tentationis
(Vulg.), id est, sequentes et imitantes diem et tempus in quo patres vestri me tentaverunt (Herv.).
peirasmou'
] when the people tempted God: comp. Ps. 78:17 ff. Heb. 3:9.
ou|
]
where
, Vulg.
ubi
, and not in which by attraction for
w|/. ejpeivr. ejn dokimasiva/
] The absence of a direct object in this clause according to the true reading points to the connexion of
ejpeivr.
as well as
ei\don
with
ta; e[rga mou
(Vulg.
probaverunt et viderunt opera mea
). This rendering departs considerably from the Hebrew and from the LXX. but places in a more vivid light the character of unbelief. The faithless people tried and tested not the invisible God but His visible works. They found reason to question where they should have rested in faith.
ta; e[rga mou
] The Hebrew is singular. The many works of God in the wilderness were all one work, one in essence and aim, whether they were works of deliverance or works of chastisement. Under this aspect acts of righteous judgment and of mercy were parts of the same counsel of loving discipline.
tesser. e[th
] In the original these words go with the following clause (and so in Heb. 3:17). Here they are transposed to draw attention to the duration of God's discipline. The period had a significant coincidence with the interval which had elapsed since the Passion at the time when the Epistle was written.
Jewish writers connected the forty years in the wilderness with the time of Messiah. For example: R. Eliezer said: The days of the Messiah are forty years, as it is said: Ps. 95:10 (Sanh. 99. 1, quoted by Bleek).
Heb. 3:10. diov ...] Wherefore ... The particle is inserted by the writer, who separates the period of discipline from the sentence of rejection. proswvcqisa ] I was wroth, vehemently displeased. The original term (
fWq , H7752) expresses loathing.
th'/ kardiva/
]
in their heart
, the seat of man's personal character, of his moral life. See Additional Note on Heb. 4:12.
aujtoi; dev
...]
But they
...The particle seems to involve a silent reference to the constant warnings and teachings of God: I ever shewed them my purpose, but they on their part recognised not my ways. Comp. 8:9.
Heb. 3:11. wJ" w[mosa ] according as I sware , Vulg. sicut juravi , in that time of disobedience. Loqui Dei magnum est: jurare vero nimis metuendum (Primas.).
The rendering
so that
is not required by the original Hebrew, and is (apparently) unexampled in Greek. Comp. Winer p. 578 (Moulton's note).
eij eijseleuvsontai
]
They shall not enter
... Compare Mark 8:12 (
eij doqhvsetai
); Gen. 14:23; Num. 14:30; 1 Sam. 3:17. See Winer-Moulton p.
627.
eij" th;n katavpausin ] The rest was primarily Canaan (Deut. 12:9 f.), and then that divine kingdom and order of which the earthly Canaan was an imperfect type. At the first the occupation of the promised Land was treated as being ideally the fulfilment of the highest destiny of Israel in perfect fellowship with God (Lev. 26:11 f.). But the partial outward accomplishment of the national hope necessarily fixed attention upon the spiritual realities with which the imperfect earthly blessings corresponded. The unsatisfying character of the temporal inheritance quickened the aspiration after a truer