Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin
HARMONY OF THE LAW · VOLUME 1
16. Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not; that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;
16. Qui pavit to Man in deserto, quod non noverant patres tui: ut affligeret to, et probaret to, ut benefaceret tibi in novissimo tuo.
17. And thou say in thine heart, My power, and the might of mine hand, hath gotten me this wealth.
17. Ut dicas in corde tuo, Potentia mea et robur manus meae paravit mihi has opes.
18. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
18. Sed memineris Jehovae Dei tui, quia ipse dat tibi facultatem ad parandas opes, ut confirmet pactum suum quod juravit patribus tuis, sicut in hoc die.
11. Beware that thou forget not263 We may easily estimable the necessity of this admonition from the common corruption of human nature, which is even yet only too general and too influential; for scarcely shall we find one person in a hundred in whom satiety does not generate headiness. Moses will hereafter speak in his Song of the rebelliousness of this people,264
"The beloved, (Jeshurun,) waxen fat, and grown thick, kicked." (Deuteronomy 32:15.)
It was needful, then, that a restraint should be put on such refractory beings, nay, that they should have their wantonness still more tightly repressed in their prosperity. But we may, and it is well to, extend this doctrine to ourselves also, since prosperity intoxicates almost all of us, so that we intemperately grow wanton against God, and forget ourselves and Him. Therefore Moses not only commands the Israelites not to be ungrateful to God, but warns them to guard themselves (for he uses this word for to beware) from that impious ingratitude. He immediately after uses this same word for the keeping of the Law. But this is the sum, that they needed the
Take heed to thyself — Lat.
"LXX. autem pro eo (Jeshurun) substituerunt ὀἠγαπημένος, et V. imitatur per suum Dilectus. Unde autem sit illa versio, vix explicari video; fatente etiam Steucho, se nescire a quo verbo id nomen duct possit si Dilectum significat," etc. — Marckius on Deuteronomy 32: C.'s own translation of the word is Rectus.