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8.In a moment of wrath. He again repeats and enforces this statement, in order to impress it more deeply on the hearts of believers, that they may not be at all discouraged by adversity, and with good reason; for, amidst that frightful darkness, it was not easy for the captives to behold God’ smiling face. And although the literal sense in which the “” is here said to last but for “ moment” (69) be, that God in due time brought back the captives to their native country, yet we draw from it a general doctrine, that the afflictions of the Church are always momentary, when we raise our eyes to its eternal happiness. We ought to remember what Paul has taught us, (2Co_4:17) that all the afflictions of believers are light and easy to be endured, and are justly considered to be momentary, while they look at the “ weight of glory;” for if we do not attend to this comparison, every day will seem to us like a year. There would be no propriety in comparing the seventy years of the captivity of the Jews to “ moment,” if it were not contrasted with the uninterrupted progress of the grace of God.
(69) In explaining the words בשצף קצף (beshetzeph ketzeph,) commentators differ, being uncertain as to the meaning of the word; שצף, (shetzeph.) Most commentators, on no other grounds, as Kimchi himself acknowledges, than the context of this passage, think that it denotes ‘ little,’ which some, concurring with the Chaldee interpreter, refer to ‘ little time;‘ but as this is afterwards expressed by the word רגע, (regang,) others refer it to ‘ small measure,’ agreeing with the Septuagint, which translate it ἐν Θυμῷ μικρῷ, ‘ a short time,’ compared with Zec_1:15. But A. Schultens, in his Animadversiones Philologicae on this passage, has justly remarked that there are good grounds for hesitation as to this received interpretation, because in none of the cognate languages can any trace of this meaning of the word; שצף (shetzeph) be found, nor even from the context is it very evident. By comparison with an Arabic root, he makes it signify ‘ vehemence of wrath I hid,’ etc. ‘ great wrath’ is the sense justly expressed by the Syriac version.” Rosenmuller