Bible Commentaries

Ezra 7:25-26 — ANALYSIS OF EZRA'S COMMISSION We are indebted to Rawlinson for this summary of Ezra's commission.Ibid., p. 109. A.    The temporary provisions: (1) permission for all Israelites who desired to do so to go with Ezra to Jerusalem; (2) permission to carry the monetary gifts of the king and his counsellors to Jerusalem; (3) permission to draw upon the royal sub-treasury large grants up to the limits set in Ezra 7:22; (4) permission to convey to Jerusalem all of the money that Ezra

Psalms 10:3-4 — wicked, their practical or their half-conscious atheism."W. L. Watkinson, Psalms, Vol. 1 (New York: Funk and Wagnalls), p. 41. There are many kinds of atheists: (1) There is the conceited fool who thinks he is an intellectual (Psalms 14:1; Psalms 53:1). (2) There is the proud but deceived sinner who has somehow adopted the falsehood that supposes atheism to have been derived from superior knowledge or learning. On the contrary atheism did not begin in a university, but in the vulgar, reprobate village

Psalms 137:7-9 — them" (Obadiah 1:11). The historical occasion for that behavior of Edom was apparently the capture of Jerusalem by the Philistines and the Arabians a couple of centuries before the fall of the city to Babylon. (See a full discussion of this in Vol. 2 of my commentaries on the minor prophets, pp. 241-244.) Jerusalem was not totally destroyed on that occasion, despite the plea of the Edomites that it be "rased." "Babylon… thou art to be destroyed" The psalmist here had evidently read and believed

Psalms 25:1-7 — tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; For they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: According to thy lovingkindness remember thou me, For thy goodness sake, O Jehovah." "Let me not be put to shame" (Psalms 25:2). The distress of the petitioner is evident throughout the psalm. He is acutely conscious of his enemies and the treachery of those whom he has trusted. He is oppressed by the consciousness that he does not really know what to do under the distressing

Psalms 38:1-10 — that recounts any such illness of David as that which appears here. Furthermore, there are definite statements in these ten verses that, by no stretch of imagination, can be literal. "God's arrows, and God's hand pressing sorely upon David" (Psalms 38:2), his sins piled up above his head (the figure is that of a drowning man) (Psalms 38:4), how could this be literal? There is nothing literal about such statements. Then why must the rest of the paragraph be construed as the literal description of some

Psalms 40:12-14 — backward and brought to dishonor That delighteth in my hurt." "Mine iniquities have overtaken me" There are two ways of looking at this. (1) Applied to David, it means that the sorrows from which he pleads for deliverance are the result of his own sins. (2) Applied to Messiah, the meaning is that, "The consequences of `mine iniquities' (meaning the sins of all men that God has laid upon Christ) have begun to catch up with him."H. C. Leupold, p. 327. All the terrible sufferings of Passion Week, the arrest,

Psalms 56:5-11 — iniquity?" Mistreatment of David by the Philistines mentioned here was doubtless the root of his determination, after he became king, to utterly subdue them. He would become God's instrument in granting the answer to David's prayer for their destruction (2 Samuel 5:17; 2 Samuel 8:1). "In anger cast down the peoples, O God" The word `peoples' here is the same as `Gentiles,' or `nations.' Indicating that all nations of the whole world were affected in some manner by what happened to David. Of course, this

Psalms 89:29-37 — seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, And as the faithful witness in the sky." Leupold summarized this paragraph. God's promises to David applied to his descendants also (Psalms 89:29); if they disobey God, God will punish them (Psalms 89:32-33); but God will not cut them off or break his covenant (Psalms 89:33-35); God's covenant is an eternal covenant and will last as long as the created world lasts (Psalms 89:36-37).H. C. Leupold,

Isaiah 66:18-21 — the journey. The proof of the focus in this paragraph is God's promise here that priests of God will be enrolled from among the Gentiles. This came to pass in the designation of all Christians as "kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6; 1 Peter 2:5-6). "And I will set a sign among them" The only "sign" that our Lord ever gave to the unbelieving Jews was "The sign of the prophet Jonah, that like as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the

Jeremiah 45:1-5 — but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest." "In the fourth year of Jehoiachim" "This prophecy is dated 604 B.C. when the first roll (`these words') was written (Jeremiah 36 :ff)."H. Wheeler Robinson, Jeremiah, p. 492. "I am weary with my groaning" "There were three grounds, probably, for Baruch's discouragement: (1) he was overwhelmed with the prophet's words on the seriousness of the peoples' sin and the shattering consequences of it; (2) he had probably already

