Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin
HARMONY OF THE LAW · VOLUME 1
3. And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, and our children, and our cattle, with thirst?
3. Sitivit ergo illic populus ab aquis, et murmuravit populus contra Mosen, dicens, Quare sic nos ascendere fecisti ex AEgypto, ut interficeres me, et filios meos, et pecora mea, siti?
4. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
4. Et clamavit Moses ad Jehovam, dicendo, Quid faciam populo huic? Adhuc paululum, et lapidabunt me.
5. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
5. Et ait Jehova ad Mosen, Transi ante populum, et tolle tecum e senioribus Israel: virgam quoque tuam qua percussisti fiuvium, tolle in manu tua, et incede.
6. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
6. Ecce, ego stabo coram te illic super petram quae est in Oreb, Et tu percuties petram, egredienturque aquae ex ea, ut bibat populus. Et fecit sic Moses coram oculis seniorum Israel.
7. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?
7. Vocavitque nomen loci illius Massa et Meriba, (vel, tentatio et rixa) propter rixam filiorum Israel, et quia tentassent Jehovam, dicendo, Est ne in medio nostri, an non?
1. And all the congregation. Scarcely was the sedition of the people about the want of food set at rest when they again rebel on the subject of drink. They ought, at least, to have learnt from the manna, that as often as necessity pressed upon them, they should have humbly implored in prayer and supplication God's help, in certain hope of relief. But such was their
JOHN CALVIN
character, that they were hurried by despair into secret murmurings and impetuous cries. We have almost a precisely similar account in Numbers 20.186 For the error of those who think it one and the same, is easily refuted by the circumstances of the time and place; and in Numbers 33, it is very clearly shown how great a distance there was between the one station and the other. Neither does the tradition of some of the Rabbins appear probable, that this thirst did not arise from natural appetite, because the manna was not only meat, but also served for drink. For there is no reason why we should be compelled to imagine this; and we gather from the text, that the commencement of their murmurings arose from the fact that the water now began for the first time to fail them. But it was God's will in two ways, and at two different times, to try the minds of the Israelites, that they might more plainly show their natural intractability. If they had required bread and water at the same time, they would have been more excusable; but after they had experienced that a sweet and wholesome kind of food was bountifully given them from heaven, because that country produced no corn, it was an act of intolerable perversity immediately to murmur against God when they had no supply of drink. Moreover, a double accusation is here brought against them, for insulting God by quarrelling and chiding with Him, and also for tempting Him. Both arose from unbelief, the cause of which was ingratitude; for it was too vile of them so soon to bury in willful forgetfulness what God had so recently given them. He had brought them supplies when they were suffering from hunger; why do they not fly to Him when they are oppressed by thirst? It is plain, then, that the former favor was ill bestowed upon them, since it so directly vanished in their insensibility. Hence, too, appears their unbelief, because they neither expect nor ask anything of God; and with this, too, pride is conjoined, because they dare to proceed to chiding. Indeed this almost always happens, that those who neither depend on His providence nor rest; on His promises, provoke God to contend with them, and rush impetuously against Him; because the brutal violence of our passions hurries us on to madness, unless we are persuaded that God will in due time be our helper, and are, submissive to His will. In the beginning of the chapter Moses briefly indicates that the Israelites journeyed according to the commandment, or, as the Hebrew expresses it, "the mouth"187 of God, as if he would praise their obedience. Whence we
A brief but able reply to the arguments of those who allege these similar passages against the authenticity of the Pentateuch, will be found in Hengstenberg, (Ryland's Translation,) vol. 2, p. 310, etc.
על-פי. Literally, "upon the mouth." Noldius cites, however, various texts, in which it is equivalent to no more than according to, though in this instance, and in many others, he would render it "according to the command." — Concord. Partic. Hebr. — W