III. 17—19. IV. τ
17. " τίσι δὲ προσώχθισε τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη ; οὐχὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτήσασιν, ὧν τὰ κῶλα ἔπεσεν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ; 18. ἢ τίσι δὲ ΕΙΣ Q > , > x 3 ~ > 9 Li ὤμοσε μὴ εἰσελεύσεσθαι εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ, εἰ μὴ τοῖς
χ. 5, εἰς, ἀπειθήσασι ; 19. καὶ βλέπομεν ὅτι οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν εἰσελθεῖν δι᾿
jJudev. , ’ n Num. xiv. ἀπιστίαν.
30, Deut. 1. 34, 35-
IV. 1. Φοβηθῶμεν οὖν μή ποτε καταλειπομένης ! ἐπαγ- γελίας εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ, δοκῇ τις ἐξ ὑμῶν
1T.R. ABCDcKLMP; καταλιποµενης ΥΓ”.
the whole mass of the gloriously rescued people whose faith had carried them through between the threatening walls of water and over whom Miriam sang her triumphal ode. ἀλλά adds force to the answer, as if it were said, It is asked who provoked, as though it were some only, but was it not all? πάντες, for it is needless excepting Joshua and Caleb.
Ver. 17. τίσι δὲ προσώχθισε. . -. ‘“‘And with whom was He angry forty years ?”’ taking up the next clause of the Psalm, ν. το. Again the question is answered by another ‘‘ Was it not with them that sinned?” [ἁμαρτήσασιν : “This is the only form of the aorist participle in N.T. In the moods the form of ἥμαρτον is always used except Matt. xvill. 15, Luke xvii. 4, ἁμαρτήσῃ: Rom. vi. 15.” Westcott, cf. Blass, p. 43.] It was not caprice on God's part, nor inability to carry them to the pro- mised land. It was because they sinned [see esp. Num. xxxil. 23] that their “ car- cases fell in the wilderness”. ὧν τὰ κῶλα ἔπεσεν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ. These words are taken from Num. xiv. 29, 32, where God utters the doom of the wilder- ness generation. κῶλον, alimb or mem- ber of the body [A#sch., Prom., 81; Soph., O.C., το, etc.]; hence a clause of a sen- tence (and in English, the point which marks it). Used by the LXX to translate
AD, cadaver. Setting out from Egypt
with the utmost confidence, they left their bones in the desert in unnamed and forgotten graves; not because of their weakness nor because God had failed them but because of their sin.
Wet που πισι δε ὤπσοσίε,», - ‘‘And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that obeyed not?” The real cause of their exclusion from the rest prepared for them was their disobedience. Cf. especially the scene recorded in Num. xiv. where Moses declares that as ἀπειθοῦντες Κυρίῳ they were excluded from the land. At the root of their dis- obedience was unbelief,
Ver. 19. They did not believe God could bring them into the promised land in the face of powerful oppositicn and so they would not attempt its conquest when commanded to go forward. They were rendered weak by their unbelief. This is pointed out in the concluding words καὶ βλέπομεν . . . where the em- phasis is on οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν, they were not able to enter in, the reason being given in the words δι ἀπιστίαν. The application to the Hebrew Christians was sufficiently obvious. They were in danger of shrinking from further conflict and so losing all they had won. They had begun well but were now being weakened and prevented from complet- ing their victory ; and this weakness was the result of their not trusting God and
‘their leader.
Between chapters iii. and iv. there is no break. The unbelief of the wilder- ness generation is held up as a warning, and its use in this respect is justified by the fact that the promise made to them is still made, and is a “living” word which reveals the inmost purposes of the heart and is inevitable in its judgment.
Ver. 1. φοβηθῶμεν οὖν, ‘let us then fear,” the writer speaks in the name of the living generation, “lest haply, there being left behind and still remaining a promise to enter [ἐπαγγελίας εἰσελθεῖν ; cf. ὥρα ἀπιέναι, Plato, Afol., p. 42] into His (1.ε., God’s) rest, any of you (not ἡμῶν) should fancy that he has come too late for it; δοκῇ ὑστερηκέναι. Of these words there are three linguistically_pos- sible translations.