Bible Commentaries

Exodus 26:36 — Verse Exodus 26:36. A hanging for the door of the tent — This may be called the first veil, as it occupied the door or entrance to the tabernacle; the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies is called the second veil, Hebrews 9:3. These two veils and the inner covering of the tabernacle were all of the same materials, and of the same workmanship. See Exodus 27:16.1. FOR the meaning and design of the tabernacle Exodus 25:40; Exodus 25:40: and while the reader is struck with

1 Kings 13:1 — ordered by God not even to eat or drink in that place; and he accordingly departs, 7-10. An old prophet that dwelt at Beth-el, hearing of this, rides after the man of God; deceives him; brings him back to his house, and persuades him to eat and drink, 11-19. While he is eating, the word of the Lord comes to the old prophet, and he foretells the death of the man of God; who departing is met by a lion, and slain, 20-25. On hearing this, the old prophet goes to the place, finds the carcass, brings it home,

1 Kings 9:28 — Verse 1 Kings 9:28. And they came to Ophir — No man knows certainly, to this day, where this Ophir was situated. There were two places of this name; one somewhere in India, beyond the Ganges, and another in Arabia, near the country of the Sabaeans, mentioned

2 Kings 8:26 — years are easily reckoned by any that will count back in the Chronicle to the second of Omri. Such another reckoning there is about Jechoniah, or Jehoiachin, 2 Kings 24:8: Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign. But, 2 Chronicles 36:9, Jehoiachin was the son of the eight years; that is, the beginning of his reign fell in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar, and of Judah's first captivity." - Works, vol. i., p. 87.After all, here is a most manifest contradiction, that cannot be removed

Job 2:9 — Verse Job 2:9. Then said his wife — To this verse the Septuagint adds the following words: "Much time having elapsed, his wife said unto him, How long dost thou stand steadfast, saying, 'Behold, I wait yet a little longer looking for the hope of my Salvation?'

Psalms 59:12 — Verse Psalms 59:12. For the sin of their mouth — This verse has puzzled all the commentators. If we take חטאת chattath for sin-offering instead of sin, we shall get a better sense. Some of Nehemiah's enemies made a profession of the Jewish religion. Tobiah and

Psalms 69:1 — PSALM LXIX The psalmist describes his afflicted state, and the wickedness of his adversaries, 1-21; he declares the miseries that should come upon his enemies, 22-28; enlarges on his afflicted state, and expresses his confidence in God, 29-34; prophesies the restoration of the Jews to their own land and temple, 35, 36. NOTES ON PSALM LXIXThe title is: "To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David." See this title explained on Psalms 45:1.The Psalm is supposed to have been

Isaiah 15:1 — CHAPTER XV Prediction of very heavy calamities about to fall upon the Moabites, 1-9. This and the following chapter, taken together, make one entire prophecy, very improperly divided into two parts. The time of its delivery, and consequently of its accomplishment, which was to be in three years from that time, is uncertain; the former

Isaiah 22:25 — be understood of Shebna, as a repetition and confirmation of the sentence above denounced against him.WHAT is said of Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Isaiah 22:20-24, is very remarkable; and the literal meaning is not easy to be understood. From Isaiah 9:6, and from Revelation 3:7, it seems to belong to our Lord alone. The removal of Shebna from being over the treasure of the Lord's house, Isaiah 22:19, and the investiture of Eliakim with his robe, girdle, office, and government, Isaiah 22:20, c., probably

Isaiah 26:1 — reverberates the sound of another on the same key with it. He makes likewise a suitable response to what had been said on the judgments of God, and observes their different effects on the good and the bad; improving the one, and hardening the other, 9-11. After this, a chorus of Jews express their gratitude to God for past deliverances, make confession of their sins, and supplicate his power, which they had been long expecting, 12-18. To this God makes a gracious reply, promising deliverance that

