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Text -- Hebrews 2:15 (NET)

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Context
2:15 and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Dictionary Themes and Topics: War | Salvation | STING | Righteous | RANSOM | Jesus, The Christ | HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE | Death | BONDAGE | Afflictions and Adversities | Adoni-zedec | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Robertson , Vincent , Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , Defender , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Haydock , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
, Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , Combined Bible , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Barclay , Constable , College

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: Heb 2:15 - -- And might deliver ( kai apallaxēi ). Further purpose with the first aorist active subjunctive of appallassō , old verb to change from, to set fre...

And might deliver ( kai apallaxēi ).

Further purpose with the first aorist active subjunctive of appallassō , old verb to change from, to set free from, in N.T. only here, Luk 12:58; Act 19:12.

Robertson: Heb 2:15 - -- Through fear of death ( phobōi thanatou ). Instrumental case of phobos . The ancients had great fear of death though the philosophers like Seneca a...

Through fear of death ( phobōi thanatou ).

Instrumental case of phobos . The ancients had great fear of death though the philosophers like Seneca argued against it. There is today a flippant attitude towards death with denial of the future life and rejection of God. But the author of Hebrews saw judgment after death (Heb 9:27.). Hence our need of Christ to break the power of sin and Satan in death.

Robertson: Heb 2:15 - -- All their lifetime ( dia pantos tou zēin ). Present active infinitive with pas and the article in the genitive case with dia , "through all the l...

All their lifetime ( dia pantos tou zēin ).

Present active infinitive with pas and the article in the genitive case with dia , "through all the living."

Robertson: Heb 2:15 - -- Subject to bondage ( enochoi douleias ). Old adjective from enechō , "held in,""bound to,"with genitive, bond-slaves of fear, a graphic picture. Je...

Subject to bondage ( enochoi douleias ).

Old adjective from enechō , "held in,""bound to,"with genitive, bond-slaves of fear, a graphic picture. Jesus has the keys of life and death and said: "I am the life."Thank God for that.

Vincent: Heb 2:15 - -- Deliver ( ἀπαλλάξῃ ) Only here in Hebrews, and besides, only Luk 12:58; Act 19:12. Tolerably often in lxx. Very common in Class. Us...

Deliver ( ἀπαλλάξῃ )

Only here in Hebrews, and besides, only Luk 12:58; Act 19:12. Tolerably often in lxx. Very common in Class. Used here absolutely, not with δουλείας bondage , reading deliver from bondage .

Vincent: Heb 2:15 - -- Subject to bondage ( ἔνοχοι δουλείας ) Ἔνοχοι from ἐν in and ἔχειν to hold . Lit. holden of ...

Subject to bondage ( ἔνοχοι δουλείας )

Ἔνοχοι from ἐν in and ἔχειν to hold . Lit. holden of bondage . See on Jam 2:10. Comp. the verb ἐσέξειν , Mar 6:19 (note), and Gal 5:1. Δουλεία bondage only in Hebrews and Paul.

Wesley: Heb 2:15 - -- Every man who fears death is subject to bondage; is in a slavish, uncomfortable state. And every man fears death, more or less, who knows not Christ: ...

Every man who fears death is subject to bondage; is in a slavish, uncomfortable state. And every man fears death, more or less, who knows not Christ: death is unwelcome to him, if he knows what death is. But he delivers all true believers from this bondage.

JFB: Heb 2:15 - -- Even before they had experienced its actual power.

Even before they had experienced its actual power.

JFB: Heb 2:15 - -- Such a life can hardly be called life.

Such a life can hardly be called life.

JFB: Heb 2:15 - -- Literally, "subjects of bondage"; not merely liable to it, but enthralled in it (compare Rom 8:15; Gal 5:1). Contrast with this bondage, the glory of ...

Literally, "subjects of bondage"; not merely liable to it, but enthralled in it (compare Rom 8:15; Gal 5:1). Contrast with this bondage, the glory of the "sons" (Heb 2:10). "Bondage" is defined by Aristotle, "The living not as one chooses"; "liberty," "the living as one chooses." Christ by delivering us from the curse of God against our sin, has taken from death all that made it formidable. Death, viewed apart from Christ, can only fill with horror, if the sinner dares to think.

Clarke: Heb 2:15 - -- And deliver them who through fear of death - It is very likely that the apostle has the Gentiles here principally in view. As they had no revelation...

