Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
for which he manifests hero by his Prophet his high displeasure. 298
Prayer
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou ceases not, though provoked by our many sins, to discharge the office of a good and most faithful shepherd, and as thou continues in various ways to testify that Christ watches over us as one who has undertaken the care of our safety, --- O grant, that we may be touched with the feeling of true repentance, and so profit under thy scourges, that by considering thy judgments, we may be really humbled under and mighty hand, and so submit to thee, that finding us teachable and obedient, thou mayest continue to rule us to the end, until after having been protected from all harms by the pastoral staff of thine only-begotten
Son, we shall at length reach that blessed rest, which has been procured for us by his blood. --- Amen.
Lecture One Hundred and Fifty-ninth
Zechariah 11:14
14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
14. Et fregi virgam meam alteram, nempe collectionis, ad dissipandam fraternitatem in ter Iehudah et inter Israel.
There is here set before us the extreme vengeance of God in scattering his people, so that there would be no longer any union between the children of Abraham.
We have seen that the Prophet took two staves or crooks to execute the office of a shepherd in ruling the people. The first staff he said was Beauty, because God had omitted nothing necessary to produce the best order of things. Now when this blessed mode of ruling was trodden under foot, then soon after followed the scattering of the people: and this is the reason why the Prophet says, that he broke the other rod, or his crook. We then see that this people by their ingratitude at length justly deserved to be left without any regular form of government, and also without any union.
As to the word {,}חבליםchebelim, we have before said that what the Rabbis teach us, that it means ``destroyers,'' does not comport with the passage. But why should Zechariah say here that the rod was broken, that there should be no more union or fraternity between the kingdom of Judah and the ten tribes? We have already said, that this word by changing the points may have the meaning which has been mentioned; for {,}חבלchebel, signifies a rope or binding. We must also bear in mind, that this is an instance of ``last first'' ({ὕστερον} {πρότερον};) for he told us before that God, bidding adieu to the people, demanded his reward; this then ought to have been first mentioned: but this inversion of order is common in Hebrew. This verse then we are to read, as though it was placed before the last mission, by which God
298These two verses are quoted in Matthew 27:9,10. On this subject see the Translator's Preface prefixed to this Volume. Blayney needlessly labors to reconcile the wording of the two passages. The quotation is clearly, like many others, one of accommodation, or of likeness. The "price" here is evidently that for labor; but the "price" in Matthew is for blood. There is a similarity, and not identity, in the two cases: and the general meaning, and not the words are to be regarded. For "Prophesies," as Marckius observes, are often quoted in the New Testament, not according to the expressions, [{κατὰ} {το} {ῥητὸν}], but according to the sense or meaning, [{κατὰ} {τὴν}
{διάνοιαν}], accompanied with some illustration of the meaning derived from the event.'' --- Ed.