Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 44:15-16 — Actually, the piece he burns does him more good than the piece he worships. The piece burned serves man and delivers him from the cold and hunger, but the piece not burned demands human service and only promises deliverance (cf. Acts 17:29; 1 Corinthians 8:4-8). Instead of thanking the Creator for the wood, the idolater uses what the Creator has made to make a god in his own image that he thanks (cf. Romans 1:18-23).

Isaiah 48:18 — Failure to listen and hear the Lord’s instruction (cf. Isaiah 48:1; Isaiah 48:4; Isaiah 48:8) in the past had limited Israel’s peace (Heb. shalom) and her right conduct (Heb. sedaqa). Things could have been far better if she had only listened and obeyed. She could have experienced a ceaseless, powerful flow

Isaiah 49:1-7 — The Servant’s calling 49:1-7 "The first [biographical Servant] Song was a word from the Lord to the world about his Servant: ’Your plight is known, my Servant will deal with it’ [Isaiah 42:1-4]; but the second [autobiographical] Song is the Servant’s

Jeremiah 1:17 — Jeremiah was to get to work and announce all of the Lord’s messages to His people (cf. Exodus 12:11; 2 Kings 4:29; 2 Kings 9:1; Luke 12:35; Ephesians 6:14; 1 Peter 1:13). He was not to let fear discourage him from being obedient (cf. Deuteronomy 31:6-8; Joshua 1:6-9; Ephesians 6:10-14), because if he did, the Lord would really give him something to fear. The

Jeremiah 17:18 — He prayed for God to humiliate his persecutors but not to humiliate him (cf. Jeremiah 1:17). He asked that the Lord would punish them severely for their apostasy (cf. Jeremiah 17:4; Jeremiah 16:18; Jeremiah 20:12; Psalms 17:1-8). "The experience Jeremiah had had in his calling seemed to contradict the truth, that trust in the Lord brings blessing (Jeremiah 17:7 ff.); for his preaching of God’s word had brought him nothing

Jeremiah 31:29-30 — In that time of future blessing, people would no longer repeat a popular proverb that said that the children were suffering because of their fathers’ sins. This proverb expressed a popular misconception (cf. Deuteronomy 24:16; Ezekiel 18:2-4). It blamed present trouble on past ancestors inordinately. In that day, everyone would bear the consequences of his own actions. Justice would be obvious then, even though at present it did not seem to be operating. Whereas people

Jeremiah 38:4 — treason. "It was ironical . . . that the leaders who had played the traitor against Babylon, their overlord, were such sticklers for internal loyalty, and that they should profess concern for the peace and welfare (shalom, Jeremiah 38:4 b) of the citizens whom they insisted on sacrificing." [Note: Kidner, p. 124.]

Ezekiel 10:6-8 — one of the wheels. One of the cherubim then put some coals of fire that it had taken from between the cherubim and placed them in the man’s hands. The man then went out of the cherubim’s presence with the coals in his hands (cf. 2 Kings 23:4-9). Ezekiel saw again that the cherubim had what looked like human hands under their wings (Ezekiel 1:8). Perhaps he mentioned this to clarify how the cherub could pick up coals and place them in the man’s hand.

Ezekiel 22:17-20 — and other minerals) that separate from silver in the refining process. He planned to gather them in Jerusalem, His crucible, and subject them to a trial by fire, as refiners do to extract any remaining silver from the dross (cf. Isaiah 1:22-25; Isaiah 48:10; Jeremiah 6:27-30; Jeremiah 9:7; Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:2-4). [Note: See Allen, Ezekiel 20-48, p. 38, for a description of the smelting process.] Punishment for sin involves three major things: retribution, correction, and purification. [Note:

Ezekiel 38:17 — servants the prophets many years earlier. "Are you he of whom the prophets spoke?" Yes, he was. This was not the first revelation of a powerful enemy whom God would bring against the Israelites (cf. Deuteronomy 31:17; Psalms 2:1-3; Isaiah 14:24-25; Isaiah 26:20-21; Isaiah 29:1-8; Jeremiah 4:5; Jeremiah 6:26; Jeremiah 30:18-24; Joel 2:20; Joel 3:9-21; Zephaniah 1:14-18; Zephaniah 3:8; Zephaniah 3:15-20; Zechariah 12:2-3; Zechariah 14:2).