Isaiah 50:1 — allusion to the temporal deliverances connected with the drying up of the Red Sea and the Euphrates, asserts his power to save, 2, 3; namely, by the obedience and sufferings of the Messiah, 4-6; who was at length to prove victorious over all his enemies, 7-9. The two last verses exhort to faith and trust in God in the most disconsolate circumstances; with a denunciation of vengeance on those who should trust to their own devices, 10, 11. NOTES ON CHAP. LVerse Isaiah 50:1. Thus saith the Lord — This

Jeremiah 46:1 — shall, by a righteous judgment of God, receive such a signal overthrow near the river Euphrates, that the political consequence of Egypt shall be thereby irretrievably ruined, and its remaining power become contemptible in the sight of the nations, 9-12. The other prophecy, beginning at the thirteenth verse, relates to the memorable overthrow of the Egyptians by Nebuchadnezzar, subsequent to his siege of Tyre, in the sixteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, 13-26. The promise, in the conclusion

Ezekiel 9:4 — Verse Ezekiel 9:4. Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh — This is in allusion to the ancient every-where-used custom of setting marks on servants and slaves, to distinguish them from others. It was also common for the worshippers of particular idols

Hosea 14:1 — idolatry is foretold, and their consequent prosperity, under the emblem of a green flourishing fir tree, 8; but these promises are confined to those who may bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and the wicked are declared to have no share in them, 9. NOTES ON CHAP. XIVVerse Hosea 14:1. O Israel, return unto the Lord — These words may be considered as addressed to the people now in captivity; suffering much, but having still much more to suffer if they did not repent. But it seems all these

Amos 6:1 — forsake Jehovah. Then follows an amplification of the sin which the prophet reproves, 3-6; to which he annexes very awful threatenings, confirmed by the oath of Jehovah, 7, 8. He next particularly specifies the punishment of their sins by pestilence, 9-11; by famine, or a drought that should harden the earth so that it could not be tilled, 12; and by the sword of the Assyrians, 14. NOTES ON CHAP. VIVerse Amos 6:1. Wo to them that are at ease in Zion — For השאננים hashshaanannim, "who dwell at

Numbers 34:19 — Verse Numbers 34:19. - c. And the names of the men - are these — It is worthy of remark that Moses does not follow any order hitherto used of placing the tribes, neither that in chap. i., nor that in chap. vii., nor that in chap. xxvi., nor any other but places them

Micah 7:20 — of Isaac, who was bound upon the altar before thee.And thou wilt do us that good, which, from the most ancient days, thou hast promised to our fathers by an oath." Between the divisions, refers to the covenant made between God and Abraham, Genesis 15:9-11; Genesis 15:17-18. Well might the prophet exult in his challenge to earth and hell. WHO IS A GOD LIKE UNTO THEE! Hell is speechless, earth is dumb. Infidels dare not open their mouths!!! Hallelujah! מי אל כמוך mi El camocha! JESUS is the mighty God

Matthew 13:3 — subject at the conclusion of this chapter. No scheme, says Dr. Lightfoot, of Jewish rhetoric was more familiarly used than that of parables; which, perhaps, creeping in from thence among the heathens, ended in fables.It is said in the tract Sotah, chap. 9. "From the time that Rabbi Meri died, those that spake in parables ceased." Not that this figure of rhetoric perished in the nation from that time; but because he surpassed all others in these flowers, as the gloss there from the tract Sanhedrin speaks.

Matthew 15:5 — &c., I give and bequeath to God and his Church, &c."Though a world of literature was destroyed, and fine buildings ruined, by the suppression of the monasteries in England, yet this step, with the Stat. 23 Hen. VIII. c. 10, together with the Stat. 9 Geo. II. c. 36, ware the means of checking an evil that had arrived at a pitch of unparalleled magnitude an evil that was supplanting the atonement made by the blood of the covenant, and putting death-bed grants of land, c., in the place of Jesus Christ,

Joshua 4:19 — Verse Joshua 4:19. On the tenth day of the first month — As the Israelites left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, A.M. 2513, (see Exodus 14:1-31), and they entered into Canaan the tenth of the first month, A.M. 2553, it is evident that forty years,