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Heb_3:9. Οὖ ] is taken by Erasmus Schmid, Bengel, and Peirce as attraction to πειρασμοῦ instead of ᾧ , wherewith. But in this case οὗ would have been connected immediately with πειρασμοῦ . It is the local “where;” thus stands, as frequently, in the sense of ὅπου , and refers back to ἐρήμῳ .
οὗ ἐπείρασαν οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν ἐν δοκιμασίᾳ ] where your fathers essayed temptation,[59] on the ground of proving or testing, i.e. where your fathers tempted me and put me to the test. δοκιμασία as ΠΕΙΡΆΖΕΙΝ here in the bad sense. The former contains an enhancement of the latter. This involves doubt with regard to the inclination of God to render help, that doubt with regard to His power of doing so.
καὶ εἶδον ] κ . τ . λ .] and yet saw my works forty years long. This was a fact that aggravated their guilt. In the original, τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη belongs to the following ΠΡΟΣΏΧΘΙΣΑ . To the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews also this original connection was known, as is evident from Heb_3:17. If he nevertheless refers ΤΕΣΣΑΡΆΚΟΝΤΑ ἜΤΗ to that which precedes, and moreover consolidates this connection by means of the ΔΙΌ ( ΔΙʼ Ὅ ) interpolated only by himself, he must have been guided by a distinct design in doing so. Rightly, therefore, is it assumed (Calov, Wittich, Akersloot, Surenhus, Schöttgen, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Abresch, Böhme, Bleek, de Wette, Delitzseh, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 618; Alford, Reiche, Comm. Crit. p. 22; Maier, Moll, Kurtz, and others) that the author discovered in the forty years during which the Israelites in the wilderness saw the works of God, a typical reference to the about equal space of time during which the Hebrews had now also witnessed the government of God as manifested in Christ, and would make this reference clear to the readers, in order thereby to render the more impressive his exhortation to receptiveness, while there is yet time. The reminder of Akersloot, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Abresch, Bleek, and others, is at the same time worthy of notice, viz. that also in the Talmud and by the Rabbins a duration of forty years is assigned to the Messianic kingdom with reference to Psalms 95. and the forty years of the wilderness. Comp. Sanhedr. fol. 99, 1 : R. Eliezer dixit: dies Messiae sunt quadraginta anni, sicut dicitur: quadraginta annos sqq. (Psa_95:10); Tanchuma, fol. 79, 4 : Quamdiu durant anni Messiae? R. Akiba dixit: quadraginta annos, quemadmodum Israëlitae per tot annos in deserto fuerunt.
[59] In an unnatural manner, Hofmann: as εἶδον , so also even ἐπείρασαν finds its object in τὰ ἔργα μου .