Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin
John Calvin
Hebrew is as follows, --- ``Today when ye hear his voice,
8. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation, In the day of temptation in the wilderness.
9. When your fathers tempted me, they proved me And saw my works forty years: 10 I was therefore offended with that generation and said, Always do they go astray in heart, And they have not known my ways;
11. So that I swear in my wrath, They shall by no means enter into my rest.' '' The meaning of the ninth verse is, that when the children of Israel tempted God, they proved him, i.e., found out by bitter experience how great his displeasure was, and saw his works or his dealings with them for forty years. He retained them in the wilderness during that period until the death of all who disbelieved his word at the return of the spies; he gave them this proof of his displeasure. ``Therefore'' in verse 11 is connected with ``tempted;'' it was because they tempted him that he was offended with them so as to swear that they should not enter into his rest. There is evidently a {{וleft out in Hebrew, found only in one MS.; but it is required by the future form of the verb. To ``go astray in heart'' was to disbelieve God's word, (see verse 12, and Numbers 14:11;) and not to have known Gods ways, was not to recognize his power, and goodness, and faithfulness in their deliverance from Egypt. See Numbers 14:22. Not to know here does not mean what Stuart says, not to approve, but not to comprehend or understand God's ways, or not to recognize them as his ways or doings.
The last line is in the form of an oath, ``If they shall enter,'' etc.; but when in this defective form, the ``if'' may be rendered as a strong negative, ``by no means.'' Doddridge has ``never,'' and Macknight ``not,'' in which he has been followed by Stuart.
Appendix N
APPENDIX N
Chapter 3:15 While it is said, etc. No doubt the connection first referred to in the note is the most suitable. This verse is as it were the heading of what follows; but to put the sixteenth verse in an interrogatory form, as is done by Stuart, seems not suitable to the passage. I would render the words thus, ---
15. With regard to what is said, ``Today, when ye hear his 16. voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation,'' some indeed when they heard did provoke, but not all who came
17. out of Egypt under Moses: but with whom was he offended for forty years? was it not with those who sinned, whose
18. carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest, but to those who did not believe?
The ``provocation'' is the subject; who offered it are then mentioned; and afterwards the cause of it, the want of faith.