Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
already proved himself to be their Redeemer. 278 It is indeed true that this had not been fulfilled as to all the Israelites: but we must ever remember, that gratuitous election so existed as to the whole people, that God had notwithstanding but a small flock, as Paul teaches us. (Romans 11:5.) The Prophet at the same time intimates that Christ would be the head of the Church, and would gather from all parts of the earth the Jews who had been before scattered; and thus the promised restoration is to be extended to all the tribes. It afterwards follows ---
Zechariah 10:9
9. And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
9. Et seminabo eos in populis, et in remotis partibus recordabuntur mei, et vivent cum fillis suis t revertentur.
He continues the same subject, and employs here a most suitable metaphor --- that the dispersion of the people would have a better issue than what any one then could have conceived, for it would be like sowing. The verb for scattering or sowing is often taken in a bad sense; for when people rested in their country, they ought then to have considered that they were living under God's protection. Dispersion, then, was an evidence of a curse, and it is often so taken by Moses. Now God uses it here in an opposite meaning, as though he had said, that he would at his pleasure turn darkness into light. The meaning then is, that the people had been dispersed through God being angry with them, but that the issue of this dispersion would be joyful; for the Jews would dwell everywhere, and be God's seed, and thus be made to produce abundant fruit. We then see that the meaning is, that God's favor would surpass the wickedness of the people; for those would bear fruit who had been scattered, and scattered because God would no longer exercise care over them, and defend them in the promised land. As God then had so often threatened by Moses that he would scatter the Jews, he now says in another sense, that he would sow them, and for this ends that they might everywhere produce fruit. 279
It was an instance of the wonderful grace of God, that he so ordered his dreadful judgment as to make the dispersion, as it has been said, a sowing of the people; for it hence happened, that the knowledge of celestial truth shone everywhere; and at length when the gospel was proclaimed, a freer access was had to the Gentiles, because Jews were dispersed through all lands. The first receptacles (Hospitia) of the gospel were the synagogues. We see that the apostles everywhere went first to the Jews, and when a few were converted, the door was now opened that more
278The verb for "redeem" is in the past time, preceded by [{,[{כיfor, because, or when. The Septuagint give the future time, ``because I shall redeem them.'' Jun. and Trem., and Piscator read thus, ``when I shall redeem them.'' There is a similar phrase in verse 6, and in a like manner connected, which may be rendered in the same way, ``when I shall pity them,'' instead of, ``for I have pitied them:'' for ,[{]}כיas well as ,[{]}וhas sometimes a conversive power, at least it turns the past to a future time. --- Ed.
279The sowing here, as admitted by all, evidently means scattering; yet the verse is rendered differently. Dathius and Henderson render the first [{[{`` וthough,'' and the second ``yet.'' This and the following verse may be thus translated --- 9. Though I shall scatter them among the nations, Yet in remote parts shall they remember me; And they shall live, even their children, and return: 10. Yea, I will restore them from the land of Egypt, And from Assyria will I gather them; And to the land of Gilead and Lebanon will I bring thm, And no place shall be found for them. ``And they shall live'' I take to mean, that they should live, not themselves, but in their children. But Dathius and Newcome follow the Septuagint --- ``And they shall cherish (or, preserve) their children,'' which the Hebrew will not bear; and Marckius and Henderson give the same version with Calvin --- ``And they shall live with their children.'' --- Ed.