Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
break the covenant which he had made with them. As then they had responded to the stipulation of God, he says that they had walked in peace: but he also mentions how this was; it was, because they had walked in uprightness.
And the phrase, {,}אתיati, with me, ought to be observed; for it confirms what I have stated, --- that the honor of the priesthood in no way lessens God's authority, for he keeps the priests devoted to himself. He intimates then that they were not elevated to such a height, that their dignity took away anything from God's authority: for the obligation, which has been mentioned, ought to be mutual: God is faithful; the priests also must be faithful in their office, and show themselves to be the legitimate ministers of God. 372
He also mentions the fruit of their doctrine; for Levi turned many from iniquity, that is, he led many to repentance. It afterwards follows (for this verse ought to be joined) ---
Malachi 2:7
7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
7. Certe labia sacerdotis custodient scientiam, et Legem requirent ex ore ejus, quia nuntius Iehovae exercituum est.
What the Prophet has said of the first priests he extends now to the whole Levitical tribe, and shows that it was a perpetual and unchangeable law as to the priesthood.
He had said that Levi had been set over the Church, not to apply to himself the honor due to God, but to stand in his own place as the minister of God, and the teacher of the chosen people. The same thing he now confirms, declaring it as a general truth that the lips of the priest ought to retain knowledge, as though he had said, that they were to be the store-house from which the food of the Church was to be drawn.
God then did appoint the priests over his chosen people, that the people might seek their food from them as from a store-room, according to what we find to be the case with a master of a family, who has his store of wine and his store of provisions. As then the food of a whole family is usually drawn out from places where provisions are laid up, so the Prophet makes use of this similitude, --- that God has deposited knowledge with the priests, so that the mouth of every priest might be a kind of store-house, so to speak, from which the people are to seek knowledge and the rule of a religious life: Keep knowledge then shall the lips of the priest, and the law shall they seek from his mouth 373
He shows how it is to be kept; the priests are not to withhold it, but the whole
372"The fear of God," says Cocceius, "which was in the first priests, is more fully declared by its effects, which are twofold—sayings and doings. The doctrine of truth was in their mouth; they taught the truth, they were not silent, but sincerely taught it, without admiring what was false; for what is false is injustice, and it is the truth set forth either in a perverted form, or by addition, or by diminution. As to doings, they walked in peace, they did not rebel against God, nor did they seek devious and crooked ways, but walked in a strait course." The word {{עולהis rendered ``unrighteousness, or, injustice --- {ἀδικία},'' by the Septuagint and the Targum, --- ``falsitas, falseness,'' by Drusius, --- and ``iniquity'' by many. There being no agreement in gender between it and the verb ``formed,'' Marckius suggests that {}דברis understood, ``the word of iniquity,'' etc. --- Ed.
373The verbs, as here rendered, are future: but being preceded by {,{כיmany consider them as declaring what ought to be: and they are thus rendered by Drusius, Dathius, Newcome, and Henderson, ``should keep,'' or ``ought to keep,'' etc. We find the future thus used when preceded by ,{`` }הwhether,'' in Ezekiel 34:2; and when preceded by no particle, as in Malachi 1:6, where the version ought clearly to be, --- A son should honor a father, And a servant, his Lord. This use of the future, as designating a duty or obligation, is much more frequent in Hebrew than what is commonly supposed. --- Ed.