And deliver them who through fear of death - It is very likely that the apostle has the Gentiles here principally in view. As they had no revelation, and no certainty of immortality, they were continually in bondage to the fear of death. They preferred life in any state, with the most grievous evils, to death, because they had no hope beyond the grave. But it is also true that all men naturally fear death; even those that have the fullest persuasion and certainty of a future state dread it: genuine Christians, who know that, if the earthly house of their tabernacle were dissolved, they have a house not made with hands, a building framed of God, eternal in the heavens, only they fear it not. In the assurance they have of God’ s love, the fear of death is removed; and by the purification of their hearts through faith, the sting of death is extracted. The people who know not God are in continual torment through the fear of death, and they fear death because they fear something beyond death. They are conscious to themselves that they are wicked, and they are afraid of God, and terrified at the thought of eternity. By these fears thousands of sinful, miserable creatures are prevented from hurrying themselves into the unknown world. This is finely expressed by the poet: -

"To die, - to sleep, -

No more: - and, by a sleep, to say we en

The heartache, and the thousand natural shock

That flesh is heir to, - ’ tis a consummatio

Devoutly to be wished. To die, - to sleep, -

To sleep! - perchance to dream; - ay, there’ s the rub

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

Must give us pause: - There’ s the respec

That makes calamity of so long life

For who could bear the whips and scorns of time

The oppressor’ s wrong, the proud man’ s contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law’ s delay

The insolence of office, and the spurn

That patient merit of the unworthy takes

When he himself might his quietus mak

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bea

To grunt and sweat under a weary life

But that the dread of something after death, -

The undiscovered country from whose bour

No traveler returns, - puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all

And thus the native hue of resolutio

Is sicklied o’ er with the pale cast of thought

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard, their currents turn awr

And lose the name of action.

I give this long quotation from a poet who was well acquainted with all the workings of the human heart; and one who could not have described scenes of distress and anguish of mind so well, had he not passed through them.

Calvin: Heb 2:15 - -- 15.And deliver them who, === etc. This passage expresses in a striking manner how miserable is the life of those who fear death, as they must feel i...

15.And deliver them who, === etc. This passage expresses in a striking manner how miserable is the life of those who fear death, as they must feel it to be dreadful, because they look on it apart from Christ; for then nothing but a curse appears in it: for whence is death but from God’s wrath against sin? Hence is that bondage throughout life, even perpetual anxiety, by which unhappy souls are tormented; for through a consciousness of sin the judgment of God is ever presented to the view. From this fear Christ has delivered us, who by undergoing our curse has taken away what is dreadful in death. For though we are not now freed from death, yet in life and in death we have peace and safety, when we have Christ going before us. 48

But it any one cannot pacify his mind by disregarding death, let him know that he has made as yet but very little proficiency in the faith of Christ; for as extreme fear is owing to ignorance as to the grace of Christ, so it is a certain evidence of unbelief.

===Death here does not only mean the separation of the soul from the body, but also the punishment which is inflicted on us by an angry God, so that it includes eternal ruin; for where there is guilt before God, there immediately hell shows itself.

Defender: Heb 2:15 - -- Even though Satan may have thought he had gained victory over God when God's Son died on the cross, that very death assured his ultimate destruction (...

Even though Satan may have thought he had gained victory over God when God's Son died on the cross, that very death assured his ultimate destruction (Col 2:14, Col 2:15; Rev 1:18).

Defender: Heb 2:15 - -- The redeemed child of God no longer need fear death, for to him "to die is gain" (Phi 1:21; Phi 1:23; 1Th 4:13.)

The redeemed child of God no longer need fear death, for to him "to die is gain" (Phi 1:21; Phi 1:23; 1Th 4:13.)

Defender: Heb 2:15 - -- This pertains to our deliverance from spiritual bondage (Rom 7:23-25; Rom 8:15)."

This pertains to our deliverance from spiritual bondage (Rom 7:23-25; Rom 8:15)."

TSK: Heb 2:15 - -- deliver : Job 33:21-28; Psa 33:19, Psa 56:13, Psa 89:48; Luk 1:74, Luk 1:75; 2Co 1:10 through : Job 18:11, Job 18:14, Job 24:17; Psa 55:4, Psa 73:19; ...

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Heb 2:15 - -- And deliver them - Not all of them "in fact,"though the way is open for all. This deliverance relates: \caps1 (1) t\caps0 o the dread of death...

And deliver them - Not all of them "in fact,"though the way is open for all. This deliverance relates:

\caps1 (1) t\caps0 o the dread of death. He came to free them from that.

