Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
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5. Sicut vocem quadrigarum (sic {}מרכבותinterpretes vertunt: postea dicam de hoc verbo,) super cacumina montium saltabunt, secundum vocem flammae ignis vorantis stipulam, quasi populus robustus (vel, terribilis) paratus ad proelium.
6. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
6. A facie ejus pavebunt populi, omnes facies colligent nigredinem.
7. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
7. Quasi gigantes (vel, fortes) discurrent, sicut viri proelii ascendent murum, et vir (hoc est, quisque in viis suis ambulabit, et non tardabunt gressus suos (alii, non inquirent de viis suis.)
8. Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
8. Vir fratrem suum (hoc est, quisque socium suum) non premet, quisque in viis suis ambulabit: usque in gladium cadent (hoc est, super gladium cadent) non vulnerabuntur (alii, non concupiscent.)
9. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
9. Per urbem gradientur, per murum discurrent, in domos ascendent, usque ad fenestras intrabunt tanquam fur.
10. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
10. Coram eo contremiscet terra, et angentur coeli; sol et luna nigrescent, et stellae retrahent splendorem suum.
11. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
11. Et Jehova edet vocem suam coram exercitu suo, quia magna valde castra ejus: quia robustus qui facit (vel, exequitur) verbum ejus; quia magnus dies Jehovae, et terribilis valde, et quis sustinebit eum?
This chapter contains serious exhortations, mixed with threatening; but the Prophet threatens for the purpose of correcting the indifference of the people, whom we have seen to have been very tardy to consider God's judgments. Now the reason why I wished to join together these eleven verses was, because the design of the Prophet in them is no other than to stir up by fear the minds of the people.
The object of the narrative then is, to make the people sensible, that it was now no time for taking rest; for the Lord, having long tolerated their wickedness, was now resolved to pour upon them in full torrent his whole fiery. This is the sum of the whole. Let us now come to the words.
Sound the trumpet, he says, in Zion; cry out in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble. The Prophet begins with an exhortation. We know, indeed that he alludes to the usual custom sanctioned by the law; for as on festivals trumpets were sounded to call the people, so also it was done when anything