Bible Commentaries

Esther 4:1 — distress at the palace gate, sends her servant Hatach to inquire the reason, 4-6. Hatach returns with the information, and also the express desire of Mordecai that she should go instantly to the king, and make supplication in behalf of her people, 7-9. Esther excuses herself on the ground that she had not been called by the king for thirty days past; and that the law was such that any one approaching his presence, without express invitation, should be put to death, unless the king should, in peculiar

Esther 9:1 — Shushan, and in the other provinces seventy-five thousand, 12-16. A recapitulation of what was done; and of the appointment of the feast of Purim to be observed through all their generations every year, 17-28. Esther writes to confirm this appointment, 29-32. NOTES ON CHAP. IXVerse Esther 9:1. Now in the twelfth month — What a number of providences, and none of them apparently of an extraordinary nature, concurred to preserve a people so signally, and to all human appearance so inevitably, doomed

Job 2:1 — and Satan comes also, accusing Job as a person whose steadfastness would be soon shaken, provided his body were to be subjected to sore afflictions, 1-5. He receives permission to afflict Job, and smites him with sore boils, 6-8. His wife reviles him, 9. His pious reproof, 10. His three friends come to visit and mourn with him, 11-13. NOTES ON CHAP. IIVerse Job 2:1. Again there was a day — How long this was after the former trial, we know not: probably one whole year, when, as the Targum intimates,

Job 9:26 — Verse Job 9:26. As the swift ships — אניות אבה oniyoth ebeh. Ships of desire, or ships of Ebeh, says our margin; perhaps more correctly, inflated ships, the sails bellying out with a fair brisk wind, tide favourable, and the vessels themselves lightly freighted.The

Psalms 103:1 — and heals their diseases, 3; redeems their lives, crowns them with loving-kindness, 4; satisfies them with good things, renews their youth, 5; he helps the oppressed, makes his ways known, is merciful and gracious, and keeps not his anger for ever, 6-9; his forbearance, and pardoning mercy, 10-12; he is a tender and considerate Father, 13, 14; the frail state of man, 15, 16; God's everlasting mercy, and universal dominion, 17-19; all his angels, his hosts, and his works, are invited to praise him,

Psalms 137:1 — PSALM CXXXVII The desolate and afflicted state of the captives in Babylon, 1, 2. How they were insulted by their enemies, 3, 4. Their attachment to their country, 5, 6. Judgments denounced against their enemies, 7-9. NOTES ON PSALM CXXXVIIThe Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Arabic, say, ridiculously enough, a Psalm of David for Jeremiah. Anachronisms with those who wrote the titles to the Psalms were matters of no importance. Jeremiah never was at Babylon;

Psalms 31:1 — XXXI The psalmist, with strong confidence in God, in a time of distress prays earnestly for deliverance, 1-5. He expresses his abhorrence of evil, 6; gratefully mentions former interpositions of God, 7, 8; continues to detail the miseries of his case, 9-18; points out the privileges of them that fear God, 19, 20; shows that God had heard his prayers, notwithstanding he had given himself over for lost, 21, 22; calls on the saints to love God, and to have confidence in him, because he preserves the faithful,

Psalms 97:3 — Verse Psalms 97:3. A fire goeth before him — Literally, this and the following verse may refer to the electric fluid, or to manifestations of the Divine displeasure, in which, by means of ethereal fire, God consumed his enemies. But fire is generally represented

Ecclesiastes 9:11 — Verse Ecclesiastes 9:11. The race is not to the swift — It is not by swiftness, nor by strength and valour, that races are gained and battles won. God causes the lame often to take the prey, the prize; and so works that the weak overthrow the strong; therefore, no

Isaiah 25:8 — Verse Isaiah 25:8. He will swallow up death — He, by the grace of God, will taste death for every man. Hebrews 2:9. Probably, swallow up death, and taste death, in both these verses, refer to the same thing: Jesus dying instead of a guilty world. These forms of speech may refer to the punishment of certain criminals; they were obliged to drink a cup of poison. That

