Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
Lecture One Hundred and Seventeenth
We explained yesterday why the Prophet says that God went forth for the salvation of the elect people with his Christ. His purpose was to confirm still more the faithful in the hope of their deliverance; for God is not only the same, and never changes his purpose, but the same Mediator also performs his office, through whom the people were formerly preserved. We must also notice this difference, to which I referred yesterday; for as God had then more clearly manifested Christ, with more cheerfulness it behaved the faithful to go on, as they had so remarkable a pledge of God's favor, inasmuch as God had promised that the kingdom of God would be for ever.
He adds, that wounded was the head from the house of the wicked; that is, that there was no power which had not been laid prostrate by God for the sake of his people; and we know that all the great kings were formerly destroyed, in order that favor might be shown to God's people. The other comparison seems different, and yet its object is the same---that God had made bare the foundation to the neck; that is, that he had destroyed from the roots his enemies; for by foundation he means, in a metaphorical sense, whatever stability there was in these enemies, and that this was torn up and overthrown to the very neck, that is, to the very summit; for the body of men, we know, is covered from the neck to the feet. And he says that their houses, that is their families, were made bare to the neck, for the Lord had destroyed them all from the bottom to the top. We now understand what the Prophet meant.
As to the word {,}סלהselah, I have hitherto said nothing; but I shall now briefly refer to what the Hebrew interpreters think. Some explain it by {,}לעולםlaoulam, ``for ever;'' and by {,}עד{ }ועדod uod, ``yet and yet;'' as though, when this word is inserted, the Holy Spirit pronounced what is to be for ever. Others render it by {,}אמןamen, as though God testified that what is said is true and indubitable. But as it never occurs except in this song and in the Psalms, and does not always comport with what they say, that is, that it denotes certainty or perpetuity, I prefer embracing the opinion of those who think that it refers to singing, and not to things. And what they add is also probable, if we regard its etymology, for the word means to raise or to elevate; and it was therefore put down to remind the singers to raise their voice.
But as it is a thing of no great importance, it is enough shortly to state what others think. Let us now go on--- Habakkuk 3:14
14. Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
14. Perforasti baculis ejus caput villarum ejus; prosilierunt instar turbinis ad dispellendum me; exultatio eorum sicut ad vorandum pauperem in abscondito.
At the beginning of this verse the Prophet pursues the same subject---that God had wounded all the enemies of his people; and he says that the head of villages or towns had been wounded, though some think that {,}פרזיםperezim, mean rather the inhabitants of towns; for the Hebrews call fortified towns or villages {,}פרזות perezut, and the word is commonly found in the feminine gender; but as it is here a masculine noun, it is thought that it means the inhabitants. At the same time