Bible Commentaries

Exodus 28:1 — XXVIII.THE DESIGNATION OF AARON AND HIS SONS FOR THE PRIESTLY OFFICE, WITH DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR MINISTERIAL APPAREL. (1) Take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother.—Heb., make to draw near to thee Aaron thy brother. Hitherto the position of Moses had been

1 Kings 14:10 — (10) Him . . . and him.—The first phrase is used also in 1 Kings 21:21, 2 Kings 9:8, to signify, “every male,” implying (possibly with a touch of contempt) that even the lowest should be destroyed. The words following have in the original no conjunction

2 Kings 22:3 — (3) In the eighteenth year.—See the Notes on 2 Chronicles 34:3, seq. The discourses of Jeremiah, who began his prophetic ministry in the thirteenth year of Josiah, to which Thenius refers as incomprehensible on the assumption that idolatry was extirpated

1 Chronicles 2:50-55 — III.—1 Chronicles 2:50-55 : A third register of Calebite clans and settlements. (50) The sons of Caleb the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah.—See 1 Chronicles 2:19-20 and Notes. The statement “These were the sons of Caleb” should be connected with

1 Chronicles 22:13 — Entonces prosperarás. - El versículo deja bastante claro que la obediencia era una condición indispensable para la plena realización de la promesa. (Comp. 1 Crónicas 22:10 con el curso posterior actual de la historia.) Sin embargo, la palabra del Señor

1 Chronicles 4:19 — (19) And the sons of his wife Hodiah.—The existing Hebrew text says, And the sons of Hodiah’s wife. Hodiah recurs as a man’s name in Nehemiah 8:7; Nehemiah 9:5; but a very slight change—the addition of three letters—in the Hebrew would give the sense:

1 Chronicles 8:33 — (33) The house of Saul It is not said here that Saul’s immediate family was settled at Gibeon. From 1 Samuel 10:26; 1 Samuel 15:34, and 2 Samuel 21:6, we learn that Gibeah, or “Gibeah of Saul,” was the seat of the king. It is gratuitous to suppose that

2 Chronicles 26:10 — (10) In the desert.—Or, grazing country, i.e., the “wilderness of Judah,” on the west of the Dead Sea. The towers were for the protection of the royal herds against the predatory Bedawin. (Comp. Micah 4:8 : “And thou, O tower of the flock.”) Digged

Ezekiel 16:3 — (3) Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan.—In the original the words “births” and “nativities” are in the plural, already indicating what the whole context makes plain, that the reference is not to the natural, but to the spiritual origin

Numbers 14:25 — (25) Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.—There is considerable difficulty in regard to the meaning and connection of these words. They may be attached to the words which precede: “And his seed shall possess it, and the Amalekites

Numbers 3:9 — (9) They are wholly given unto him.—Hebrew, Given, given are they to him. This repetition of the word nethunim (given) is emphatic. The same repetition occurs in Numbers 8:16, where the Levites are represented as “wholly given” to the Lord instead of

Deuteronomy 19:1-13 — Deuteronomy 19:1-13. THE CITIES OF REFUGE. (See for more on this subject, Numbers 35:9, &c.; Joshua 20:0) (1) When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations.—We find that the three cities of refuge on the west of Jordan were appointed by Joshua after

Deuteronomy 25:17-19 — Deuteronomy 25:17-19. AMALEK TO BE EXTERMINATED. At the end of all the precepts of humanity, the extermination of that people which is presented to us as the incarnation of inhumanity is decreed.(18) He . . . smote the hindmost . . .—These details are

Acts 23:12 — (12) Certain of the Jews banded together . . .—The casuistry of the more fanatic Jews led them to the conclusion that a blasphemer or apostate was an outlaw, and that, in the absence of any judicial condemnation, private persons might take on themselves

Joshua 17 overview — XVII. (2) Shechem.—It is noteworthy that according to the boundary of Ephraim and Manasseh, described in Joshua 16:0, the town of Shechem appears to have lain within the border of Manasseh (Conder, p. 263), but as “the separate cities” of Ephraim were

Joshua 21:4-8 — (4-8) The order of the distribution—viz., (1) to priests, (2) to Kohathites, (3) to Gershonites, (4) to Merarites—is in strict agreement with the order of priority observed in the exodus. In the camp of Israel there were two squares surrounding the

Joshua 4:3 — IV. (3) Out of the midst of Jordan . . . twelve stones—(9) Twelve stones in the midst of Jordan.—It would seem that we are to understand two cairns to have been set up, one on either side the river, to mark the place where the Israelites crossed. The

Joshua 7:24 — (24) And his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had.—All were evidently destroyed together (comp. Joshua 22:20). For any other sin but this, Achan must have suffered alone. “The children

Judges 4:5 — (5) She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.—Similarly Abraham is said to have lived under the oak of Mamre (Genesis 14:13), and Saul under the pomegranate of Migron (1 Samuel 14:2). “Such tents the patriarchs loved “(Coleridge). Dean Stanley (Jewish

2 Samuel 21:2 — (2) For his bloody house.—Better, for the blood-guilty house. Saul’s family and descendants are regarded, according to the universal ideas of the times, as sharers in his guilt. The story of the Gibeonites and of Joshua’s league with them is told in