Bible Commentaries

Hosea 5:13 — said that, if they were faithful, “five shall chase an hundred, and an hundred put ten thousand to flight” Leviticus 26:8. He had pronounced him cursed, who trusted in man, and made flesh his arm, and whose heart departed from the Lord” Jeremiah 17:5. But Judah sought man’s help, not only apart from God, but against God. God was bringing them down, and they, by man’s aid, would lift themselves up. “The king” became an “avenger,” for , “whoso, when God is angry, striveth to gain man as his helper,

Hosea 8:14 — enemy; “but ye have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him, that fashioned it long ago Isaiah 22:11. Jeremiah also says, “that they shall impoverish (or, crush) the fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword” Jeremiah 5:17.But I will send a fire upon his cities - In the letter, the words relate to Judah; but in substance, the whole relates to both. Both had forgotten God; both had offended Him. In the doom of others, each sinner may read his own. Of the cities of Judah,

Joel 3:14 — their own doom; and being abandoned by Him, rush on the more blindly because it is at hand. When their last sin is committed, their last defiance of God spoken or acted against Him, it is come. At all times, indeed, “the Lord is at hand” Philippians 4:5. It may be, that we are told, that the whole future revealed to us “must shortly come to pass” Revelation 1:1, in order to show that all time is a mere nothing, a moment, a dream, when it is gone. Yet here it is said, relatively, not to us, but to the

Amos 2:14-16 — strength, resistance, flight, swiftness of foot, of horse, place of refuge, should fail them. Three times he repeats, as a sort of dirge, “he shall not deliver himself.”Therefore the flight shall perish - (Probably place of flight Job 11:20; Psalms 142:5; Jeremiah 25:35). They had despised God, as their “place of refuge” , so “the place of refuge, should perish from the swift,” as though it were not. He should flee amain, but there would be no “place to flee unto.” God alone “renews strength;” therefore

Amos 9:6 — those who have the fruition of Himself in those heavens, He ascendeth by the glory of beatitude and the loftiest contemplation, as He walketh in those who walk, and resteth in those who rest in Him.”To this description of His power, Amos, as before Amos 5:8, adds that signal instance of its exercise on the ungodly, the flood, the pattern and type of judgments which no sinner escapes. God then hath the power to do this. Why should He not?

Habakkuk 1:8 — and rushes brave and straight. You would say, when you saw it, that it is borne through the air.” Cyril: “It bounds exceedingly and is exceedingly light to spring down on whatever it pursues.”More fierce - oThan the evening wolves - Compare Jeremiah 5:6, i. e., than they are when fiercest, going forth to prey when urged to rabidness by hunger the whole day through. Such had their own judges been Zephaniah 3:3, and by such should they be punished. The horse partakes of the fierceness of his rider

Habakkuk 2:7 — ever sudden at last. Such was the flood Luke 17:26-27, the destruction of Sodom, of Pharaoh, of the enemies of God’s people through the Judges, of Sennacherib, Nineveh, Babylon by the Medes and Persians. Such shall the end be Matthew 24:43-44; Matthew 25:13; Luke 17:26-30; Luke 21:34-35; 1Th 5:3; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 16:15. As he by his oppressions had pierced others (it is the word used of the oppression of usury), so should it be done to him. “The Medes and Persians who were before subject to

Zephaniah 1:17 — destruction. So God forewarned them in the law; “Thou shalt grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness” Jer. 10:29; and Job, of the wicked generally, “They meet with the darkness in the day-time, and grope in the noon-day as in the night” Job 5:14; and, “They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man” Job 12:25; and Isaiah foretelling of those times, “We grope for the wall, as the blind; and we grope, as if we had no eyes; we stumble in the noon-day

Zephaniah 1:9 — plunder and goods unjustly gotten. As then, before, he had declared God’s judgments upon idolatry, so does he here upon sins against the second table, whether by open violence, or secret fraud, as do also Habakkuk Habakkuk 1:2-3, and Jeremiah Jeremiah 5:27. All, whether open or hidden from man, every wrongful dealing, (for every sin as to a neighbor’s goods falls under these two, violence or fraud) shall be avenged in that day. Here again all which remains is the sin. They enriched, as they thought,