Jeremiah 20:14 — confidence in which he exulted a few minutes before. If they are the language of Jeremiah, they must have been spoken on a prior occasion, when probably he had given way to a passionate hastiness. They might well comport with the state he was in Jeremiah 20:9. I really believe these verses have got out of their proper place, which I conjecture to be between the eighth and ninth verses. There they will come in very properly; and might have been a part of his complaint in those moments when he had purposed

Ezekiel 19:1 — CHAPTER XIX This chapter contains two beautiful examples of the parabolic kind of writing; the one lamenting the sad catastrophe of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, 1-9, and the other describing the desolation and captivity of the whole people, 10-14. In the first parable, the lioness is Jerusalem. The first of the young lions is Jehoahaz, deposed by the king of Egypt; and the second lion is Jehoiakim, whose rebellion

Ezekiel 20:1 — CHAPTER XX A deputation of the elders of Israel, as usual, in their distress, came to request Ezekiel to ask counsel of God, 1. In reply to this, God commands the prophet to put them in mind of their rebellion and idolatry: In Egypt, 2-9, in the wilderness, 10-27, and in Canaan, 28-32. Notwithstanding which the Lord most graciously promises to restore them to their own land, after they should be purged from their dross, 33-44. The five last verses of this chapter ought to begin the

Daniel 11:36 — showed itself in the Greek emperors in the east, and in the bishops of Rome in the west. And this is to continue.Till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. — This is the same as what was called in Daniel 8:19, the last end of the indignation and Daniel 9:27, the consummation and means the end or consummation of God's indignation against the Jews. And this seems more clearly expressed, Daniel 12:7: "When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of

Daniel 6:26 — Verse Daniel 6:26. I make a decree that - men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel — As in the case of the three Hebrews, Daniel 3:29. The true God was known by his servants, and by the deliverances he wrought for them. See his characters in this decree.1. He is the living God, the Author and Giver of life; all others are dead gods.2. He is steadfast for ever. All things change; but

Hosea 5:1 — here. The cities of Judah are called upon, in a very animated manner, to prepare for the approach of enemies. Benjamin is to be pursued; Ephraim is to be desolate; and all this is intimated to Israel, that they may by repentance avert the judgment, 8, 9. The following verses contain farther denunciations, 10-13, expressed in terms equally terrible and sublime, 14. The Lord afflicts not willingly the children of men; he visits them with temporal calamities that he may heal their spiritual malady, 15.

Amos 7:1 — growth; the first luxuriances of the crop being probably mowed for the king's horses, 1-3. The next vision threatens a judgment by fire, which would consume a great part, 4-6; and the third a total overthrow of Israel, levelling it as it were by a line, 7-9. The rest of the chapter is a denunciation of heavy judgments against Amaziah, priest of Beth-el, who had brought an accusation to the king against the prophet, 10-17. NOTES ON CHAP. VIIVerse Amos 7:1. Behold, he formed grasshoppers — גבי gobai

Amos 9:1 — declaring the final ruin of the kingdom of Israel, and the general dispersion of the people, 1-10. The prophet then passes to the great blessedness of the people of God under the Gospel dispensation, 11-15. See Acts 15:15-16. NOTES ON CHAP. IXVerse Amos 9:1. I saw the Lord standing upon the altar — As this is a continuation of the preceding prophecy, the altar here may be one of those either at Dan or Beer-sheba.Smite the lintel — Either the piece of timber that binds the wall above the door,

Matthew 1:21 — Verse Matthew 1:21. JESUS — The same as Joshua, יהושע Yehoshua, from ישע yasha, he saved, delivered, put in a state of safety. See on Exodus 13:9; Numbers 13:16, and in the preface to Joshua.He shall save his people from their sins. — This shall be his great business in the world: the great errand on which he is come, viz. to make an atonement for, and to destroy, sin: deliverance from

Matthew 9:37 — Verse Matthew 9:37. The harvest — The souls who are ready to receive the truth are very numerous; but the labourers are few. There are multitudes of scribes, Pharisees, and priests, of reverend and right reverend men; but there are few that work. Jesus wishes