Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Ver. 10. Many shall be purified, and made white, &c., ] q.d., It is enough for thee to know, and that I should now tell thee, quales sint futuri homines postremi saeculi, what kind of folk there shall be towards the end of the world. Some shall be good people, and they shall meet with hard measure, but all shall be for the best unto them in the end. See Daniel 11:35. Others shall be as bad, and so desperately set upon sinning that they shall mind nothing else - no, not when these prophecies are fulfilled - but be "destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hos 4:6 Infatuati seducentur, et seducti iudabuntur; being infatuated they shall be seduced, and being seduced they shall be judged, as Augustine's note is on 2 Thessalonians 2:10 .