Bible Commentaries

Exodus 13:17-22 — route settles the matter for Christians. Even Davies admitted that, "The early settlement of Philistines before their main invasion may account for the reference."G. Henton Davies, 20th Century Commentary (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1932), p. 135. Any premise that includes the proposition that there is available today anything more than a mere smattering of knowledge of ancient history known by modern man, is a monstrous misassumption! Until men know a lot more about ancient history than they

Exodus 14:26-31 — to ascribe the glory and the honor and the power, not to themselves or to their fellows, but to Almighty God through Jesus Christ our Lord. "Unto the Lamb be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever." (Revelation 5:13). "And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore" An appropriate comment on this clause in Exodus 14:31 is the following quotation from Josephus: "On the next day Moses gathered together the weapons of the Egyptians, which were brought to the

2 Kings 22:3-7 — the Book of the Law."Albert Barnes, Kings, p. 396. "Shaphan" This man was the father of Jeremiah's friend Ahikam (Jeremiah 26:24) and the grandfather of Gedaliah, who was made governor of Judea by the Babylonians after the fall of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:22). "Hilkiah" "was the father, or grandfather, of Seriah (Nehemiah 11:11), High Priest at the time of the captivity, and an ancestor of Ezra the scribe."Ibid. A SPECIAL EXCURSUS ON THE BOOK WAS DISCOVERED BY HILKIAH This writer has long been fully

Nehemiah 8:1-8 — (ASV) includes this line with Nehemiah 8, because it identifies the time of the great reading of the Law discussed herein. The seventh month was Tishri, corresponding to our September-October.H. Porter in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p. 542. The Nehemiah 8, Nehemiah 9 and Nehemiah 10 are a unit, incorporated, we believe, by the author Nehemiah as an explanation of the great celebration that followed the completion of the wall. Keil wrote that the mention of the seventh month (Tishri)

Job 38:1-7 — Almighty God appeared to Job in one of the most remarkable theophanies in the Bible. What did that mean? It meant that God approved of Job, that Job's integrity was established in the only place where it mattered, namely, with God Himself. In Job 31:5, Job had pleaded with God to answer him; and here God did so. That is the colossal fact of these concluding chapters; and it dramatically establishes the truth that God approved of Job, and that God loved him. God honored him as few men in the history

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 — seeketh again that which has passed away." "The works of men are subject in their results to another will (God's) than that of the doer."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1989 reprint of the 1878 edition), Eccl., p. 95. Therefore, every human project should be initiated and pursued under the perpetual banner, "Deo Volente" (James 4:15). This amazing list of fourteen opposites must be interpreted in the light of Ecclesiastes 3:9. These opposites are cited for exactly

Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 — him back to see what shall be after him." This terrible paragraph is a favorite of atheists and skeptics and all materialists who hold the view that man is nothing but an animal. Volney, Frederick the Great and Voltaire loved this paragraph.Ibid., p. 5. Also the Jehovah's Witnesses base their rejection of the immortality of the soul on this passage. We shall present two opposite views of this paragraph, finding in our own heart a great perplexity as to which is correct. (1)    This

Isaiah 42:1-4 — paragraph in Vol. 1 of my New Testament Series of Commentaries (Matthew), pp. 170,171. "Reference is here made to other writers regarding their comments on this passage: Only Christ fulfills the assignment here; all others fall short.Homer Hailey, p. 351. The Messiah-Servant is presented here as the tender Prophet; and clearly the Servant is here presented as an individual, not as the nation of Israel.Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 638. This speaks of Christ the antitype of Israel, and also

Jeremiah 3:14-18 — "righteous remnant" of Israel as stressed throughout both Isaiah and Jeremiah. "Out of God's purifying judgment upon his apostate people shall come a few refined souls. They will be gathered and shall constitute the New Israel, blessed of God (Romans 11:5).Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 662. "They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant" "This shows that the old economy was to be dissolved. The old covenant, of which the ark was a central feature, was to give way to another - a preview of 31:31-35."Charles

Numbers 21:4-9 — nonsense, see the article by Batto.Bernard F. Batto, "Red Sea or Reed Sea, How the Mistake Was Made and What [~Yam] [~Cuwph] Really Means," Biblical Archeology Review Magazine (Washington, D.C.: The Biblical Archeological Society, 1984; Volume X, No. 4), p. 57ff.) The complaint of these verses was prompted by real need: "No bread… no water… a dislike of that `light bread'." Well, it was time to teach this nation of cry-babies the way of the rest of the human race. God commanded them to "dig

