Bible Commentaries

Psalms 104:3 — Verse Psalms 104:3. המקרה במים עליותיו hamekareh bammayim aliyothaiv. "Laying the beams of his chambers in the waters." The sacred writer expresses the wonderful nature of the air aptly, and regularly constructed, from various and flux elements, into one continued and

Psalms 115:1 — PSALM CXV God alone is to be glorified, 1-3. The vanity of idols, 4-8. Israel, the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, are exhorted to trust it the Lord, 9-11. The Lord's goodness to his people, and his gracious promises, 12-16. As the dead cannot praise him, the living should, 17, 18. NOTES

Psalms 65:3 — Verse Psalms 65:3. Iniquities prevail against me — This is no just rendering of the original, דברי עונת גברו מני dibrey avonoth gaberu menni; "iniquitous words have prevailed against me," or, "The words of iniquity are strong against me." All kinds of calumnies,

Psalms 73:3 — Verse Psalms 73:3. I was envious at the foolish — I saw persons who worshipped not the true God, and others who were abandoned to all vices, in possession of every temporal comfort, while the godly were in straits, difficulties, and affliction. I began then to

Psalms 75:3 — Verse Psalms 75:3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved — They all depend on me; and whenever I withdraw the power by which they exist and live, they are immediately dissolved.I bear up the pillars of it. — By the word of my power all things

Psalms 78:25 — excellence of that which they called light bread, and which they said their soul loathed; Numbers 21:5! It was a type of Jesus Christ, for so says St. Paul: "They all ate the same spiritual meat, and drank the same spiritual drink," c., 1 Corinthians 10:3-4. And our Lord calls himself "the bread that came down from heaven, that giveth life unto the world," John 6:31-35: but a Jew sees nothing but with the eyes of flesh. It is true their doctors or rabbins are full of allegories, mysteries, and conceits

Psalms 78:5 — not forget his works, and might keep his commandments: that they might not be as their fathers, but have their heart right and their spirit steadfast with God, Psalms 78:6-8. Five generations appear to be mentioned above:1. Fathers;2. Their children;3. The generation to come;4. And their children;5. And their children.They were never to lose sight of their history throughout all their generations. Some think the testimony here may mean the tabernacle.

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

Proverbs 14:4 — much increase is by the strength of the ox. — The ox is the most profitable of all the beasts used in husbandry. Except merely for speed, he is almost in every respect superior to the horse.1. He is longer lived.2. Scarcely liable to any diseases.3. He is steady, and always pulls fair in his gears.4. He lives, fattens, and maintains his strength on what a horse will not eat, and therefore is supported on one third the cost.5. His manure is more profitable. And,6, When he is worn out in his labour

Proverbs 8:3 — Verse Proverbs 8:3. She crieth at the gates — This might be well applied to the preaching of Jesus Christ and his apostles, and their faithful successors in the Christian ministry. He went to the temple, and proclaimed the righteousness of the Most High: he did

Isaiah 10:17 — as we say; it shall consume them entirely and altogether; and the few that escape shall be looked upon as having escaped from the most imminent danger; "as a firebrand plucked out of the fire," Amos 4:11; ὡς δια πυρος, so as by fire, 1 Corinthians 3:15; as a man when a house is burning is forced to make his escape by running through the midst of the fire.I follow here the reading of the Septuagint, כמאש נסס kemash noses, ὡς ὁ φευγων απω φλογος χαιομενης, as he who flees from the burning flame.

Isaiah 14:1 — CHAPTER XIV Deliverance of Israel from captivity, which shall follow the downfall of the great Babylonish empire, 1, 2. Triumphant ode or song of the children of Jacob, for the signal manifestation of Divine vengeance against their oppressors, 3-23. Prophecy against the Assyrians, 24, 25. Certainty of the prophecy, and immutability of the Divine counsels, 26, 27. Palestine severely threatened, 28-31. God shall establish Zion in these troublous times, 32. NOTES ON CHAP. XIVVerse Isaiah 14:1.

Isaiah 16:5 — man of war or blood, who wastes his subjects' lives and treasures in contentions with neighbouring nations, in order to satisfy his ambition by the extension of his territory. On the contrary, his whole life is occupied in the distribution of justice.3. He seeketh judgment. He seeks out the poor distressed ones who cannot make their way to him, and avenges them on their oppressors.4. He hastens righteousness. He does not suffer any of the courts of justice to delay the determination of the causes

Isaiah 25:2 — Deuteronomy 18:20; Deuteronomy 18:22. Another MS. reads צרים tsarim, adversaries; which also makes a good sense. But זרים zarim, strangers, and זדים zedim, the proud, are often confounded by the great similitude of the letters ד daleth and ר resh. See Malachi 3:15; Malachi 4:1; Psalms 19:14, in the Septuagint; and Psalms 54:5, where the Chaldee reads זדים zedim, compared with Psalms 86:16.

Isaiah 63:11 — Verse Isaiah 63:11. Moses and his people - "Moses his servant"] For עמו ammo, his people, two MSS. (one of them ancient) and one of my own, (ancient,) and one of De Rossi's, and the old edition of 1488, and the Syriac, read עבדו abdo, his servant. These two words have

Ezekiel 11:1 — CHAPTER XI This chapter denounces the judgments of God against those wicked persons who remained in Jerusalem and made a mock of the types and predictions of the prophets, 1-13; compare Ezekiel 11:3 with Jeremiah 1:13. God promises to favour those who were gone into captivity, and intimates their restoration from the Babylonish yoke, 14-21. Then the shechinah, or symbol of the Divine Presence, is represented forsaking the

Ezekiel 18:6 — sacrifices feasted on the sacrifice, and thus held communion with the idol.2. Neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols — Has paid them no religious adoration; has trusted in them for nothing, and has not made prayer nor supplication before them.3. Neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife — Has had no adulterous connexion with any woman; to which idolatrous feasts and worship particularly led.4. Neither hath come nigh to a menstruous woman — Has abstained from the use of the marriage-bed

Ezekiel 4:12 — their food. Indeed, dried excrement of every kind is gathered. Here, the prophet is to prepare his bread with dry human excrement. And when we know that this did not come in contact with the bread, and was only used to warm the plate, (see Ezekiel 4:3,) on which the bread was laid over the fire, it removes all the horror and much of the disgust. This was required to show the extreme degree of wretchedness to which they should be exposed; for, not being able to leave the city to collect the dried

Daniel 3:23 — Verse 23. And these three men - fell down bound — There is a most evident want of connexion between this and the following verse; and it is between these verses that the apocryphal Song of the Three Children, as it is called, has been inserted by St. Jerome

Daniel 7:8 — Daniel 7:8. Another little horn — Among Protestant writers this is considered to be the popedom.Before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up — These were probably,1. The exarchate of Ravenna.2. The kingdom of the Lombards. And,3. The state of Rome.The first was given to the Pope, Stephen II., by Pepin, king of France, A.D. 755; and this constituted the pope's temporal princes. The second was given to St. Peter by Charlemagne, in 774. The third, the state of Rome, was vested