Acts 1:20

The passages quoted by St Peter are from Psalms 69:25, where it is written "Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents;" and Psalms 109:8, "Let his days be few, and let another take his office." St Peter changes the plural of the former verse into the singular in his quotation, for David was speaking of many enemies of his own, yet though Judas was the instrument through which the many enemies of Jesus wrought out their will, it is the punishment which came on the chief offender that St Peter is now desirous to illustrate and point to as a fulfilment of prophecy. The fulfilment in the case of the Jewish nation came at a later date, though their days as a nation were now few, and their destruction, when it came, as terrible as that of Judas.

Let his habitation be Rather, become, or be made.

and his bishoprick Now that this word has so restricted a meaning in English it is better to use the more general term office which is given in the margin. In Acts 1:25 this ministryis used of the same charge, and might be rendered this diaconate. A comma placed after the second andin this verse will make it clear that there are two quotations from different places. There is no contradiction between the two passages quoted by St Peter, for though the habitation of Judas is to become desolate, and have none dwelling therein, the office which he had been chosen to fill is still to be occupied, and the purpose of God in the choice of the twelve is not to be left incomplete through the offence of the traitor. And it is on the necessity for filling his place that St Peter immediately dwells, saying, For this reason must a new member be chosen. In one passage of the Psalmist the Spirit speaks of the vacancy in the Apostolic office through Iscariot's transgression, in the other of the necessity for filling it up.