Bible Commentaries

Job 42:1-6 — examples you have cited, the behemoth and the leviathan, that you are able to realize all your plans for your creation, however far these may go beyond human conception. You have reasons for what you do, of which we are totally ignorant"Van Selms, p. 155. "Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge" "In this Job repeats the question which God had asked in Job 38:2, admitting that he spoke out of limited knowledge, too confidently of things too wonderful for him to understand."Tyndale Old Testament

Psalms 16:9-11 — holy one to see corruption." What a pity it is that some scholars see nothing here except the written notion of David the king that, "Maybe God will let him live to a good old age,"Anthony L. Ash, Psalms (Austin: Sweet Publishing Company, 1980), p. 75. or "Probably the poet is thinking merely of a long life, the reward of the pious."W. E. Addis, Peake's Commentary on the Bible (Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack, Ltd., 1924), p. 376. All such interpretations are founded upon the proposition that David

Isaiah 15:1-9 — sad picture of the mined people of Moab! Note their going up to the high places of Moab's false gods, where all the cries and supplications of suffering peoples are poured out in vain. No wonder, Isaiah said, "My heart crieth out for Moab" (Isaiah 15:5). Moabites were kin to Israel; but not even one's closest of kin can intervene against the judgment of God. Incidentally, this line in which the first person singular is used indicates that Isaiah himself is the author of this prophecy given in "time

Isaiah 32:1-8 — images and cut down the grove. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him, for he clave unto the Lord, and departed not from following him" (2 Kings 18:3-5). Yes, indeed, in the context of a record of other kings of Israel, Hezekiah was indeed righteous; but in the absolute sense, no. The situation is the same as it was with other Old Testament heroes who bore the designation of "righteous men." For example,

Ezekiel 3:16-21 — than the old cliche that, "Once saved, always saved!" Angels sinned and lost their place in heaven; an apostle (Judas) fell from his place, which was taken by another; and Paul even warned the Galatians that, "Ye are fallen away from grace" (Galatians 5:4); and that did not mean that, "They had abandoned the basis of grace for works of their own,"Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Moody Press), p. 29. as Feinberg thought, but that, they had abandoned reliance upon the work of faith for reliance upon

Jonah 1:3 — sorrow, or giving up peace in order to have chaos and confusion!"William J. Banks, op. cit., p. 19. Every sinner on earth today is paying the fare! "And went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish" There is a glimpse in this verse, and in Jonah 1:5, of the kind of ship Jonah boarded. "The Hebrew word for ship (Jonah 1:5) is [~shephinah], and is found nowhere else; and from its derivation (from [~saphan] = "to cover") implies that the vessel was decked."W. J. Deane, op. cit., p. 3. Thus, Jonah's

Luke 11:2-4 — these very words, for then there would have been no variation"Matthew Henry, op. cit., p. 692. from the account given in Matthew. Father … Harrison commented that: (Here) Jesus uses a child's word for Father, which appears also in Romans 8:15. It is used by modern Hebrews within the family circle, and implies familiarity based on love.Everett F. Harrison, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 230. Hallowed be thy name … The first concern in every prayer should

John 15:26 — the Greek word [@parakletos]; translated "Comforter," is found in the first four of these passages. See under John 14:16-17. There is no contradiction in the fact of Jesus' sending the Comforter and the Father's sending him (see under John 15:23). Critics who see a contradiction in these passages have simply missed the main point of this Gospel, namely, that Christ and the Father are one. Spirit of truth … is another designation of the Comforter and stresses the function of completing

John 3:3 — second birth; and, although in a sense the second birth is from above, so also in another sense is the first birth, or natural birth. Thus, "born again" is more explicit and correct. The doctrine of the new birth will be discussed under John 3:5, where Jesus more fully described it. Here the emphasis is upon the absolute necessity of it. It is not merely true that one cannot enter God's kingdom without the new birth; he cannot even see it! The requirement here stated by Jesus was actually a

Acts 16:11-12 — is a city of Macedonia, the first of the district, a Roman colony: and we were in this city tarrying certain days. No mention is made of Paul's preaching in Troas at this time; yet, a bit later, there is revealed to have been a church there (Acts 20:5). Was that church the result of Luke's preaching? Given the implied fact of Luke's being a preacher of the gospel and the usual reticence of the sacred writers to speak of themselves, it may be supposed that he founded the Troas church, but this is

