(15.) =What= is that =which was?= (the contract relative with the verb substantive, _i.e._ what is _the past_?’) =the present state of things= (‎‏כבר, see chapter i. 10, references; the word is a substantive with its ordinary technical meaning as used in this book of the ‘present as it now is,’ and of this he says) =it is= (emphatic) =and that which is to be= (appointed so to be. The LXX. render ὅσα τοῦ γίνεσθαι, literally ‘things of the being,’ ‘or to happen’) =the present state of things it was= (that is, ‘this _very_ same present it is;’ each age being in this respect an exact reproduction of what went before it. It never was subject to human control, and never will be) =and the Deity= (as this word is repeated in the same clause, and stands as a nominative before the verb, it is especially emphatic) =seeks= (‘asks after,’ ‘inquires for,’ with the object of not allowing it to pass notice, see 1 Samuel xx. 16) =with respect to a persecuted= (person or thing. He does not allow any person or thing who is wronged to pass without notice). No doubt St. Jerome has completely hit the point of the argument when he writes, ‘Since all things fade with time, and there is a time of destroying and building, weeping and laughing, for silence and speaking, and those other things which are said concerning time, why do we strive and press forward in vain, and imagine the brief labours of life to be perpetual, nor are we content, according to the Gospel, with the evil of to-day, and so take no thought for the morrow?’ 16 ¶ And moreover I saw │ Yet, however, I have observed under the sun the place of │ in this work-day world, that in judgment, _that_ wickedness │ place of justice there is _was_ there; and the place of │ impiety, and in the place even righteousness, _that_ iniquity │ of right there is impiety also. _was_ there. │ (16.) =And yet= (an objection to the foregoing) =I have seen under the sun= (the limitation here introduced requires special attention) =a place of the justice= (we must not limit place to mean _locality_, but take it generally of state or position, etc., and observe also that ‎‏המשפט has the article, and is therefore generic); =there= was =the wickedness= (again generic, and hence having the meaning that in place of justice, as one would expect from the proposition stated above, that the Deity has regard to the wronged, just the reverse occurred; this is again enlarged in the following), =and in the place of the right there was the wickedness= (the meaning is, that ‘just in the very circumstances under which you would expect right to prevail, there you will find rampant and successful wickedness.’ רשע has the meaning of that kind of ‘wickedness’ which goes out into bold and open transgression, see 2 Samuel xxii. 22; Psalm x. 2, 3, 4, 13).