Bible Commentaries

Exodus 21:22-25 — injury. The sum was to be as nearly as possible the worth in money of the power lost by the injured person. Our Lord quotes Exodus 21:24 as representing the form of the law, in order to illustrate the distinction between the letter and the spirit Matthew 5:38. The tendency of the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees was to confound the obligations of the conscience with the external requirements of the law. The law, in its place, was still to be “holy and just and good,” Romans 7:12, but its direct purpose

1 Kings 20:34 — terms of a covenant made when he was a prisoner - as his after conduct shows 1 Kings 22:3. Ahab’s conduct was even more unjustifiable in one who held his crown under a theocracy. “Inquiry at the word of the Lord” was still possible in Israel 1Ki 22:5, 1 Kings 22:8, and would seem to have been the course that ordinary gratitude might have suggested.

1 Kings 7:23 — size, took the place of the laver of the tabernacle Exodus 30:18-21, which was required for the ablutions of the priests. It was ten cubits, or fully fifteen feet, in diameter at top, and therefore forty-seven feet in circumference, with a depth of 5 cubits, or 7 12 feet. As a vessel of these dimensions, if hemispherical, would certainly not hold 2,000 1 Kings 7:26, much less 3,000 2 Chronicles 4:3 baths, the bath equaling 8 12 gallons, it is now generally supposed that the bowl bulged considerably

2 Kings 16:3 — Psalms 106:37-38. Hereto, apparently, the Jews had been guiltless of this abomination. They had been warned against it by Moses (marginal reference; Deuteronomy 18:10); and if (as some think) they had practiced it in the wilderness Ezekiel 20:26; Amos 5:26, the sin must have been rare and exceptional; from the date of their entrance into the promised land they had wholly put it away. Now, however, it became so frequent (compare 2 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6) as to meet with the strongest protest from

2 Kings 25:18 — those who by their offices would be likely to have had most authority - the high priest; the second priest (2 Kings 23:4 note); three of the temple Levites; the commandant of the city; five members of the king’s Privy Council (or seven, see 2 Kings 25:19 note); and the secretary (or adjutant) of the captain of the host. To these he added sixty others, who were accounted “princes.” Compared with the many occasions on which Assyrian and Persian conquerers put to death hundreds or thousands after taking

2 Kings 25:7 — Before his eyes - This refinement of cruelty seems to have especially shocked the Jews, whose manners were less barbarous than those of most Orientals. It is noted by Jeremiah in two places Jeremiah 39:6; Jeremiah 52:10.And put out the eyes of Zedekiah - Blinding has always been among the most common of secondary punishments in the East (compare Judges 16:2 l). The blinding of Zedekiah reconciled in a very remarkable way prophecies, apparently contradictory, which

Job 18:8 — dug a pitfall for another, and had fallen into it himself. The meaning is, that he would bring ruin upon himself while he was plotting the rain of others; see Psalms 9:16, “The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands;” compare the note at Job 5:13. The phrase “by his own feet” here means, that he walks there himself. He is not led or driven by others, but he goes himself into the net. Wild animals are sometimes driven, but he walks along of his own accord into the net, and has no one to blame

Job 24:17 — as the shadow of death - They dread the light as one does usually the deepest darkness. The morning or light would reveal their deeds of wickedness, and they therefore avoid it.As the shadow of death - As the deepest darkness; see the notes at Job 3:5.If one know them - If they are recognized. Or, more probably, this means “they,” that is, each one of them, “are familiar with the terrors of the shadow of death,” or with the deepest darkness. By this rendering the common signification of the word

Job 31:29 — of the world, and to see how the influence of true religion is at all times the same. The religion of Job led him to act out the beautiful sentiment afterward embodied in the instructions of the Savior, and made binding on all his followers; Matthew 5:44. True religion will lead a man to act out what is embodied in its precepts, whether they are expressed in formal language or not.Or lifted up myself - Been elated or rejoiced.When evil found him - When calamity overtook him.

Psalms 10:16 — perished out of his land - That is, this would so certainly occur that he might speak of it as if it were actually done. The word “heathen” here refers to the enemies of God and of his cause, who are the principal subjects of the psalm. Compare Psalms 9:5. The “land,” here, refers to the land of Palestine, or the holy land, regarded as a land sacred to God, or in the midst of which he himself dwelt.

