Bible Commentaries

Job 32:8 — the afflatus of this spirit he becomes capable of understanding and reason, and consequently of discerning Divine truth. The animal and intellectual lives are here stated to be from God; and this appears to be an allusion to man's creation, Genesis 2:7: "And God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives," נשמת חיים nishmath chaiyim, i.e., animal and intellectual, and thus he became a living soul, nephesh chaiyah, a rational animal.When man fell from God, the Spirit of God was grieved, and departed

Job 7:12 — Verse Job 7:12. Am I a sea, or a whale — "Am I condemned as the Egyptians were who were drowned in the Red Sea? or am I as Pharaoh, who was drowned in it in his sins, that thou settest a keeper over me?" Targum. Am I as dangerous as the sea, that I should

Job 7:6 — Verse Job 7:6. Swifter than a weaver's shuttle — The word ארג areg signifies rather the weaver than his shuttle. And it has been doubted whether any such instrument were in use in the days of Job. Dr. Russell, in his account of Aleppo, shows that though they

Psalms 119:16 — &c.3. Reduce all this to practice: "That I might not sin against thee."4. Bless God for what he has given: "Blessed art thou," &c.5. Ask more: "Teach me thy statutes."6. Be ready to communicate his knowledge to others: "With my lips have I declared."7. Let it have a due effect on thy own heart: "I have rejoiced," &c.8. Meditate frequently upon them: "I will meditate," &c.9. Deeply reflect on them: "I will have respect," &c. As food undigested will not nourish the body, so the word of

Psalms 18:2 — says David, I will trust. And why? Because he knew him to be an eternal and inexhaustible fountain of goodness. This fine idea is lost in our translation; for we render two Hebrew words of widely different meaning, by the same term in English, strength.7. My buckler, מגני maginni, my shield, my defender, he who covers my head and my heart, so that I am neither slain nor wounded by the darts of my adversaries.8. Horn of my salvation. Horn was the emblem of power, and power in exercise. This has been

Proverbs 4:7 — Verse Proverbs 4:7. Wisdom is the principal thing — ראשית חכמה reshith chochmah, "wisdom is the principle." It is the punctum saliens in all religion to know the true God, and what he requires of man, and for what he has made man; and to this must be added, under

Isaiah 29:7 — Verse Isaiah 29:7. As a dream — This is the beginning of the comparison, which is pursued and applied in the next verse. Sennacherib and his mighty army are not compared to a dream because of their sudden disappearance; but the disappointment of their eager hopes

Isaiah 52:1 — Awaking from her stupefaction, Jerusalem sees the messenger of such joyful tidings on the eminence from which he spied the coming deliverance. She expresses, in beautiful terms, her joy at the news, repeating with peculiar elegance the words of the crier, 7. The rapturous intelligence, that Jehovah was returning to resume his residence on his holy mountain, immediately spreads to others on the watch, who all join in the glad acclamation, 8; and, in the ardour of their joy, they call to the very ruins of

Isaiah 52:7 — Verse Isaiah 52:7. How beautiful — The watchmen discover afar off, on the mountains, the messenger bringing the expected and much-wished-for news of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. They immediately spread the joyful tidings, Isaiah 52:8, and with

Ezekiel 29:1 — revenue he vaunted; and assures him that, with as much ease as a fisherman drags the fish he has hooked, God would drag him and his people into captivity, and that their carcasses should fall a prey to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of heaven, 1-7. The figure is then dropped; and God is introduced denouncing, in plain terns, the most awful judgments against him and his nation, and declaring that the Egyptians should be subjected to the Babylonians till the fall of the Chaldean empire, 8-12. The

Hosea 14:5 — Verse Hosea 14:5. I will be as the dew unto Israel — On these metaphors I gladly avail myself of the elegant and just observations of Bp. Lowth. "These verses (Hosea 14:5-7) contain gracious promises of God's favour and blessings upon Israel's conversion. In the fifth verse, it is described by that refreshment which copious dews give to the grass in summer. If we consider the nature of the climate, and the necessity of

Matthew 18:1 — CHAPTER XVIII. The disciples inquiring who should be greatest in Christ's kingdom, 1. He takes occasion to recommend humility, simplicity, and disinterestedness, 2-6. Warns them against offences, 7. Recommends mortification and self-denial. 8, 9. Charges them to avoid giving offence. 10, 11. Parable of him who had lost one sheep out of his flock consisting of one hundred, 12-14. How to deal with an offending brother, 15-18. A gracious promise

Matthew 28:1 — CHAPTER XXVIII. The resurrection of Christ declared by an angel to the two Marys at the sepulchre, 1-6. They are commissioned to announce this to the disciples, 7. They go, and are met by Christ himself who promises to meet the disciples in Galilee, 8-10. The watch go into the city, and report to the chief priests what had taken place, 11. They give them money, to say that his disciples had stolen the body by

Luke 1:5 — the sacerdotal families grew very numerous, so that all could not officiate together at the tabernacle, David divided them into twenty-four classes, that they might minister by turns, 1 Chronicles 24:1, c., each family serving a whole week, 2 Kings 11:7; 2 Chronicles 23:8. Abiah was the eighth in the order in which they had been originally established: 1 Chronicles 24:10. These dates and persons are particularly mentioned as a full confirmation of the truth of the facts themselves; because any person,

Luke 18:7 — Verse Luke 18:7. And shall not God avenge his own elect — And will not God the righteous Judge do justice for his chosen? Probably this may refer to the cruel usage which his disciples had met with, and were still receiving, from the disobedient and unbelieving

Luke 3:1 — CHAPTER III. The time in which John the Baptist began to preach, 1-3. The prophecies which were fulfilled in him, 4-6. The matter and success of his preaching, 7-9; among the people, 10, 11; among the publicans, 12, 13; among the soldiers, 14. His testimony concerning Christ, 15-18. The reason why Herod put him afterwards in prison, 19, 20. He baptizes Christ, on whom the Spirit of God descends, 21, 22. Our

Acts 21:38 — Verse 38. Art not thou that Egyptian, c. — The history to which Claudius Lysias refers is taken from Josephus, Ant. lib. xx. cap. 7, sec. 6, and War, lib. ii. cap. 13, sec. 5, and is in substance as follows: An Egyptian, whose name is not known, pretended to be a prophet, and told his followers that the walls of Jerusalem would fall down before them, if they would assist him in

Acts 6:1 — against the Hebrews, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, 1. To remedy the evil complained of, the apostles appoint seven deacons to superintend the temporal affairs of the Church, 2-6. The progress of the word of God in Jerusalem, 7. Stephen, one of the deacons, becomes very eminent, and confounds various Jews of the synagogues of the Libertines, c., 8-10. They suborn false witnesses against him, to get him put to death, 11-14. He appears before the council with an angelic countenance,

Romans 7:23 — Verse Romans 7:23. But I see another law in my members — Though the person in question is less or more under the continual influence of reason and conscience, which offer constant testimony against sin, yet as long as help is sought only from the law, and the

Romans 8:23 — whom God hath granted the first fruits of the Spirit; we sigh among ourselves for their sakes, waiting for the adoption; that is, the redemption of our mystical body, whereof the Gentiles make a very great part. Lightfoot's works. vol. ii. p. 359 and 707.The scope and design of St. Paul in these verses may be thus summed up:-The apostle shows that the whole creation is in a suffering state, into which it has been brought by the disobedience of one man, Adam; therefore, it was made subject to vanity-pain,