Bible Commentaries

Psalms 119:32 — me:" Give me the grace thou hast promised.3. "Remove from me the way of lying:" Give me power to avoid all sin.4. "Grant me thy law graciously:" Print the matter of it in my heart, and abolish my corruption.5. He chooses the truth.6. He adheres to it.7. He will continue in it.8. Yea, and with greater diligence than ever. To make up for lost time, he will now run: and, while running, keep in God's way. Some run, but they run out of it.

Psalms 120:7 — Verse Psalms 120:7. I am for peace — We love to be quiet and peaceable; but they are continually engaged in excursions of rapine and plunder. It is evident that the psalmist refers to a people like the Scenitae or wandering Arabs, who live constantly in tents, and

Proverbs 31:1 — CHAPTER XXXI The words and prophecy of King Lemuel, and what his mother taught him, 1, 2. Debauchery and much wine to be avoided, 3-7. How kings should administer justice, 8, 9. The praise of a virtuous woman and good housewife, in her economy, prudence, watchfulness, and assiduity in labour, 10-29. Frailty of beauty, 30, 31. NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIVerse Proverbs 31:1. The words of King

Song of Solomon 4:1 — The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have, besides thy silence. Calmet contends that none of these gives the true meaning, and that the word tsemath has not the meaning of hair or locks wherever it occurs, and has quite a different meaning in Isaiah 47:2. St. Jerome on this place expresses himself thus: Nolentibus qui interpretati sunt transferre nomen quod in Sancta Scriptura sonat turpitudinem.-Ergo tsammathech, quod Aquila posuit, verenda mulieris appellanatur cujus etymologia apud eos sonat sitiens

Isaiah 14:4 — signifies to rule; to exercise authority; to make equal; to compare one thing with another; to utter parables, or acute, weighty, and powerful speeches, in the form and manner of parables, though not properly such. Thus Balaam's first prophecy, (Numbers 23:7-10,) is called his mashal; though it has hardly any thing figurative in it: but it is beautifully sententious, and, from the very form and manner of it, has great spirit, force, and energy. Thus Job's last speeches, in answer to his three friends, Job

Isaiah 15:2 — baldness, c. - "On every head there is baldness," &c.] Herodotus, ii. 36, speaks of it as a general practice among all men, except the Egyptians, to cut off their hair as a token of mourning. "Cut off thy hair, and cast it away," says Jeremiah, Jeremiah 7:29, "and take up a lamentation." Τουτο νυ και γερας οιον οἱζυροισι βροτοισι Κειρασθαι τε κομην, βαλεειν τ' απο δακρυ παρειων. HOM. Odyss. iv. 197. "The rites of wo Are all, alas! the living can bestow O'er the congenial dust enjoined to shear The

Isaiah 24:1 — CHAPTER XXIV Dreadful judgments impending over the people of God, 1-4. Particular enumeration of the horrid impieties which provoked the Divine vengeance, 5, 6. Great political wretchedness of the transgressors, 7-12. The calamities shall be so great that only a small remnant shall be left in the land, as it were the gleanings of the vintage, 13. The rest, scattered over the different countries, spread there the knowledge of God, 14-16. Strong figures by which

Isaiah 25:1 — the temporal deliverances vouchsafed at various tines to the primitive kingdoms of Israel and Judah were the prototypes, 1-5. These blessings are described under the figure of a feast made for all nations, 6; the removing of a veil from their faces, 7; the total extinction of the empire of death by the resurrection from the dead, the exclusion of all sorrow, and the final overthrow of all the enemies of the people of God, 8-12. It does not appear to me that this chapter has any close and particular

Isaiah 45:1 — indebted for his wonderful success, 4-6. The prophet refutes the absurd opinion of the Persians, that there were two supreme beings, an evil and a good one, represented by light and darkness, here declared to be only the operation of the ONE true God, 7; and makes a transition to the still greater work of God displayed in the dispensation of the Gospel, 8. Great impiety of those who call in question the mysterious providence of God towards his children, 9-12. The remaining part of this chapter, interspersed

Jeremiah 31:20 — sorrow, he was instructed, הודעי hivvadei, he got a thorough knowledge of the desperate wickedness of his heart and life.6. Having received this instruction, he was filled with excessive grief; which is signified here by smiting on his thigh. See above.7. He finds that from his youth up he had been sinning against God; and although his youthful sins had long passed from his memory, yet the light of God brought them back, and he was ashamed and confounded at the sight of them.8. In this state of confusion