Psalms 18:35 — Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvations - Thou hast saved me as with a shield; thou hast thrown thy shield before me in times of danger. See the note at Psalms 5:12.And thy right hand hath holden me up - Thou hast sustained me when in danger of failing, as if thou hadst upheld me with thine own hand.And thy gentleness hath made me great - Margin, “or, with thy meekness thou hast multiplied me.” The word here

Psalms 29:7 — of it. The idea of the psalmist is that the “voice of the Lord,” or the thunder, seems to cleave or open the clouds for the flames of fire to play amidst the tempest. Of course this language, as well as that which has been already noticed Psalms 29:5, must be taken as denoting what “appears” to the eye, and not as a scientific statement of the reality in the case. The rolling thunder not only shakes the cedars, and makes the lofty trees on Lebanon and Sirion skip like a calf or a young unicorn,

Psalms 5:5 — referring to the wicked under the idea that they were “fools,” as all sin is supreme folly.Shall not stand in thy sight - Shall not be allowed to be in thy presence; that is, thou wilt not approve their cause, or favor them. See the notes at Psalms 1:5.Thou hatest all workers of iniquity - All that do wrong. He refers here, also, to a general characteristic of God, but still with an implied and immediate reference to his enemies as sustaining this character, and as a reason why he appealed to God

Numbers 15:38 — of the threads and knots, to which the Jews attached the greatest importance, was so adjusted as to set forth symbolically the 613 precepts of which the Law was believed to consist. In our Lord’s time the Pharisees enlarged their fringes Matthew 23:5 in order to obtain reputation for their piety. In later times howerer, the Jews have worn the fringed garment (tālı̂̄th) of a smaller size and as an under-dress. Its use is still retained, especially at morning prayer in the Synagogue.

Romans 5:19 — diversos significados de διά dia es cierto. Sin embargo, no se negará, que en una multitud de casos apunta a la causa o fundamento real de una cosa. El sentido es a determinar por la conexión. "Tenemos en este pasaje único no menos de tres casos, Romanos 5:12, Romanos 5:18, en el que esta preposición con el genitivo indica el motivo o la razón a causa de lo cual se da o se realiza algo. Todo esto seguramente es suficiente para demostrar que, en el caso que tenemos ante nosotros, puede expresar el motivo

Joshua 11:8 — Asher, but was not, in fact, conquered by that tribe Judges 1:31. It is mentioned in Egyptian papyri of great antiquity, and by Homer, and was in the most ancient times the capital of Phoenicia. In later times it was eclipsed by Tyre (compare 2 Samuel 5:11). The prophets frequently couple Tyre and Sidon together, as does also the New Testament (Isaiah 23:2, Isaiah 23:4,Isaiah 23:12; Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 47:4; Matthew 11:22; Matthew 15:21, etc.).Both the site and signification of Misre-photh-maim

Joshua 17:11 — Issachar) and the other five towns (in Asher) were given to the Manassites in compensation for towns in the Manassite territory allotted to the Ephraimites. (See Joshua 17:9. Compare Joshua 21:9.) To the wall of Beth-shean, or Bethshah (“Beisan,” about 5 miles west of the Jordan), the bodies of Saul and his sons were fastened by the Philistines after the battle on Mount Gilboa. After the exile it received the Greek name of Scythopolis, perhaps because it was principally tenanted by a rude and pagan

Judges 1:8 — from Jerusalem, but dwelt with the children of Judah (compare Judges 1:21). Further, we learn from Judges 19:10-12 that Jerusalem was wholly a Jebusite city in the lifetime of Phinehas Judges 20:28, and so it continued until the reign of David 2 Samuel 5:6-9. The conclusion is that Jerusalem was only taken once, namely, at the time here described, and that this was in the lifetime of Joshua; but that the children of Judah did not occupy it in sufficient force to prevent the return of the Jebusites,

Judges 2:1 — 6:8; Joshua 24:2.)When the host of Israel came up from Gilgal in the plain of Jericho, near the Jordan Joshua 4:19 to Shiloh and Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, the Angel who had been with them at Gilgal Exodus 23:20-23; Exodus 33:1-4; Joshua 5:10-15 accompanied them. The mention of Gilgal thus fixes the transaction to the period soon after the removal of the camp from Gilgal, and the events recorded in Judges 1:1-36 (of which those related in Judges 1:1-29 took place before, and those in

Judges 3:15 — the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer - The very same words as are used at Judges 3:9. See, too, Judges 2:16, Judges 2:18, and Nehemiah 9:27.Ehud “the Benjamite” was of the family or house of Gera 2 Samuel 16:5, the son of Bela, Benjamin’s first-born, born before Jacob’s descent into Egypt Genesis 46:21, and then included among “the sons of Benjamin.” The genealogy in 1 Chronicles 8:6 intimates that Ehud (apparently written Abihud in Judges 3:3) became the