Bible Commentaries

Genesis 2:23 — "And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Our English word "woman" is derived from an Anglo-Saxon term, "womb-man," meaning the man with the womb. The relation between the terms man and woman is evident in many languages. In Hebrew the words are [~'iysh] and [~'ishah].Kyle M. Yates, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 6.

Psalms 82:1 — THE EXORDIUM "God standeth in the congregation of God; He judgeth among the gods." "The gods" of this verse are the same as those of Psalms 82:6, below; and "God's standing in the congregation of God" is a reference to God's presence among his people on earth, that is, the Israelites, the special purpose of his presence among them being that of warning and denouncing the evil judges, upon whom so much of the blame for the tragedy of Israel rested.

Proverbs 13:11 — "Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; But he that gathereth by labor shall have increase." "Wealth by means of fraud always becomes less; but he that increaseth it by labor gains always more."C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch's Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), Vol. 6, p. 277. "The contrast here is of one who by fraud and deception quickly arrives at wealth,"Ibid. with another who by honest toil and enterprise finds true prosperity.

Proverbs 16:17 — "The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul." "The paths of life turn aside from evil; and the ways of righteousness are length of life."The Greek Septuagint (LXX). This promise that length of life is related to righteous living is reiterated in the New Testament (Eph. 6:1:3). There must needs be exceptions, of course, due to many factors that serve as hindrances to the will of God.

Proverbs 20:13 — "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; Open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread." "If you spend your time sleeping, you will be poor. Keep busy and you will have plenty to eat."The Good News Bible. "What is stated in the first line here is elaborated in Proverbs 6:9-11."Franz Delitzsch, in C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch's Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), Vol. 6b, p. 48. See our comment on those verses.

Proverbs 27:18 — "Whoso keepeth the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof; And he that regardeth the master shall be honored." Paul evidently had this in mind (2 Timothy 2:6). The comparison here seems to be: "Just as the fig-tree requires constant care, but also yields abundant fruit, so the ministrations of a faithful servant will not be without their due reward."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), op. cit., p. 74.

Proverbs 28:27 — "He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack; But he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse." The sentiment of the first line here is reiterated in the New Testament (2 Corinthians 9:6-11). God today blesses liberal and generous Christians. The reference to `curses' in line 2 reflects the extreme bitterness of poor people who are suffering for lack of the bare necessities of life, which are denied to them by people wallowing in affluence and luxury.

Hosea 14:5 — "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon." "Dew" is to be understood here not as transitory, but as refreshing. In that climate it was a valuable agent in the agricultural productiveness of the land. "He shall blossom as the lily" "The New Israel will have the beauty of the lily (Matthew 6:28-29), and the noble strength and stability of the poplar (literally `Lebanon')."Ibid.

Nahum 1 overview — The announcement of God as the executioner of his wrath upon Assyria is made in Nahum 1:1-6. His wrath will not fall upon his own people, but upon their enemies (Nahum 1:7-11). He will break the yoke of Asshur from off the neck of his people, and destroy the Assyrians (Nahum 1:12-14). This prophecy is so certain of fulfillment that a proleptic announcement of the good news, with Messianic overtones, concludes the chapter (Nahum 1:15).

Matthew 11:5 — The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. The miracles Jesus mentioned to John's messengers were precisely those which Isaiah identified with the advent of the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5-6; Isaiah 61:1). This was Christ's unique way of letting John know that he was indeed the Christ without phrasing it in terms that would have secular overtones.

Matthew 26:16 — "betray him" in some of the versions, and they do bear that translation. The opportunity Judas sought was a quiet one in which Christ could be pointed out and captured by the priests without tumult, or in the absence of the multitude (Luke 22:6). Judas, knowing the place where Jesus was accustomed to retire for prayer with his disciples, would have no difficulty in finding such an occasion.

Luke 1:33 — And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. The house of Jacob … This patriarch's God-given name was "Israel"; and the Israel over which Christ is now reigning is the true "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16; Matthew 19:28). And of his kingdom there shall be no end … has reference to the perpetual existence of Christ's church throughout the present dispensation of God's grace (Daniel 2:44; Ephesians 3:21).

Luke 13 overview — On the final tour preceding his crucifixion, Jesus worked and taught the things recorded in this chapter: the double call to repentance (Luke 13:1-5), the parable of the fruitless fig tree (Luke 13:6-9), another sabbath miracle (Luke 13:10-17), twin parables of the mustard seed and the leaven (Luke 13:18-21), the narrow door (Luke 13:22-30), the threat from the Pharisees (Luke 13:31-33), and the lament over the Holy City (Luke 13:34-35).

Luke 7:4-5 — And they, when they came to Jesus, besought him earnestly, saying, He is worthy that thou shouldest do this for him; for he loveth our nation, and himself built our synagogue. Clearly, the centurion had remained at home (Luke 7:6), and the Jewish elders actually bore the request to Jesus. Our synagogue … McGarvey wrote that: The ruins of Capernaum show the ruins of a synagogue. It was a beautiful structure, built of white limestone, shows by its architecture that it was

John 13:2 — here; but this power is effective only in those souls who have consented to evil domination. Judas had already consented to sin and readily became the instrument of Satan through an act of his own volition. See my Commentary on Matthew, Matt. 4:2; 8:26,32; 112:29; 28:11,15. Judas Iscariot, Simon's son … CONCERNING JUDAS ISCARIOT Judas was named one of the Twelve by Jesus and, along with the others, was commissioned to "heal the sick and raise the dead" (Matthew 10:7); and it must

John 4:37 — saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. This metaphor of the harvest was also used by Paul who extended it to cover the interval between sowing and reaping, thus, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6). In Paul's usage of the metaphor, the gospel preacher is the one who plants, and the one who waters; and he added, "So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."

John 6:47 — Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath eternal life. The preconditions of receiving eternal life are not the subject of this verse. Here Christ was not speaking of them that "believe on" Jesus, but of him that "believeth" the word of God. There is no authority for translating this place, "He that believeth on me hath eternal life." Christ did say that everyone that believeth on him SHOULD HAVE eternal life (John 3:16; John 6:40).

Colossians 4 overview — The epistle moves quickly to its conclusion in these 18 verses. First, there is the conclusion of the instruction on reciprocal relationships (Colossians 4:1), followed by a brief paragraph on prayer and Christian conduct (Colossians 4:2-6); next, Paul mentions affairs pertaining to himself and his imprisonment (Colossians 4:7-9); then comes the paragraph regarding greetings from and greetings to various persons (Colossians 4:10-17); and finally there stands the apostolic autograph, salutation

Hebrews 10:35 — Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. Yet another reference is here to that "boldness" so strongly advocated throughout this epistle. (See under Hebrews 3:6; Hebrews 3:13.) Christians are repeatedly commanded to maintain by the most vigorous affirmation of it at all times that boldness which they must exhibit under all circumstances, exhorting themselves by constant reference to it, continual glorying in

Revelation 11:16 — And the four and twenty elders who sit before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, These represent the church. They were those made "a kingdom" (Revelation 1:6). They therefore fitly take up the burden of praise to him who has now established his universal and everlasting kingdom. A. Plummer. op. cit., p. 294. Who sit before God on their thrones … These thrones suggest the truth that the redeemed have