9 "'I will have respect for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
For I will have respect unto you [1] God is said to "turn Himself" to the people, whom He undertakes to cherish and preserve; just as also when He forsakes those who have alienated themselves from Him, He is said to be turned away from them. Hence the common exhortation in the Prophets, "Be ye turned to me, and I will be turned to you;" whereby God reminds us that He has not promised in vain what we here read. Therefore the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, to confirm His covenant towards them by watching for their safety. Hence, too, we are also taught, that when we depart from God, His covenant is made void by our own fault; wherewith Jeremiah reproaches the Israelites. (Jeremiah 31:32.) In order, therefore, that God's covenant should remain firm and effectual, it is not only necessary that the Law should be engraven on our hearts, but also that He should add another grace, and not remember our iniquities. When He says, "Ye shall eat old store," He again magnifies their abundance; for, whereas scarcity compels us to make immediate use of the new fruits, so it is a great sign of abundance to bring forth old wheat from the granary, and old wine from the cellar. The continuance of His bounty is represented in the end of the verse, where He says that there shall be no place for the new fruits, unless they empty their store-houses; because [2] it might happen that, after a year of scarcity, all their storehouses should be empty, and there would be no new corn to succeed in place of the old.
1 - Literally, "I will turn myself to you."
2 - This last sentence omitted in Fr.
Establish my covenant - All material blessings were to be regarded in the light of seals of the "everlasting covenant." Compare Genesis 17:4-8; Nehemiah 9:23.
For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and (c) establish my covenant with you.
(c) Perform that which I have promised.
For I will have respect unto you,.... Look at them with delight and pleasure, and with a careful eye on them, watch over them to do them good, and protect them from all evil; or turn himself to them from all others, having a particular regard for them and special care of them:
and make you fruitful and multiply you; increase their number, as he did in Egypt, even amidst all their afflictions; and much more might they expect this blessing in the land of Canaan, when settled there, which is the original blessing of mankind, see Genesis 1:28,
and establish my covenant with you; not the new covenant spoken of in Jeremiah 31:31; as Jarchi and other Jewish writers (l) suggest; for that was not to take place but in future time, under the Gospel dispensation; but rather the covenant made with them at Sinai, though perhaps it chiefly respects the covenant made with their ancestors concerning multiplication of their seed as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, Genesis 15:5, since it follows upon the promise of an increase of them.
(l) Torat Cohenim, apud Yalkut, par. 1. fol. 196. 3.
Moreover the Lord would bestow His covenant blessing upon them without intermission. אל פּנה signifies a sympathizing and gracious regard (Psalm 25:16; Psalm 69:17). The multiplication and fruitfulness of the nation were a constant fulfilment of the covenant promise (Genesis 17:4-6) and an establishment of the covenant (Genesis 17:7); not merely the preservation of it, but the continual realization of the covenant grace, by which the covenant itself was carried on further and further towards its completion. This was the real purpose of the blessing, to which all earthly good, as the pledge of the constant abode of God in the midst of His people, simply served as the foundation.
Establish my covenant - That is, actually perform all that I have promised in my covenant made with you.
*More commentary available at chapter level.