Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
misfortunes, as it was thought, could find an access. And then he mentions that other cities, on seeing Tyrus visited with ruin, would be terrified, as their confidence would be thus subverted. He afterwards adds, Perish shall the king from Gaza, and Ascalon shall not be inhabited; that is, such a change will take place as will almost obliterate the appearance of these cities. It follows ---
Zechariah 9:6
6. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
6. Et habitabit extraneus in Azdoth, (hoc est Azoti, et Azdoth verterunt Graci
Azotum,) et excidam superbiam Philistim.
In this verse the Prophet denounces a similar ruin on Azotus, and the whole land of the Philistines, or on the whole land of Palestine. For what interpreters say, that the Jews would dwell at Azotus as strangers, that is, though they had previously been counted aliens, is to reach neither heaven nor earth. The Prophet on the contrary means, that after the destruction of these cities, if any inhabitants remained, they would be like strangers, without any certain habitation. The Prophet then mentions the effect, in order to show that the country would be waste and desolate, so as to contain no safe or fixed dwellings for its inhabitants. Some render it spurious, as it is rendered in some other places; and they understand it of the Jews, because they had been before in a mean condition, as though they were like a spurious race. But their opinion is probable, who derive {,}ממזרmemezar, from {,}זורzur, which means to peregrinate; and they quote other instances, in which the double {,}ממmem, is used in the formations of a noun; and it is easy to prove, from many passages of scripture, that {,}ממזרmemezar, means a stranger. 251 And if any one carefully considers the design of the Prophet, he will see the truth of what I have said --- that is, that his object is to show, that all the inhabitants of Azotus, and of the land of the Philistine, would be like lodgers, because all places would be desolate through the slaughter and devastations of enemies. As then Ashdod and Palestine had been before noted for the number of their people, the Prophet says that all the cities of Palestine, and the city Ashdod, would be deserted, except that there would be there a few scattered and wandering inhabitants, like those who sojourn in a strange land.
It follows ---
Zechariah 9:7
7. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.
7. Et auferam sanguines ejus ex ore ejus, et abominationes ejus e medio dentium ejus; et qui residuus erit, etiam ipse, erit Deo nostro; et erit quasi dux in Iehuda, et
251That this is its meaning is generally admitted, as given by the Septuagint, the Targum, and the Syriac version, and adopted by Grotius, Newcome, Blayney, and Henderson. Lee accounts for the double [{[{מby deriving the word from ,[{]}מןfrom, ,[{]}עםpeople, and ,[{]}זרa foreigner, or stranger. The poetical singular is used for the plural, as is the case in the following verse. The whole passage may be thus rendered --- 6. And dwell shall a stranger in Ashdod; (For I will cut off the pride of the Philistines;) 7. And I will remove his blood from his mouth, And his abominations from between his teeth, And left shall he be, even he, for our God; So that he shall be as a chief in Judah, And Ekron as a Jebusite. The ``his'' and ``he'' in this last verse is the ``stranger'' in verse 6; and that is used in a collective sense, properly rendered strangers, or foreigners, [{ἀλλογενεις}] by the Septuagint; so that the plural, in all these instances, might suitably be adopted in a translation --- The ``pride of the Philistines'' was cut off by introducing strangers into their cities; and this line may be considered as parenthetic. --- Ed.