Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 3:9 — Verse Isaiah 3:9. The show of their countenance — Bishop Lowth has it the steadfastness of their countenance-they appear to be bent on iniquity, their eyes tell the wickedness of their hearts. The eye is the index of the mind. Envy, hatred, malice, malevolence,

Isaiah 40:2 — returning people. To express this sense of the passage, which the words of the original will very well bear, it was necessary to add a word or two in the version to supply the elliptical expression of the Hebrew. Compare Isaiah 61:7; Job 42:10; Zechariah 9:12. חטאה chattaah signifies punishment for sin, Lamentations 3:39; Zechariah 14:19. But Kimchi says, "Double here means the two captivities and emigrations suffered by the Israelites. The first, the Babylonish captivity; the second, that which they

Isaiah 47:9 — Verse Isaiah 47:9. These two things shall come to thee in. a moment — That is, suddenly. Belshazzar was slain; thus the city became metaphorically a widow, the husband - the governor of it, being slain. In the time in which the king was slain, the Medes and Persians

Isaiah 9:6 — Verse Isaiah 9:6. The government shall be upon his shoulder — That is, the ensign of government; the sceptre, the sword, the key, or the like, which was borne upon or hung from the shoulder. Isaiah 22:22.And his name shall be called — אל גבור El gibbor,

Jeremiah 30:9 — Verse Jeremiah 30:9. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their King — This must refer to the times of the Messiah; and hence the Chaldee has, "They shall obey the Lord their God, וישת מאון למשיחה בר דוד veyishta meun limschicha bar David, and they

Jeremiah 34:18 — they both feasted on the victim. In reference to this last circumstance, God says he will give their bodies for meat to the fowls of heaven and to the beasts. This is a farther conformity between the crime and the punishment. See my notes on Genesis 15:9-17.

Ezekiel 38:1 — representing a prodigious armarnent of many nations combined together under the conduct of Gog, with the intention of overwhelming the Jews, after having been for some time resettled in their land subsequent to their return from the Babylonish captivity, 1-9. These enemies are farther represented as making themselves sure of the spoil, 10-13. But in this critical conjuncture when Israel, to all human appearance, was about to be swallowed up by her enemies, God most graciously appears, to execute by terrible

Daniel 10:13 — leave Cyrus till Michael came to take his place. Michael, he who is like God, sometimes appears to signify the Messiah, at other times the highest or chief archangel. Indeed there is no archangel mentioned in the whole Scripture but this one. See Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7.

Hosea 9:14 — Verse Hosea 9:14. Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? — There is an uncommon beauty in these words. The prophet, seeing the evils that were likely to fall upon his countrymen, begins to make intercession for them; but when he had formed the first part of

Micah 3:10 — Verse Micah 3:10. They build up Zion with blood — They might cry out loudly against that butchery practised by Pekah, king of Israel, and Pul coadjutor of Rezie, against the Jews. See on Micah 2:9. But these were by no means clear themselves; for if they strengthened the city, or decorated the temple, it was by the produce of their exactions and oppressions of the people.I do not know a text more applicable than this to slave-dealers; or to any

Zephaniah 1:9 — Verse 9. That leap on the threshold — Or, that leap over the threshold. It is most probable that the Philistines are here meant. After the time that Dagon fell before the ark, and his hands were broken off on the threshold of his temple, his worshippers

Zechariah 5:9 — Verse Zechariah 5:9. There came out two women — As the one woman represented the impiety of the Jewish nation; so these two women who were to carry the ephah, in which the woman INIQUITY was shut up, under the weight of a talent of lead, may mean the desperate UNBELIEF

Matthew 16:26 — sin: therefore it is necessary. He who is saved from his sin, and united to God, possesses the utmost felicity that the human soul can enjoy, either in this or the coming world: therefore, this salvation is important. See also Clarke's note on "Luke 9:25".

Matthew 17:14 — to memory; the FOREHEAD to genius; the RIGHT HAND to faith; and the KNEES to mercy: hence those who entreated favour fell at and touched the knees of the person whose kindness they supplicated. See Wakefield's Commentary; and see the note on Exodus 9:29; where the subject is largely explained.

Matthew 21:8 — Verse Matthew 21:8. Cut down branches from the trees — Carrying palm and other branches was emblematical of victory and success. See 1 Mac. xiii. 51; 2 Mac. x. 7; and Revelation 7:9.The rabbins acknowledge that the prophecy in Zechariah refers to the Messiah; so Rab. Tancum, and Yalcut Rubeni has a strange story about the ass. "This ass is the colt of that ass which was created in the twilight of the sixth day. This is the ass

Matthew 8:31 — Vulgate. Send us away seems to express more fully the absolute power Jesus Christ had over them - permission alone was not sufficient; the very power by which they were to go away, must come from Christ himself! How vain was the boast of Satan, Matthew 4:9, when we find he could not possess the body of one of the vilest animals that God has made, without immediate authority from the Most High! Since a demon cannot enter even into a swine without being sent by God himself, how little is the power or malice

Matthew 9:16 — Verse Matthew 9:16. No man putteth a piece of new cloth — Ουδεις δε επιβαλλει επιβλημα ρακους αγναφου επι ιματιω παλαιω. No man putteth a patch of unscoured cloth upon an old garment. This is the most literal translation I can give of this verse, to convey its

Mark 16:1 — the morning after the Sabbath, the three Marys come to the sepulchre, bringing sweet spices to embalm the body, 1-4. They see an angel who announces the resurrection of our Lord, 5-8. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, who goes and tells the disciples, 9-11. He appears also to the two disciples who were going into the country, who also tell it to the rest, 12, 13. Afterwards he appears unto the eleven, and commissions them to preach the Gospel to all mankind, 14-16. And promises to endue them with power

Luke 1:32 — Revolutions may destroy the kingdoms of the earth, but the powers and gates of hell and death shall never be able to destroy or injure the kingdom of Christ. His is the only dominion that shall never have an end. The angel seems here to refer to Isaiah 9:7; Isaiah 16:5; Jeremiah 23:5; Daniel 2:44; Daniel 7:14. All which prophecies speak of the glory, extent, and perpetuity of the evangelical kingdom. The kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory form the endless government of Christ.

Luke 9:7 — Verse Luke 9:7. Herod the tetrarch — See note on Matthew 2:1; Matthew 14:1.By him — This is omitted by BCDL, two others, the Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian, and four of the Itala. It is probable that Luke might have written, Herod, hearing of all the things