Bible Commentaries

Psalms 106:24-27 — of Numbers 13, reports this. The ten spies brought back an evil report of the land of Canaan, affirming in the strongest terms possible that the Israelites would never be able to take it. "And they brought up an evil report of the land" (Numbers 13:32). "They murmured in their tents" The Jerusalem Bible reads this, "They stayed in their camp and muttered treason."The New Layman's Bible Commentary, p. 676. Their actual words were: "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had

Psalms 106:36-39 — with their works, And played the harlot in their doings." To rehearse the full record of what is so briefly stated here would require a detailed study of a major portion of the Old Testament. The child-sacrifice was practiced even by Israel's kings (2 Kings 16:3; Ezekiel 16:20; Isaiah 57:5). "They played the harlot in their doings" This is an accurate description of the idol worship in Canaan. Their pagan sex and fertility gods were "worshipped" with the most unbelievably vulgar and licentious ceremonies

Psalms 128:1-2 — days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." The society in which we live today has spawned a whole generation of people who expect to live by the fruit of other men's labors; but an apostle has written, "If a man will not work, neither let him eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The first blessing which is mentioned here as belonging to the man who fears God and walks in his ways is that he shall indeed have his "daily bread." "To know that one's own hands have toiled for it always adds to the satisfaction

Isaiah 17:7-8 — disasters fall. The Great Depression of the early 1930's in the United States saw exactly the same kind of "revival" as that indicated here. During the times indicated here, the Levites were actually able to collect tithes from Manasseh and Ephraim (2 Chronicles 34:9).Pulpit Commentary, p. 290 The mention of the altars in Isaiah 17:8 probably referred to the pagan altars at Dan, Bethel, and Samaria; and such expressions as "work of their hands," and "which their fingers have made" cannot be limited

Isaiah 65:13-16 — altogether New Name, called here "another name" for his people. Again we have that "here a little and there a little:" pattern of this prophet's writings, this being the third passage where the "new name" is promised. See the special article under Isaiah 62:2.

Jeremiah 11:20-23 — men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; and there shall be no remnant unto them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation." "There shall be no remnant unto them" In Ezra 2:23, the Scriptures mention among those returning to Jerusalem after the captivity certain "men of Anathoth"; and for that reason we must suppose that the denial of any remnant to be left to Anathoth was evidently limited to the actual conspirators against

Jeremiah 37:3-5 — were besieging Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they brake up from Jerusalem." "Pharaoh" "This was Pharaoh-Hophra, the Apries of Herodotus; his intervention availed nothing."Scribner's Bible Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898), p. 502. Feinberg stated that the "Babylonians defeated the Egyptian army";Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 610. but Harrison was of the opinion that the Egyptians "withdrew without a battle."R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah in the Tyndale

Ezekiel 8:1 — connected whole."International Critical Commentary, p. 88. (1) There is presented in chapter 8 a detail on the horrible defilement of God's temple by apostate Israel, which God forewarns will cause the removal of his presence from it (Ezekiel 8:6). (2) The supernatural ministers of instruments of Israel's punishment appear in Ezekiel 9. (3) The cherubim make preparatory movements to depart the Temple in Ezekiel 10; and (4) the actual departure of God's presence from the Temple occurs in Ezekiel 11:22-25.

Hosea 11:9 — captivity, dispersion, and the wholesale slaughter of vast numbers of them. "I will not return to destroy Ephraim" This was rendered by Cheyne as, "I will not come to exterminate."Charles F. Pfeiffer, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962) p. 814. Hailey also found exactly this same meaning: "He will not completely exterminate Israel."Homer Hailey, Commentary on the Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972), p. 174. The restoration of Israel which seems to be promised in

Joel 3:15 — "The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Such terminology as this is used in Rev. 6:12:17, following the pattern throughout the Bible in references to the judgment of the Final Day. We do not pretend to know what this means; but it would appear to be certain that cosmic disturbances of the very greatest magnitude will attend God's final

