Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
MINOR PROPHETS
they thought, would be to them: thou hast sinned, he says, against thine own soul; 41 that is, the evil which thou didst prepare to bring on others, shall be made by God to fall on thine own head.
And this kind of declaration ought to be carefully noticed; that is, that the ungodly, while they trouble all, and harass all, while they torment one, plunder another, oppress another, do always sin against their own souls; that is, they do not cause so much loss and sorrow to others as to themselves: for the Lord will make the evil they intend for others to return on themselves. He does not speak here of guilt, but of punishment, when he says, ``Thou hast sinned against thy soul;'' that is, thou shalt receive the reward due to all thy sins. We now then see what the Prophet means. It now follows---
Habakkuk 2:11-13
11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
11. Quia lapis ex muro clamabit, et lignum ex tabulato (ad verbum est, ex ligno,) respondebit ei.
12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
12. Vae aedificanti urbem in sanguinibus, et paranti civitatem in iniquitate.
13. Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
13. Annon ecce a Jehova exercituum? ideo laborabunt populi in igne et gentes in vanitate (hoc est, frustra fatigabuntur.)
There is here introduced by the Prophet a new personification. He had before prepared a common song, which would be in the mouth of all. He now ascribes speech to stones and wood, of which buildings are formed. The stone, he says, shall cry from the wall, and the wood from the chamber; that is, there is no part of the building that will not cry out that it was built by plunder, by cruelty, and, in a word, by evil deeds. The Prophet not only ascribes speech to wood and stone, but he makes them also respond one to the other as in a chorus, as in lyrics there are voices which take up the song in turns. The stone, he says, shall cry from the wall, and the wood shall respond to it from the chamber; 42 as though he said, ``There will be a striking harmony in every part of the building; for the wall will begin and will utter its song, `Behold I have been built by blood and by iniquity;' and the wood will utter the same, and will cry, `Woe;' but all in due order; there will be no confused noise, but as music has distinct sounds, so also the stones will respond to the wood and the wood to the 41Literally, "sinning thy soul." We have in Proverbs 8:36, [{,[{`` הטאיmy sinner,'' rendered no doubt correctly, ``he that sinneth against me.'' So here ``sinning thy soul,'' means ``sinning against thy soul.'' See the same words in Proverbs 20:2. In Numbers 16:38, the preposition [{]}בis before ``souls.'' ``Thy soul hath sinned,'' as given by the Septuagint, and adopted by Newcome, does not convey the meaning; for to sin against our souls, is to injure ourselves so as to bring down judgment, as in the case mentioned in Numbers 16:38, while the other phrase conveys only the idea of doing what is wrong.---Ed.
42The word rendered here "Wood," lignum, is [{,[{כפיסand only found here. The Septuagint has {κανθαρος}, a beetle,---Sym. {συνδεσμος}, bond, tie, or joint,---Theod. {ἔνδεσμος}, bandage or jointing. The context shows that it must be something connected with wood-building. Parkhurst says, that it is a verb in Syriac, and means to connect, to fasten together, and he renders it a beam or a rafter, which would exactly suit this place. The word, ,[{`` ]}מעףfrom the wood,'' evidently means the wood-building or wood-work. So that tabulatum, a story or a chamber in a building, as rendered by Calvin, is not amiss. Perhaps the best version would be,--- And the beam from the wood-work answers it. Bochart says, that ,[{]}כפיסin Rabbinical writings, means a brick, and that it was usual, formerly, as it was in this country not long ago, to build with bricks and wood or timber together; and Henderson has adopted this meaning, but the other is more satisfactory.---Ed.