\caps1 (2) f\caps0 rom death itself - that is, ultimately to bring them to a world where death shall be unknown. The dread of death may be removed by the work of Christ, and they who had been subject to constant alarms on account of it may be brought to look on it with calmness and peace; and ultimately they will be brought to a world where it will be wholly unknown. The dread of death is taken away, or they are delivered from that, because:

\tx720 \tx1080 (a)\caps1     t\caps0 he cause of that dread - to wit, sin, is removed; see the notes at 1Co 15:54-55.

(b)    Because they are enabled to look to the world beyond with triumphant joy.

Death conducts them to heaven. A Christian has nothing to fear in death; nothing beyond the grave. In no part of the universe has he any thing to dread, for God is his friend, and he will be his Protector everywhere. On the dying bed; in the grave; on the way up to the judgment; at the solemn tribunal; and in the eternal world, he is under the eye and the protection of his Saviour - and of what should he be afraid?

Who through fear of death - From the dread of dying - that is, whenever they think of it, and they think of it "so often"as to make them slaves of that fear. This obviously means the natural dread of dying, and not particularly the fear of punishment beyond. It is that indeed which often gives its principal terror to the dread of death, but still the apostle refers here evidently to natural death - as an object which people fear. All men have, by nature, this dread of dying - and perhaps some of the inferior creation have it also. It is certain that it exists in the heart of every man, and that God has implanted it there for some wise purpose. There is the dread:

(1)\caps1     o\caps0 f the dying pang, or pain.

(2)    Of the darkness and gloom of mind that attends it.

(3)\caps1     o\caps0 f the unknown world beyond - the "evil that we know not of."

(4)\caps1     o\caps0 f the chilliness, and loneliness, and darkness of the grave.

(5)\caps1     o\caps0 f the solemn trial at the bar of God.

(6)\caps1     o\caps0 f the condemnation which awaits the guilty - the apprehension of future wo. There is no other evil that we fear so much as we do death - and there is nothing more clear than that God intended that we should have a dread of dying.

The reasons why he designed this are equally clear:

(1)    One may have been to lead people to prepare for it - which otherwise they would neglect.

(2)\caps1     a\caps0 nother, to "deter them from committing self-murder"- where nothing else would deter them.

Facts have shown that it was necessary that there should be some strong principle in the human bosom to prevent this crime - and even the dread of death does not always do it. So sick do people become of the life that God gave them; so weary of the world; so overwhelmed with calamity; so oppressed with disappointment and cares, that they lay violent hands on themselves, and rush unbidden into the awful presence of their Creator. This would occur more frequently by far than it now does, if it were not for the salutary fear of death which God has implanted in every bosom. The feelings of the human heart; on this subject were never more accurately or graphically drawn than in the celebrated Soliloquy of Hamlet:

- To die; - to sleep -

No more; - and by a sleep, to say we end.

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks.

That flesh is heir to, - ‘ tis a consummation.

Devoutly to be wished. To die - to sleep -

To sleep: - perchance to dream; - ay, there’ s the rub;

For in that deep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: - there’ s the respect.

That makes calamity of so long a life:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor’ s wrong, the proud man’ s contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law’ s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns.

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make.

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life;

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourne.

No traveler returns, puzzles the will;

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution.

Is sicklied o’ er with the pale cast of thought;

And enterprises of great pith and moment.

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

God planned that man should be deterred from rushing uncalled into His awful presence, by this salutary dread of death - and his implanting this feeling in the human heart is one of the most striking and conclusive proofs of a moral government over the world. This instinctive dread of death can be overcome only by religion - and then man does not need it to reconcile him to life. He becomes submissive to trials. He is willing to bear all that is laid on him. He resigns himself to the dispensations of Providence, and feels that life, even in affliction, is the gift of God, and is a valuable endowment. He now dreads "self-murder"as a crime of deep dye, and religion restrains him and keeps him by a more mild and salutary restraint than the dread of death. The man who has true religion is willing to live or to die; he feels that life is the gift of God, and that he will take it away in the best time and manner; and feeling this, he is willing to leave all in his hands. We may remark:

(1) How much do we owe to religion! It is the only thing that will effectually take away the dread of death, and yet secure this point - to make man willing to live in all the circumstances where God may place him. It is possible that philosophy or stoicism may remove to a great extent the dread of death - but then it will be likely to make man willing to take his life if he is placed in trying circumstances. Such an effect it had on Cato in Utica; and such an effect it had on Hume, who maintained that suicide was lawful, and that to turn a current of blood from its accustomed channel was of no more consequence than to change the course of any other fluid!