Zechariah 1:10 — identifying clause "stood among the myrtle trees" here and in Zechariah 1:11. Keil has stated the reasons for the two identities thus: "The `angel that talked with me' appears in company with other angels and receives instructions from them (Zechariah 2:5-8). His whole activity is restricted to the duty of conveying higher instructions to the prophet, and giving him an insight into the higher meaning of the visions; whereas the angel of Jehovah stands on an equality with God, being sometimes identified

Zechariah 2:13 — inflict the threatened judgment upon the nations, and to succour his own people."Ibid. "Be silent, all flesh" There are two tremendous suggestions here. One is, "Let all the earth worship Jehovah," as in Habakkuk's beloved call to worship (Habakkuk 2:20): "Let all the earth keep silence before him!" The other pertains to the ultimate fate of all flesh to rest eternally in the silent dust. We refer to the universal, deafening silence so dramatically prophesied in Revelation 18. (See the comment on

Matthew 15:12-13 — (1) evil men, the Pharisees in this case. Cyprian spoke of excommunicating "the crafty impostor" that he may seek again the church, "from which by divine authority he deserved to be expelled,"Cyprian, Epistles in Ibid., Vol. V, p. 326. attributing the basis of excommunication upon the words of Christ in this Matthew 15:13. (2) It applies to doctrines, teachings, and practices founded in human precepts, rather than in the word of God.

Matthew 17:18 — traceable to their fountain source in the kingdom of evil, whose head is Satan. Other graphic details are given by Mark, describing Jesus' conversation with the father and the final tearing of the child as they brought him to Jesus. (See also Luke 9:42). Spurgeon saw in the intensified activity of the demon a pattern of Satan's vigorously increased opposition against those who are in the act of coming to Christ for salvation. He wrote, "Sinners, when they approach the Saviour, are often thrown

Matthew 21:42-43 — Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes? Christ quoted Psalms 118:22 ff. The example of a rejected stone becoming the chief stone was founded on historical fact. Dean Plumptre said: The illustration seems to have been drawn from one of the stones, quarried, hewn, and marked, away from the site of the temple, which the

Matthew 22:4 — represent the invitation to the Jewish people, as it was renewed to them at the second epoch of the kingdom, that is, after the resurrection and ascension.Richard C. Trench, Notes on the Parables (Westwood, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953), p. 227. Two things support Trench's view: (1) God was willing to overlook the first blunt rejection of Christ (even his crucifixion), attributing it to ignorance (Acts 3:17). (2) Also, the Jews continued to have a priority in hearing the gospel for a long

Matthew 27:25 — rash things, the rashest is a rash prayer; nor was this the first time that Israel had prayed and received the answer of so rash a petition. Their ancestors had cried in the wilderness, "Would God we had died in the wilderness" (Numbers 14:2). Of course, that is exactly what that generation did; they died in the wilderness. A similar thing happened when Rachel prayed, "Give me children, or I die? (Genesis 30:1). She died in childbirth when Benjamin was born. The petition recorded here,

Matthew 4:15-16 — symbol of moral destitution and spiritual blindness. All people must remain in darkness until the Light shines in their hearts through faith. In the shadow of death … is an expression that occurs a number of times in the Old Testament (Job 10:21; Psalms 23:4; Jeremiah 2:6, etc.). In this place it is only a further reference to the moral and spiritual condition of the people of Galilee.

Matthew 6:4 — giving personal aid and assistance to helpless or unfortunate persons is commanded by Christ and has these easily discernible qualities to commend it: (1) It assures purity of motive in the heart of the giver by removing the temptation to hypocrisy. (2) It protects and honors the privacy of the recipient, a privacy that is indispensable to his recovery and rehabilitation. (3) It protects the benefactor from a proliferation of calls upon his generosity. (4) It provides a noble basis for the development

Mark 12:26-27 — of the dead, but of the living: ye do greatly err. The utmost significance of this passage derives from: (1) the fact that Jesus here stated that "God spake … in the book of Moses," thus equating the Pentateuch with the word of God, (2) that he made an argument for the certainty of a resurrection to rest upon a single Old Testament verb, and the tense of a verb at that! and (3) that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in some meaningful sense, are not "dead" but "living."