Bible Commentaries

Psalms 109:6 — 6Set thou over him a wicked person. (305) Hitherto he poured out his complaint against a vast number of persons; now he seems to direct it against a single individual. Probably he speaks of each of them individually. It is, however, equally probable that he refers in very marked terms to

Isaiah 11:6 — lion as well as of the ox; for if the stain of sin had not polluted the world, no animal would have been addicted to prey on blood, but the fruits of the earth would have sufficed for all, according to the method which God had appointed. (Genesis 1:30.) Though Isaiah says that the wild and the tame beasts will live in harmony, that the blessing of God may be clearly and fully manifested, yet he chiefly means what I have said, that the people of Christ will have no disposition to do injury, no fierceness

Isaiah 3:2 — omens or superstitious arts, but by extraordinary acuteness and skill. But as God forbade them to consult magicians, soothsayers, and diviners, (Deuteronomy 18:20,) and as Balaam himself declares that there is no divination against Israel, (Numbers 23:23,) I do not quarrel with those who would prefer to use the word diviner as denoting magical divinations; nor will there be any absurdity in enumerating among the punishments of the nation, that it would be deprived also of those aids which were sinful

Isaiah 31:2 — become of your wisdom?” Will the effect of it be that God shall cease to be “wise?” On the contrary, by reproving your vanity, he will give practical demonstration that “he taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” (Job 5:13;1 Corinthians 3:19.) We may draw from this a general doctrine, that they who shelter themselves under craftiness and secret contrivances, gain nothing but to provoke still more the wrath of God. A bad conscience always flees from the judgment of God,

Isaiah 37:35 — 35.And I will be a protector. This is the reason of the preceding statement, why Sennacherib should not enter into the city; because the Lord will protect it. The Prophet therefore bids Hezekiah and the whole nation turn their eyes towards God, because

Isaiah 45:1 — Judah, because they represented the person of Christ, who alone, strictly speaking, is “the Lord’s Anointed.” “The Lord went forth with his Anointed,” says Habakkuk, “for the salvation of his people.” (Habakkuk 3:13.) In the person of David a kingdom had been set up, which professed to be an image and figure of Christ; and hence also the prophets in many passages call him “David,” and “the Son of David.” (Ezekiel 37:24.) It was indeed

Isaiah 45:4 — said, but he whom God hath chosen; for who will boast that he is worthy of so high an honor, or what can we render or offer to God? Thus “we are not sufficient of ourselves, but the Lord hath made us sufficient,” as Paul says. (2 Corinthians 3:5.) The beginning of our salvation, therefore, is God’s election by free grace; and the end of it is the obedience which we ought to render to him. But although this is limited to the history of Cyrus, still we may draw from it a general doctrine.

Isaiah 46:11 — doubt that he means Cyrus, who, in a former passage, (Isaiah 41:25,) is said to have been called by Jehovah ‘from the East,’ that is, from Persia, which lay to the east of Judea. In other passages also, (as in Jeremiah 49:22; Ezekiel 17:3,) kings and princes are compared to eagles, because, in the opinion of the ancients, the eagle is the king of birds. Thus also Cyrus is represented under the image of a ‘bird of prey,’ chiefly on account of the astonishing swiftness with

Isaiah 48:16 — Paul says, that “no man can say that Jesus is Christ, but by the Spirit,” and a little after he says that “the gifts of God are various, but that it is one and the same Spirit who worketh all things in all.” (1 Corinthians 12:3.) This passage is also a clear proof of the divinity of the Spirit, since the prophets are sent by him; for it belongs to God alone to send them, as it is by the authority of the prince alone that ambassadors are sent; and since the Spirit does this,

Jeremiah 1:13 — fire or the hearth, and therefore the front of the pot. This face or front was towards the north, signifying that the fuel and the blowing would be from that quarter, as it is afterwards stated. As to the metaphor, the pot, or cauldron, see Ezekiel 11:3. The version of the Geneva Bible is, “I see a seething-pot looking out of the north;” and the Chaldean army is regarded as the pot: and Blayn ey, following the marginal reading of our version, has given a similar rendering, “and the

