Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
then his power appeared: ``There is hence no reason for you hereafter to doubt, but that he will still prevail against your enemies.'' We know that this mode of speaking is frequently and commonly used by the Prophets, that is, when they adduce examples of God's favor and power, by which he has proved that there is in him alone sufficient help for the deliverance of his Church.
It behaves us now to apply to ourselves what is here said, for Zechariah did not only speak for the men of his age, or for those of the next generation, but he intended to furnish the Church with confidence till the end of the world, so that the faithful might not faint under any trials. Whenever then the ungodly prevail, and no hope shines on us, let us remember how often and by what various means God has wonderfully delivered his Church as it were from death; for it was not his purpose only once to help and aid his own people, but also to animate us, that we at this day may not despond, when we endure evils with which the fathers formerly struggled.
He then adds ---
Zechariah 14:4
4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
4. Et stabunt pedes ejus in die illa super montem Olivarum, qui est e regione
Ierusalem ab Oriente; et scindetur mons Olivarum a dimidia parte sui ab Oriente ad
Occidentem (vel, versus Orientem et Occidentem) vallis magna valde; et discedet dimidia pars montis ad Aquilonem, et dimidia pars ejus ad Meridiem.
He continues the same subject, that God's power would be then conspicuous in putting enemies to flight. He indeed illustrates here his discourse by figurative expressions, as though he wished to bring the Jews to see the scene itself; for the object of the personification is no other but that the faithful might set God before them as it were in a visible form; and thus he confirms their faith, as indeed it was necessary; for as we are dull and entangled in earthly thoughts, our minds can hardly rise up to heaven, though the Lord with a clear voice invites us to himself. The Prophet then, in order to aid our weakness, adds a vivid representation, as though
God stood before their eyes.
Stand, he says, shall his feet on the mount of Olives. He does not here promise a miracle, such as even the ignorant might conceive to be literal; nor does he do this in what follows, when he says, The mount shall be rent, and half of it shall thorn to the east and half to the west 333 This has never happened, that mount has 333"This sign," [God's feet standing on the mount,] says Kimchi, "is a type of the clearing of the Gentiles who came against Jerusalem, and who shall fall scattered about." The Targum gives this paraphrase, "He shall be revealed in his power." "The rending," says Drusius, "signifies the flight of the nations, who, on finding God fighting against them, shall flee away in all directions: so that the mountain on which the besiegers fixed their camp shall seem as though divided into parts." Theodoret's language is to the same purpose; he regarded the mountain as symbolic of the enemies assembled against the city — [{ὄρος} {καλει} {τήν} {φάλαγγα} {των} {πολεμίων}], etc. Marckius's view of the text is as follows: This mountain rendered access on the east to the city and temple difficult, and intercepted the morning light and the flowing of waters in that direction, both which are referred to afterwards in verse 7 and 8. God's descent on this mountain was a sign of his great displeasure with that nation, and the rending of the mountain was emblematic of a way being made open for the gospel to spread throughout the world. And he regarded the Lord's coming in the next verse as his coming in the ministration of the gospel to render it successful through the world by means of his saints, his apostles, and ministers. --- Ed.