Hebrews 10:37

10:32-39 Many and various afflictions united against the early Christians, and they had a great conflict. The Christian spirit is not a selfish spirit; it puts us upon pitying others, visiting them, helping them, and pleading for them. All things here are but shadows. The happiness of the saints in heaven will last for ever; enemies can never take it away as earthly goods. This will make rich amends for all we may lose and suffer here. The greatest part of the saints' happiness, as yet, is in promise. It is a trial of the patience of Christians, to be content to live after their work is done, and to stay for their reward till God's time to give it is come. He will soon come to them at death, to end all their sufferings, and to give them a crown of life. The Christian's present conflict may be sharp, but will be soon over. God never is pleased with the formal profession and outward duties and services of such as do not persevere; but he beholds them with great displeasure. And those who have been kept faithful in great trails for the time past, have reason to hope for the same grace to help them still to live by faith, till they receive the end of their faith and patience, even the salvation of their souls. Living by faith, and dying in faith, our souls are safe for ever.

A little while (μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον) Strictly, a very little while. The phrase N.T.o. It is not part of the quotation, but is taken from Isaiah 26:20, the only instance. See Aristoph. Wasps, 213. He that shall come will come (ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἥξει) Rend. "he that cometh will come." In the Hebrew (Habakkuk 2:3) the subject of the sentence is the vision of the extermination of the Chaldees. "The vision - will surely come." As rendered in the lxx, either Jehovah or Messiah must be the subject. The passage was referred to Messiah by the later Jewish theologians, and is so taken by our writer, as is shown by the article before ἐρχόμενος. Comp. Matthew 11:3; Matthew 21:9; John 11:27. Similarly he refers ἥξει shall come to the final coming of Messiah to judge the world.

Hebrews 10:37 . Μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον ) yet a little while . So LXX., Isaiah 26:20 . The word μικρὸν , with the addition of ὄσον ὄσον , takes the diminutive, but at the same time the indefinite form, and therefore accords very well with this passage: see Genesis 27:30 : אך , ἐγένετο ὅσον ἐξῆλθεν , was only just gone out.— ὁ ἐρχόμενος , He that cometh) The apostle, by the addition of the article, elegantly turns the words of the prophet to Christ.— ἥξει ) will come.

37 . yet a little while ] The original has a very emphatic phrase ( μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον ) to imply the nearness of Christ’s return, “yet but a very very little while.” The phrase occurs in the LXX. in Isaiah 26:20 . The quotations in this and the next verse are adapted from Habakkuk 2:3-4 . In the original it is “the vision” which will not tarry, but the writer quotes from the LXX., only inserting the definite article before ἐρχόμενος , and applying it to the Messiah. “The coming one” was a Messianic title ( Matthew 11:3 ; Luke 7:19 ; comp. Daniel 7:13 , &c). In Matthew 24:34 our Lord has said, “ This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled;” and by the time that this Epistle was written few still survived of the generation which had seen our Lord. Hence, Christians felt sure that Christ’s coming was very near, though it is probable that they did not realise that it would consist in the close of the Old Dispensation, and not as yet in the End of the World.

37, 38. Encouragement to patient endurance by consideration of the shortness of the time till Christ shall come, and God's rejection of him that draws back, taken from Hab 2:3, 4. a little while—(Joh 16:16). he that shall come—literally, "the Comer." In Habakkuk, it is the vision that is said to be about to come. Christ, being the grand and ultimate subject of all prophetical vision, is here made by Paul, under inspiration, the subject of the Spirit's prophecy by Habakkuk, in its final and exhaustive fulfilment.

