Bible Commentaries

Psalms 136:1-26 — endureth forever." There is nothing in this psalm upon which we have not already written commentary; and there are very few things which we shall cite here. "The God of gods" "The word `gods' here is a secondary use of the term as is found in Psalms 82:6."The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 8-C, p. 286. (See our comment in chapter introduction for Psalms 82, above.) As Dr. George DeHoff stated it, "God is the God over priests, spiritual rulers, those in power, including kings and magistrates. He is the Ruler

Psalms 62:1-4 — leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They only consult to thrust him down from his dignity; They delight in lies; They bless with their month, but they curse inwardly. (Selah)" The recurrence of the word "only" is of interest in this psalm (Psalms 62:1-2; Psalms 62:4; Psalms 5:6; Psalms 5:9). This word also distinguishes Psalms 39, where it occurs four times, stressing the similarity of these psalms, which Delitzsch designated "twins." Jones has this to say about the use of "only" here. "Only with

Psalms 66:8-12 — of Israel. "Holdeth our soul in life… suffereth not our feet to be moved" Leupold wrote that, "The deliverance wrought in Hezekiah's day (by the death of the Assyrian army) furnishes a suitable background for every figure used in Psalms 66:8-12." As Sennacherib's army approached, most Israelites no doubt felt that the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent. The city was already under the burden of immense tribute to the Assyrians; and the taunting remarks of Rabshakeh had struck fear into the

Isaiah 24:17-20 — light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it" (Amos 5:18 b-20). Perhaps a few words are here in order with reference to why the final judgment will be such a terrible time for the human race. It all goes back to the primeval sentence in the Garden of Eden, where God told Adam and Eve that they would surely die

Isaiah 26:16-19 — tribulations they suffered during their earth-life; and they find something for which to be thankful even in all that trouble. Rawlinson explained it thus: "They remember what brought them back to God from the alienation which they confessed (Isaiah 26:13). It was the affliction which they so long endured. Their present bliss is the result of their former woe, and recalls the thought of it."The Pulpit Commentary, p. 415. "We have brought forth wind" This simply means that all human efforts toward

Jeremiah 26:1-7 — of Judah, who were gathering upon some national feast-day. "And turn every man from his evil way" Feinberg stressed two things of singular importance in this passage: "(1) The kind of repentance which God demands is always an individual matter; and (2) promises of divine judgment are always conditional."Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 538. "Walk in my law… hearken to the words of my servants the prophets" God's condemnation did not result from their refusal to hearken

Jeremiah 27:19-22 — them up, and restore them to this place." Behold, what a magnificent predictive prophecy we have here: (1)    the remaining treasures of the temple, the king's house, and the city of Jerusalem shall also be carried away to Babylon; (2)    the vessels shall not be destroyed there, but shall be preserved to that day when God will visit them; and (3)    He will indeed visit them and restore them to Jerusalem at the time when his Divine Will may

Jeremiah 44:24-30 — named" This would be true because of two things. (1) The syncretistic worship of both God and the pagan deity would result in God's name being used less and less frequently until it disappeared altogether (the invariable result of syncretism), and (2) "No Jews will be left alive in Egypt."T. K. Cheyne, Jeremiah in PC, p. 186. "I will give Pharaoh-Hophra" etc. The sign which Jeremiah here promised was: (1) the capture of Pharaoh-Hophra by his deadly enemies, (2) his imprisonment, and (3) his death,

Ezekiel 7:1-4 — priests, prophets, king and nobles will be helpless to deliver; the Temple will be profaned, and the remnant shall be overwhelmed with SORROW."J. R. Dummelow's Commentary, p. 496. A feature of this prophecy is the repetition. The end has come (Ezekiel 7:2); the day has come (Ezekiel 7:10); the time has come (Ezekiel 7:7); and doom has come (Ezekiel 7:7; Ezekiel 7:12). This repetition was explained by Taylor. "It can be explained only against the background of popular belief in the inviolability of Jerusalem.