Jonah 1:17 — was ready at the instant God needed it, just as the tree had been growing by the bitter waters of Marah for a long time prior to the moment when Moses was commanded to cast it into the waters for the purpose of making the bitter waters sweet (Exodus 15:23 f). The miraculous nature of the event narrated here is seen in the timing of the fish's appearance and swallowing Jonah and in the fact of the experience not being fatal to Jonah. "Three days and three nights" Most commentators move quickly to protect

Zechariah 11:13 — cast that money to the potter; and the same thing is true of a number of other actions accredited in the New Testament to many of the persons engaged in the dark drama of Calvary. It was God who spoke a prophecy through the evil high priest (John 12:51,52); it was God who wrote: THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS as the inscription upon the cross; it was God who ordered the centurion who commanded the detail at Calvary to disobey the command of Pilate to break Jesus' legs; and it was

Deuteronomy 34:1-8 — Numbers 27:23,"John D. W. Watts, Beacon Bible Commentary, Deuteronomy (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1970), p. 296. and the dogmatic guess of Von Rad that the first paragraph here (Deuteronomy 34:1-8), "is the immediate continuation of Deuteronomy 32:48-52."Gerhard Von Rad, Deuteronomy (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966), p. 209. Pisgah and Nebo appear here as synonymous names of a single place; and all quibbles based on the two different names should be ignored. "And Jehovah showed him all the land"

Romans 11:7 — waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them (Matthew 13:14-15). It was Israel's closing of their eyes against the light that made them guilty; and, given that conduct on their part, God did indeed harden them. The same condition is appropriately called "blindness" by the sacred writers. Paul also called

1 Corinthians 14:34 — the old covenant? 1.    Many exceptions to the rule were allowed and approved by God. (a)    Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her (Exodus 15:20). (b)    And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time … and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment (Judges 4:4-5). (c)    So Hilkiah the priest …

Galatians 3:29 — religious error ever advocated among people. Paul flatly declared: "Do we then make law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish law!" (Romans 3:30). It should be observed that in this quotation the English Revised Version (1885) margin has been followed, giving "law" the wider sense of meaning, being in no way a reference to the Law of Moses. So there is a law which faith establishes; and the nature of it is revealed in the New Testament, as follows: The law of faith

Joshua 8:30-35 — abbreviated nature of the Book of Joshua. Here we have a passage that the critics hate. The narrative here is denounced as misplaced, unfitting, and "impossible to be true, since Joshua had not yet conquered central Canaan."Samuel Holmes, op. cit., p. 252. What really troubles them is the proof this passage gives of the PRIOR existence of the Mosaic law. It is a vain criticism that the passage does not belong here; "Here is where it is!" Furthermore, it belongs here. As Schaeffer noted, "The victorious

1 Timothy 1:1-2 — "Christ Jesus" three times in these three verses is not the Pauline proportion: it remains a mystery if it is assumed that Paul wrote these letters (the Pastorals). Fred D. Gealy, The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. VI (New York: Abingdon Press, 1955), p. 376. What has been attempted by such a criticism as this is to make Paul's preference for the expression "Christ Jesus" as exhibited in the Pastorals an excuse for denying that he wrote them at all, despite the fact that he used the

Hebrews 1:3 — (John 1:14), "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." James Macknight, Apostolic Epistles (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1960), p. 509. 2.    "And the very image of his substance" is somewhat ambiguous in the common versions; and the scholars give its meaning variously as: "He is the counterpart or facsimile of the Father." J. R. Dummelow,

2 Samuel 21:1-6 — but of the remnant of the Amorites" These people were actually Hivites (Joshua 9:7); but their being called Amorites here is no problem, because, "That is a common O.T. name for (any or) all of the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan (as in Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 1:37; Joshua 5:1; Joshua 24:15 and 1 Samuel 7:14)."John T. Willis, p. 398. A number of scholars appeal to the fact that, "Bloodguilt rests on the murderer until it is expiated properly,"Ibid. but the Lord specifically stated that, "No