Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
MINOR PROPHETS
Zechariah 4:10
10. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
10. Quia quis contempsit diem parvitatum (parvorum; sed hic acciptitur pro parvitate?) gaudabunt et videbunt (ad verbum) lapidem stanneum in manu Zerubbabel (sed ita resolvi debet oratio, certe gaudabunt ubi viderint lapidem in manu Zerubbabel:) septem hi, oculi Iehovae sunt, circumeuntes (vel, qui discurrunt) per totam terram.
Here the angel reproves the sloth and fear of the people, for the greater part were very faint-hearted; and he also blames the Jews, because they formed a judgment of God's work at the first view, Who is he, he says, that has despised the day of paucities? He does not ask who it was, as though he spoke only of one, or as though they were few in number or insignificant but he addresses the whole people, who were chargeable with entertaining this wrong feeling; for all were cast down in their minds, because they thought that the work begun would be a sport to the ungodly, and would come to nothing, according to what we read in Nehemiah 3:12, that the old men wept, so that nearly all threw down their tools, and left off the building of the temple. We hence see that not a few despised the small beginnings, and that the minds of all the people were dejected, for they thought that they labored in vain while building the temple, which made no approach to the glory and splendor of the former temple: ``What are we doing here? we seek to build a temple for God; but what is it? does it correspond to the temple of Solomon? No, not in the tenth degree; yet God has promised that this temple would be most glorious.'' While then they were considering these things, they thought either that the time was not come, or that they toiled in vain, because God would not dwell in a tent so mean. This is the reason why the Prophet now says, Who is he that has despised the day of paucities? 202
God then sets himself in opposition to an ungrateful and illdisposed people, and shows that they all acted very foolishly, because they cast and fixed their eyes only on the beginning of things, as though God would not surpass by his power what human minds could conceive. As then God purposed in a wonderful manner to build the temple, the angel reproves here the clamors of the people.
He then adds, They shall rejoice when they shall see the workman's plummet in the hard of Zerubbabel 203 Though he had adopted a severe and sharp reproof, he yet mitigates here its severity, and promises to the Jews that however unworthy they were of such kindness from God, they would yet see what they had by no means expected, even Zerubbabel furnished with everything necessary for the completion
202"The day of small beginnings," says Drusius. It is explained by Blayney with reference to the time when the resources of the nation appeared in the eyes of many inadequated to the building of the temple. — Ed.
203Literally it is, "But they shall rejoice and see the tin-ore (or plummet) in the land of Zerubbabel." The regular order would have been "see" and "rejoice;" but it is according to the manner of statement often observed in the Prophets: they frequently mention first the effect, and then the cause. — Ed.