Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
Ver. 10. The prophets have inquired] This highly sets forth the weight and worth of it, since such men took such pains upon it. Base spirits are busied about light matters; as Domitian spent his time in catching flies, Artaxerxes in making knife hafts; not so Caleb, "who had another spirit, and followed God wholly," Numbers 14:24. So did the ancient prophets, as Isaiah: while the merry Greeks were taken up at their Olympic games in the year 1590 from the Flood, the prophet Isaiah seeth that heavenly vision of Christ sitting on his throne, and heareth that thrice happy Trisagion, Isaiah 6:1,3. (Buchol. Chron.) And in this disquisition and scrutiny, the prophets with singular desire and industry exercised themselves, as the two compound Greek words, εκζητειν, εξερευναν, used in the next verse, do import.