Romans 2:13

For not the hearers of the law. — The parenthesis should not be placed here (as usually in the Authorised version), but at the beginning of the next verse. The present verse is explanatory of that which precedes. “Judged, I say, by the Law; for they must not suppose that the mere fact of their being under the Law will exempt them from this judgment. The only exemption will be that which is given to those who have kept the Law, and not merely had the privilege of hearing it. And,” the argument follows — the Apostle digressing for a moment to pursue this point to its conclusion — “this exemption, may apply quite as much to Gentile as to Jew.”

Hearers of the law. — Strictly (as above), hearers of law — i.e., those who have a law to which they can listen, and by which they may be guided. (Comp. Acts 13:27; Acts 15:21, “Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath”; and for the opposition between hearing and doing, James 1:22; James 1:25.)