He afterwards adds, If it may be (or, it may be) ye shall be concealed The idea is not “protected,” as given by Newcome, but “secreted” or concealed as in a hiding-place. “Hid” is the version of Henderson, and also of Marckius.—Ed. in the day of Jehovah’s anger. The Prophet speaks not doubtingly, as though the faithful were uncertain as to God’s favor: but he had another thing in view,—that though no hope remained as to the perceptions of men, yet the faithful would not lose their labor, if they sought God; for in their worst circumstances they would find him propitious to them and their safety secured by his kindness. Hence we see, that the Prophet in these words points out the disastrous character of the event, but no deficiency in the love of God. Though the Lord is ready to pardon, nay, of his own self anticipates his people, and kindly invites them to himself; it is yet necessary for them to consider how wonderful is his power in preserving his elect, when all things seem desperate. It may then be, he says, when the Jews understood that all things were in a state of extreme despair: and the Prophet said this, partly that the reprobate and the perverse might know that they were to perish, and partly that the faithful might appreciate the more the favor of God, when they saw themselves delivered from death by a miracle, and found that it would be a kind of resurrection, when God became their deliverer. Hence the Prophet, in order to commend to God’s children his salvation, which he offers them, and to render more illustrious God’s favor, makes use of the particle אולי, auli, it may be. In the meantime he fulminates, as I have already said, against the reprobate, that they might understand that it was all over with them. It follows—