Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 21:7 — the ambiguity of the word רכב rekeb - ‘chariot.’ Gesenius contends that it should be rendered ‘cavalry,’ and that it refers to cavalry two abreast hastening to the destruction of the city. The word רכב rekeb denotes properly a chariot or wagon Judges 5:28; a collection of wagons 2Ch 1:14; 2 Chronicles 8:6; 2 Chronicles 9:25; and sometimes refers to the “horses or men” attached to a chariot. ‘David houghed all the chariots’ 2 Samuel 8:4; that is, all the “horses” belonging to them. ‘David killed of

Isaiah 21:9 — saw not only horsemen, but riders on donkeys and camels.And he answered - That is, the watchman answered. The word ‘answer,’ in the Scriptures, means often merely to commence a discourse after an interval; to begin to speak Job 3:2; Daniel 2:26; Acts 5:8.Babylon is fallen - That is, her ruin is certain. Such a mighty army is drawing near, and they approach so well prepared for battle, that the ruin of Babylon is inevitable. The “repetition” of this declaration that ‘Babylon is fallen,’ denotes emphasis

Isaiah 24:17 — expression is equivalent to that which occurs in the writings of the Latin classics: Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdin.The same idea, that if a man should escape from one calamity he would fall into another, is expressed in another form in Amos 5:19 : As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; Or went into a house, and leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him.In the passage before us, there is an advance from one danger to another, or the subsequent one is more to be dreaded

Isaiah 33:3 — to those whom he intended to subdue. But probably it should be regarded as a part of the address which the Jews made to Yahweh Isaiah 33:2, and the word ‘tumult’ - המון hâmôn, sound, noise, as of rain 1 Kings 18:41, or of music Ezekiel 26:13; Amos 5:23, or the bustle or tumult of a people 1 Samuel 4:11; 1 Samuel 14:19; Job 39:7 - refers here to the voice of God by which the army was overthrown. Yahweh is often represented as speaking to people in a voice suited to produce consternation and alarm.

Isaiah 40:27 — seen, or noticed. The word ‘way’ here denotes evidently the state or condition; the manner of life, or the calamities which they experienced. The term is often thus employed to denote the lot, condition, or manner in which one lives or acts Psalms 37:5; Isaiah 10:24; Jeremiah 12:1. The phrase, ‘is hid,’ means that God is ignorant of it, or that he does not attend to it; and the complaint here is, that God had not regarded them in their calamities, and would not interpose to save them.And my judgment

Isaiah 41:9 — Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth - From Chaldea - regarded by the Jews as the remote part of the earth. Thus in Isaiah 13:5, it is said of the Medes that they came ‘from a far country, from the end of heaven’ (see the note on that place). Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldees - a city still remaining on the east of the river Euphrates. It is probably the same place

Isaiah 48:19 — and the divine judgments consequent on vice, tend to depopulate a nation, and to make it feeble.As the sand - This is often used to denote a great and indefinite number (Genesis 22:17; Genesis 32:12; Genesis 41:49; Joshua 11:4; Jdg 7:12; 1 Samuel 13:5; 2 Samuel 17:11; 1 Kings 4:20-29; Job 29:18; Psalms 139:18; the note at Isaiah 10:22; Hosea 1:10; Revelation 20:8).And the offspring of thy bowels - On the meaning of the word used here, see the note at Isaiah 22:24.Like the gravel thereof - literally,

Isaiah 50:10 — entreaty of the Redeemer to all who love and fear God, and who may be placed in circumstances of trial and darkness as he was. to imitate his example, and not to rely on their own power, but to put their trust in the arm of Yahweh. he had done this Isaiah 50:7-9. He had been afflicted, persecuted, forsaken, by people Isaiah 50:6, and he had at that time confided in God and committed his cause to him; and he had never left or forsaken him. Encouraged by his example, he exhorts all others to cast themselves

Isaiah 64:6 — all as an unclean thing - We are all polluted and defiled. The word used here (טמא ṭâmē'), means properly that which is polluted and defiled in a Levitical sense; that is, which was regarded as polluted and abominable by the law of Moses Leviticus 5:2; Deuteronomy 14:19, and may refer to animals, people, or things; also in a moral sense Job 14:4. The sense is, that they regarded themselves as wholly polluted and depraved.And all our righteousnesses - The plural form is used to denote the deeds

Daniel 10:5 — raiment of priests, because it was supposed to be more pure than wool, Exodus 28:42; Leviticus 6:10; Leviticus 16:4, Leviticus 16:23; 1 Samuel 2:18. It was also worn by prophets, Jeremiah 13:1, and is represented as the raiment of angels, Revelation 15:6. The nature of the raiment would suggest the idea at once that this person thus appearing was one sustaining a saintly character.Whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz - With a girdle made of fine gold; that is, probably, it was made of something

