The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 98

to," i.e. " after the me.nner of." The former ginning with the Divine oath, "As truly aa agrees best with the Hebrew psalm, which I live," which is a.go.in repeated in ver. 28. hns "As at Merib11h, as on the dav of The occasion was not the murmuring either llfassah in the wilderness," referring to the Rt l\fasse.h or at MeribBh, but tho genoro.l two plaees called by these names from rebellion of the whole congregation e.fter the whnt oecurred there, when the people mur- return of the spies, betokening a universal mured for want of water. The first occur- spirit of lim<TTia (cf. '\'er. 19), "If they shall rence was at Rephidim, in the wilderness enter ( ,i fi<TEll.Eti<TovTa.1)" is an ellipticul form of Sin, et the commencement of the wan- of 011th, expressing strong negation. dering (Exod. xvii. 1-8); the second was Ver. 12.-T&ke heed (literally, see), bre- in the wilderness of Zin, near Kadesh, thren, lest he.ply there should be (literally, towards the end of the forty years (Numb. shall be) in any ono of you au evil heart of =· 1-14). Both names are assigned to the unbelief, in falling away from the living former place in Exod. xvii. 7; but elsewhere God. Here begins definitely the horte.tory lhey are distinguished (see Deut. nxiii. 8). o.ppliootion of the warning of the ninety- Iu the text, following the LXX., equiva- fifth psalm. Its drift, to the end of the len~ of the Hebrew names are given, chapter, is: You, being called under the SoN Ma.ssah being rendered literally by ..-upa<T• to a far higher position tbe.n your fnthers uos: Meribah (equivalent to "strife") by under Moses were, but the retention of your the unusual word ra.pa..-,KptUTµ.os, which position being, e.s theirs was, conditional on occurs only here and in the psalm, though your faithfulness, see that you do not forfeit the verb -.:a.pa..-ucpalvc., is common in the LXX. it, o.s some of you may be in danger of The root of the word being ..-ucpbs ("bitter"), doing. That you may, if you are not care- it may possibly have been suggested by the ful, is shown by the very warning of the occurrence at Marah (equivalent to" bitter- psalm, e.nd by the example of your fathers, ness"), where there was also a murmuring referred to in the psalm, all of 'IV hom, though about water (Exod. xv. 23), ..-ucpla. being the <'Riled, failed of attainment through unbelief. LXX. equivalent of Marah. (3) When (o/i in It is implied all along that the "to-de.y" the sense of o..-ov, as is common in the LXX. of the psalm includes the present day of and New Testament) your fathers tempted grace, and points to a. truer rest than that of me, proved me, and saw my works forty years, Canaan, still offered to the faithful. But In place of the ree.ding of tile Textus Re- the :fall bringing out of this thought is ceptus, ,ooK,µ.a<Ta.v µ.• (" proved me"), which reserved for the next chnpter. On the le.n- agrees with the LXX., the e.nthority of guage of ver. 12 we observe: (1) The same manuscripts is in favour of lv ooK,µ.a.<Ttlf, form of warning, /Jll.•1r•T• µ.¾/, occurs infra Thie ago.in, like the other variations of eh. xii. 25, but then, suitably to the context, reading, is of no importance with regard to followed by e. subjunctive. Here the future the meaning. Dut further, in the originnl indicative which follows, µ.,fi..-oT< l<TT<u, de- Hebrew, and apparently in the LXX., notes o. fa.et in the future, distinctly appre- "forty years" is connected with the clause hended as possible ( cf. Col. ii. 8). It had the.tfollows: "forty years longwe.s !grieved," not ensued as yet, nor does the writer antici- etc.; whereas, in the text, the interposition pate the probability of its being the cnso of o,o at the beginning of ver. 10, neces- with all his readers; but in the state of sitates its connection with "saw my works." f'eeling with regard to the gospel among the It is possible that the writer of the Epistle Hebrew Christinns which the whole Epistle intended a reference to the corresponding wo.s intended to counteract, he sees ground forty years from the manifestation of Christ for fearing it in the ce.se of aome. Their to the destruction of Jerusalem, which were present wavering might result in e.posto.~y. drawing to their close at the time of writing, (2) It is not necessary to o.ne.lyze the ex- and during which the Israelites of his day pression, "an evil henrt of unbelief," so as to were trying God by their rejection of the settle whether the evil bee.rt is regarded as gospel, or, in the case of some of the believers the result of unbelief, or unbelief of the evil addressed, by their wavering allegiance to heart; the me.in point to be observed is thnt it. The supposition that this idea. was in unbelief is connected with moral culpability, the writer's mind is supported by the fact ns is implied further in ver. 13. The un- that Jewish writers refer to the pso.lm ns belief so condemned in Holy Scripture ill assigning forty years for the days of the not mere intellectual inco.pncity; it is con- MeB•iah (see reforence in Bicek, Delitzsch, demned only so far as man is reBponsible for Alford, etc.). 'fhat the writer he.d an inten- it on account of his own wilful perversity or tion in his variation from the original is the cari:lessness. (3) The outcome of such " evil more likely from his following it correctly henrt of unbelief," if o.llowe<l to become c,fterwu.rds in ver. 17. (4) As I sware in my fixed o.ud p()rmnncnt, will be 11post11sy (l&..-&. wrath, It they she.11 enter into my rest. 'l'ho <TT71va,: cf. Luko viii.13; l Tim. iv. 1) from rr;,ferenoo here is to Numb, xiv. 21, etc., b~ .. the living God," from him who i.» Eternal OH, III, 1-19.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 89