Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 59:17 — introduces him as going forth to vindicate his people clad like an ancient warrior. In the declaration that he ‘put on righteousness,’ the essential idea is, that he was pure and holy. The same image is used by the prophet in another figure in Isaiah 11:5 (see the note at that place).As a breastplate - The breastplate was a well-known piece of ancient armor, designed to defend the breast from the darts and the sword of an enemy. The design here is, to represent the Redeemer as a hero; and accordingly

Isaiah 66:15 — For behold, the Lord will come with fire - The Septuagint reads this ‘As fire’ (ὡς πύρ hōs pur). Fire is a common emblem to denote the coming of the Lord to judge and punish his enemies Psalms 50:3 : Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; A fire shall devour before him, And it shall be very tempestuous round about him.So Habakkuk 2:5 : Before him went the pestilence, And burning coals went forth at his feet.So Psalms 97:3 : A fire

Daniel 11:41 — the purposes of Antiochus, amounted to the same thing. Judas Maccabeus is represented as engaged with them in war, and consequently they must have either been in alliance with Antiochus, or in some other way promoting his interests. See 1 Macc. 4:61; 5:3, 6-9. These countries were, therefore, in fact, secure from the invasions of Antiochus, and so far the prophecy was literally fulfilled. It may be added(a), that no occurrence since that time has taken place to which the prophecy can with propriety

Daniel 4:16 — in the book of Daniel, where it is uniformly rendered “time” and “times.”It is found only in the following places: Daniel 2:8, “that ye would gain the time;” Daniel 2:9, “till the time be changed;” Daniel 2:21, “and he changeth the times;” Daniel 3:5, Daniel 3:15, “at what time ye shall hear;” Daniel 4:16, Daniel 4:23, “and let seven times pass over him,” Daniel 4:25, Daniel 4:32, “seven times shall pass over him;” Daniel 7:12, “for a season and time;” Daniel 7:25, “until a time and times and the

Daniel 4:29 — this platform, and in order to admit the roots of large trees, prodigious hollow piers were built and filled with mould. From the Euphrates, which flowed close to the foundation, water was drawn up by machinery. The whole, says Q. Curtius (Daniel 4:5), had, to those who saw it from a distance, the appearance of woods overhanging mountains. The remains of this palace are found in the vast mound or hill called by the natives “Kasr.” It is of irregular form, eight hundred yards in length, and six hundred

Hosea 10:6 — Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?” (2 Kings 18:33-35, add, 2 Kings 19:10-13; Numbers 21:29).When God then, for the sin of His people, gave them into the hand of their enemies, He vindicated His own glory, first by avenging any insult offered to His worship, as in the capture of the ark by the Philistines,

Hosea 11:9 — foreknew. What saith the answer of God to Elias! I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Bard. Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace” Romans 11:1-2, Romans 11:4-5. God then was wroth, not with His people, but with unbelief. For He was not angered in such wise, as not to receive the remnant of His people, if they were converted. No Jew is therefore repelled, because the Jewish nation denied Christ; but whoso,

Hosea 12:14 — “bloods”) “upon him.” The plural “bloods” expresses the manifoldness of the bloodshed . It is not used in Holy Scripture of mere guilt. Ephraim had shed blood profusely, so that it ran like water in the land (see the notes above at Hosea 4:2; Hosea 5:2). He had sinned with a high hand against God, in destroying man made in the image of God. Amid that bloodshed, had been the blood not of the innocent only, but of those whom God sent to rebuke them for their idolatry, their rapine, their bloodshed.

Hosea 14:5 — I will be as the dew unto Israel - Before, He had said, “his spring shall become dry and his fountain shall be dried up” Hosea 13:15. Now again He enlarges the blessing; their supply shall be unfailing, for it shall be from God; yea, God Himself shall be that blessing; “I will be the dew; descending on the mown grass” Psalms 72:6, to quicken and refresh it; descending, Himself, into

Hosea 9:7 — false prophet, who deposed God’s priest, set false priests to “be officers in the house of the Lord,” to have an oversight as to “every man who is mad and maketh himself a prophet,” calling Jeremiah both a false prophet and a “madman” (Jeremiah 29:25-26. The word is the same).The event was the test. Of our Lord Himself, the Jews blaspbemed, “He hath a devil and is mad” John 10:20. And long afterward, “madness,” “phrensy” were among the names which the pagan gave to the faith in Christ . As Paul

