Bible Commentaries

Exodus 29:38-42 — Josiah's reign (1 Kings 23:4ff),"Ronald E. Clements, op. cit., p. 188. is refuted and denied by every word of Exodus. Some of the terminology here is not meaningful today without translating it into current language. "The ephah," for example "is about 3/5ths of a bushel."Wilbur Fields, op. cit., p. 666. A tenth part of an ephah would be about three and a half pints. The hin was "one sixth of an ephah, and a quarter of a hin was therefore about a pint and a half."F. C. Cook, op. cit., p. 82. "The drink

Exodus 34:5-8 — concerning the nature, or attributes, of God Himself. This sacred glimpse of God's loving mercy lies behind the N.T. revelation that "God is love." The O.T. prophets returned to these words again and again. They are quoted in Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 86:15; Psalms 103:8; Psalms 145:8; Joel 2:15; Jonah 4:2; and also Numbers 14:18. It is an inexcusable error, however, to suppose that God will finally accommodate to human wickedness. He will "by no means clear the guilty"; and despite some efforts to distort

1 Kings 8:22-26 — would no doubt, as a matter of course, have been religiously preserved. As we certainly should have expected, radical "Critics deny the authenticity of this prayer because of its many references to the Pentateuch,"The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 152. which of course effectively disproves their favorite canard of a late date for the Pentateuch. Hammond cited Exodus 19:9; Exodus 22:11; Leviticus 5:1; Leviticus 26:17; Leviticus 26:25; Leviticus 26:40; Leviticus 26:42; Deuteronomy 4:20; Deuteronomy

2 Kings 4:42-44 — speaker in these clauses. The servant was evidently Gehazi. "Bread of the first-fruits" "It is very remarkable that this man brought these gifts to Elisha instead of giving them to a priest as the Law specified."The New Layman's Bible Commentary, p. 456. "This account furnishes fresh evidence that the godly men of Israel did not regard the religion introduced by Jeroboam as legitimate, but sought and found the true religion in the schools of the sons of the prophets,"C. F. Keil, Keil and Delitzsch's

2 Kings 5:13-14 — insignificant thing that I just can't believe that it would do any good!" "His flesh came again" It appears from this that some of Naaman's flesh had been lost, as also indicated by the words of the prophet, "Thy flesh shall come again to thee" (2 Kings 5:10). When this writer visited a leper compound in Pusan, Korea in 1953, he observed sufferers from this disease who had lost their nose, or eyelids, or ear, or portions of their lips, and it is certain from the terminology used here that Naaman had

Job 22:12-16 — `poured out' because they are not liquids. The KJV has, "Whose foundation was overflown with a flood"; and the RSV has, "Their foundation was washed away." Kline,Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 478. DeHoffGeorge DeHoff's Commentary, Vol. 3, p. 51. and DriverInternational Critical Commentary, Job, p. 196. interpreted this as a reference to the flood; and Driver gave the literal meaning as, "The foundations of whose houses were carried away by the Deluge."Ibid. However, Pope disputed this interpretation,

Psalms 34:20-22 — penalty.'"H. C. Leupold, p. 283. "Jehovah redeemeth" (Psalms 34:22). This word `redeem,' according to Dahood, "Is a metaphor depicting Jehovah as paying ransom money (to Death) to assure his saints of life."Mitchell Dahood in The Anchor Bible, p. 207. Job 5:20 also has a statement that seems to say the same thing. "In famine, he will redeem thee from death." There are many things, perhaps, which our finite minds shall never comprehend about how Jesus ransoms us from death; but it is a fact, gloriously

Psalms 67:1-7 — cause his face to shine upon us, etc." As Addis noted, "This Psalm is an expansion of the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24-26."W. E. Addis, p. 384. This short psalm is further shortened in meaning by the verbatim repetition of Psalms 67:3 in Psalms 67:5. There is not much we can add by way of interpretation to that which we have already stated above. This great prophecy of the reception of the Gentiles into the government of God, along with the Jews, is fully as clear and specific as those great Old

Proverbs 9:7-12 — agreement on where they should be placed if removed from where we find them. "It may be that these verses are intended to emphasize in an indirect manner the role of Wisdom as a teacher."Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971), Vol. 5, p. 34 Hendry pointed out that, "In Proverbs 9:7 and Proverbs 9:8, the contrast is not between those invited and those not invited to the house of Wisdom, but between the reactions of the scoffer and the teachable man to that discipline imparted by

Leviticus 2:1-3 — the top of the flour, (3)    and then placed an appropriate amount of frankincense on the oil; (4)    next, the officiating priest took a handful of the oil and flour, being careful to lift all of the incense, (5)    and this whole handful of the offering was burnt upon the altar as a memorial or token of the entire offering as having been given to God. The rest of the offering belonged to the priests, but the designation of it as "most holy"