Jeremiah 47:1 — 609 B.C., that being when Josiah opposed him and was killed at Megiddo. It is not certainly known, but it is supposed that Pharaoh-Necho might have taken and fortified Gaza at the beginning of that campaign in order to secure his eventual retreat. (2) It has also been suggested that this same Pharaoh-Necho, severely defeated at Carchemish, took Gaza and fortified it, as a bastion against Nebuchadnezzar's following him into Egypt. (3) Another king, Pharaoh-Hophra (588-570 B.C.) is alleged to have

Ezekiel 20:18-26 — Jehovah." THE APOSTASY OF THE SECOND WILDERNESS GENERATION "And I said unto their children" This appears to be the second generation of the wilderness wanderers. They did not respond, but after the manner of their fathers, "rebelled against God" (Ezekiel 20:21). Baal-Peor is the only proof that is needed to demonstrate their total apostasy. In fact, God would have totally destroyed them at that time, except for the consideration that His holy name would have been profaned by the nations. Instead, he made

Daniel 12:2 — the references here actually means "all." Therefore, it is a gross error to fasten a limited denotation upon the use of "many" in Daniel's reference to the general resurrection. Thus the principal idea to be derived from the use of many in this verse 2 is the great multitudes that shall rise from the dead. "No one can doubt that the word 'many' is used to denote all."Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 259. Thomson and many other dependable scholars have mentioned this same thing. "We cannot, therefore, deduce

Daniel 2:1 — extends all the way into the New Testament where in Mark it is found to be one of the salient features. Note that Daniel 1:17 relates that Daniel had "understanding in all visions and dreams." The "and" of this passage, connects the events of Daniel 2 with that special skill of Daniel recorded in Daniel 1:17. Another ground of assault is the statement that this troublesome dream came "in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar." It is alleged that this is a contradiction, because the four

Joel 3:10 — once cited by President Truman when a group of five preachers called upon him during the Korean war and were received in the White House office. Some of the area preachers in Washington, D.C. had been preaching from the contrasting passage in Isaiah 2:4 about beating swords into plowshares, etc.; and the President, asked, "Why don't you preachers preach all the Bible?" He then turned to this passage and read from the Bible (which had just been presented to him), from this very verse, adding, "I don't

Jonah 1:1 — Joash (Jeroboam II) restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath unto the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Jehovah the God of Israel, which he spake by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was of Gath-hepher (2 Kings 14:25). Such a prophecy was doubtless made before the beginning of Jeroboam's reign, or at least very early in it; and one sure result of such a favorable prophecy's being remarkably fulfilled would have been the establishment of Jonah as a national

Zephaniah 1:7 — consecrated his guests." "Hold thy peace" Jamieson rendered this, "Let the earth be silent at God's approach,"Robert Jamieson, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961), p. 834. similar to the words in Habakkuk 2:20. He also gave Calvin's comment on this place, thus: "Thou, whosoever who has been wont to speak against God, as if he had no care about earthly affairs, cease thy murmurs and self-justifications; submit thyself to God, and repent in time." "The day

Zechariah 1:6 — the prophets "a righteous remnant," did turn and seek the Lord with all their hearts. Those who at last returned to Jerusalem after the captivity ended are proof enough of that. Morgan listed the returnees as follows: "Of the priests, 4 courses out of 24; Levites, only 74 individuals; singers, only 128 out of the family of ASAPH: gate-keepers, only 139; helpers, only 392; of the people, 200,000; slaves, 9337."G. Campbell Morgan, The Minor Prophets (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company),

Zechariah 2:3-4 — indicated by this is not an angel of God, a fact inherent in the indication of his age. "Young is inapplicable and unapplied to angels, who have not our human variations of age, but exist, as they were created."E. B. Pusey, Notes on the Minor Prophets, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1953), p. 348. Therefore, we understand this as a reference to Zechariah himself. After all, Zechariah is the only one who had requested information about any of these visions; and to suppose that the young

Zechariah 5:10-11 — is "the land of Shinar." "Shinar is synonymous with `Babylon' (Genesis 10:10). The term `Shinar' is used for obvious reasons. Babylon was now (in Zechariah's day) in the hands of Darius, ruler of the Medo-Persian empire";Clinton R. Gill, op. cit., p. 295. and, to have used the word Babylon, would have been to incur unnecessarily the wrath of the very ruler upon whose good will the rebuilding of Jerusalem was dependent. Besides that, "Babylon" in this passage means far more than erie wicked city. What