Haggai 1:13 — prophesies of John Baptist as Malachi 3:1 “the messenger” of the Lord, who should go before His face. Haggai, as he throughout repeats that his words were God’s words, frames a new word to express, in the language of the New Testament; 2 Corinthians 5:20 that he had an embassy from God; “in the Lord’s message.”I am with you - All the needs and longings of the creature are summed up in those two words, “I with you.” “Who art Thou and who am I? Thou, He Who Is; I, he who am not;” nothing, yea worse

Zechariah 12:12-14 — This sorrow should be universal but also individual, the whole land, and that, family by family; the royal family in the direct line of its kings, and in a branch from Nathan, a son of David and whole brother of Solomon 1 Chronicles 3:5, which was continued on in private life yet was still to be an ancestral line of Jesus Luke 3:31 : in like way the main priestly family from Levi, and a subordinate line from a grandson of Levi, “the family of Shimei” Numbers 3:23; and all the remaining

Matthew 2:5-6 — By the prophet - The Sanhedrin answered without hesitation. The question where he would be born had been settled by prophecy. This prophecy is found in Micah 5:2. In that prophecy both the place of his birth and the character of the Messiah are so clearly set forth that there was no room to doubt. It will be observed that there is a considerable difference between the passage as quoted by the Sanhedrin and

Matthew 5:16 — who live like other people, give evidence that they have never been truly converted. 4.That to attempt to conceal or hide our Christian knowledge or experience is to betray our trust, injure the cause of piety, and to render our lives useless. And, 5.That good actions will be seen, and will lead people to honor God. If we have no other way of doing good - if we are poor, and unlearned, and unknown yet we may do good by our lives. No sincere and humble Christian lives in vain. The feeblest light

Luke 12:1 — hypocrisy, but that this was the “first” or chief thing of which they were to beware. The meaning is this: “He said to his disciples, “Above all things beware,” etc.The leaven - See the notes at Matthew 16:6.Which is hypocrisy - See the notes at Matthew 7:5. Hypocrisy is like leaven or yeast, because:It may exist without being immediately detected. Leaven mixed in flour is not known until it produces its effects. It is insinuating. Leaven will soon pervade the whole mass. So hypocrisy will, if undetected

Luke 5:27-32 — See the notes at Matthew 9:9-13.Luke 5:29Made him a great feast - This circumstance “Matthew,” or “Levi” as he is here called, has omitted in his own gospel. This fact shows how little inclined the evangelists are to say anything in favor of themselves or to praise themselves. True religion

Luke 5:7 — They beckoned - They gave signs. Perhaps they were at a considerable distance, so that they could not be easily heard.Their partners - James and John. See Luke 5:10. The following remarks of Dr. Thomson (“The Land and the Book,” vol. ii. p. 80, 81) will furnish a good illustration of this passage. After describing the mode of fishing with the “hand-net” and the “dragnet,” he adds: “Again, there is the bag-net

John 1:6 — The main design was to show that “Jesus was the Christ,” John 20:31. To do this, it was proper, in the beginning, to prove that “John” was not the Messiah; and this might have been at that time an important object. John made many disciples, Matthew 3:5. Many persons supposed that he might be the Messiah, Luke 3:15; John 1:19. “Many of these disciples of John remained” at Ephesus, “the very place where John is supposed to have written this gospel, long after the ascension of Jesus,” Acts 19:1-3. It

John 6:31 — through the wilderness.Did eat manna - This was the name given by the Jews to the food which was furnished to them by God in their journey. It means literally, “What is this?” and was the question which they asked when they first saw it, Exodus 16:14-15. It was small like frost, and of the size of coriander-seed, and had a sweetish taste like honey. It fell in great quantities, and was regarded by the Jews as proof of a continued miracle during forty years, and was incontestable evidence of the interposition

John 8:11 — 1.That Jesus claimed no civil authority. 2.That he regarded the action of which they accused her as sin. 3.That he knew the hearts and lives of men. 4.That men are often very zealous in accusing others of that of which they themselves are guilty. And, 5.That Jesus was endowed with wonderful wisdom in meeting the devices of his enemies, and eluding their deep-laid plans to involve him in ruin.It should be added that this passage, together with the last verse of the preceding chapter, has been by many

John 9:7 — is probable that he directed him to go there to test his obedience, and to see whether he was disposed to obey him in a case where he could not see the reason of it. An instance somewhat similar occurs in the case of Naaman, the Syrian leper, 2 Kings 5:10. The proud Syrian despised the direction; the tremble blind man obeyed and was healed. This case shows us that we should obey the commands of God, however unmeaning or mysterious they may appear. God has always a reason for all that he directs us