Bible Commentaries

Micah 5:11-15 — I will cut off the cities of thy land - So God promised by Zechariah, “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls; for I will be unto her a wall of fire round about” Zechariah 2:4-5. The Church shall not need the temptation of human defense; for God shall fence her in on every side. Great cities too, as the abode of luxury and sin, of power and pride, and, mostly, of cruelty, are chiefly denounced as the objects of God’s anger.

Zephaniah 3:7 — Him; “it shall not be needed to correct her further.” “Howsoever I punished them:” literally, “all” (that is, ‘all’ the offences) “which I visited upon her,” as God saith of Himself, “‘visiting’ the ‘sins’ of the fathers ‘upon’ the children” Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18, and this is mostly the meaning of the words “visit upon.” Amid and not withstanding all the offences which God had already chastised, He, in His love and compassion, still longeth, not utterly to remove them from His presence,

Zechariah 9:13 — the sword of a mighty man - The strength is still not their own. In the whole history of Israel, they had only once met in battle an army, of one of the world-empires and defeated it, at a time, when Asa’s whole population which could bear arms were 580,000 (2 Chronicles 14:8-10 ff), and he met Zerah the Ethiopian with his million of combatants, besides his 500 chariots, and defeated him. And this, in reliance on the “Lord his God, to whom he cried, Lord, it is nothing to Thee to help, whether with

Malachi 3:5 — shall be terrible, since the judge is an infallible witness, whom the conscience of no one will be able to contradict.”God would be a “swift witness,” as He had said before, “He shall come suddenly.” Our Lord calls Himself (Revelation 3:14; Revelation 1:5, “I, and not other witnesses, having seen with My own eyes.” Theod. Jerome) “the Faithful and True witness,” when He stands in the midst of the Church, as their Judge. God’s judgments are always unexpected by those, on whom they fall. The sins are those

Matthew 1:1 — The book of the generation - This is the proper title of the chapter. It is the same as to say, “the account of the ancestry or family, or the genealogical table of Jesus Christ.” The phrase is common in Jewish writings. Compare Genesis 5:1. “This is the book of the generations of Adam,” i. e., the genealogical table of the family or descendants of Adam. See also Genesis 6:9. The Jews, moreover, as we do, kept such tables of their own families. and it is probable that this was copied

Matthew 27:46 — scourging, and by the want of sympathy, and by the revilings of his enemies on the cross. A person suffering thus might address God as if he was forsaken, or given up to extreme anguish.2. He himself said that this was “the power of darkness,” Luke 22:53. It was the time when his enemies, including the Jews and Satan, were suffered to do their utmost. It was said of the serpent that he should bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15. By that has been commonly understood to be meant that,

John 6:37 — giveth me - We here learn that those who come to Christ, and who will be saved, are given to him by God.God promised him that he should see of the travail of his soul - that is, “the fruit of his wearisome toil” (Lowth), and should be satisfied, Isaiah 53:11. All men are sinners, and none have any claim to mercy, and he may therefore bestow salvation on whom he pleases. All people of themselves are disposed to reject the gospel, John 5:40. God enables those who do believe to do it. He draws them to

John 6:44 — been:1. Their improper regard for Moses, as if no one could be superior to him.2. Their unwillingness to believe that Jesus, whom they knew to be the reputed son of a carpenter, should be superior to Moses.3. The difficulty was explained by Jesus John 5:40 as consisting in the opposition of their will; and John 5:44 when he said that their love of honor prevented their believing on him. The difficulty in the case was not, therefore, a want of natural faculties, or of power to do their duty, but erroneous

Acts 1:1 — that Jesus did, as he had omitted many things that have been preserved by the other evangelists. The word “all” is frequently thus used to denote the most important or material facts. See Acts 13:10; 1 Timothy 1:16; James 1:2; Matthew 2:3; Matthew 3:5; Acts 2:5; Romans 11:26; Colossians 1:6. In each of these places the word here translated “all” occurs in the original, and means “many, a large part, the principal portion.” It has the same use in all languages. “This word often signifies, indefinitely,

