Bible Commentaries

Ecclesiastes 6:7-9 — then we have here the equivalent of the current saying that, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," the very same thought of every sinner who consents to take what his lustful eyes may see instead of those things eternal which are invisible (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Isaiah 1:1 — Rawlinson, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 10, p. 1. "The vision" "This is a technical term for `Divine Revelation," as something displayed before the mind's eye of the prophet.Gleason L. Archer, Jr., Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 609. Actually, much of the Book of Isaiah was communicated to the prophet in a manner unknown to us, as the author of Hebrews put it, "by various manners and various portions" Hebrews 1:1, NIV. There are also examples of "visions" in the usual

Isaiah 37:36-38 — murder of Sennacherib, which was about sixty years from the beginning of Isaiah's ministry. The account was probably added as Isaiah edited his book before his death. Two facts stand out clearly: (1) Through Isaiah, God declared what he would do, and (2) he did it; but how quickly was this remarkable deliverance forgotten by Manasseh, Hezekiah's son, who was one of the most wicked kings of Judah!"Homer Hailey, p. 314. Some love to speculate with regard to just how "the angel of the Lord" executed so

Isaiah 40:1-2 — iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received of Jehovah's hand double for all her sins." Cheyne viewed this little paragraph as the theme, not merely of this chapter but of the remaining twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah.T. K. Cheyne's Commentary, p. 243. He also believed that this was a commission to "all the prophets"; but we do not agree with that. It was the commission to Isaiah, i.e., somewhat of an auxiliary commission to his original call, the great assignment here being that of comforting

Isaiah 44:18-20 — never be understood as a capricious or haphazard action on the part of the heavenly Father. "God closes the eyes and hearts of men, but that is never an arbitrary action on God's part. The hardened and blinded are themselves responsible for it (Romans 1:20-28). In their self-imposed darkened state the idolaters cannot understand their own folly."Homer Hailey, p. 375. Furthermore, we consider the consecration of so-called "sacred images" in certain allegedly "Christian" communions of our own era as just

Isaiah 5:26-30 — extended metaphor of the lion, the lioness, and the young lions points squarely at the king of Assyria and his merciless armies as instruments through which the impending judgment of God's rebellious and wicked people would be executed. A reading of Nahum 2:11-13 will quickly reveal how this lion metaphor constituted the universally known logo of Assyria, an identification that clung to that evil kingdom until their own final destruction. God's providential help of the enemies who would destroy Israel

Isaiah 51:9-11 — the days of previous generations; but other speakers have been suggested, such as "Zion, angels, the prophet Isaiah, and the Son (the Ideal Servant) pleading with the Father, and that it is Jehovah addressing himself!"Pulpit Commentary, Vol. II, p. 260. One may take his choice; we fail to see that it makes a lot of difference. "That didst cut Rahab in pieces" The name Rahab is here a poetic name of Egypt, just as Gotham is the poetic name of New York City. The name's connection with some ancient

Isaiah 58:1-3 — this warning in a manner consistent with the urgency of it. We wonder if some of the soothing, casual, and conversational voices of many of our modern preachers should not be more consistent with the urgency of the Divine call to repentance. Isaiah 58:2 states that Israel were transgressors and sinners "as a nation, etc.," i.e., "as if they were a nation" that did righteousness and had not forsaken the ordinance of their God. Note the singular "ordinance." What was it? It was that single fast that

Jeremiah 14:10-12 — God's reply to the prayer as follows: "The measure of Israel's iniquity being now full, they must be punished. The nation is ripe for destruction; intercede not for them."Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (London: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), p. 295. "They have loved to wander" There is nothing innocent about this "wandering." Cheyne rendered it, "roving lawlessly about."T. K. Cheyne, Jeremiah in the Pulpit Commentary, p. 355. "Pray not for this people" Twice previously, God gave Jeremiah this

Jeremiah 15:15-18 — that the great prophet was almost totally discouraged about the seeming failure of his mission. Green pointed out that Jeremiah's appeal to God has the following: (1) he appeals to God to remember him; he feels forsaken, and checkmated by his enemies; (2) he reminds God of his love and respect for the divine word; (3) he protests his loneliness and his being left out of the assemblies of the people; (4) and he even echoed the sentiments of Christ on Calvary, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?";