\caps1 (2) i\caps0 n what a sad condition is the sinner! There are thousands who never think of death with composure, and who all their life long are subject to bondage through the fear of it. They never think of it if they can avoid it; and when it is forced upon them, it fills them with alarm. They attempt to drive the thought away. They travel; they plunge into business; they occupy the mind with trifles; they drown their fears in the intoxicating bowl: but all this tends only to make death more terrific and awful when the reality comes. If man were wise, he would seek an interest in that religion which, if it did nothing else, would deliver him from the dread of death; and the influence of the gospel in this respect, if it exerted no other, is worth to a man all the sacrifices and self-denials which it would ever require.

All their life-time subject to bondage - Slaves of fear; in a depressed and miserable condition, like slaves under a master. They have no freedom; no comfort; no peace. From this miserable state Christ comes to deliver man. Religion enables him to look calmly on death and the judgment, and to feel that all will be well.

Poole: Heb 2:15 - -- The effect of the former destruction of the devil is laid down in this verse, viz. the children’ s freedom from the fear of death, to which, be...

The effect of the former destruction of the devil is laid down in this verse, viz. the children’ s freedom from the fear of death, to which, being slaves to the devil, they were once in bondage.

And deliver them he, by breaking and disannulling the devil’ s power, doth really, fully, and justly exempt them from the concomitant evil.

Who through fear of death a painful and wasting horror, working the saddest apprehensions and tumultuous workings of soul, from its apprehended danger of death spiritual, temporal, and eternal, when the wrath of God doth not only dissolve the natural frame, but makes an everlasting separation from himself, shutting them up with the worst company, in the worst place and state that is possible for the human mind to imagine, and that for ever, Job 18:11,14 24:17 Psa 55:4,5 Ps 73:19 88:14-18 .

Were all their lifetime subject to bondage: when they come to the exercise of the reasonable life of man, and under convictions of sin, then these terrors arise, and never leave affrighting or tormenting them, but make them pass as many deaths as moments, as is evident in Cain and Judas; for they are enslaved, and in such a state of drudgery and vassalage to the devil, the most cruel tyrant, by their own guilt, and so are justly, invincibly, and miserably held in it. Christ by his death rescueth them from this woeful, intolerable vassalage to the devil and hell, and brings them into the glorious liberty of the children of God, Rom 8:21 Col 1:12,13 .

Haydock: Heb 2:15 - -- The devil, by exciting men to sin, made them liable to the temporal and eternal death? he was, therefore, the prince of death, both as to soul and bod...

The devil, by exciting men to sin, made them liable to the temporal and eternal death? he was, therefore, the prince of death, both as to soul and body. Jesus Christ, the life and source of life, has by his death destroyed sin and vanquished the devil; he has, at once, triumphed over the prince of death, and death itself; and by the assurance which he has given us of eternal life, has delivered us from the terrible apprehensions of dying. To a good Christian, death is the termination of misery and the beginning of eternal happiness; why, therefore, should we be afraid to die? We ought rather, with St. Paul, to say: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.

Gill: Heb 2:15 - -- And deliver them, who through fear of death,.... This is another end of Christ's assuming human nature, and dying in it, and thereby destroying Satan,...

And deliver them, who through fear of death,.... This is another end of Christ's assuming human nature, and dying in it, and thereby destroying Satan, that he might save some out of his hands:

who were all their lifetime subject to bondage; meaning chiefly God's elect among the Jews; for though all men are in a state of bondage to the lusts of the flesh, and are Satan's captives; yet this describes more particularly the state of the Jews, under the law of Moses, which gendered unto bondage; which they being guilty of the breach of, and seeing the danger they were exposed to on that account, were subject, bound, and held fast in and under a spirit of bondage: and that "through fear of death"; through fear of a corporeal death; through fear of chastisements and afflictions, the forerunners of death, and what sometimes bring it on; and through fear of death itself, as a disunion of soul and body, and as a penal evil; and through fear of what follows it, an awful judgment: and this the Jews especially were in fear of, from their frequent violations of the precepts, both of the moral, and of the ceremonial law, which threatened with death; and this they lived in a continual fear of, because they were daily transgressing, which brought on them a spirit of bondage unto fear: and, as Philo the Jew o observes, nothing more brings the mind into bondage than the fear of death: and many these, even all the chosen ones among them, Christ delivered, or saved from sin, from Satan, from the law, and its curses, from death corporeal, as a penal evil, and from death eternal; even from all enemies and dangers, and brought them into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

Geneva Bible: Heb 2:15 And deliver them who through fear of ( a ) death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ( a ) By ( death ) you must understand here, that death...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Heb 2:1-18 - --1 We ought to be obedient to Christ Jesus;5 and that because he vouchsafed to take our nature upon him;14 as it was necessary.