Acts 2:26 — the chief source of man’s dignity, or because the word is also expressive of the liver, regarded by the Hebrews as the seat of the affections, Genesis 49:6, “Unto their assembly, mine honor,” that is, my soul, or myself, “be not thou united”; Psalms 57:8, “Awake up, my glory,” etc.; Psalms 108:1, “I will sing ...even with my glory.” This word the Septuagint translated “tongue.” The Arabic and Latin Vulgate have also done the same. Why they thus use the word is not clear. It may be because the tongue,

Acts 7:43 — This was a god of the Ammonites, to whom human sacrifices were offered. Moses in several places forbids the Israelites, under penalty of death, to dedicate their children to Moloch, by making them pass through the fire, Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2-5. There is great probability that the Hebrews were addicted to the worship of this deity after they entered the land of Canaan. Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives 1 Kings 11:7; and Manasseh made his son pass through the fire in honor

Acts 7:60 — indicating:The “peacefulness” of their death, compared with the alarm of sinners; The hope of a resurrection; as we retire to sleep with the hope of again awaking to the duties and enjoyments of life. See John 11:11-12; 1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:10; Matthew 9:24. In view of the death of this first Christian martyr, we may remark:(1) That it is right to address to the Lord Jesus the language of prayer.(2) It is especially proper to do it in afflictions,

Romans 12:11 — Not slothful - The word rendered “slothful” refers to those who are slow, idle, destitute of promptness of mind and activity; compare Matthew 25:16.In business - τῇ σπουδῇ tē spoudē. This is the same word which in Romans 12:8 is rendered “diligence.” It properly denotes haste, intensity, ardor of mind; and hence, also it denotes industry, labor. The direction means that we should be diligently

Romans 12:16 — court the society or the honors of the people in an elevated rank in life. Christians were commonly of the poorer ranks, and they were to seek their companions and joys there, and not to aspire to the society of the great and the rich; compare Jeremiah 45:5, “And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not;” Luke 12:15.Condescend - συναπαγομενοι sunapagomenoi. Literally, “being led away by, or being conducted by.” It does not properly mean to condescend, but denotes a yielding, or being guided

Romans 9:11 — is the case, there can be, properly speaking, no moral character, for “a character is not formed when the person has not acquired stable and distinctive qualities.” Webster.(2) That the period of moral agency had not yet commenced; compare Genesis 25:22-23. When that agency commences, we do not know; but here is a case of which it is alarmed that it had not commenced.(3) The purpose of God is antecedent to the formation of character, or the performance of any actions, good or bad.(4) It is not a

1 Corinthians 4:6 — And these things - The things which I have written respecting religious teachers 1 Corinthians 2:5-6, 1 Corinthians 2:12, and the impropriety of forming sects called after their names.I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos - The word used here μετεσχημάτισα meteschēmatisa denotes, properly, to put on another form or figure; “to change”

Ephesians 4:25 — regard to any facts that may affect his neighbor; that catches up flying rumors without investigating them, and that circulates them as undoubted truth, though they may seriously affect the character and peace of another - “let him put away lying.”(5) He that is in the habit of making promises only to disregard them - “let him put away lying.” The community is full of falsehoods of that kind, and they are not all confined to the people of the world. Nothing is more important in a community than

Ephesians 5:5 — Be assured of this. The object here is to deter from indulgence in those vices by the solemn assurance that no one who committed them could possibly be saved.Nor unclean person - No one of corrupt and licentious life can be saved; see Revelation 22:15.Nor covetous man, who is an idolater - That is, he bestows on money the affections due to God; see Colossians 3:5. To worship money is as real idolatry as to worship a block of stone. If this be so, what an idolatrous world is this! How many idolatrous

1 Timothy 3:3 — injury by indulging in it. No man is under any “obligation” of courtesy or Christian duty to use it; thousands of ministers of the gospel have brought ruin on themselves, and disgrace on the ministry, by its use; compare Matthew 11:9 note, and 1 Timothy 5:23 note.No striker - He must be a peaceable, not a quarrelsome man. This is connected with the caution about the use of wine, probably, because that is commonly found to produce a spirit of contention and strife.Not greedy of filthy lucre - Not contentious

Hebrews 6:18 — each of which it would be impossible for God to lie. Prof. Stuart supposes that the reference is to “two oaths” - the oath made to Abraham, and that by which the Messiah was made High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek; Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6, Hebrews 5:10. He supposes that thus the salvation of believers would be amply secured, by the promise that Abraham should have a Son, the Messiah, in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed, and in the oath that this Son should be High