Romans 2:9

tribulation and anguish Both words, in Greek as well as in English, indicate the crushing and bewildering power of great grief or pain. "Anguish" is the stronger of the two; for see 2 Corinthians 4:8, where the original of "distressed" is cognate to that of "anguish" here.

It is remarkable that the antithesis here to "eternal life" is the conscious experienceof the effects of Divine anger.

doeth The Gr. is somewhat emphatic; practiseth, worketh, worketh out. A habitof sin is intended. Same word as "worketh" in next verse.

of the Jew, &c. Lit. both of the Jew, first, and of the Greek. The phrase is as if St Paul had been writing simply "of the Jew and of the Greek," "of Jew and Greek alike;" and then, as by a verbal parenthesis, inserted the word "first" to emphasize what was all along most in his view in the simple phrase; viz., the special accountability of the Jew. On Jewand Greek, see on Romans 1:16.