Bible Commentaries

Exodus 30:17-21 — shall they wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations." "And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass" (Exodus 30:18). There are numerous examples in the Pentateuch of slight variations in the form of God's commandments. As the Holy Spirit indeed has told us, "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners."

Exodus 32:7-14 — contemplated doing: (1)    He appealed for God to remember all that he had already done for Israel. (2)    He pointed out that the Egyptians would accuse God of leading the people out in order to destroy them. (3)    He pleaded with God to remember the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel regarding their posterity being multiplied and regarding their entry into and possession of the land of Canaan. "Jehovah repented" God never repents of

1 Kings 17:2-7 — is before Jordan" In the O.T. this expression always means "east of." "I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there" A statement such as this runs some writers wild. Impossible! "Saga… legend… myth"!The Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. 3, p. 208. However, as Snaith wisely said: "More than human ingenuity is required in order to excise all the miraculous elements from these wonders."The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 3, p. 146. The best explanation that rationalists have come up with is that

1 Kings 3:1-3 — sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places." "Pharaoh's daughter" Gates identified this Pharaoh as being, "Either the last of the 21st Dynasty of Egyptian rulers or the first of the 22nd Dynasty."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, O.T., 1 Kings, p. 313. Most scholars declare him to be "unknown." The significance of this note is that it was unlawful for an Israelite to marry a foreign woman unless she changed her religion to that of her husband's nation. Even then, the permission to marry foreign

Isaiah 59 overview — Kelley stated that this chapter "can be best understood when it is seen in its post-exilic setting!"Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971), p. 358. For once we wholly agree with the critical community that the prophecies of the chapter belong completely to the post-exilic community of the Jewish nation, a long, long time post-exilic, even to the times of the Son of God, the great intercessor

Ezekiel 31 overview — features of this allegory is not to be sought in Babylonian mythology, as supposed by May, nor should we believe that "The Garden of God" referred to herein is a reference "to a mythological `Garden of Eden.'"H. G. May in the Interpreter's Bible, pp. 233, 235. The background of the chapter was the historical situation of those times, namely, on June 21,587. B.C.,F. F. Bruce in the New Layman's Bible Commentary, p. 887. which was only a couple of months before the fall of Jerusalem,George Barlow, The

Numbers 10:29-32 — Holy Spirit? What do we want experience and counsel for, when Divine guidance has been promised us? The two things work together.Alexander Maclaren, Exposition of Holy Scriptures, Numbers (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1942), p. 314. God's promise of guidance and success never relieved any person of the utmost watchfulness and labor toward the same objective. It will be remembered that God had promised Paul that his life and the lives of all on board the ship would be spared,

Numbers 18:1-7 — (Numbers 18:1). "This means take the responsibility of preserving the ritual requirements, and to bear the responsibility for any violations."Lindsay B. Longacre, Abingdon Bible Commentary on the Old Testament (London: T. C. and E. C. Jack Ltd., 1929), p. 306. In connection with this, note that in case any Levite touched the vessels of the sanctuary, not only would they die, but also would Aaron for not preventing it, "neither they nor ye" (Numbers 18:3). As Whitelaw said, however, this clause is very

Deuteronomy 32:19-22 — GOD'S ANGER FLAMES AGAINST ISRAEL (Deuteronomy 32:19-22) "And Jehovah saw it, and abhorred them, Because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: For they are a very perverse generation, Children in whom is no

Deuteronomy 33:13-17 — indeed might have thought that Joseph was to rule in Israel; and when Ephraim's usurping of the name "Israel" and taking ten tribes away from the house of David are considered, it is clear enough that "majesty" in a sense did pertain to him (Deuteronomy 33:17). Nevertheless, Moses also confirmed the blessing of Jacob to Judah; and, in time, Judah would be the true leader of Israel. The prophecy of Moses here also confirmed the superiority of Ephraim over Manasseh, as had been done by Jacob, ascribing

