6. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. 6. Juxta [93] pascua sua et satiati sunt, saturati sunt, et elevatum est cor ipsorum; propterea obliti sunt mei. The Prophet shows here that the people were in every way intractable. He has indeed handled this argument in other places; but the repetition is not superfluous. After he had said that the people were ungrateful in not continuing in the service of their Redeemer, by whom they had been so kindly and bountifully treated in the desert, where they must have perished through famine and want, had not the Lord in an unwonted manner brought them help in their great necessity, he now adds, "The Lord would have also allured you by other means, had you not been of a wholly wild and barbarous disposition: but it is hence manifest, that you are utterly disobedient; for after you have been brought out of the desert, you came to rich pastures." For the land of Israel is here compared to rich and fertile pastures; as though he said, "God has placed you in an inheritance where you might eat to the full, as when a shepherd leads his sheep to a spot especially fertile." What did take place? To their pastures they came, and were filled; they were filled, and elevated became their heart, and they forgat me Since, then, the Israelites had extinguished the memory of their redemption, after the Lord had fed them when hungry in the desert, and since in their fulness they rejected God, and shook off his yoke, and, like ferocious horses, kicked against him, it became evident that their nature was so unnameable, that they could by no means be reduced to obedience or submission. We shall defer the rest till tomorrow. Footnotes: [93] A great number of MSS have v, beth, instead of k, caph, before the word, "pastures." But to connect the first two words in this verse with the last verse, as Bishop Horsley does, is certainly not right; for the two different times here evidently referred to are thereby confounded. Though Calvin in this, as in some other instances, does not settle the grammatical construction, he yet sets forth the real meaning of the passage. God says, that he knew the people of Israel, both in the desert and in "their pastures;" that is, in the fertile land of Canaan; and then he states the effect which their pastures had upon them. What favors the substitution of v for k is, that the former is used before "desert," and "the land of droughts," in the preceding verse. The verb "to know" is to be understood at the beginning of this verse. The two verses, 5 and 6, may be thus rendered: -- 5. I knew thee in the desert, In the land of droughts; 6. In their pastures also when they were filled; They were filled, and raised up was their heart; Hence they forgat me. The change of persons from "thee" to "them" is common throughout this book. -- Ed. |
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