Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
MINOR PROPHETS
adversaries resist Christ in the work of building a spiritual temple to God the Father, yet all their efforts will be in vain.
He afterwards adds, He will bring forth the stone of its top. The relative is of the feminine gender, and must therefore be understood of the building. Zerubbabel shall then bring forth the stone, which was to be on the top of the temple. By the stone of the top, I understand the highest, which was to be placed on the very summit. The foundations of the temple had been already laid; the building was mean and almost contemptible: it could not however be advanced, since many enemies united to disturb the work, or at least to delay it. Nevertheless the angel promises what he afterwards explains more fully --- that the temple would come to its completion, for Zerubbabel was to bring forth and raise on high the stone of the top, which was to be on the very summit of the temple. 200 And then he subjoins, shoutings, Grace, grace, to it; that is, God will grant a happy success to this stone or to the temple.
The relative here again is feminine; it cannot then be applied to Zerubbabel, but to the temple or to the stone: it is however more probable that the angel speaks of the temple. And he says that there would be shoutings; for it was necessary to encourage the confidence of the faithful and to excite them to prayer, that they might seek, by constant entreaties, a happy and prosperous issue to the building of the temple. The angel, then, bids all the godly with one voice to pray for the temple; but as all prosperous events depend on the good pleasure of God, he uses the word
grace, which he repeats, that he might more fully encourage the faithful to perseverance, and also that he might kindle their desire and zeal.
We now then see what this verse on the whole contains: first, the angel shows that however impetuously the ungodly might rage against the temple, yet their attempts would be frustrated, and that though they thought themselves to be like great mountains, it was yet in the power and will of God to reduce them to a plain, that is, suddenly to lay them prostrate. This is one thing. Then secondly, he adds, that a happy success would attend the building of the temple; for Zerubbabel would bring forth the top-stone, the highest. And lastly, he subjoins, that the faithful ought unanimously to pray, and so to persevere with the greatest ardor and zeal, that God might bless the temple, and cause the building of it to be completed. It now follows
Zechariah 4:8, 9
8. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
8. Et factus est sermo Iehovae ad me dicendo,
9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.
200The Targum seems here to have given a false view of this stone, regarding it as the chief corner-stone of the foundation; and this view has been adopted by Jerome, Cyril, Drusius, Grotius, and Henderson. But the context is wholly opposed to it. The ninth verse is decisive on the subject, as noticed by Marckius. This stone Zerubbabel was to bring forth; he had already laid the foundation-stone. It is considered as "the topmost stone" by Theodoret, Cocceius, Pemble, and Newcome. See Psalm 118:22. The last renders the distich thus, And he shall bring forth the head-stone, With shoutings, cryings, Favor, favor, unto it. The last line is rendered by Marckius — Acclamations of favor, — of favor (shall be) to it. "Favor," or grace, here seems to be a metonymy, prosperity or success being the effect of God's favor: and this is the view given by Calvin. — Ed.