Jeremiah 4:1 — which they were threatened might be averted, 3, 4. He then sounds the alarm of war, 5, 6. Nebuchadnezzar, like a fierce lion, is, from the certainty of the prophecy, represented to be on his march; and the disastrous event to have been already declared, 7-9. And as the lying prophets had flattered the people with the hopes of peace and safety, they are now introduced, (when their predictions are falsified by the event,) excusing themselves; and, with matchless effrontery, laying the blame of the deception

Jeremiah 49:1 — Ammonites shall be restored to their liberty, 6. Prophecy against the Edomites, (very like that most dreadful one in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah against the same people,) who shall be utterly exterminated, after the similitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, 7-22. Prophecy against Damascus, 23-27; and against Kedar, 28, 29. Utter desolation of the kingdoms of Hazor foretold, 30-33. The polity of the Elamites shall be completely dissolved, and the people dispersed throughout the nations, 34-38. The Elamites

Jeremiah 6:1 — regret they have no more day, and desire to begin the attack without waiting for the light of the morning, 2-5. God is then represented as animating and directing the besiegers against this guilty city, which sinned as incessantly as a fountain flows, 6, 7, although warned of the fatal consequence, 8. He intimates also, by the gleaning of the grapes, that one invasion should carry away the remains of another, till their disobedience, hypocrisy, and other sins should end in their total overthrow, 9-15.

Jeremiah 8:1 — every mark of indignity, 1-3. From this the prophet returns to reprove them for their perseverance in transgression, 4-6; and for their thoughtless stupidity, which even the instinct of the brute creation, by a beautiful contrast, is made to upbraid, 7-9. This leads to farther threatening expressed in a variety of striking terms, 10-13. Upon which a chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their terror on the news of the invasion, 14, 15; which is greatly heightened in the next verse by the prophet's

Hosea 14:2 — shall we render thee the calves" (פרים parim, for which the versions in general read פרי peri, fruits, omitting the ם mem) "of our lips;" the sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving, gratitude, and the hearty obedience which our lips have often promised.7. Having thus determined, specify your resolutions to depend on God alone for all that can make you wise, useful, holy, and happy. The resolutions are: - 1. Asshur shall not save us - We will neither trust in, nor fear, this rich and powerful king. We

Matthew 20:22 — but be the means of damnation to hundreds; for if God has not sent them, they shall not profit the people at all.And to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized, &c.] This clause in this, and the next verse, is wanting in BDL, two others, (7 more in Matthew 20:23,) Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Mr. WHEELOCK'S Persic, Vulgate, Saxon, and all the Itala, except two. Grotius, Mill, and Bengel, think it should be omitted, and Griesbach has left it out of the text in both his editions. It is omitted

Matthew 3:1 — CHAPTER III. John the Baptist begins to preach, 1. The subject of his preaching, 2, 3. Description of his clothing and food, 4. The success of his ministry, 5, 6. His exhortation to the Pharisees, 7-9. He denounces the judgments of God against the impenitent, 10. The design of his baptism, and that of Christ, 11, 12. He baptizes Christ in Jordan, 13-15; who is attested to be the Messiah by the Holy Spirit, and a voice from heaven, 16, 17. NOTES

Luke 8:18 — παλαιοι, αλλα πολλακις και επι του αληθευειν. The word δοκειν is used by the ancients to express, not always what is doubtful, but oftentimes what is true and certain. And this is manifestly its meaning in Matthew 3:9; Luke 22:24; John 5:39; 1 Corinthians 7:40; 1 Corinthians 10:12; 1 Corinthians 11:16; Galatians 2:9; Philippians 3:4; and in the text. See these meanings of the word established beyond the possibility of successful contradiction, in Bishop PEARCE'S notes on Mark 10:42, and in KYPKE in loc.

John 2:4 — disconsolate mother when he hung upon the cross, John 19:26; as he did his most affectionate friend Mary Magdalene, John 20:15, and as the angels had addressed her before, John 20:13; and as St. Paul does the believing Christian woman, 1 Corinthians 7:16; in all which places the same term, γυναι which occurs in this verse, is used; and where certainly no kind of disrespect is intended, but, on the contrary, complaisance, affability, tenderness, and concern and in this sense it is used in the best

John 5:1 — because he had done this cure on the Sabbath, 10-16. Our Lord vindicates his conduct, and shows, from the testimony of the Father, the Scriptures, John the Baptist, and his own works, that he came from God, to be the light and salvation of the world, 17-39. He reproves the Jews for their obstinacy, 40; hatred to God, 41, 42; pride, 43, 44; and disbelief of their own law, 45-47. NOTES ON CHAP. V.Verse John 5:1. A feast — This is generally supposed, by the best critics, to have been the feast of