Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 14:28-32 — answer the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of the people take refuge." This prophecy is dated by the prophet Isaiah as having been given in the year that king Ahaz died, which was about the year 725 B.C.Ibid. The background of this prophecy, according to Kidner, lay during the period immediately after the death of Ahaz and in the early years of Hezekiah, and in the atmosphere created by an ambassage from Philistia to Hezekiah proposing a rebellion

Isaiah 24:23 — Jehovah of hosts will reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders shall be glory." This verse again points squarely at the Great Day. "And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood" (Revelation 6:12). It appears here that the same cosmic disturbances mentioned by Isaiah were also foreseen in the revelation to John. There is little doubt that both visions contemplate the final judgment and second advent of Christ. "After many days shall they be

Isaiah 26:11-15 — deceased: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish. Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou has enlarged all the borders of the land." On Isaiah 26:11, see under Isaiah 26:10, above. Isaiah 26:13-14 are the most challenging verses in this paragraph. Who is it that received this triple declaration in the Word of God that they are dead, deceased, perished? Barnes believed that these "other lords"

Isaiah 32:9-15 — no connection with the preceding and subsequent paragraphs; but as Rawlinson noted, "They furnish a link between the two portions of the chapter, making it probable that they were delivered upon the same occasion."The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 10a, p. 523. He also accepted the speculation of Cheyne that, this prophecy was uttered at a public festival, and that, "A group of women, gathered, we may suppose, at a little distance from the rest and testifying their indifference (perhaps by frivolity), received

Isaiah 8:1-4 — Revised, p. 773. or, as J. B. Phillips has it, "Quick pickings - Easy prey." The terrible meaning is evident enough; God will punish Israel at once, shaving the land with the hired razor, the king of Assyria. God called him a "hired razor" (Isaiah 7:20), because Ahaz had foolishly bribed Assyria to come into Israel as a "protector" against Samaria and Damascus. What is comforting about this sign for Ahaz? It must be admitted that there is no comfort of any kind in it. If there was ever a message

Jeremiah 14:1-6 — drought, the servants no longer attended their lords; it was `everyone for himself'; and the lords of the society were required to employ their own children to fetch water."Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (London: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), p. 294. Either interpretation shows the seriousness of the water shortage. "Cisterns" This word has the same meaning today; and for ages, such reservoirs have been used for storing water during the times of rain against anticipated shortages. The tragedy

Jeremiah 15:1-4 — Samuel" These were historical heroes of the Jewish people, who, upon serious occasions of Israel's rebellion against the Lord, had interceded for them, praying for their forgiveness; and there were several examples of this in the Old Testament. (Exodus 32:11-14; Exodus 32:30-34; Numbers 24:13-23; Deuteronomy 9:18-20; Deuteronomy 9:15-29; 1 Samuel 7:5-9; 1 Samuel 12:19-25; and Psalms 99:6-8). However, the sad message here is that even the intercession of such intercessors as Moses and Samuel would be

Jeremiah 18:1-4 — Notes (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House), p. 196. "Go down to the potter's house" This was located in a clay-field to the South of Jerusalem, just beyond the valley of Hinnom."Scribner's Bible Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898), p. 421. This potter's field was made eternally famous by Zechariah 11:13 who named this field as the place for which the blood-money for the Christ would be used as a purchase price, a prophecy remarkably fulfilled when the thirty pieces of silver which Judas

Jeremiah 29:15-20 — us up prophets in Babylon" This evidently comes from some communication which Jeremiah had received from the captives themselves. Of course, such prophets were false prophets; and Jeremiah warned against the captive's being deceived by them. Jeremiah 29:16-17 have the prophecy of the complete destruction of the remainder of Judah in Jerusalem; and we reject the idea that this prophecy does not belong in Jeremiah's letter. Oh yes, it is missing from the Septuagint (LXX), but what of that? As Smith

Jeremiah 30:1-3 — perhaps two or three other chapters additionally. Do those chapters include "all the words that God spoke to Jeremiah?" No matter what men say, the answer to that is negative. What we have here is exactly the same commandment found again in Jeremiah 36:2, where God said to Jeremiah: "In the fourth year of Jehoiachim… the word came from Jehovah to Jeremiah, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against