Hosea 6:8 — where God had appointed life to be preserved, was “polluted” or “tracked with blood.” Everywhere it was marked and stained with the bloody footsteps of those, who (as David said) “put” innocent “blood in their shoes which were on their feet” 1 Kings 2:5, staining their shoes with blood which they shed, so that, wherever they went, they left marks and signs of it.” “Tracked with blood” it was, through the sins of its inhabitants; “tracked with blood” it was again, when it first was taken captive 2 Kings

Hosea 9:11 — abide in his nothingness and poverty and shame to which he had reduced himself. “Fruitfulness,” and consequent strength, had been God’s special promise to Ephraim. His name, Ephraim, contained in itself the promise of his future fruitfulness. Genesis 41:52. With this Jacob had blessed him. He was to be greater than Manasseh, his older brother, “and his seed shall become a multitude of nations” Genesis 48:19. Moses had assigned to him “tens of thousands” Deuteronomy 33:17, while to Manasseh he had promised

Amos 3:10 — wastes away, but what abides. Who doubts it? Then, what they treasured, were not the perishing things of earth, but, in truth, the sins themselves, as “a treasure of wrath against the Day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” Romans 2:5. Strange treasure, to be so diligently accumulated, guarded, multiplied! Yet it is, in fact, all which remains. “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” Luke 12:21. He adds, as an aggravation, “in their palaces.” Deformed

Amos 4:10 — had twice promised, when the memory of the plagues which He sent on Egypt was still fresh “if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God - I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians” Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 7:15. Contrariwise, God had forewarned them in that same prophecy of Moses, that, if they disobeyed Him, “He will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou was afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee” (Deuteronomy 28:60,

Amos 5:15 — cause you to dwell in this place” Jeremiah 7:3. But since God knew that most of them would not repent, He saith not, “will be gracious unto Israel,” but, “unto the remnant of Joseph, that is, “the remnant, according to the election of grace” Romans 11:4-5; such as had been “the seven thousand who bowed not the knee unto Baal;” those who repented, while “the rest were hardened.” He says, “Joseph,” not Ephraim, in order to recall to them the deeds of their father. Jacob’s blessing on Joseph descended upon

Nahum 1:10 — giving himself to listlessness; and having distributed to his soldiers victims, and abundance of wine, and other necessaries for banqueting, the whole army was negligent and drunken.”In like way Babylon was taken amid the feasting of Belshazzar Daniel 5:1-30; Benhadad was smitten, while “drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him” 1 Kings 20:16. And so it may well be meant here too, that Sennacherib’s army, secure of their prey, were sunk in

Nahum 3:9 — author at seven million. Put or Phut is mentioned third among the sons of Ham, after Cash anal Mizraim Genesis 10:6. They are mentioned with the Ethiopians in Pharaoh’s army at the Euphrates , as joined with them in the visitation of Egypt Ezekiel 30:5; with Cush in the army of Gog Ezekiel 38:15; with Lud in that of Tyre Ezekiel 29:10; a country and river of that name were, Josephus tells us , “frequently mentioned by Greek historians.” They dwelt in the Libya, conterminous to the Canopic mouth of

Zephaniah 3:20 — fulfilled, when, at our Lord’s first Coming, the remnant, the true Israel, those “ordained to eternal life” were brought in. It shall be fulfilled again, when “the fullness of the Gentiles shall be “come in,” and so all Israel shall be saved” Romans 11:25-26. It shall most perfectly be fulfilled at the end, when there shall be no going out of those once “brought” in, and those who have gathered others into the Church, shall be “a name and a praise among all people of the earth,” those whom God hath “redeemed

Zechariah 12:7 — wise, and the weak things of the would to confound the things which fire mighty ...” 1 Corinthians 1:26; and, “Hath not God called the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which God has promised to them that love Him?” James 2:5. The rich and noble have greater hindrances to humility and Christian virtues, than the poor. For honors puff up, wealth and delights weaken the mind; wherefore they need greater grace of Christ to burst their bonds than the poor. Wherefore, for the

Malachi 4:4 — but Matthew 23:23 : “omitted weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.” It is in obedience to the commandments, one by one, one and all. Moses exhorted to the keeping of the law, under these same words: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, Deuteronomy 4:5, Deuteronomy 4:8, Deuteronomy 4:14, “Now, therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and judgments which I teach you, to do them, that ye may live. Ye shall not add unto the word that I command you, neither shall ye diminish it. Behold, I have taught