Acts 7:41-43 — and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of the god Rephan, The figures which ye made to worship them: And I will carry you away beyond Babylon. This quotation is from Amos 5:25 ff and was introduced here as a further comment by Stephen upon the apostasy of Israel; and although the outright rejection of God and the widespread idolatry during the period of the monarchy came much later, Stephen's application of Amos' prophecy

Romans 12:3 — ambition, conceit, vainglory and self-love of the mind can only be driven out by the filling of the personality with the "mind of Christ" who "made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:5 f), thus sacrificing the very thing to which the natural human mind clings most tenaciously. In this verse, Paul was still dealing with the problem of getting a new mind into Christians. Paradoxically, even the great spiritual emoluments of Christian

1 Corinthians 15:58 — the redeemed should abound continually in the Lord's work. He commanded the Philippians to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 1:12). He established a pillar of truth, both at the beginning of Romans (Romans 1:5) and at the end of it (Romans 16:26), stressing the "obedience of faith." He, like every true Christian, would have been outraged by any notion to the effect that people are "saved by faith alone." Your labor is not in vain …

1 Corinthians 7:1 — Epistles and Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1969), p. 98. Morris also agreed that "In this context TOUCH refers to marriage." Leon Morris, Tyndale Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1958), p. 105. It is good not to touch a woman … Paul first addressed himself to the prior question of celibacy, admitting here that, in a sense, it was "good." The word "good" in this place "does not mean morally good, but

Galatians 3:22 — proposition that faith should be understood as meaning "faith only." Not even Christ's faith was "faith only," for he was obedient in all things, becoming "unto all them that obey him, the author of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:9). Shut up all things under sin … One great purpose of the Law of Moses was to convict Israel of sin and make the nation conscious of their need of salvation from it. As used by them, however, it became a source of greater pride than ever on

Galatians 6:1 — is to be understood here. The term "trespass" does not entail any "absolution of responsibility"; Herman N. Ridderbos, The Epistle of Paul to the Churches of Galatia (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1953), p. 212. "Of the guilt, there is no palliation indicated by the word fault or trespass." E. Huxtable, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), Vol. 20, p. 294. Despite this certainty regarding

Joshua 20:7-9 — Henry also pointed out that the very names of these cities significantly pointed to the salvation of sinners: KEDESH. This name means sanctified, or holy,W. Ewing, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Chicago: The Howard Severance Company, 1915), p. 1790. that being the original meaning of the word, which later also came to mean "a sanctuary,"F. N. Peloubet, Peloubet's Bible Dictionary (Chicago: The John C. Winston Company, 1925), p. 342. or "sacred place."Merrill F. Unger, Unger's Bible Dictionary

1 Timothy 1:15 — Timothy 3:1; 1 Timothy 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11, and Titus 3:8. "These axiomatic truths of Christian faith would be easily memorized; and, being frequently repeated, they soon became almost proverbial in the early church." Alan G. Nute, op. cit., p. 508. Despite the above, however, it is precarious to identify these "faithful sayings" as any form of "proverb" in the early church. Only two of them, here and in 1 Timothy 2:11, have any definite saying in view. "In the other

2 Timothy 4:1 — this powerful reminder of the eternal judgment to be faced by all men. Who shall judge the living and the dead … The living are those who shall remain and still be upon the earth at the time of the Second Advent (2 Thess. 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:51); the dead, of course, are the myriads who sleep in death until the coming of the Lord. And by his appearing and his kingdom … These are not added here as witnesses along with God and of Christ of Paul's solemn charge, but merely for the "purpose

1 Samuel 1:1-8 — is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons"?" "Rama-thaim-Zophim". There were not less than eight places called "Ramah" mentioned in the O.T., most of then within five or ten miles of Jerusalem.International Critical Commentary, Samuel, p. 5. There is not enough information to determine exactly which location was referred to here. "Elkanah … an Ephraimite" Elkanah was an Ephraimite only in the sense that he lived in the hill country of Ephraim. He was most certainly a Levite as positively