Joel 1:14 — meet toward God, with other good. Let anger cease, strife be lulled. For in vain is the flesh worn, if the mind is not held in from evil passions, inasmuch as the Lord saith by the prophet, “Lo! in the day of your fast you find your pleasures” Isaiah 58:3. The fast which the Lord approveth, is that which lifteth up to Him hands full of almsdeeds, which is passed with brotherly love, which is seasoned by piety. What thou substractest from thyself, bestow on another, that thy needy neighbor’s flesh

Amos 1:14 — conspicuous place on this castle-hill, stood a large temple, some of its broken columns 3 12 feet in diameter , probably the Grecian successor of the temple of its idol Milchom. Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, cannot have escaped, when Nebuchadnezzar , “in the 5th year of his reign, led an army against Coele-Syria, and, having possessed himself of it, warred against the Ammonites and Moabites, and having made all these nations subject to him, invaded Egypt, to subdue it.”Afterward, it was tossed to and fro

Amos 6:8 — estate of their forefather, out of which God had raised them, and the faithfulness of their forefather in it, in contrast with their luxury and unfaithfulness.Therefore (And) I will deliver up - Originally, “shut up” (Leviticus 14:23; Leviticus 13:4-5, ...), then, “shut up in the hands of,” so that he should have no escape. Here, where the enemy is not spoken of, it may mean, that God “shut up the city,” so that there should be no going out or coming in, in the straithess of the siege, whereupon

Amos 9:9 — God forbid! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin - God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew - At this present time also there is a remnant, according to the election of grace” Romans 11:1-2, Romans 11:5.Rib.: “What is here said of all, God doth daily in each of the elect. For they are ‘the wheat” of God, which, in order to be “laid up in” the heavenly “garner,” must be pure from chaff and dust. To this end He sifts them by afflictions and troubles,

Micah 1:13 — always a strong city, as its name probably denoted, (probably “compact.” It was one of the royal cities of the Amorites, and its king one of the five, who went out to battle with Joshua Joshua 10:3. It lay in the low country, Shephelah, of Judah Joshua 15:33, Joshua 15:39, between Adoraim and Azekah 2 Chronicles 11:9, 2 Chronicles 11:7 Roman miles south of Eleutheropolis (Onomasticon), and so, probably, close to the hill-country, although on the plain; partaking perhaps of the advantages of both. Rehoboam

Micah 2:11 — who prophesied a vision of falsehood, and a destruction and nothingness; prophesied falsehood; yea, prophets of the deceit of their hearts.” These, like the true prophets, “walked in spirit;” as Isaiah speaks of “walking in righteousness” Isaiah 33:15. Their habitual converse was m a spirit, but of falsehood. If such an one do lie, saying, “I will prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink.” Man’s conscience must needs have some plea in speaking falsely of God. The false prophets had to please the

Micah 7:20 — ways the gift to Abraham was mercy, to Jacob, truth. So also Paul saith, “Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.” Romans 15:8-9 yet mercy and truth Psalms 25:10, together, are all the paths of the Lord; they “met together” Psalms 85:10 in Christ; yea Christ Himself is full of Mercy as well as “Truth” John 1:14 : and woe were it to that soul to whom He were Truth without

Habakkuk 1:5 — judgments come. So it was before the flood, and with Sodom, and with Lot’s sons-in-law; so it was with Ahab and Jezebel; so with this destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans, and what is shadowed forth, by the Romans. So Jeremiah complained Jeremiah 5:12, “They have belied the Lord, and said, it is not He; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine,” and Jeremiah 20:7-8, “I am in derision daily; everyone mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and

Habakkuk 2:20 — be simply removing God away from man. Solomon knew, when he built the temple, that “the heaven and heaven of heavens could not contain 1 Kings 8:27 God.” The “holy temple,” which could be destroyed Psalms 79:1, toward which people were to pray Psalms 5:7; Psalms 138:2; Jonah 2:4, was the visible temple 1 Kings 8:29-30, 1Ki 8:35, 1 Kings 8:38, 1Ki 8:42, 1 Kings 8:44, 1 Kings 8:48, where were the symbols of God’s Presence, and of the stoning Sacrifice; but lest His presence should be localized, Solomon’s

Zephaniah 2:7 — used the word in his psalm of thanksgiving, when he had brought the ark to the city of David, how God had “confirmed the covenant to Israel, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance” 1 Chronicles 16:18; Psalms 105:11; and Asaph, “He cast out the he athen before them and divided to them an inheritance by line” Psalms 78:55. It is the reversal of the doom threatened by Micah, “Thou shalt have none, that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord”