Bible Commentaries

Genesis 2:3 — was made known, not to Adam, but to Moses (Nehemiah 9:13-14); and the reason for the Jewish observance of the sabbath given to them was not because God rested on the creation sabbath, but "the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt" (Deuteronomy 5:15). The sabbath was never a sign between God and all men, but, "It is a sign between me (God) and the children of Israel" (Exodus 31:17).

Genesis 9:28 — "And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died." Since Abraham was born about 292 years after the Flood, it appears that, for 58 years, Noah was a contemporary of Abraham! Lessons from this narrative are many: (1)    Temptation and sin are of the greatest danger immediately following victory. (2)    Satan assaults the soul with the most

1 Kings 4:26-28 — month; they let nothing be lacking. Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge." "Forty thousand stalls of horses" The parallel account in 2 Chronicles 9:25 gives the number of Solomon's horses at 4,000, a number favored by many scholars, but our own opinion is that the number here is just as likely to be correct as the other. "The Philistines are reported to have brought 30,000 chariots into battle (1

Proverbs 25:2-5 — established in righteousness." "The glory of kings is to search out a matter" "This is not a reference to academic or scientific research, but, "It praises administrative probes. A king should know what is going on."Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Vol. 15, 157. "The heart of kings is unsearchable" This is just another way of saying that nobody knows what any king is liable to do. The kings of Israel were a constant illustration of this truth. "Take away the wicked from before the king" "This sets forth

Proverbs 8:1-5 — the woman Wisdom, as depicted here, and the woman Vice as revealed in the previous chapter! "Wisdom does not speak in whispered seductive tones under the cover of twilight and darkness";Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971), Vol. 5, p. 30 she thunders the truth from the gates of the city, shouts it in the public streets, and demands that all men of every class and condition heed her admonitions. "O, ye simple, ye fools… understand" "The `simple' here are not the mentally

Leviticus 9:15-17 — the morning" is a reference to the morning and evening sacrifices which were offered daily, that offering, no doubt, having been rather thoroughly burned up in the time of the ceremony recorded here. There is some peculiar terminology in Leviticus 9:15, where, according to many scholars, a stricter rendition of the Hebrew gives us: "He sinned it, or made it to be sin!"Joseph A. Seiss, Gospel in Leviticus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, Reprint, 1981), p. 162. This strongly suggests the words of

Lamentations 3:7-12 — my ways, he hath pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for his arrow." "He is unto me as a bear… and a lion" A similar use of these animals as examples of enmity are in Hosea 13:8 and in Amos 5:19. "He hath set me as a mark for his arrow" This is like Job's complaint in Job 16:13. "This new simile arises out of the preceding one."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1989 reprint of the 1878 edition), op. cit.,

Ezekiel 16:39-43 — thy head, saith the Lord Jehovah: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness with all thine abominations." "They shall strip thee of thy clothes" Biblical examples of the degradation of a harlot by exhibiting her naked are found in Hosea 2:12, Nahum 3:5, and in Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 13:26.

Amos 5:9 — second of the hymn fragments, or doxologies," favoring the theory (a subjective imaginative "guess") that they were not "composed or inserted by the prophet, but put in, almost at random, by an editor."Henry McKeating, op. cit., p. 40. (See under Amos 5:4, above, for our refutation of the "editor" theory.) No responsible, intelligent "editor" could possibly have arranged a chapter in the form of this one. Only a preacher like Amos could have produced such a "shotgun sermon" as this; and, with that

Micah 6:2 — shocking news that the one to stand trial is Yahweh's people, Israel, the Southern Kingdom by its covenant name."Leslie C. Allen, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Micah (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976), p. 365. The charge, of course, is breach of contract, under the terms of which God had long ago forewarned his people that their covenant would be abrogated and the intended blessings denied. "His people" These words are most significant, the equivalent of