Jeremiah 7:4 — triple fort; he has his court, his Temple, and his Holy of holies.” We now then understand why the Prophet made this repetition, and used also the plural number. (190) The difficulty in the construction is removed by Blayney, who renders דברי as a participle, as it is in some other places, Psalms 5:6: Psalms 38:3; Psalms 63:11. His version is, — Trust ye not in those who speak falsehood, saying, — The Temple of Jehovah, the Temple of Jehovah, The Temple

Ezekiel 16:18 — appeasing here, as frequently with Moses, though others translate “for an odor of sweetness;” but they do not sufficiently express the meaning of Moses; for he means that when God is appeased there is peace between himself and men. (Leviticus 3:9, and often.) There is no doubt that “the odor of quiet” signifies a just expiation, by which God is appeased, so that he receives men into favor. This is everywhere said of the sacrifices of the law, since there was no other means by which

Ezekiel 18:4 — have said, so that the people should no longer charge God with cruelty. The soul, says he, which has sinned; that is, none of you can boast of innocence when I punish you: as when it is said, He who does not labor, neither let him eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:10.) Surely this cannot be extended to infants. Nature teaches us that they must be nourished, and yet sure enough they do not acquire their food by labor: but this is said of adults, who are old enough to acknowledge the reason why they were created,

Hosea 6:7 — perfidiously:” for the Prophet means, that when hypocrites especially raise their crests, they are convicted of falsehood and perjury. But how? Because they set forth their own ceremonies, as we see them introduced as speaking thus in Isaiah 58:0, (36) ‘Wherefore have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded?’ In this passage they accuse God of too much rigor, because they lost all their toil when they worshipped so laboriously, “We have then in vain spent labour and so diligently

Zechariah 7:1 — Henderson, and others. Then the true version of the whole passage, and the most literal, would be the following:—   2.When Bethel sent Sherezer and Regem-melech and its men to entreat the face of Jehovah, and to speak to the priests who were 3.over the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done 4.these so many years?” then came the word of Jehovah of hosts to 5.me, saying, “Speak to all the

Malachi 2:3 — “the shoulder” as well as “seed,” and it is so rendered by the Septuagint, and the Arabic, and also by Grotius and Newcome, — Behold, I will withhold from you the shoulder. The shoulder belonged to the priests, see Leviticus 7:32; Deuteronomy 18:3. This rendering suits the context better than the other. — Ed. (215) Participles and vers are often connected by “and” in Hebrew, and so in Welsh; but then the auxiliary is understood. Such is the case here, and

Acts 14:17 — the Gentiles in this place the cloak [pretext] of ignorance. For how greatly soever men please themselves in their own inventions, being at length convicted of error, they fly unto this fortress, [asylums] that they ought to bear no blame; − (35) but that God was rather cruel, who did not vouchsafe so much as. with one hiss to call those back whom he saw perish, [perishing.] Paul and Barnabas cut off − (36) this frivolous objection, when they show that God lay hid in such sort, that

Acts 19:5 — − 5.When they heard these things. Because the men of old had conceived an opinion that the baptism of John and of Christ were diverse, it was no inconvenient − (356) thing for them to be baptized again, who were only prepared with the baptism of John. But that that diversity was falsely and wickedly by them believed, it appeareth by this, in that it was a pledge and token of the same adoption, and of the same

Romans 4:16 — father;” for he had this privilege, not from his own flesh, but from the promise of God (142) (142) It appears from [Pareus ] and [Hammond ], that some of the Fathers such as [Chrysostom ], and [Theophylact ], regardedκατέναντι in the sense of ὁμοίως, like, and have rendered the passage, “like God, in whom he believed;” that is, that as God is not partial, but the Father of all, so Abraham was. But

Romans 8:29 — which determines that we are to bear the cross; for no one can be an heir of heaven without being conformed to the image of the only-begotten Son of God. That he may be, or,that he might be, the first-born, etc.; for the Greek infinitive, εἶναι, may be rendered in these two ways; but I prefer the first rendering. But in mentioning Christ’s primogeniture, Paul meant only to express this, — that since Christ possesses a pre-eminence among the children of God, he