Amos 3:14 — made two calves of gold; and he said unto them (the people), `It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: Behold thy gods, O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan'" (1 Kings 12:28-29). "It has commonly been assumed that the golden calves were direct representations of Yahweh as bull-god,"Merrill F. Unger, Archeology and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1954), p. 236. and some commentators claim

Micah 5:1 — number of things which support the Messianic view of this verse. (1) It is very similar to a Messianic passage in Isaiah 50:6, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." (2) The sacred evangelists of the New Testament did not fail to record instances of this very type of humiliation inflicted upon our Lord. "Then did they spit in his face and buffet him: and some smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy

Zechariah 14:5 — like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee." "And ye shall flee" Here is the secret of how "the residue of the people were not cut off" (Zechariah 14:2). They would escape through flight, a possibility envisioned here as being opened up by the mighty earthquake and the splitting of the mountain. Did it happen? Indeed so. Josephus recounts the amazing, unnecessary, and incredible withdrawal of Cestius

Mark 16:15-16 — shift to singular pronouns in these verses; although addressed to THEM and YE, that is the eleven, there is not a plural word afterward in these verses, this no doubt being designed by the Holy Spirit in order to thwart any application of Mark 16:17-20 to any persons whomsoever except the eleven. Matthew's account of the great commission is loaded with plurals, but there is not one in Mark's account. Go ye into all the world … Christ's assignment to the apostles was that of the universal proclamation

Luke 17:3-4 — sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times turn to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. Jesus often taught on the subject of forgiveness. Just about the longest parable in the New Testament regards this very thing (Matthew 18:20-35); and there is no need to make Luke's account here a "variable" of other teachings of Jesus in similar words and different circumstances. In fact, there is a little different thing in view here, namely, a warning against withholding forgiveness

Luke 19:39 — was shouting BLESSED IS THE KING; the sneering Pharisee was complaining, "Teacher, rebuke thy disciples." Ash was surely correct in the opinion that "this title (KING) ties this episode to the parable of the rejected king (Luke 19:11-27)."Anthony Lee Ash, op. cit., p. 100. The stones will cry out … Habakkuk 2:11 has this: "For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam of the timber shall answer it." Jesus may have referred to this. What he evidently

Luke 23:12 — And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day: for before they were at enmity between themselves. Cause of the enmity is not known, but it is commonly believed to have been Pilate's slaying of the Galileans mentioned in Luke 13:1-2. It was Pilate's civility and deference to Herod which healed the breach.Charles L. Childers, Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press, 1964), p. 605. It has often been noted that old enemies often become friends when there

Luke 23:56 — onset of the holy Passover and its special high sabbath. Significantly, by the falling of that high day upon a Friday (beginning Thursday at sunset), there were back-to-back sabbaths, Friday and Saturday, a truth witnessed in the Greek text of Matthew 28:1 which speaks of "the end of the sabbaths (plural)" and says that the first day of the week came toward the "end of one of the sabbaths," after which the events of the resurrection began to unfold. Every Greek student on earth

Luke 6:5 — biased and unprincipled motives of those making the charge, as evidenced by their approval of a real violation on the part of David, and yet alleging against the Son of David a "violation" founded on their hair-splitting interpretations! (2)    He showed that "on the sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless," and that "one greater than the temple" was among them (Matthew 12:5-6). Jesus, the true and greater temple,

John 8:5-6 — that they might have whereof to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and wrote with his finger on the ground. The Pharisees were misapplying Moses' law here, since "stoning" was commanded for a betrothed girl before her marriage (Deuteronomy 22:23 f), and the woman before them was married. They cared nothing for the law and were only interested in cooking up some charge against Jesus. Incidentally, if they had really believed their own earlier indictment of him as a sabbath-breaker, they

John 9:40-41 — then why the "if"? It means "if" they had only admitted their arrogance, pride, and ignorance, they might have found salvation. The verse is addressed to their conceit. They were the ones who shouted "We know!" (John 9:29); and they were typical examples of the men described by Paul (Romans 2:17-20), who boasted of themselves that they were a guide to the blind, etc. Jesus' statement, "If ye were blind" contrasts with their conceited self-glorification outlined