Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
with him it shall remain.'' We know that hypocrites so flatter themselves, as though they could escape for the moment while God is angry and displeased; but the Prophet shows here that vain is such a hope, for the curse would overtake all the ungodly, and wholly overthrow them; yea, it would consume their houses, both the wood and the stones. In short, he intimates, that punishment ends not until men are reconciled to God. And by these words he reminds us how terrible it is to fall into the hands of God, for he will punish the ungodly and the wicked until he reduces them to nothing.
We now then comprehend the design of the Prophet and the meaning of the words.
It now follows ---
Zechariah 5:5-8
5. Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.
5. Et egressus est angelus, qui loquebatur mecum, et dixit mihi, Tolle nunc oculos tuos, et aspice quidnam sit illud quod egreditur.
6. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
6. Et dixi, Quid hoc? et dixit, Hoc modius egrediens (id est, hoc quod egreditur est modius, ad verbum.) Et dixit, Hic oculus eorum in tota terra.
7. And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
7. Et ecce massa plana plumbi ferebatur (vertunt alii, talentum; et [{]}כברsignificat talentum, et significat planitiam etiam Hebrais; ideo non dubito, quin Propheta intelligat lamaniam plumbi, vel massam planam et contusan malleo, ita ut faceret totum operculum, une planque, ut icinus lingua nostra;) et hoc mulier una habitans in medio modii.
8. And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.
8. Et dixit, Haec est impietas, et projecit eam in medium modii, et projecit lapidem plumbi (vel, pondus; id est, massam illam extentam instar operculi; projecit ergo) super os ejus (id est, super os modii.)
Here I stop; I intended to add all the verses, but I can hardly finish the whole today.
It will be enough for us to understand that this is the second part of the vision, in which the Prophet, in order to relieve or in some measure to mitigate the sorrow of the Jews, shows, that God would not treat them with extreme rigor, so as to punish them as they deserved, but would chastise them with paternal moderation. Hence he says, that a measure appeared to him and a woman in the measure. The woman was wickedness; 210 there was also a covering of lead, a wide or an extended piece.
The plate of lead was borne upwards when the woman was seen in the measure. He then says, that the measure was closed up, and that there impiety was kept hid as a 210Impietas; [{,[{הרשעהrendered ``wickedness'' in our version, and by Newcome and Henderson; ``the wicked one,'' by Blayney; and [{ανομια}]---lawlessness, by the Septuagint. It is a general term, which means what is unjust, wrong, wicked or sinful, everything contrary to the will and command of God. Leigh renders the adjective ``Ungodly, lewd, turbelent, wavering, irreligious towards God, debauched in morals, turbelent in the commonwealth, unsettled in all things.'' So the noun here may be regarded as including sin universally, as committed against God and man. But Henderson thinks, and perhaps not without reason, that idolatry is what is especially intended, as the article [{]}הis prefixed; and this had been the chief sin or wickedness of the people, the mother of many other sins: and this was certainly removed from the people after the Babylonian captivity, as they had never been since guilty of idolatry, though of many other sins.---Ed.