Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 13:19 — 19.And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms. Here the Prophet intended to give a brief summary of his prophecy about the Babylonians, but enlarges it by some additions tending to show more fully that it will be completely destroyed. In this manner do the prophets

Isaiah 43:21 — he hath made us accepted through the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4.) Such also is the import of the words of Peter when he says, that we were brought out of darkness into the wonderful kingdom of God, that we may declare his perfections, (1 Peter 2:9;) and likewise the words of Zacharias, “That, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our life.” (Luke 1:74.) This, then, is the end of our calling,

Isaiah 47:9 — 9.But those two things shall suddenly come to thee. Because Babylon supposed that she was beyond the reach of all danger, the Prophet threatens against her very sore distress. When she said that she would neither be “a widow” nor “childless,”

Isaiah 65:20 — we close our years quicker than a word. The days of our years in which we live are seventy years, or, at the utmost, eighty: what goeth beyond this in the strongest is toil and vexation; our strength passeth swiftly, and we fly away.” (Psalms 90:9.) But Christ comes to repair our strength, and to restore and preserve our original condition. For the son of a hundred years shall die young. It is proper to distinguish between the two clauses; for, after having said that the citizens of the Church

Isaiah 65:9 — 9.And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob. He explains the preceding verse by other words, and shews that the Lord wishes to reserve for himself some “seed” that shall call upon him; for the Lord is wont to chastise his people in such a

Jeremiah 13:19 — then they foolishly trusted that they would be received by the Egyptians, the Prophet says, that the gates would be closed, and that there would be no one to open them. It then follows, carried away wholly has been Judah, carried away completely; (89) that is, “Ye shall all be led away into Assyria and Babylon;” which is the north country, according to what afterwards follows, — (89) The ancient versions render these last words of the verse in the same way with our version and

Jeremiah 2:15 — contained in Jeremiah 4:7, where the same judgment is spoken of. The verb נצתה, in the received text, ought evidently to be נצתו, according to the Keri and twenty MSS.; and so we find it in Jeremiah 9:10. Our version and Calvin give it the idea of “burning;” but according to Leigh and Parkhurst, its meaning is, to shoot forth, to produce grass, or to grow over with grass, as the case is with ruined cities; and the words connected with

Jeremiah 28:8 — great kingdoms, have prophesied of war, and of evil, and of pestilence The word רעה, roe, evil, is placed between two other kinds of evil; but it is to be taken here no doubt for famine, as it is evident from many other passages. (197) Then he adds, changing the number, “When any prophet spoke of peace, the event proved whether or not he was a true prophet. (198) Now, experience itself will shortly prove thee to be false, for after two years the people who are now in Babylon

Jeremiah 50:40 — still left them; hence their death is never like the destruction of Sodom. And to the same purpose is what we have already quoted from Isaiah, “Except a seed had been left us, we should have been as Sodom, and like to Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9) That exception shows the difference between God’s children and the reprobate, even because he often delivers them from ruin. We now then understand the Prophet’s meaning when he says that Babylon would become desolate and solitary, so

Jeremiah 51:32 — expressed twice, but in a different way; and as I have already said, he states hyperbolically, that such was the skill of Cyrus and his army, that he made dry the fords and the pools, as though one collected a large heap of wood and consumed it with fire. (94) We now perceive the design of the Prophet. He afterwards adds, that the men of war were broken in pieces For though the fords were made dry, that is, the streams which were drawn from the Euphrates, vet. the guards of the city might have still kept

Ezekiel 11:21 — uses this threat that they may not think all the promises which we hear of to belong to themselves promiscuously. For there were always many reprobate among the elect people, because not all who sprang from father Abraham were true Israelites. (Romans 9:6.) Since therefore it was so, the Prophet properly shows here that what he had previously promised was peculiar to God’s elect, and to the true and lawful members of the Church, but not to the spurious, nor to the degenerate, nor to those who

Ezekiel 19:1 — that the offspring is considered. He says, therefore, that the people was full of insolence. The comparison to a lion is sometimes taken in a good sense, as when Moses uses it of the tribe of Judea, as a lion’s whelp shall he lie down, (Genesis 49:9,) a, phrase used in a good sense. But here Ezekiel denotes cruelty, as if he had said that all the Jews were fierce and savage beasts. For under the name of mother, as I said, he embraces the whole nation. At the beginning he orders his Prophet to

Matthew 9:14 — Matthew 9:14.Then come to him the disciples of John. Luke represents the Pharisees as speaking: Mark appears to connect both. And, indeed, there is no room to doubt that the Pharisees maliciously endeavored, by this stratagem, to draw the disciples of John to

John 4:9 — 9.How dost thou, who art a Jew? This is a reproach, by which she retorts upon him the contempt which was generally entertained by his nation. The Samaritans are known to have been the scum of a people gathered from among foreigners. Having corrupted the

John 6:2 — Evangelist here omits what the other three relate, that Christ employed a part of the day in teaching and in healing the sick, and that, when the sun was setting, his disciples requested him to send away the multitudes, (Matthew 14:13; Mark 6:34; Luke 9:11;) for he reckoned it enough to give the substance of it in a few words, that he might take this opportunity of leading us on to the remaining statements which immediately follow. Here we see, in the first place, how eager was the desire of the people

John 8:33 — the words of Christ that freedom was promised to them as to people who were slaves But they cannot endure to have it said that they, who are a holy and elect people, are reduced to slavery For of what avail was the adoption and the covenant, (Romans 9:4,) by which they were separated from other nations, but because they were accounted the children of God? They think, therefore, that they are insulted, when freedom is exhibited to them as a blessing which they do not yet possess. But it might be thought

Acts 28:30 — may know that he did incur danger willingly, Luke doth shortly after expressly commend his boldness, as if he should say, that setting all fear aside, he did faithfully obey the commandment of God, neither was he terrified with any danger, − (689) but did proceed to take pains with whomsoever he met. − Preaching the kingdom of God. He doth not separate the kingdom of God, and those things which belong to Christ, as diverse things, but doth rather add the second thing by way of exposition,

Acts 7:9 — 9.Now followeth the greatest wickedness of the nation of Israel, that they conspired (385) together to oppress their innocent brother, which cruelty is contrary (386) to nature. Neither could the Jews object that it was a private fault of a few; for the

Romans 11:8 — blindness of one day, which is described, but that it had continued, together with the unhealable obstinacy of the people, to the coming of Christ. (348) (347) The quotation in this verse is taken from two passages: the first clause is from Isaiah 29:10, and the rest from Isaiah 6:9, or Deuteronomy 29:4. The first clause is not exactly according to the Hebrew or the Septuagint; instead of “God gave them,” etc., it is in the Septuagint, “the Lord hath made you drink,” etc.,

Romans 7:9 — 9.For I was alive, etc. He means to intimate that there had been a time when sin was dead to him or in him. But he is not to be understood as though he had been without law at any time, but this wordI was alive has a peculiar import; for it was the absence