Leviticus 20:17-21 — through all the ages of history"Gardiner as quoted by F. Meyrick, op. cit., p. 312. merely to prevent the birth of any children to such marital unions. Clements' opinion that Leviticus 20:21 "precludes Levirate marriages"Ronald E. Clements, op. cit., p. 55. is inaccurate, because, we noted above, the very penalties assigned to such violations presuppose or anticipate Levirate marriages (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). It is not absolutely clear that any of the sins mentioned in this paragraph incurred the death

Leviticus 20:6-9 — you. For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him." Leviticus 20:6… "To play the harlot" is equivalent to the same words in Leviticus 20:5, above. It is a mistake to read this merely as "spiritual adultery." Of course, it was also that, but there was the grossest kind of immorality connected with all phases of pagan worship. Furthermore, the mention of harlotry in connection with the visitation

Isaiah 39:5-6 — times and seasons, the prophets generally knew nothing. They were mouth-pieces to deliver the Divine will. They were not keen-witted politicians, forecasting results by the exercise of sharpsightedness and sagacity."The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 10b, p. 58. No human wisdom could have supplied such information as this to Isaiah. Babylon, at the time of this prophecy, was a rebellious portion of the Assyrian Empire; and it would be only a few years until Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib, would be on

Jeremiah 10:6-10 — and Archeology (Grand Rapid, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972) p. 324. Thompson nevertheless made a significant contribution to the proper understanding of this passage. He wrote: "In view of many attempts to rearrange Jeremiah 10:1-25, we might ask if such is really the right procedure. It may be far better to try to make sense out of what lies before us in the text ("Amen," J.B.C.). We discern a reasonable pattern in which alternating assertions are made about idols and Yahweh." Jeremiah

Jeremiah 13:27 — made clean; how long shall it be?" This is a further elaboration of the reasons why the dreadful punishment prescribed for Israel in the above verses was justified and appropriate. "Thy neighings" Jeremiah mentioned this same thing back in Jeremiah 5:8 where he compared the behavior of the people to well-fed stallions, "everyone neighing to his neighbor's wife," indicating that they wanted a sexual experience with every woman in sight. The use of such a metaphor as this, as Robinson pointed out,

Jeremiah 19:10-13 — such as Astarte. Cuneiform texts from Ras Shamra included a ritual to be used when offerings were made on rooftops to astral deities and celestial luminaries."R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, p. 112. "In 2 Kings 21:5 and 2 Kings 23:12, we learn that Ahaz and Manasseh introduced this pagan cult in Judah, probably from Mesopotamia, where it was practiced from remote antiquity."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 671.

Numbers 12:4-8 — the word of God. "My servant Moses… (Numbers 12:7-8). This lies back of Isaiah's prophecy concerning God's Servant (the Christ). Also, note the statement that Moses was faithful in all God's house (Numbers 12:7), a theme mentioned in Hebrews 3:5-6. This very word used of persons in so exalted a position, as "in Ugaritic texts in which an intimate of Deity is called a Servant as a term of endearment,"W. Gunther Plaut, op. cit., p. 117. is another of very numerous evidences of the antiquity of

Deuteronomy 25:13-16 — weights and smaller measures. Such dishonesty was the universal practice of the Canaanite, and the Jews quickly learned it from those whom they displaced in that land. In time, Israel itself became, in this regard, only "another Canaanite." In Amos 8:5, the Jewish traders stated in the presence of Amos that they desired the removal of the sabbath day that they might set forth wheat, "making the ephah (the measure) small, and the shekel great." The promise here, "that thy days may be long in the land,"

Joshua 5:6-9 — "freedom from the scorn and indignity of slavery."Robert G. Boling and G. Ernest Wright, Joshua, The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1982), p. 190. There are several interesting facts about the Gilgal mentioned in Joshua 5:9. The usual explanation makes the name a derivative from "circle of stones," the alleged meaning; but the passage here gives another derivation, and we believe that preference belongs here. Although, "the exact location of it is not known,"Robert Jamieson,

Judges 4:12-16 — supposed that his force of nine hundred chariots of iron would be more than a match for Barak's troops. However, there was a very heavy untimely rain that made a roaring river out of the Kishon and flooded the plains at the foot of mount Tabor (Judg. 4:5:4,19-21). Simultaneously, Barak with his ten thousand men rushed down the steep slopes of Tabor and cut to pieces Sisera's entire force. The chariots of iron were not merely useless, bogged down in the mud; but the charioteers, trapped in their mired