Bible Commentaries

2 Chronicles 21:11-15 — that the "document"The Anchor Bible, op. cit., p. 121. (as the word is translated by Myers) was written during Elijah's lifetime. Furthermore, the Chronicler gives five other examples of prophets predicting disaster to kings before the event (2 Chr. 12:5; 16:7; 19:2; 24:20; and 26:16).Ibid., p. 122. In this light, we find no difficulty whatever in what is written here.

Nehemiah 11:19-21 — population was readjusted, so that ten percent of the returnees lived in the city, and ninety percent in the Outlying areas. If so interpreted, it would mean that, "The population of Judea had increased considerably during the previous century; because the 50,000 who returned with Zerubbabel from Babylon included women and children."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 443. The approximately 3,000 men in Jerusalem before this adjustment took place would mean that there were 30,000 Jewish men then living

Nehemiah 13:19-22 — would reckon time, actually began at sundown on the preceding day. "The Jews grounded this practice on the Genesis account of creation, where the successive days are listed after the formula, `There was evening and morning, one day,' etc. (Genesis 1:5)."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 141. Nehemiah closed the gates on the sabbath and threatened violence against those who camped outside waiting for the end of it; and these stern measures were effective, as long as Nehemiah was governor with authority

Job 11:7-12 — in this passage were just as applicable to himself as they were to Job; but men with a plank in their own eye love to gouge for the mote in their brother's eye. In the last analysis, God Himself finally opened his lips, as Zophar suggested in Job 11:5, flatly declaring that Zophar and Job's other friends had not spoken "that which was right" about God (Job 42:7). How wrong he was! Some of the generalities Zophar here uttered about God were of course true; but his thinly veiled suggestions that Job

Psalms 108:1-13 — A COMPOSITE OF Psalms 57:7-11UNITED WITH Psalms 60:5-12 "My heart is fixed, O God; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises, even with my glory. Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake right early. I will give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah, among the peoples; And I will sing

Psalms 116:16-19 — Jehovah (Hallelujah)." "I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid" "Thine handmaid here is `The Church,' or if Hezekiah was the author, `Thy handmaid was Abiyah, the daughter of Zechariah, who `had understanding in the vision of God (2 Chronicles 26:5; 2 Chronicles 29:1).'"The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 72. "I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving" This heart-felt sacrifice is the real worship of which all the ancient bloody sacrifices were only the tokens and symbolical predecessors. Note

Psalms 128:3-4 — "stays at home." "This is in sharp contrast with what is said of the promiscuous wife in Proverbs 7:11, `She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home.'"Derek Kidner, Vol. II, p. 443. In the New Testament, this quality is mentioned in Titus 2:5. "Like olive plants around thy table" "As the husband looks on his sons gathered around his table, he is reminded of the numerous seedlings that shoot up under a cultivated olive tree."The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IV, p. 673. Numerous offspring were

Psalms 141:5-7 — THE MYSTERIOUS PASSAGE Psalms 141:5-7 are the difficult verses mentioned at the head of this chapter; and we submit the following renditions of these in various versions as the most practical way of discerning what might be meant. "Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; And

Psalms 18:30-33 — "hind" here is the "doe," the female deer, a marvelous example of sure-footedness and swiftness even in the steepest, ruggedest, and rockiest terrain. "It is not swiftness in flight, but in attack, that is meant."F. Delitzsch. The Old Testament, Vol. 5 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 264. We remember the report of how an old Holiness preacher interpreted this verse. He read it as follows: "He setting my feet like hen's feet." "Now," he said, "We all know that a hen has four toes, three in

Psalms 5:1-3 — meditation,' `my cry,' `my voice,' `my prayer,' `my King,' and `my God.' Prayer is the breathing of spiritual life; and where there is no prayer that life is either threatened or deceased altogether. (3)    The words at the end of Psalms 5:3, "will keep watch," indicate that true prayer involves the expectancy of God's answer, and of the worshipper's earnestly watching to receive it. As Jesus himself stated it, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive it." (Matthew

Psalms 50:22-23 — thanksgiving glorifieth me. And to him that ordereth his way aright Will I show the salvation of God." The two words that dominate this psalm are here placed above the two divisions of humanity who will be before God in the Final Judgment. "My people" (Psalms 50:7) and "The Wicked" (Psalms 50:16) are used here in the reverse order of their appearance in the psalm. These two verses have the advantage of further clarifying the question of who will participate in the Final Judgment. Psalms 50:22 speaks of the

