Bible Commentaries

1 Kings 21:1 — exchange, 1, 2. Naboth refuses to alienate it on any account, because it was his inheritance from his fathers, 3. Ahab becomes disconsolate, takes to his bed, and refuses to eat, 4. Jezebel, finding out the cause, promises to give him the vineyard, 5-7. She writes to the nobles of Jezreel to proclaim a fast, to accuse Naboth of blasphemy, carry him out, and stone him to death; which is accordingly done, 8-14. She then tells Ahab to go and take possession of the vineyard; he goes, and is met by Elijah,

1 Kings 5:1 — CHAPTER V Hiram, king of Tyre, sends to congratulate Solomon on his accession to the kingdom, 1. Solomon consults him on building a temple for the Lord, and requests his assistance, 2-6. Hiram is pleased and specifies the assistance which he will afford, 7-9. He sends cedars and fir trees, 10. The return made by Solomon, 11. They form a league, 12. Solomon makes a levy of men in Israel to prepare wood and stones, 13-18. NOTES ON CHAP. VVerse 1 Kings 5:1. Hiram king of Tyre — It must have been at

1 Kings 7:51 — Verse 1 Kings 7:51. Solomon brought in the things — It has been a question whether Solomon, in the structure of the temple, used any of the gold and silver which David had provided? And here it seems answered in the negative; for after the house was finished,

2 Kings 18:1 — CHAPTER XVIII Hezekiah begins to reign; he removes the high places, breaks to pieces the brazen serpent, and walks uprightly before God, 1-6. He endeavours to shake off the Assyrian yoke, and defeats the Philistines, 7, 8. Shalmaneser comes up against Samaria, takes it, and carries the people away into captivity, 9-12. And then comes against Judah, and takes all the fenced cities, 13. Hezekiah sends a message to him at Lachish to desist, with the promise that he will

1 Chronicles 7:6 — Verse 1 Chronicles 7:6. The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher and Jediael — In Genesis 46:21, ten sons of Benjamin are reckoned; viz., Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Eri, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. In Numbers 26:38, c., five sons only of Benjamin are mentioned,

2 Chronicles 12:13 — consulting the young men that were brought up with him, 2 Chronicles 10:8; 2 Chronicles 10:10. They were young men then; and if he was brought up with them, he must have been young then also. Besides, Abijah, in his speech to Jeroboam, 2 Chronicles 13:7, says that at the time Rehoboam came to the throne he was tender-hearted, and therefore could not withstand the children of Belial raised up against him by Jeroboam: but surely at that time no man could be reputed young and tender-hearted - quite devoid

Esther 3:1 — Ahasuerus exalts Haman the Agagite, and commands all his officers to do him reverence, which Mordecai refuses, 1-3. Haman, informed of Mordecai's refusal, plots his destruction, and that of the Jews, 4-6. Lots are cast to find out the proper time, 7. Haman accuses the Jews to Ahasuerus, counsels him to destroy them, and offers ten thousand talents of silver for the damage which the revenue might sustain by their destruction, 8, 9. The king refuses the money, but gives Haman full authority to destroy

Job 3:7 — Verse Job 3:7. Lo, let that night be solitary — The word הנה hinneh, behold, or lo, is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS., nor is it expressed in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, or Arabic.The word גלמוד galmud, which we translate solitary, is properly Arabic.

Job 38:1 — CHAPTER XXXVIII The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, and challenges him to answer, 1-3. He convinces him of ignorance and weakness, by an enumeration of some of his mighty works; particularly of the creation of the earth, 4-7. The sea and the deeps, 8-18. The light, 19-21. Snow, hail, thunder, lightning, rain, dew, ice, and hoar-frost, 22-30. Different constellations, and the ordinances of heaven influencing the earth, 31-33. Shows his own power and wisdom in the atmosphere,

Job 7:5 — Verse Job 7:5. My flesh is clothed with worms — This is perhaps no figure, but is literally true: the miserably ulcerated state of his body, exposed to the open air, and in a state of great destitution, was favourable to those insects that sought such places

Psalms 14:3 — is man?The Vulgate, the Roman copy of the Septuagint, the AEthiopic, and the Arabic, add those six verses here which are quoted by St. Paul, Romans 3:13-18. See the notes on those passages, and see the observations at the end of this Psalm. Psalms 14:7.

Psalms 51:7 — Verse Psalms 51:7. Purge me with hyssop — תחטאני techatteeni, "thou shalt make a sin-offering for me;" probably alluding to the cleansing of the leper: Leviticus 14:1, c. The priest took two clean birds, cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop one of the birds was killed;

Psalms 55:15 — Let the earth swallow them up! And something of this kind actually took place. Absalom and his army were defeated; twenty thousand of the rebels were slain on the field; and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured, 2 Samuel 18:7-8. The words might be rendered, "Death shall exact upon them; they shall descend alive into sheol." And death did exact his debt upon them, as we have seen above.

Psalms 55:7 — Verse Psalms 55:7. Would I wander far off — He did escape; and yet his enemies were so near, as to throw stones at him: but he escaped beyond Jordan. 2 Samuel 17:22-23.A passage in the Octavia of SENECA has been referred to as being parallel to this of David. It

Psalms 92:1 — PSALM XCII The psalmist shows the duty and advantage of praising God, 1-3; speaks of the grandeur of God's works, 4-6; the fall of the wicked, 7-9; the happiness of the righteous, 10-14; and all this founded on the perfections of God. NOTES ON PSALM XCIIThe title, A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath, gives no information concerning the time, occasion, or author. The Chaldee, has "Praise, and a

Proverbs 1:1 — before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 1000. -Year since the Deluge, according to Archbishop Usher and the English Bible, 1348. -Year from the destruction of Troy, 185. -Year before the first Olympiad, 224. -Year before the building of Rome, 247. CHAPTER I The design of the proverbs, 1-6. An exhortation to fear God, and believe his word, because of the benefit to be derived from it, 7-9; to avoid the company of wicked men, who involve themselves in wretchedness and ruin, 10-19. Wisdom, personified,

Proverbs 13:7 — Verse Proverbs 13:7. There is that maketh himself rich — That labours hard to acquire money, yet hath nothing; his excessive covetousness not being satisfied with what he possesses, nor permitting him to enjoy with comfort what he has acquired. The fable of the dog

Isaiah 18:7 — Verse Isaiah 18:7. The present - "A gift"] The Egyptians were in alliance with the kingdom of Judah, and were fellow-sufferers with the Jews under the invasion of their common enemy Sennacherib; and so were very nearly interested in the great and miraculous deliverance

Isaiah 5:26 — "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, συρισμασι, by a hiss or a whistle." - Cyril, on this place; and to the same purpose Theodoret, ib. In Isaiah 7:18, the metaphor is more apparent, by being carried farther, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: - "JEHOVAH shall hist the fly That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria." On which place

2 Samuel 15:7 — Verse 2 Samuel 15:7. After forty years — There is no doubt that this reading is corrupt, though supported by the commonly printed Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. But the Syriac has [Syriac] arba shanin, FOUR years; the Arabic the same [Arabic] arba shinin,