Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
He afterwards adds---
Zephaniah 3:9
9. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.
9. Certe tunc convertam ad populos labium purum, ut invocent omnes nomen
Jehovae, ut serviant ei humero uno.
The Prophet now mitigates the asperity of his doctrine, which might have greatly terrified the godly; nay, it might have wholly disheartened them, had no consolation been applied. God then moderates here what he had previously threatened; for if the Prophet had only said this---My purpose is to gather all the nations, and thus the whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of indignation, what could the faithful have concluded but that they were to perish with the rest of the world? It was therefore necessary to add something to inspire hope, such as we find here.
We must at the same time bear in mind what I have reminded you of elsewhere--
-that the Prophet directs his discourse one while to the faithful only, who were then few in number, and that at another time he addresses the multitude indiscriminately; and so when our Prophet threatens, he regards the whole body of the people; but when he proclaims the favor of God, it is the same as though he turned his eyes towards the faithful only, and gathered them into a place by themselves. As for instance, when a few among a people are really wise, and the whole multitude unite in hastening their own ruin, he who has an address to make will make a distinction between the vast multitude and the few; he will severely reprove those who are thus foolish, and live for their own misery; and he will afterwards shape his discourse so as to suit those with whom he has not so much fault to find. Thus also the Lord changes his discourse; for at one time he addresses the ungodly, and at another he turns to the elect, who were but a remnant. So the Prophet has hitherto spoken by reproofs and threatening, for he addressed the whole body of the people; but now he collects, as I have said, the remnant as it were by themselves, and sets before them the hope of pardon and of salvation.
Hence he says, But then 119 (for I take {,}כיki, as an adversative) will I turn to the people a pure lip. God intimates that he would propagate his grace wider, after having cleansed the earth; for he will be worshipped not only in Judea, but by foreign nations, and even by the remotest. For it might have been objected, Will God then extinguish his name in the world? For what will be the state of things when Judea is what is meant is the land of Judea. (See chapter 1:18.)---Ed.
}אן{[, כיFor then,'' Henderson; ``Surely then,'' Newcome; ``Postea vero---but afterwards,'' Dathius and Grotius. And Newcome says, that [{]}אןis used here largely, for ``afterwards.'' It refers to the time after the execution of the judgments previously mentioned. ``The pure lip'' is evidently not the language which God would adopt in addressing the nations, but the language they would adopt in addressing him. What is meant is a pure heart; what gives utterance to the heart is mentioned for the heart itself; as the ``shoulder'' is afterwards used for the service that is rendered to God. The verb ,[{]}הפךto turn, means to change the form, condition, or course of a thing, conveying perhaps here the idea, that the pure lip is substituted for that which is impure: ``I will give them as a change, instead of what they have, a pure lip.'' {Μεταστρεψω}---``I will change,'' Sept. and Sym.; {στρεψω}---``I will turn,'' Aq. and Theod. It is rendered ``reddam`` and ``restituam`` by Drusius and Grotius Newcome, following the conjecture of Houbigant, reads ,[{`` ]}אשפךI will pour out,'' contrary to all the ancient versions, and without the countenance of a single MS. Though the word, ,[{]}עמיםpeoples, most frequently means the nations, yet there are instances in which it means the people of Israel, inasmuch as they were composed of various tribes. See 1 Kings 22:28; Joel 2:6. And if we render the verb, ``restore,'' with Drusius and Grotius, then we must adopt this meaning. Eleven MSS. have ``and,'' ,[{]}וbefore the verb to ``serve:'' and as there is no preposition before ``shoulder,'' we may render the verse--- But I will then restore to the people a pure lip, That they may, all of them, call on the name of Jehovah, --- And one shoulder, that they may serve him. ---Ed.