427 428 429
JOHN CALVIN
that the Jews were unworthy of the doctrine of salvation, since the Prophet will very shortly explain what he had hitherto uttered in figure and allegory. It is indeed true, that Christ spoke in parables to the people, because the disciples alone were capable of familiar and pure teaching. Of unbelievers, also, Isaiah says, Prophecy shall be to you a sealed book. Hence I will speak with this people in a strange and barbarous tongue, and they shall not proceed beyond the rudiments. (Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8; Isaiah 29:11, 12.) But, as I have said, the obscurity of this teaching was only a preparation, that the people should strictly attend to the subject here set before them.
Ezekiel 17:3-4
3. And say, Thus says the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:
3. Et dic, Sit dicit Dominator Iehovah, aquila magna, magna alis, longa penna 427 plena 428 plumis quae illis variae 429 erant venit ad montem Libanum, et accepit summitatem cedri.
4. He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.
4. Caput 430 surculorum ejus avellit, et transtulit in terram mercatoris, 431 in urbe mercatorum posuit eam. 432
Here the Prophet reasons from the greater to the less: for if Nebuchadnezzar was able to subdue the whole kingdom with ease, when as yet the Jews were untouched, how much more readily would he overthrow them when wretched and all but ruined: for nothing remained which was not threatened with ruin; and this is the meaning of the Prophet. But he compares King Nebuchadnezzar to an eagle, whom he says was great, and then with large or extended wings. There is no doubt that by wings, feathers, and plumes, he means the regions and peoples over which Nebuchadnezzar presided; for we know that the Chaldaeans possessed the monarchy of the East.
Since, therefore, so many regions and people obeyed Nebuchadnezzar's sway, it is not surprising that the Prophet calls him a great eagle, with ample wings, and with numerous feathers or plumes; for where he now says, {,}מלא{ }הנוצהmela henotzeh, full of feathers, he will shortly say, {,}רב{ }נוצהreb notzeh, many feathers, when speaking of the king of Egypt. He says, the wings were of divers colors; it is the same noun which the Prophet used in the last chapter, when he said that the people were clad in precious garments; for thus the Hebrews speak of Phrygian texture: hence he compares the wings of the king of Babylon to a woven garment, resplendent with various colors; for although Nebuchadnezzar held his throne at only one place, yet he had seized and subdued many tributaries on all sides. This, therefore, is the reason for this variety; --- but I cannot proceed further at present.
427Or, "wings" — there is a change of number. — Calvin. 428Or, "thick with," "plentiful in." — Calvin. 429The number, though singular, is taken for plural, that is, "of divers colors." — Calvin. 430Or, "the top." — Calvin. 431The word {,{כנעןcengnen, (or, chnaan,) is not a proper name, but is taken appellatively. --- Calvin. 432Or, "that top." — Calvin.