Nahum 1:10 — drink" most commentators understand this as a metaphor of nations being drunk upon their own power and intoxicated with their own boasting. Certainly the expression is so used by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 13:9; Jeremiah 13:13-14) and by Habakkuk (Habakkuk 2:5, margin ASV); but it ought not to be overlooked that both literal drunkenness and literal fire entered into the fall of Nineveh. The king had ordered a celebration of what was supposed to be the victory; and it became a drunken orgy. In the midst of

Matthew 4:21-22 — Jesus that one of them should sit on the right hand and one on the left hand in his kingdom (Matthew 20:21). Both James and John belonged to that inner circle within the Twelve who were permitted in the bed chamber when Jairus' daughter was raised (Mark 5:37), on the mountain of transfiguration (Matthew 17:1), and with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37). Zebedee … was the brother-in-law of the virgin Mary, according to H. Leo Boles.H. Leo Boles, op. cit., p. 113. The inference

Matthew 9:2 — faith said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven. This is one of those "mighty works" mentioned by Jesus in his reproach of Capernaum (Matthew 11:23). Important details are mentioned in Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26 which are not contained in Matthew. Mark tells that he was carried by four men, and Luke relates the breaking up of the roof to let him down to Jesus. Seeing their faith refers not merely to the faith of the four but of the man with the palsy

Matthew 9:24 — in the resurrection; (3) there is a rejuvenation or rebuilding of powers during the period of waiting; or, more properly, both are followed by an IMPROVED state of the person; (4) there is no total destruction and loss of the person in either case; (5) and there is no loss of personality or identity. Jesus thus gave an utterly new concept of death; and from that came the custom, universally observed among Christians, of writing "asleep in Jesus" upon the tombs of the departed. The words

Mark 14:1-2 — risk such a thing. How then did it come to pass otherwise? As the anti-type of the passover lamb, it was fitting that the Lord should be sacrificed at the Passover season, as the Father's plan required, and as Jesus himself prophesied (Matthew 26:1-5). The Lord, not the priests, was the architect of the crucifixion. Take him with subtlety … They intended to assassinate Jesus in a gangland type murder. The religious leaders of Israel had, in such a purpose, descended to a record low plane

Mark 4:2 — a truth presented by a similitude, being of necessity figurative"; but a proverb may be "figurative, but not necessarily."E. Bickersteth. The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), Vol. 16, p. 156. The reason for Jesus' resort to the method of teaching by parables is complex: (1) He did so in order to fulfill prophecy. (2) He did so to confound the spies of the Pharisees. (3) He thus challenged his disciples to greater spiritual discernment.

Mark 5:27-28 — in the crowd behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch but his garments, I shall be made whole. Having heard the things concerning Jesus … The woman might have been a citizen of Caesarea Philippi;J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 659. and, if so, this indicates the widespread knowledge of the mighty works of Jesus. Touched his garment … God had commanded Hebrew men to wear a border on their garments, "the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue" (Numbers 15:38),

Luke 1:6 — If this view is correct, Luke could not possibly have written anything like this verse; but since he most assuredly wrote it, it must appear as a fair conclusion that this verse presents a Pauline view of righteousness fully in harmony with Romans 1:5; Romans 16:26 where "obedience of faith" is also stressed.

Luke 1:76 — the end of the prophecy. One is reminded of the cows that went lowing away from their calves (1 Samuel 6:7-12). Most High … See under Luke 1:32. Go before the face of the Lord … These words are an elaboration of the prophecy in Malachi 4:5-6. The imagery is that of a herald going before a king to prepare the way for a royal visitor. Here too the subordination of John, the child of hope, to the royal dignity of the yet unborn Christ (by these words of Zacharias) is contrary to all human

1 John overview — profoundest dimensions and embryonically stating the theme as: "God manifested in Jesus Christ, that man may have fellowship with the Father through the Son."J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1054. The remaining six verses are part of a complicated paragraph running through 1 John 2:28 and which begins with "God is light" (1 John 1:5), the first of three epic statements about God which are usually cited by scholars as marking in a