Jeremiah 2:1-3 — Judah's reforms under Josiah were external only and did not at all touch the heart of the people who went right on delighting in the sexual orgies of their shameless love of the old Canaan fertility gods. "The valley" mentioned later in the chapter (v. 23) indicates the sacrifice of their children to Molech at the very time of their brazen claim of innocence. If the reform under Josiah had truly resulted in the repentance of Israel and their return to the God of their fathers, the Lord would most certainly

Jeremiah 26:20-23 — spleen upon a lesser adversary suggests his intense hatred of Jeremiah, and gives us reason to believe that he was behind Jeremiah's persecution here."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 675. "Elnathan" This man was probably the king's father-in-law (2 Kings 24:8), making the delegation to extradite Uriah from Egypt an impressive one. The circumstance that favored the success of their mission derived from the fact that Jehoiachim himself was a vassal of the king of Egypt and thus was likely to have

Jeremiah 35:6-11 — us" The obedience of the Rechabites to their principles was indeed astounding. "All of their days, they had obeyed all of Jonadab's injunctions; all of them obeyed at all times and in all particulars."Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary, p. 542. No greater contrast to the disobedience of Israel could possibly have been imagined. It should be noted that, "What is praised here is not Jonadab's injunctions, but the faithful obedience of his sons."Ibid., p. 543. The superiority of the obedience

Jeremiah 48:1-4 — pursue thee. The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction. Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard." "Nebo" "This is not the mountain from which Moses viewed the Promised Land, but the city of Numbers 32:3; Numbers 32:38, built by the Reubenites."R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, p. 174. "Kiriathaim" "A city six miles south of Dibon."The New Layman's Bible Commentary, p. 845. Dibon was where the Moabite Stone was found. "Heshbon"

Jeremiah 5:30-31 — Paul's Book of Romans. GOD'S ANSWER The judicial hardening of mankind was at this point complete, it was the third such emergency in God's dealings with humanity. (1) There was the condition before the flood; and God's answer then was the Great Deluge. (2) Then there was the organized wickedness that culminated in the Tower of Babel; and God's answer then was the confounding of the languages of humanity and the introduction of the device of the Chosen People; (3) Now that the whole race of Adam, Jews

Jeremiah 9:17-20 — until the times of Christ, as indicated by the hired mourners who were bewailing the death of the daughter of Jairus (Luke 8:40-56). The thought in this paragraph is (1) that a terrible calamity of death and destruction is approaching for Israel, and (2) that the supply of skilled mourners will be insufficient properly to bewail the tragedy; therefore, enlist the skilled mourners and let everyone teach her neighbor in order to help supply the mourners that would be needed! Now was this an event that

Ezekiel 35:4-6 — the capture of Jerusalem put an end to her iniquity; Hengstenberg suggested that it was the time of the iniquity that brought on her end; and Ewald translated it, "At the time of her extremist punishment."E. H. Plumptre in the Pulpit Commentary, p. 226. The long hatred for Israel on the part of Edom led to their refusal of permission for Israel to pass through their land (Numbers 20:14-21); to their invasion of Judah (2 Chronicles 20:10-11); to their aiding Nebuchadnezzar in the overthrow of Jerusalem

Daniel 3:1 — of Nebuchadnezzar himself. Why? (1) There is the probable thinking on Nebuchadnezzar's part that this statute all of gold was a better symbol of his importance than the one of the dream that Daniel interpreted, in which he was only the head of gold. (2) Also, as Arthur Jeffery put it, "The tyrant ever seeks to make men bow down before something he has made… The egocentric man has idols before which he insists that other men bow. These usurp the place of God."Arthur Jeffery, The Interpreter's

Joel 2:3 — against the population itself. The probability of this view being correct is greatly enhanced by the dual presentation of the locusts in Revelation 9. In phase I, there was no loss of human life; but in phase II, the "locusts" became a murdering army of 200,000,000 with a commission to destroy a third of the human race! The genius of the inspired writers in discerning these two phases in the life-cycle of the actual locust is certainly reflected in both Joel and the Book of Revelation. This two-phase

Amos 2:14-16 — stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself; neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself; and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah." (See under Amos 2:13 above for further comment on these verses.) The complete and irreversible overthrow of Israel is solemnly prophesied in this climactic denunciation. "Naked" This word, "upon which the description ends, sums up effectively the pitiful helplessness