Bible Commentaries

Nehemiah 7:1 — CHAPTER VII Nehemiah makes use of proper precautions in guarding the city gates, 1-4. He proposes to reckon the people according to their genealogies; and finds a register of those who came out of Babylon, with Zerubbabel, 5-7. A transcript of the register, 8-10. Account of those who came from other provinces; and of priests who, because they could not show their register, were put away from the priesthood as polluted, 61-65. The sum total of the congregation: of their men-servants

Nehemiah 8:1 — CHAPTER VIII Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites, read and interpret the laws to the people, 1-7. The manner in which they do this important work, 8. The effect produced on the people's minds by hearing it, 9. The people are exhorted to be glad, and are told that the joy of the Lord is their strength, 10-12. On the second day they assemble, and

Esther 7:8 — Verse Esther 7:8. Will he force the queen — On the king's return he found him at the queen's knees; and, professing to think that he intended to do violence to her honour, used the above expressions; though he must have known that, in such circumstances, the

Esther 7:9 — Verse Esther 7:9. Behold also, the gallows — As if he had said, Besides all he has determined to do to the Jews, he has erected a very high gallows, on which he had determined, this very day, to hang Mordecai, who has saved the king's life.Hang him thereon.

Job 20:7 — Verse Job 20:7. He shall perish for ever — He is dust, and shall return to the dust from which he was taken. Zophar here hints his disbelief in that doctrine, the resurrection of the body, which Job had so solemnly asserted in the preceding chapter. Or he might

Job 3:23 — is before him in either world, but is full of fears and trembling concerning both.God hath hedged in? — Leaving him no way to escape; and not permitting him to see one step before him.There is an exact parallel to this passage in Lamentations 3:7; Lamentations 3:9: He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: To the man whose path is broken up, and whose futurity God hath overwhelmed. But I cannot see any necessity

Job 31:38 — If my land cry — The most careless reader may see that the introduction of this and the two following verses here, disturbs the connection, and that they are most evidently out of their place. Job seems here to refer to that law, Leviticus 25:1-7, by which the Israelites were obliged to give the land rest every seventh year, that the soil might not be too much exhausted by perpetual cultivation, especially in a country which afforded so few advantages to improve the arable ground by manure.

Proverbs 11:7 — Verse Proverbs 11:7. When a wicked man dieth — HOPE is a great blessing to man in his present state of trial and suffering; because it leads him to expect a favourable termination of his ills. But hope was not made for the wicked; and yet they are the very persons

Ecclesiastes 1:7 — Verse Ecclesiastes 1:7. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full — The reason is, nothing goes into it either by the; rivers or by rain, that does not come from it: and to the place whence the rivers come, whether from the sea originally by evaporation,

Ecclesiastes 2:7 — Verse Ecclesiastes 2:7. Servants and maidens — For my works, fields, folds, and various domestic labors.Servants born in any house — Besides those hired from without, he had married couples in the precincts of his grounds, palaces, etc., who, when their children

Isaiah 29:21 — regency of Algiers, who sit constantly in the gate of the palace for that purpose:" that is, the distribution of justice. - Shaw's Travels, p. 315, fol. He adds in the note, "That we read of the elders in the gate. Deuteronomy 21:15; Deuteronomy 25:7; and, Isaiah 29:21; Amos 5:10, of him that reproveth and rebuketh in the gate. The Ottoman court likewise seems to have been called the Porte, from the distribution of justice and the despatch of public business that is carried on in the gates of it."

Hosea 1:2 — says Newcome, a wife from among the Israelites, who were remarkable for spiritual fornication, or idolatry. God calls himself the husband of Israel; and this chosen nation owed him the fidelity of a wife. See Exodus 34:15; Deuteronomy 31:16; Judges 2:17; Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 31:32; Ezekiel 16:17; Ezekiel 23:5; Ezekiel 23:27; Hosea 2:5; Revelation 17:1-2. He therefore says, with indignation, Go join thyself in marriage to one of those who have committed fornication against me, and raise

Joel 2:13 — gracious and merciful.Of great kindness — Exuberant goodness to all them that return to him.And repenteth him of the evil. — Is ever ready to change his purpose to destroy, when he finds the culprit willing to be saved. Exodus 34:6; "Exodus 34:7".

Amos 5:26 — gods about with them everywhere.The tabernacle of your Moloch — Probably a small portable shrine, with an image of their god in it, such as Moloch; and the star or representative of their god Chiun. For an ample exposition of this verse, Acts 7:42; to which let me add, that from Picart's Religious Ceremonies, vol. iii. p. 199, we find that there was an idol named Choun worshipped among the Peruvians from the remotest antiquity.

Obadiah 1:10 — need not look for particular cases of the violence of the Edomites against the Jews. Esau, their founder, was not more inimical to his brother Jacob, who deprived him of his birthright, than the Edomites uniformly were to the Jews. See 2 Chronicles 28:17-18. They had even stimulated the Chaldeans, when they took Jerusalem, to destroy the temple, and level it with the ground. See Psalms 137:7.

Micah 2:6 — expressive of sorrow and sobbing. Literally, "Do not cause it to rain; they will cause it to rain; they cannot make it rain sooner than this; confusion shall not depart from us." To rain, often means to preach, to prophesy; Ezekiel 20:46; Ezekiel 21:2; Amos 7:16; Deuteronomy 32:2; Job 29:22; Proverbs 5:3, c.The last line Bp. Newcome translates, "For he shall not remove from himself reproaches" and paraphrases, "The true prophet will subject himself to public disgrace by exercising his office."

Zephaniah 2:1 — The prophet, having declared the judgments which were ready to fall on his people, earnestly exhorts them to repentance, that these judgments may be averted, 1-3. He then foretells the fate of other neighbouring and hostile nations: the Philistines, 4-7; Moabites and Ammonites, 8-11; Ethiopians, 12; and Assyrians, 13. In the close of the chapter we have a prophecy against Nineveh. These predictions were accomplished chiefly by the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar. NOTES ON CHAP. IIVerse Zephaniah 2:1. Gather

Zechariah 14:8 — in the countries where there was no knowledge of God, there shall these waters flow. The stream shall never cease; it shall run in summer as well as winter. These are living waters - perennial, incessant, and waters that shall preserve life. See John 7:37.

Matthew 7:11 — Verse Matthew 7:11. If ye, then, being evil — πονηροι οντες, who are radically and diabolically depraved, yet feel yourselves led, by natural affection, to give those things to your children which are necessary to support their lives, how much more will your

Matthew 7:9 — Verse Matthew 7:9. Or what man is there - whom if his son — Men are exhorted to come unto God, with the persuasion that he is a most gracious and compassionate Parent, who possesses all heavenly and earthly good, knows what is necessary for each of his creatures,