Ezekiel 44:25-27 — priests would not be able to have any contact with a dead corpse except in the case of their own immediate families (cf. Leviticus 21:1-3). People will die during the Millennium (cf. Isaiah 65:20), but no one will die in the eternal state (Revelation 21:4). After his initial cleansing from the defilement caused by contact with a corpse, the priest would have to wait seven days before resuming his priestly duties (cf. Numbers 19:11-19). On his first day of service after his cleansing, he would have to

Ezekiel 9:5-6 — and show no mercy to any individual who lacked the mark. So these six men began their assignment with the elders of Jerusalem who were in front of the temple (cf. Ezekiel 8:11). Judgment started with those closest to God, as it typically must (1 Peter 4:17; cf. Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2; Hebrews 13:17).

Daniel 12:5-6 — The first question 12:5-6 Daniel now saw two other individuals, undoubtedly angels, besides the one who had been addressing him since Daniel 10:11, standing on either side of the Tigris River (cf. Daniel 10:4). One of these angels asked a question of the man (Son of Man) dressed in linen (cf. Daniel 10:5-6) who was above the river. He wanted to know how long it would be until the end of the events just related (cf. 1 Peter 1:10-12), namely, the things having

Hosea 2:13 — Baal-they had pursued the Baals-as a harlot pursues many lovers. Israel had gotten dressed up to impress her idols and to celebrate these occasions, but she had forgotten Yahweh, in the sense that she had refused to acknowledge Him (cf. Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 8:11; Judges 3:7; 1 Samuel 12:9-10; Psalms 78:9-11; Jeremiah 23:27).

Micah 6:7 — Or would the Lord take pleasure if he offered Him thousands of rams and an extravagant amount of oil, like Solomon and other kings had done (cf. Leviticus 2:1-16; 1 Kings 3:4; 1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 30:24; 2 Chronicles 35:7)? Neither the quality of a sacrifice nor its quantity was the important issue. Perhaps making the ultimate sacrifice and offering his firstborn son to atone for his sins would please the Lord. Micah,

Micah 7:11 — That day, when the Israelite critics of Micah and his prophecies would see they were wrong, would be when the walls around vineyards would be rebuilt and the boundaries of Judah extended (cf. Ezekiel 47:13-23; Obadiah 1:19-20). The word used here to describe walls, gader, elsewhere refers to the walls around vineyards (cf. Numbers 22:24; Isaiah 5:5), not walls around a city. In the Millennium, Jerusalem will have no walls (Zechariah 2:4-5). This refers

Habakkuk 1:8 — attack their enemies than wolves (cf. Jeremiah 5:6). Their mounted soldiers swooped down on their enemies as fast and unsuspected as an eagle (or vulture) plummeting from the sky to devour a small animal on the ground (cf. Jeremiah 5:17; Lamentations 4:19). All three of these animals that God used for comparison with the Babylonians were excellent hunters, fast and fierce.

Zechariah 9:7 — the blood that these pagans ate, which was forbidden in Israel, from their mouths. He would take the unclean, detestable food that they ate from their mouths. Drinking blood and eating unclean food was part of Philistine pagan worship (cf. Isaiah 65:4; Isaiah 66:3; Isaiah 66:17), so the judgment in view included punishment for idolatry. Some remaining Philistines would turn to the Lord and become like the Israelites in their faith in Yahweh. As the Jebusites became incorporated into Israel in David’s

Matthew 17:9 — This is the last of five times Matthew recorded Jesus telling His disciples to keep silent (cf. Matthew 8:4; Matthew 9:30; Matthew 12:16; Matthew 16:20). This time He told them that they could tell others after His resurrection since this is the first time He told them to keep quiet after He had revealed that He would rise again. The proclamation of the King

Matthew 7:15 — Jesus here sounded a warning that the Old Testament prophets also gave about false prophets (cf. Deuteronomy 13; Deuteronomy 18; Jeremiah 6:13-15; Jeremiah 8:8-12; Ezekiel 13; Ezekiel 22:27; Zephaniah 3:4). He did not explain exactly what they would teach, only that they would deceptively misrepresent divine revelation. This covers a wide spectrum of false teachers. Their motive was ultimately self-serving, and the end of their victims would be destruction.