Combined Bible: Heb 2:14-16 - --Superior to Angels.    (Hebrews 2:14-16)    The closing verses of Hebrews 2 are so rich and full in their contents and the subj...

MHCC: Heb 2:14-18 - --The angels fell, and remained without hope or help. Christ never designed to be the Saviour of the fallen angels, therefore he did not take their natu...

Matthew Henry: Heb 2:14-18 - -- Here the apostle proceeds to assert the incarnation of Christ, as taking upon him not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham; and he shows th...

Barclay: Heb 2:10-18 - --Here the writer to the Hebrews uses one of the great titles of Jesus. He calls him the pioneer (archegos, 747) of glory. The same word is used of J...

Constable: Heb 1:1--3:1 - --I. The culminating revelation of God 1:1--2:18 Hebrews is a sermon reduced to writing (cf. 13:22; James). Indica...

Constable: Heb 2:10-18 - --E. The Son's Solidarity with Humanity 2:10-18 The writer next emphasized the future glory that the Son will experience to heighten his readers' apprec...

College: Heb 2:1-18 - --HEBREWS 2 II. JESUS RESCUES MAN (2:1-18) Chapter one introduced Jesus as towering over all of redemption history, far superior to angels. Chapter tw...

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Introduction / Outline

Robertson: Hebrews (Book Introduction) The Epistle to the Hebrews By Way of Introduction Unsettled Problems Probably no book in the New Testament presents more unsettled problems tha...

JFB: Hebrews (Book Introduction) CANONICITY AND AUTHORSHIP.--CLEMENT OF ROME, at the end of the first century (A.D), copiously uses it, adopting its words just as he does those of the...

JFB: Hebrews (Outline) THE HIGHEST OF ALL REVELATIONS IS GIVEN US NOW IN THE SON OF GOD, WHO IS GREATER THAN THE ANGELS, AND WHO, HAVING COMPLETED REDEMPTION, SITS ENTHRONE...

TSK: Hebrews 2 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Heb 2:1, We ought to be obedient to Christ Jesus; Heb 2:5, and that because he vouchsafed to take our nature upon him; Heb 2:14, as it wa...

Poole: Hebrews 2 (Chapter Introduction) CHAPTER 2

MHCC: Hebrews (Book Introduction) This epistle shows Christ as the end, foundation, body, and truth of the figures of the law, which of themselves were no virtue for the soul. The grea...

MHCC: Hebrews 2 (Chapter Introduction) (Heb 2:1-4) The duty of stedfastly adhering to Christ and his gospel. (Heb 2:5-9) His sufferings are no objection against his pre-eminence. (Heb 2:1...

Matthew Henry: Hebrews (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Epistle to the Hebrews Concerning this epistle we must enquire, I. Into the divine authority of it...

Matthew Henry: Hebrews 2 (Chapter Introduction) In this chapter the apostle, I. Makes some application of the doctrine laid down in the chapter foregoing concerning the excellency of the person ...

Barclay: Hebrews (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS God Fulfils Himself In Many Ways Religion has never been the same thing to all men. "God," as Tennyson sai...

Barclay: Hebrews 2 (Chapter Introduction) The Salvation We Dare Not Neglect (Heb_2:1-4) The Recovery Of Man's Lost Destiny (Heb_2:5-9) The Essential Suffering (Heb_2:10-18)

Constable: Hebrews (Book Introduction) Introduction Historical background The writer said that he and those to whom he wrote ...

Constable: Hebrews (Outline)

Constable: Hebrews Hebrews Bibliography Andersen, Ward. "The Believer's Rest (Hebrews 4)." Biblical Viewpoint 24:1 (April 1990):31...

Haydock: Hebrews (Book Introduction) THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE, TO THE HEBREWS. INTRODUCTION. The Catholic Church hath received and declared this Epistle to be part of ...

Gill: Hebrews (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS That this epistle was written very early appears from hence, that it was imitated by Clement of Rome, in his epistle to the...

Gill: Hebrews 2 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 2 In this chapter the apostle, from the superior excellency of Christ, by whom the Gospel revelation is come, discoursed of...

College: Hebrews (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Hebrews for understanding the nature of the new covenant. No other document in the N...

College: Hebrews (Outline) OUTLINE I. JESUS IS SUPERIOR TO THE ANGELS - 1:1-14 A. The Preeminence of the Son - 1:1-4 B. The Son Superior to the Angels - 1:5-14 II. ...

Advanced Commentary (Dictionaries, Hymns, Arts, Sermon Illustration, Question and Answers, etc)


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