Commentary on the Twelve Prophets

Commentary on Zephaniah, Chapter One

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pp. 4-21

BLESSED ZEPHANIAH prophesied in Jerusalem; he was from a distinguished lineage, and did not belong to those given to false prophecy and to concocting the divine words for the listeners, of whom the divinely inspired Ezekiel said, “Woe to those...

Commentary on Zephaniah, Chapter Two

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pp. 22-35

AFTER VERY clearly bringing out the ferocity of war and the magnitude of the coming disaster, he once again duly shifts attention to the call to repentance when it was an easy matter to convince them, probably because they were in fear. After all, sometimes...

Commentary on Zephaniah, Chapter Three

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pp. 36-58

HE IMMEDIATELY moves to remember the land of the Jews—Jerusalem, in fact—for the capture of which the Assyrians paid the penalty. The other nations were also punished for railing against the glory of God; but he grieves for its suffering a fate beyond...

Preface to the Commentary on Haggai

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pp. 61-62

THE PURPOSE of the prophecy of Haggai we would take as different from some others’, nor would you regard his words as similar to those from the others. The divinely inspired Hosea and those after him up to Zephaniah, remember, foretold...

Commentary on Haggai, Chapter One

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pp. 63-74

I SAID ABOVE that the lack of enthusiasm of the people of Israel for building the Temple was excusable for the reason that the authority for it had been removed owing to the envy in its regard by the people in Samaria and their extreme criticism of...

Commentary on Haggai, Chapter Two

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pp. 75-90

WHEREAS THEY had entered the house of God and set to work on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, directly afterwards on the twenty-first day of the next month, the seventh, the word of the Lord came to the blessed prophet Haggai. So...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter One

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pp. 93-107

BLESSED Zechariah was prophesying in Jerusalem at the same time, in my view, as Zephaniah. After the return from captivity, in actual fact, Israel no longer lived in divided fashion, some in Judea and some in Samaria; instead, they all gathered...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Two

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pp. 108-115

THE FACT THAT the sharpened horns were not against Israel but rather against those who captured and plundered Jerusalem and Judea the above vision would indicate, and rightly so. The prophet, note, raises his eyes again, not at all those...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Three

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pp. 116-126

ON THE ONE hand, the report is a vision, though having an historical basis; it makes obscure references, and depicts Joshua as though in an image again. On the other hand, it should be understood that since the happenings in the visions have already...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Four

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pp. 127-141

THE PHRASE turned back here we shall interpret not in a local sense, which would be very naïve; rather, we shall take it as an immediate movement from the present vision to another one related to it, namely, a spiritual one. Since there was need of...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Five

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pp. 142-148

AGAIN IN THIS case, in my view, you would not take the phrase I turned around in reference to place, but rather to a change to another vision. After identifying the first vision, remember, and when his sight turned to the next, he used the term...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Six

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pp. 149-157

HE PREVIOUSLY showed that, snared in their own nets and constrained by the cords of their own sins, as Scripture puts it, they were deported to a foreign land and dwelt among the foe, bearing the unfamiliar yoke of slavery. It was necessary, however...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Seven

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pp. 158-164

AFTER THE occurrence of the visions, other words came from God at short intervals. Before the visions, for instance, the text says, “On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Eight

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pp. 165-181

AFTER SUFFICIENTLY deploring the people’s former disobedience and recalcitrance and what resulted from it, and revealing that it was the source of all their troubles, he shifts his focus to the good that emerges from mildness. He then makes it his...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Nine

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pp. 182-198

WHILE THE text is not without problems, and the actual series of expressions very difficult to grasp, it will receive comment by us as far as possible. (404) There is naturally need to explain the references we think we find,1 this being the way the sense of...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Ten

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pp. 199-209

THAT IS TO say, just as without labor there would be no grain in the fields or a fruitful vineyard producing wine, so too there would be no spiritual fertility in us unless God shed the revelation of his own sayings like rain on mind and heart, and,...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Eleven

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pp. 210-230

HE SHIFTS the drift of his words, then, to another line of thinking. Having delivered in excellent fashion an adequate account of the calling of the nations in Christ through faith, he clearly forecasts the future disbelief in him by the people of Israel, that...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Twelve

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pp. 231-247

HE HAD GIVEN quite adequate comment on the good shepherd—namely, Christ—and also on the unskilled one who was cruel and fed off the sheep, whom we claim to be the Antichrist. (475) So now he makes useful mention also of the persecutions...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Thirteen

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pp. 248-256

HE MOVES ON to describe what will in turn happen after this to “those (498) who loved the manifestation” of Christ:1 some in the arrogance of their unbelief will find themselves besieged, he is saying, and will lament the troubles befalling them. In the spiritual...

Commentary on Zechariah, Chapter Fourteen

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pp. 257-280

IN MENTIONING the august and saving Passion on the cross, he said above, “Sword, rise up against my shepherd and against his fellow citizen, says the Lord almighty. I shall strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” 1 Now, the fact that...

Preface to the Commentary on Malachi

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pp. 283-285

IT IS NECESSARY also to give a short introduction to the prophecy of Malachi in view of the readers’ readiness to learn, and for the purpose of grasping all its contents. At the conclusion of the period of the captivity, Israel returned from Babylon...

Commentary on Malachi, Chapter One

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pp. 286-302

BY SPEAKING of an oracle of the word he implies reception of the prophecy from God. The blessed prophets, you see, received through the Holy Spirit knowledge of future events; to some people they directed advice and correction, not singling out on...

Commentary on Malachi, Chapter Two

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pp. 303-319

HE LOVINGLY passes over the faults in what had preceded, and accords mercy, restoring, as it were, the sinners to their former probity—the meaning, in my view, of his saying in kindly fashion, And...

Commentary on Malachi, Chapter Three

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pp. 320-337

WITH THEM asking, Where is God? (595) the text before us appropriately moves to the mystery of Christ. Emmanuel came from the God and Father, remember, as our “righteousness and sanctification and redemption,”1 a cleansing of every stain, removal...

Commentary on Malachi, Chapter Four

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pp. 338-346

IN OTHER words, it follows that the day of judgment will involve fire, when “the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be incinerated. We wait for a new heaven...

Index of Proper Names

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pp. 347-352

Index of Holy Scripture

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pp. 353-361