(25) Daily rising up.--Stress is laid on the continual succession of prophets as witnesses of the Truth from the beginning. The prophet was not tied to the actual letter of his statement, and the prominence given to Samuel, as the first who bore the name of prophet (1Samuel 9:9), seems at first against him. On the other hand, the gift of prophecy (as seen in Numbers 11:25-29) was bestowed freely even during the wilderness wanderings, and the mention of prophets (Judges 4:4; Judges 6:8) and men of God (Judges 13:6), perhaps, also, that of the "angel" or messenger of God, in Judges 5:23, as well as the honour paid to seers before the time of Samuel (1Samuel 9:8), show that, great as he was, it was that name and the organisation, rather than the gift, that were new in his ministry.

7:21-28 God shows that obedience was required of them. That which God commanded was, Hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God. The promise is very encouraging. Let God's will be your rule, and his favour shall be your happiness. God was displeased with disobedience. We understand the gospel as little as the Jews understood the law, if we think that even the sacrifice of Christ lessens our obligation to obey.Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day,.... That is, in all generations; ever since their first coming out of Egypt, they had been disobedient to the commands of God, and had walked after their own hearts' lusts, and had gone backward, and not forward; for this is not to be connected with what follows:

I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early, and sending them; which should be rendered, "although I have sent" (x); which is an aggravation of their sin, that they should continue in their disobedience, though the Lord sent to them to exhort and warn them, not one, or two, of his servants the prophets, but all of them, and that daily; who rose early in the morning, which denotes their care and diligence to do their message; and which, because they were sent of the Lord, and did his work as he directed them, it is attributed to himself; and of these there was a constant succession, from the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day; which shows the goodness of God to that people, and their slothfulness, hardness, and obstinacy.

(x) "et quamvis miserim", Ar. lnterpr. "cum tamen mitterem", Syr.