Bible Commentaries

Proverbs 18:4 — Verse Proverbs 18:4. The words of a man's mouth — That is, the wise sayings of a wise man are like deep waters; howsoever much you pump or draw off, you do not appear to lessen them.The well-spring of wisdom — Where there is a sound understanding, and a deep,

Proverbs 24:13 — Verse Proverbs 24:13. And the honey-comb — I have often had occasion to remark how much finer the flavour of honey is in the honey-comb than it is after it has been expressed from it, and exposed to the action of the air. But it has been asserted that the honey-comb

Proverbs 31:15 — Verse Proverbs 31:15. She riseth also while it is yet night —4. She is an economist of time; and when the nights are long, and the days short, her family not only spend a part of the evening after sunset in domestic labour, but they all arise before daylight, and prepare the day's food, that they may not have their

Proverbs 6:16 — six - doth the Lord hate —1. A proud look - exalted eyes; those who will not condescend to look on the rest of mankind.2. A lying tongue - he who neither loves nor tells truth.3. Hands that shed innocent blood, whether by murder or by battery.4. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations - the heart that fabricates such, lays the foundation, builds upon it, and completes the superstructure of iniquity.5. Feet that be swift in running to mischief - he who works iniquity with greediness.6. A

Ecclesiastes 11:4 — Verse Ecclesiastes 11:4. He that observeth the wind shall not sow — The man that is too scrupulous is never likely to succeed in any thing. If a man neither plough nor sow till the weather is entirely to his mind, the season will in all probability pass before he will

Song of Solomon 4:5 — Verse Song of Solomon 4:5. Thy two breasts are like two young roes — I have met with many attempts to support this similitude, or rather to show that there is a similitude; but I judge them unworthy of citation. The poet speaks the language of nature; and in a case of

Song of Solomon 6:13 — shelomon, as we form Charlotte from Charles; Henrietta, from Henry; Janette, from John, c.The company of two armies. — Or the musicians of the camps. She is as terrible as hosts of armed men, on the ground of what is said on Song of Solomon 6:4-5. The two armies may refer to the choirs of the bride's virgins, and the bridegroom's companions but the similitude is not very perceptible. The Targum explains it of "the camps of Israel and Judah:" as if the bridegroom should say, "My beloved possesses

Isaiah 23:17 — as it is here foretold, its ancient trade, wealth, and grandeur; as it did likewise after a second destruction by Alexander. It became Christian early with the rest of the neighbouring countries. St. Paul himself found many Christians there, Acts 21:4. It suffered much in the Diocletian persecution. It was an archbishopric under the patriarchate of Jerusalem, with fourteen bishoprics under its jurisdiction. It continued Christian till it was taken by the Saracens in 639; was recovered by the Christians

Isaiah 31:1 — Egypt, finely contrasted with their neglect of the power and protection of God, 1-3. Deliverance and protection are, notwithstanding, promised, expressed by two similes; the first remarkably lofty and poetical, the latter singularly beautiful and tender, 4, 5. Exhortation to repentance, joined with the prediction of a more reformed period, 6, 7. This chapter concludes like the preceding, with a prophecy of the fall of Sennacherib, 8, 9. NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIVerse Isaiah 31:1. Wo to them that go down to

Isaiah 47:1 — by a beautiful selection of circumstances, in which her prosperous is contrasted with her adverse condition. She is represented as a tender and delicate female reduced to the work and abject condition of a slave, and bereaved of every consolation, 1-4. And that on account of her cruelty, particularly to God's people, her pride, voluptuousness, sorceries, and incantations, 5-11. The folly of these last practices elegantly exposed by the prophet, 12-15. It is worthy of observation that almost all the

Isaiah 58:4 — Verse Isaiah 58:4. Ye fast for strife and debate — How often is this the case! A whole nation are called to fast to implore God's blessing on wars carried on for the purposes of wrath and ambition.To smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do

Lamentations 2:20 — context. The priest and the prophet are slain; the young and old lie on the ground in the streets; the virgins and young men are fallen by the sword. "THOU hast slain them in the day of thine anger; THOU hast killed, and not pitied." See Lamentations 4:10.

Ezekiel 1:4 — Verse Ezekiel 1:4. A whirlwind came out of the north — Nebuchadnezzar, whose land, Babylonia, lay north of Judea. Chaldea is thus frequently denominated by Jeremiah.A great cloud, and a fire infolding itself — A mass of fire concentrated in a vast cloud,

Ezekiel 26:21 — prophetic declarations, taken according to the letter, point out! No word of God can ever fall to the ground.Notwithstanding the former destructions, Tyre was a place of some consequence in the time of St. Paul. There was a Church there, (see Acts 21:3-4, &c.,) which afterwards became famous. Calmet observes, it afforded a great number of martyrs for the Christian Church.

Ezekiel 37:6 — ligaments, called here sinews, are to be added in order to unite the bones, that the skeleton might be complete.3. The flesh (the whole muscular system, the subjacent and superjacent muscles, including the arterial and venous system) clothes this skeleton.4. The skin (the dermis and epidermis, or cutis and cuticle) envelopes the whole of these muscles or flesh; and now these bodies are in the state that the body of Adam was before it received the animal and intellectual principle from God.5. There was

Ezekiel 4:10 — Verse Ezekiel 4:10. Twenty shekels a day — The whole of the above grain, being ground, was to be formed into one mass, out of which he was to make three hundred and ninety loaves; one loaf for each day; and this loaf was to be of twenty shekels in weight. Now

Hosea 6:1 — CHAPTER VI The prophet earnestly exhorts to repentance, 1-3. God is then introduced as very tenderly and pathetically remonstrating against the backslidings of Ephraim and Judah, 4-11. NOTES ON CHAP. VIVerse Hosea 6:1. Come, and let us return unto the Lord — When God had purposed to abandon them, and they found that he had returned to his place - to his temple, where alone he could be successfully sought; they, feeling their

Hosea 6:2 — good.In the third day he will raise us up — In so short a time can he give us complete deliverance. These words are supposed to refer to the death and resurrection of our Lord; and it is thought that the apostle refers to them, 1 Corinthians 15:4: "Christ rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures;" and this is the only place in the Scriptures, i.e., of the Old Testament, where his resurrection on the third day seems to be hinted at. The original, יקמנו yekimenu, has been translated,

Amos 4:7 — Verse Amos 4:7. When there were yet three months to the harvest — St. Jerome says, from the end of April, when the latter rain falls, until harvest, there are three months, May, June, and July, in which no rain falls in Judea. The rain, therefore, that God

Jonah 4:5 — Verse Jonah 4:5. So Jonah went out of the city — I believe this refers to what had already passed; and I therefore agree with Bp. Newcome, who translates, "Now Jonah HAD gone out of the city, and HAD sat," c. for there are many instances where verbs in the