Hebrews 11:9 — Sarah died, he insisted on weighing out 400 shekels of silver to Ephron the Hittite of the children of Heth for the purchase of the cave of Machpelah as a burial place, the only part of Canaan to which Abraham ever had an earthly deed or title (Genesis 23:16). It was squarely here, in his de-emphasis of the present world, that the glory of Abraham chiefly centered. God was his inheritance, his shield, his exceeding great reward; and, as related in the following verse, Abraham looked to the eternal city,

Hebrews 13:25 — Grace be with you all. Amen. This was Paul's customary way of concluding a letter except for the omitted signature. See Romans 16:20; 1 Corinthians 16:23; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Galatians 6:18; Ephesians 6:24; Philippians 4:23; Colossians 4:18; 1 Thess. 4:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:18; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 4:22; Titus 3:15 and Philemon 1:25. In this light, Paul's benediction of grace, as in this final

2 Peter 2:4 — judgment; Peter with this verse cited some historical examples of God's judgment and condemnation of the wicked (noting also that the righteous were spared), these being: (1) the example of the sinning angels; (2) the case of Noah and his generation; (3) the example of Sodom and Gomorrah; and (4) the deliverance of Lot. It is an unqualified mystery to this writer why anyone should suppose that Peter found all this in the Book of Enoch, or some other apocryphal writing. Peter received this from the

1 John 2:1 — designation of the whole congregation, the repeated use of the word, especially the use of two different words for children, namely, [@paidia] and [@teknia] seems to suggest a different meaning later in the chapter. [@Paidia] is the word used in 1 John 2:13 and 1 John 2:18.John R. W. Stott, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 20 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964), p. 79. The other word is used in 1 John 2:12; 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4, and 1

1 John 4:20 — brothers and sisters … their inconsistencies which we cannot help seeing … It seems much easier to love God, knowing how much He has done for us.F. F. Bruce, Answers to Questions (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972), p. 133. Who has not encountered the same difficulty? Bruce's answer pointed out: (1) that love in the sense intended here is not sentimentality, or feeling, but a conscious recognition of our necessity to do all that is consistent with the true welfare of

Jude 1:9 — here quoting from Philo, or the apocryphal book of Enoch, or Josephus, or "The Assumption of Moses," nor any one of half dozen alleged "sources." The last clause of this verse is a quotation from the Old Testament book of Zechariah 3:2; and we may be certain that the rest of this verse is just as authentic as the last clause. It is helpful to remember that the writer of this epistle had been reared in the same family with Jesus Christ our Lord, having had more than a quarter of

Revelation 12:14 — the great eagle … The great drama of persecution has here moved into its third phase: (1) It first raged against the woman before Christ was born. (2) It reached it bitterest and most intense malignity during the ministry of the Son of God. (3) It next fell upon the young church, the old Israel itself being a satanic instrument in this. The first outrages against the church were promulgated by the Jews. The church would sorely need the wings of the great eagle in order to flee from her foes. This

Revelation 12:17 — scattering that arose upon the martyrdom of Stephen), Satan extended and continued his persecution of God's people, called here "the rest of her seed," and meaning the Christians of all ages. The rest of her seed … This suggests Galatians 3:16; Galatians 3:29, where Paul spoke of all Christians as "the seed of Abraham." Thus the woman is both the old Israel and the new Israel, but in both cases, only the true Israel. "The rest means the whole body of Christians, not merely

Revelation 21:1 — is the fulfillment of Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22, passages strongly ascribed by millennarians to the thousand years." Albertus Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), p. 330. One of the unsolvable mysteries in this is just what is meant by "new." Paul wrote, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17) and yet the "new" man, in some sense, is the same as the old, the

2 Samuel 5:1-5 — to reign, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years." "All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron" We learn from 2 Samuel 5:3 that they `all came' in the person of their representatives, i.e., the elders. "David made a covenant with them" We have no way of knowing what this covenant contained and not even what any of the provisions of it were; but it fully satisfied Israel,