Romans 7:24

O wretched man, &c. Lit. Miserable man [am] I. The adjective indicates a state of suffering;the painof the inner conflict as felt by the regenerate "mind [38]."

[38] In Lord Selborne's Book of Praisewill be found a most remarkable Hymn, (No. ccclxx), beginning "O send me down a draught of love." The whole Hymn forms a profound and suggestive commentary here.

from the body of this death Better, perhaps, out of this body of death. The Gr. admits either translation. The best commentary on this ver. is Romans 8:23, where the saints are said to "groan, waiting for the redemption of their body." Under different imagery the idea here is the same. The body, as it now is, is the stronghold of sinin various ways, (see on Romans 6:6,) and is that part of the regenerate man which yet has to die. The Apostle longs to be free from it as suchas sinful and mortal; in other words, he "groans for its redemption." Cp. Philippians 3:21; 2 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Corinthians 5:8.

Such an explanation is surely preferable to that which makes "body" mean "mass" or "load." Some commentators, again, trace a metaphorical reference to the cruelty of tyrants, (e.g. Virgil's Mezentius,) who chained the living and the dead together. But this is quite out of character with the severely simple imagery here.