Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 48:3 — 3.Long ago have I declared the former things. He accuses the Jews of ingratitude, because they distrust God, who has given every possible proof of his goodness, in order to establish them in sincere confidence; and therefore he takes away from them every

Isaiah 65:20 — 20.There shall be no more thence an infant of days. Some think that this points out the difference between the Law and the Gospel; because “the Law, as a schoolmaster,” (Galatians 3:24,) kept scholars in the first elements, but the Gospel leads us on to mature age. Others suppose it to mean that there will no longer be any distinction of age; because, where life is eternal, no line is drawn between the child and the old man. But

Isaiah 65:9 — wont to chastise his people in such a manner as to determine that the Church shall exist, in which his truth and the pure religion may be preserved, and which Paul for that very reason calls “the pillar and foundation of truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15.) We must not, therefore, judge of the Church from the present condition of things, (for nothing in this world can be permanent,) but from the purpose of God, which will not suffer it to be overturned or destroyed. This ought to be carefully remembered

Jeremiah 13:19 — beginning of the verse, is to be used, though it is used for the future. The word שלומים, is never found in an adverbial sense; and indeed it is found only once elsewhere as here, in the plural number, Isaiah 34:8; but thrice in this sense in the singular number, Deuteronomy 32:35; Hosea 9:7; Micah 7:3. The Targum favors this rendering, as it retains the idea of retribution. — Ed.

Jeremiah 2:32 — — (64) The second word, כלה, is rendered “sponsa — a bride,” in our version, by Calvin and Blayney, and so by the Vulgate, Syriac, and the Targum, but by the Septuagint, “παρθένος — a virgin:” and Parkhurst says that it never means a bride. The version then ought to be, — Can a maid forget her ornaments, A virgin her bands? That the word קשרים means

Lamentations 3:8 — to do this in all our miseries. “The strongest tower is the name of the Lord, to it will the righteous flee and shall be safe.” (Proverbs 18:10.) Again, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Joel 2:32.) And Scripture is full of testimonies of this kind; that is, that God graciously invites all the faithful to himself: “He shall call upon me, and I will hear him.” (Psalms 91:15.) “In the day when I call, answer me speedily.”

Ezekiel 16:8 — be comprehended by our senses, then he is said to look down upon us, to rise up, and to turn himself towards us. He passed by, then, near the people, namely, when he called Moses out of the desert and appointed him the minister of his favor, (Exodus 3:0,) he then saw his people, and proved by their trial that he had not utterly cast them away. I looked, then, and behold thy time, thy time of years. Here God speaks grossly, yet according to the people’s comprehension. For he personates a man

Ezekiel 20:3 — although they pretended to rare piety in inquiring of him: God says that they did not come with a right disposition. Many translate otherwise — if I shall be found, or be en-treated by you, or if I shall answer: thus they take the word, דרש, deresh, in a double sense: in the first clause, for to seek or interrogate; but when it is added, as I live, etc., they do not take the word by “to be sought” or “interrogated,” but by “to answer”

Daniel 5:8 — seem to be sharper than all others, shall say they are ignorant and unlettered men.” Whatever God threatened against the Jews we know was fulfilled, and is fulfilled to this day, since a veil is put before their eyes, as Paul says. (2 Corinthians 3:14.) Hence they were blind in the midst of the brightest light. What wonder then if the same thing happened to the Chaldeans, so flint they could not read the writing? There is no necessity to conjecture any transposition of letters, or any inversion

Daniel 6:5 — God’s honor unstained. We therefore see how we, by these means, are urged to the cultivation of integrity, since we cannot be more secure than when fortified by a good conscience, as Peter in his first epistle exhorts us to the same purpose, (1 Peter 3:16.) Now, whatever we may fear, and whatever events await us, even if we become subject to a hundred deaths, we ought never to decline from the pure worship of God, since Daniel did not hesitate to submit to death and enter the lion’s den, because

Micah 3:3 — he might convey an idea of the various kinds of cruelty which they practiced. Now follow threatenings — (95) “Under the similitude of butchers the Prophet sets forth their savage cruelty: 1. They take off the skin; 2. They eat the flesh; 3. They break the bones, to pick out the marrow. The insatiable avarice of the princes is described.” — Cocceius.

Malachi 4:3 — the day of the Lord, in which he purposes to execute his judgement. Some, as I have said, give a different version, but the one I have given is the most probable, and is also more generally approved. It now follows — (274) See note on Malachi 3:17. — Ed.

Matthew 13:43 — 43.Then will the righteous shine. What a remarkable consolation! The sons of God, who now lie covered with dust, or are held in no estimation, or even are loaded with reproaches, will then shine in full brightness, as when the sky is serene, and every

Matthew 16:22 — And yet Christ could not have conveyed his censure in harsher or more disdainful language. Tell me, what is the meaning of that stern reply? How comes it that he who so mildly on all occasions guarded against breaking even a bruised reed, (Isaiah 42:3,) thunders so dismally against a chosen disciple? The reason is obvious, that in the person of one man he intended to restrain all from gratifying their own passions. Though the lusts of the flesh, as they resemble wild beasts, are difficult to be restrained,

Matthew 3:4 — Matthew 3:4.And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair The Evangelist does not desire us to reckon it as one of John’s chief excellencies, that he followed a rough and austere way of living, or even that he avoided a moderate and ordinary degree

Matthew 9:14 — prudence and caution are necessary to prevent wicked and cunning men from sowing divisions among us on any slight grounds. Satan has a wonderful dexterity, no doubt, in laying those snares; and it is an easy matter to distress us about a trifle. (523) But we ought especially to beware lest the unity of faith be destroyed, or the bond of charity broken, on account of outward ceremonies. Almost all labor under the disease of attaching undue importance to the ceremonies and elements of the world, as

Luke 19:8 — probable that he had enriched himself to the injury of others, if he had wronged any man, he was ready to restore fourfold. Besides, the half of his goods he dedicates to the poor. A man might indeed bestow all his goods on the poor, (1 Corinthians 13:3,) and yet his generosity might be of no value in the sight of God; but, though no mention is here made of inward repentance, yet Luke means that the godly zeal, which he commends in Zaccheus, proceeded from that living root. In like manner, Paul,

John 6:32 — 32.Verily, verily, I say to you, Moses gave you not bread from heaven. Christ appears to contradict what was quoted from the psalm, but he speaks only by comparison. The manna מן is called the bread of heaven, but it is for the nourishment

John 8:58 — from the beginning of the world through all ages. Yet these words may be explained in two ways. Some think that this applies simply to the eternal Divinity of Christ, and compare it with that passage in the writings of Moses, I am what I am, (Exodus 3:14.) But I extend it much farther, because the power and grace of Christ, so far as he is the Redeemer of the world, was common to all ages. It agrees therefore with that saying of the apostle, Christ yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, (Hebrews 13:8.)

Acts 14:27 — and Barnabas show and prove by the effect that their calling was approved and ratified by God, because the faith of the Gentiles was, as it were, a seal engraven by the hand of God to establish the same, as Paul saith, ( Romans 16:25; 2 Corinthians 3:7.) (66) − “ Amplum materiam,” ample materials. (67) − “ Impuros et alienos,” impure men, aliens.