(37) The connection is this: “Ye have need of endurance” for “the end is not yet” ( Matthew 24:6 ); ye shall “receive the promise,” for the Lord shall surely come, and that soon. A little while.—Rather, a very little while. The expression is remarkable and unusual; it is evidently taken from Isaiah 26:20—“Come my people . . . hide thyself for a little moment until the indignation be overpast.” The subject of this passage, from which the one expressive phrase is taken, is the coming of Jehovah “to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;” in “a little moment” shall the indignation consume His foes, then will He give deliverance to His people. Even this passing reference would serve to call up before the mind of the Hebrew readers the solemn associations of the prophecy—the promised salvation, the awful judgment. And he that shall come will come.—Rather, He that cometh will come and will not tarry. In this and the next verse the writer of the Epistle takes up a passage, Habakkuk 2:3-4, which occupies a very important place in the writings of St. Paul (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11), and, as we have already seen (Note on Hebrews 6:1), in the later Jewish teaching. St. Paul’s citations are limited to a few words of Hebrews 10:4, “But the just shall live by faith;” here are quoted the whole of the fourth verse and part of the third.

Perhaps it is too much to say that they are quoted, they are rather applied, for, as will be seen, the order of the clauses (see next verse) is changed, and some alterations are made in the language. It is important in this Epistle to discriminate between the instances of direct quotation from the Scripture, where the word of God is appealed to as furnishing proof, and those in which passages of the Old Testament are explained and applied (see the Note on Hebrews 10:5). The words before us nearly agree with the LXX., “If he delay, wait for him, because coming he will come, and will not tarry.” The subject of the sentence there is not clear; probably the translator believed that the Lord spoke thus of His own coming, or the coming of the future Deliverer. In the Hebrew all relates to the vision, “it will surely come, it will not tarry.” The only difference between the LXX. and the words as they stand here consists in the substitution of “He that cometh” for “coming.” Now the reference to the Deliverer and Judge is made plain. No designation of the Messiah, perhaps, was more familiar than “He that cometh” (Matthew 11:3, et al.); but in is here employed with a new reference—to the second advent in place of the first. The departure from the sense of the Hebrew is not as great as may at first appear.

Verses 37, 38. - For yet a little (rather, very little ) while, and he that cometh will come, and will not tarry. But the just shall live by faith: and if he draw back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. In these verses, after the manner of the Epistle, what is being urged is supported by an Old Testament quotation ( Habakkuk 2:3, 4 ), its drift being (1) the certainty, notwithstanding delay, of the fulfillment of the Divine promise; (2) the necessity meanwhile of continuance in faith and perseverance. The quotation serves also as a step of transition (this, too, after the Epistle's manner) to the disquisition on faith , which forms the subject of the following chapter. For the prophet speaks of faith as what the righteous one is to live by until the Lord come. It was faith - a fuller faith - that the Hebrew Christians wanted to preserve them from the faltering of which they showed some signs; and the requirement of faith was no new thing - it had been the essential principle of all true religious life from the beginning, and thus is led up to the review which follows of the Old Testament history, showing that this had always been so. The quotation, as usual, is from the LXX., which, in this case as in some others, differs from the Hebrew. But here, as in ver. 29, supra , the LXX. is not exactly followed. The writer cites freely, so as to apply the essential meaning of the passage to his purpose.

The Prophet Habakkuk (writing probably during the long evil days of Manasseh) had in his immediate view the trials of faith peculiar to his own time - violence and iniquity in Israel, and imminence of judgment at the hands of Chaldean conquerors, under which he had cried, "O Lord, how long?" But he stands upon his watch and sits upon his tower, to look out what the LORD will say to him in answer to his difficulties. And the LORD answered him, and said, " Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie [rather, 'but it hasteth to the end, and doth not lie']: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, and not tarry [or, 'be behindhand']. Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him [or, 'behold, his soul is lifted up, it is not upright in him']; but the just shall live by his faith." The drift of this Divine answer, which inspired the song of joyful confidence with which the Book of Habakkuk so beautifully concludes, is, as aforesaid, that, in spite of all appearances, the prophetic vision will ere long be realized; God's promises to the righteous will certainly be fulfilled; and that faith meanwhile must be their sustaining principle.