Bible Commentaries

Psalms 83:2 — Verse Psalms 83:2. Thine enemies make a tumult — They are not merely the enemies of thy people, but they are the enemies of thyself, thy worship, ordinances, and laws: "They make a tumult," they throng together.They - have lifted up the head. — They have made an irruption into the land of Judea, and encamped at En-gedi, by the Dead Sea, 2 Chronicles 20:1-2.

Proverbs 1:12 — Verse Proverbs 1:12. Let us swallow them up alive — Give them as hasty a death as if the earth were suddenly to swallow them up. This seems to refer to the destruction of a whole village. Let us destroy man, woman, and child; and then we may seize on and carry away the whole of their property, and the booty will be great.

Proverbs 1:23 — Verse Proverbs 1:23. Turn you at my reproof — לתוכחתי lethochachti, at my convincing mode of arguing; attend to my demonstrations. This is properly the meaning of the original word.I will pour out my spirit unto you — "I wil expresse my mynde unto you;" COVERDALE. Loo I shall bryngen to you my Spirit; Old MS. Bible. If you will hear, ye shall have ample instruction.

Proverbs 8:24 — Verse Proverbs 8:24. When there were no depths — תהמות tehomoth, before the original chaotic mass was formed. See Genesis 1:2.I was brought forth — חוללתי cholalti, "I was produced as by labouring throes." Mr. Parkhurst thinks that the heathen poets derived their idea of Minerva's (wisdom's) being born of Jupiter's brain, from some such high poetic personification as that in the text.

Ecclesiastes 10:1 — Verse Ecclesiastes 10:1. Dead flies — Any putrefaction spoils perfume; and so a foolish act ruins the character of him who has the reputation of being wise and good. Alas! alas! in an unguarded moment how many have tarnished the reputation which they were many years in acquiring! Hence, no man can be said to be safe, till he is taken to the paradise of God.

Ecclesiastes 7:22 — Verse 22. Thou thyself - hast cursed others. — קללת kalalta, thou hast spoken evil; hast vilified others. O, who is free from evil speaking, from uncharitable speaking; from detailing their neighbour's faults, from whispering, talebearing, and backbiting? Do not wonder if God, in his justice, permit thee to be calumniated, seeing thou hast so frequently calumniated others. See my discourse on Psalms 15:1-5.

Song of Solomon 8:1 — Verse Song of Solomon 8:1. O that thou wert as my brother — The bride, fearing that her fondness for her spouse might be construed into too great a familiarity, wishes that he were her little brother; and then she might treat him in the most affectionate manner, and kiss him even in the streets without suspicion, and without giving offense to any one.

Isaiah 10:12 — Verse Isaiah 10:12. The Lord - "JEHOVAH"] For אדני Adonai, fourteen MSS. and three editions read יהוה Yehovah.The fruit - "The effect"] " פרי peri, f. צבי tsebi, vid. Isaiah 13:19, sed confer, Proverbs 1:31; Proverbs 31:16; Proverbs 31:31." - SECKER. The Chaldee renders the word פרי peri by עיבדי obadey, works; which seems to be the true sense; and I have followed it. - L.

Isaiah 44:17 — Verse Isaiah 44:17. He falleth down unto it — There were four forms of adoration used among the Hebrews:1. השתחוה HISHTACHAVAH, The prostration of the whole body.2. קדד KADAD, The bowing of the head.3. כרע CARA, The bending of the upper part of the body down to the knees.4. ברך BARACH, Bowing the knee, or kneeling. See on Isaiah 49:23.

Isaiah 49:6 — Verse Isaiah 49:6. And to restore the preserved of Israel - "And to restore the branches of Israel"] נצירי netsirey, or נצורי netsurey, as the Masoretes correct it in the marginal reading. This word has been matter of great doubt with interpreters: the Syriac renders it the branch, taking it for the same with נצר netser, Isaiah 11:1. See Michaelis Epim. in Praelect. xix.

Isaiah 59:14 — Verse Isaiah 59:14. Justice standeth afar off — צדקה tsedakah, righteousness, put here, says Kimchi, for alms to the poor. This casts some light on Matthew 6:1: "Take heed that you do not your alms," ελεημοσυνην. But the best copies have δικαιοσυνην, righteousness; the former having been inserted in the text at first merely as the explanation of the genuine and original word.

Jeremiah 26:1 — Verse Jeremiah 26:1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim — As this prophecy must have been delivered in the first or second year of the reign of Jehoiakim, it is totally out of its place here. Dr. Blayney puts it before chap. xxxvi. (Jeremiah 36:0); and Dr. Dahler immediately after chap. ix. (Jeremiah 9:0), and before chap. xlvi. (Jeremiah 46:0)

Jeremiah 32:1 — Verse Jeremiah 32:1. The word that came — This prophecy bears its own date: it was delivered in the tenth year of Zedekiah, which answered to the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar. It appears from 2 Kings 25:8, that the eleventh year of Zedekiah was the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar; and consequently, that the eighteenth of that monarch must have been the tenth of the Jewish king.

Jeremiah 36:3 — Verse Jeremiah 36:3. It may be that the house of Judah will hear — It was yet possible to avert the judgments which had been so often denounced against them. But in order to this they must -1. Hear what God has spoken.2. Every man turn from his evil way.3. If they do so, God graciously promises to forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Jeremiah 4:11 — Verse 11. - 13. A dry wind - a fall wind - as clouds - as a whirlwind — All these expressions appear to refer to the pestilential winds, suffocating vapours, and clouds and pillars of sand collected by whirlwinds, which are so common and destructive in the east, (Isaiah 21:1;) and these images are employed here to show the overwhelming effect of the invasion of the land by the Chaldeans.

Ezekiel 1:13 — Verse Ezekiel 1:13. Like burning coals of fire — The whole substance appeared to be of flame; and among them frequent coruscations of fire, like vibrating lamps, often emitting lightning, or rather sparks of fire, as we have seen struck out of strongly ignited iron in a forge. The flames might be something like what is called warring wheels in pyrotechny. They seemed to conflict together.

Ezekiel 1:26 — Verse Ezekiel 1:26. A sapphire — The pure oriental sapphire, a large well cut specimen of which is now before me, is one of the most beautiful and resplendent blues that can be conceived. I have sometimes seen the heavens assume this illustrious hue. The human form above this canopy is supposed to represent Him who, in the fulness of time, was manifested in the flesh.

Amos 1:10 — Verse Amos 1:10. I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus — The destructive fire or siege by Nebuchadnezzar, which lasted thirteen years, and ended in the destruction of this ancient city; see on Ezekiel, Ezekiel 26:7-14, as above. It was finally ruined by Alexander, and is now only a place for a few poor fishermen to spread their nets upon.

Amos 4:1 — Verse Amos 4:1. Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan — Such an address was quite natural from the herdsman of Tekoa. Bashan was famous for the fertility of its soil, and its flocks and herds; and the prophet here represents the iniquitous, opulent, idle, lazy drones, whether men or women, under the idea of fatted bullocks, which were shortly to be led out to the slaughter.

Revelation 22:1 — Verse Revelation 22:1. Pure river of water of life — This is evidently a reference to the garden of paradise, and the river by which it was watered; and there is also a reference to the account, Ezekiel 47:7-12. Water of life, as we have seen before, generally signifies spring or running water; here it may signify incessant communications of happiness proceeding from God.