Psalms 58:3-5 — verse as teaching total hereditary depravity find what is absolutely not in it. "The words `total,' `hereditary,' and `depravity' are not in the Bible, not even in one in a place, much less all three together"!George DeHoff's Commentary, Vol. III, p. 154. "They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies" "This, of course, is literally impossible; and those who use this verse to argue for infant depravity surely miss the author's poetic point."Anthony L. Ash, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Abilene,

Ecclesiastes 11:10 — They are not vanity because they are undesirable or worthless, or anything like that, they are vanity in the sense that they are fleeting; they soon pass away. As Wordsworth stated it:William Wordsworth, Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, Stanza 5, and Stanza 7. Trailing clouds of glory do we comeFrom God who is our home.Heaven lies about us in our infancyAt length the man sees it die awayAnd fade into the light of common day. F. C. Cook's observation on Ecclesiastes 11:10 was, "Let the timely

Isaiah 47:8-11 — not." The various sins of Babylon are listed here: (1) her egotistical boasting; (2) her reliance upon the black arts of sorcery and enchantments; (3) her having given herself wholly to lustful, sinful pleasures; (4) her trusting in her wickedness; (5) her over-confident sense of security; (6) her reliance upon her own wisdom and knowledge; and (7) most importantly of all the attitude that is mentioned twice, in Isaiah 47:8; Isaiah 47:10, her self-deification visible in her thoughts that, "I am,

Isaiah 64:8 — promises. Douglas has pointed out the following correspondences between this chapter and the early chapters of the prophecy. "Isaiah 64:4 is like Isaiah 8:17; Isaiah 30:18. Isaiah 64:6 is like Isaiah 30:22; Isaiah 28:1; Isaiah 27:8. Isaiah 64:7 is like Isaiah 27:5; Isaiah 8:17; Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 19:25; etc."George C. M. Douglas, p. 405. We have called attention here, once again, to the inimitable work of Douglas, the great scholar who so many years ago wrote that remarkable book, "Isaiah One; His Book One."

Jeremiah 18:13-14 — the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?" "The willfulness of Israel in forsaking Jehovah their God was without parallel in the ancient world, as Jeremiah had already mentioned in Jeremiah 2:9-13; Jeremiah 5:20-25, and in Jeremiah 8:7. The horror is heightened by calling her a virgin. She had indeed been a virgin hedged about by the Lord to protect her sanctity."Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 492. There are no known examples

Jeremiah 33:1-5 — in the text, some have supposed the destruction here to be connected with the demolition of houses by the army of the invaders; but our translation indicates that the houses were destroyed to provide materials for the erection of mantelets (Nahum 2:5) or mounds with which to oppose the invading Babylonians. We do not see the difference as a problem, because houses were in all probability destroyed by both the defenders and the invaders. Thus the text is true no matter which translation is used;

Jeremiah 51:34-40 — he-goats." Harrison's summary of this paragraph has this: "Nebuchadnezzar has devoured Jerusalem with the greedy gulp of a monster (the New English Bible has "dragon"), and for this excess his land shall be punished. The idiom of recompense (Jeremiah 51:35) is that of Genesis 16:5)."R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, p. 188. "I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry" This writer cannot believe that Almighty God would dignify the mythological tale of a vast

Jeremiah 51:6-10 — and the spiritual Babylon of Revelation is amazing. Note the following: (1) Both shall be utterly destroyed (2) God's people are commanded to "come out of her." (3) She has a golden cup in her hand. (4) The nations have become drunk with her wine. (5) Her judgment reaches all the way to heaven. (6) Her doom is like a stone cast into the river (see last paragraph of this chapter). (7) She is responsible for all the slain in the land (Jeremiah 51:49). See Vol. 12 (Revelation) in the New Testament

Ezekiel 6:8-10 — Messiah to redeem mankind would eventually be achieved, according to the eternal purpose of God. Plumptre noted that the thought here regarding the remnant is the same as that in Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 10:20; Zephaniah 2:7; Zephaniah 3:13; and Jeremiah 43:5.E. H. Plumptre in the Pulpit Commentary, p. 102. "I have been broken by their lewd heart" Many scholars agree with the translation of this clause as, "I have broken their whorish heart which hath departed from me."B, p. 319, It is never God who is broken