Jeremiah 32:6-15 — known among the Jews of this period, and that many of its provisions were still being observed. The Book of Ruth tells of the marriage of Ruth the Moabitess, along with the redemption of a piece of land that had belonged to Ruth's husband. Leviticus 25:25 records the Mosaic law that was involved in such purchases. "Baruch" This is the first mention of Baruch in Jeremiah. This man was the amanuensis of Jeremiah and was the scribe who actually wrote a great deal of the book, under the strict direction

Jeremiah 38:7-13 — Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 111. There is nothing strange about a eunuch's being in the court of Zedekiah. "Since the king had many wives, a eunuch was the overseer of the harem; and as the Mosaic law forbade the castration of a Hebrew (Deuteronomy 23:2), Zedekiah's eunuch was an Ethiopian."Ibid. "Take thirty men… and take up Jeremiah" The radical critics suppose that was too many men to take, and "Against the authority of all the versions of the Hebrew text, and solely upon the appearance

Ezekiel 31:10-14 — nations have been scared from under its shadow; and the tree which only yesterday might have stood against the whole world now lies prostrate and dishonoured - "none so poor as to do it reverence."John Skinner in the Expositor's Bible Commentary, p. 273. "Here under the figure of the felling of a cedar there is depicted the overthrow of a monarchy and a kingdom that has already taken place."Carl Friedrich Keil, Keil-Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company),

Hosea 14:1 — (Matthew 3); the first sermon Jesus ever preached was, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:14); and the first sermon of the gospel age found the apostle Peter commanding the people in the name of Christ to "Repent and be baptized, etc." (Acts 2:38). Thus, the very outset of this chapter is a signal that the New Israel is the one in focus here. Myers also agreed that Hosea 14:1 in this place is "a simple and unqualified demand for repentance."Jacob M. Myers, op. cit., p. 68. Mays interpreted

Hosea 4:1 — idols. Knowing God in the Biblical sense means an active and obedient knowledge that consciously conforms to the teaching of God's Word. People who "obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" are one in every sense with the people "who know not God" (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

Hosea 8:1 — and since Assyria was the obvious threat to Israel's sovereignty in the eighth century B.C., there is every reason to conclude that the eagle symbolizes Assyria here."James M. Ward, Hosea, A Theological Commentary (New York: Harper and Row, 1966) p. 42. Whether Ward's comment is correct, or Keil's understanding of the eagle as "the judgment of Jehovah,"C. F. Keil, Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 10 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 111. the meaning is exactly the same either

Joel 2:30 — complete weeks later; and thus the "blood, fire, vapor of smoke" reference was fully applicable to both occasions. (See CA, pp. 44-48.) The crucifixion of Christ was a day when evil was destroyed (Satan was destroyed through the death of Christ, Hebrews 2:14), and was therefore an occasion fully important enough to be heralded by the portents mentioned here. The echoes of the final judgment are also in these verses, but this should not be surprising. The Final Day actually began with the crucifixion

Amos 6:13-14 — recent translations render Amos 6:13, as follows: "You brag about capturing the town of Lodebar. You boast, We were strong enough to take Karnaim." "The verse is a sarcastic allusion to the conquests of Jeroboam II in Transjordan, which are narrated in 2 Kings 14:25, two towns that he captured being mentioned here."Erling Hammershaimb, op. cit., p. 105. Amos here made a play upon the meaning of the names of the towns, Lodebar, for example, meaning "a thing of naught." Nevertheless, the people were very

Zechariah 1:11 — greatness of his strength with the garments dyed red, who came from treading the wine-press alone, and whose lifeblood was sprinkled upon his garments (Isaiah 63:1-3). We do not hesitate to identify him as "none other than the Angel of the Presence (Exodus 23:23), Jehovah himself, the Messiah in his pre-incarnate glory."Merrill F. Unger, op. cit., p. 27. We have walked to and fro through the earth" This is the only function of the great company of horsemen which is mentioned; but, in all probability there

Zechariah 9:13 — of the world was any more contradictory to what in human sight was possible…. There was not a little cloud, like a man's hand, when Zechariah thus absolutely foretold the conflict and its issue."Albert Barnes, Notes on the Minor Prophets, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1953), p. 409.