strong in heart to go to war against Israel, so that he might give them up to the curse without mercy, and that destruction might come on them, as the Lord had given orders to Moses.
But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us go through; for the Lord your God made his spirit hard and his heart strong, so that he might give him up into your hands as at this day.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 2
Commentary on Romans 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
The scope of the first two chapters of this epistle may be gathered from ch. 3:9, "We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin.' This we have proved upon the Gentiles (ch. 1), now in this chapter he proves it upon the Jews, as appears by v. 17, "thou art called a Jew.'
Rom 2:1-16
In the former chapter the apostle had represented the state of the Gentile world to be as bad and black as the Jews were ready enough to pronounce it. And now, designing to show that the state of the Jews was very bad too, and their sin in many respects more aggravated, to prepare his way he sets himself in this part of the chapter to show that God would proceed upon equal terms of justice with Jews and Gentiles; and now with such a partial hand as the Jews were apt to think he would use in their favour.
Rom 2:17-29
In the latter part of the chapter the apostle directs his discourse more closely to the Jews, and shows what sins they were guilty of, notwithstanding their profession and vain pretensions. He had said (v. 13) that not the hearers but the doers of the law are justified; and he here applies that great truth to the Jews. Observe,