Bible Commentaries

Job 4:21 — 21. their excellency— (Psalms 39:11; Psalms 146:4; 1 Corinthians 13:8). But UMBREIT, by an Oriental image from a bow, useless because unstrung: "Their nerve, or string would be torn away." MICHAELIS, better in accordance with Job 4:19, makes the allusion be to the cords of a tabernacle taken down (Isaiah

Song of Solomon 3:7 — seen dwelling in believers, who are His "chariot" and "body." In Song of Solomon 3:11, the consummation in glory. bed—palanquin. His body, literally, guarded by a definite number of angels, threescore, or sixty (Matthew 26:53), from the wilderness (Matthew 4:1; Matthew 4:11), and continually (Luke 2:13; Luke 22:43; Acts 1:10; Acts 1:11); just as six hundred thousand of Israel guarded the Lord's tabernacle (Acts 1:11- :), one for every ten thousand. In contrast to the "bed of sloth" (Song of Solomon 3:1).

Song of Solomon 4:6 — is His embalmment (John 19:39) till the resurrection "daybreak." The third Canticle occupies the one cloudless day of His presence on earth, beginning from the night (Song of Solomon 2:17) and ending with the night of His departure (Song of Solomon 4:6). His promise is almost exactly in the words of her prayer (Song of Solomon 4:6- :), (the same Holy Ghost breathing in Jesus Christ and His praying people), with the difference that she then looked for His visible coming. He now tells her that when

Song of Solomon 4:8 — 8. Invitation to her to leave the border mountains (the highest worldly elevation) between the hostile lands north of Palestine and the Promised Land (Psalms 45:10; Philippians 3:13). Amana—south of Anti-Libanus; the river Abana, or Amana, was near Damascus (Philippians 3:13- :). Shenir—The whole mountain was called Hermon; the part held by the Sidonians was called Sirion; the part held by the Amorites,

Song of Solomon 6:2 — 2. gone down—Jerusalem was on a hill (answering to its moral elevation), and the gardens were at a little distance in the valleys below. beds of spices—(balsam) which He Himself calls the "mountain of myrrh," c. ( :-), and again (Song of Solomon 8:14), the resting-place of His body amidst spices, and of His soul in paradise, and now in heaven, where He stands as High Priest for ever. Nowhere else in the Song is there mention of mountains of spices. feed in . . . gardens—that is, in the churches,

Isaiah 18:4 — 4. take . . . rest . . . consider—I will calmly look on and not interpose, while all seems to promise success to the enemy; when figuratively, "the sun's heat" and "the night dews" ripen their "harvest"; but "before" it reaches its maturity I will destroy

Isaiah 58:12 — 12. they . . . of thee—thy people, the Israelites. old waste places—the old ruins of Jerusalem (Isaiah 61:4; Ezekiel 36:33-36). foundations of many generations—that is, the buildings which had lain in ruins, even to their foundations, for many ages; called in the parallel passage (Isaiah 61:4), "the former desolations"; and in the preceding clause here,

Isaiah 63:9 — parallelism, "In all their straits there was no straitness in His goodness to them" [HOUBIGANT], (Judges 10:16; Micah 2:7; 2 Corinthians 6:12). angel of his presence—literally, "of His face," that is, who stands before Him continually; Messiah (Exodus 14:19; Exodus 23:20; Exodus 23:21; Proverbs 8:30), language applicable to no creature (Exodus 32:34; Exodus 33:2; Exodus 33:14; Numbers 20:16; Malachi 3:1). bare them— (Isaiah 46:3; Isaiah 46:4; Isaiah 40:11; Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11; Deuteronomy

Jeremiah 52:23 — of the pillars conspicuous to the eye, opposed to the four remaining pomegranates which were not seen from the outside. The pomegranates here are ninety-six; but in :- they are two hundred on each chapiter, and four hundred on the two (2 Chronicles 4:13). It seems there were two rows of them, one above the other, and in each row a hundred. They are here said to be ninety-six, but immediately following one hundred, and so in 2 Chronicles 4:13- :. Four seem to have been unseen to one looking from one

Jeremiah 9:25 — Judah, c., were outwardly "circumcised," but in heart were "uncircumcised." The heathen nations were defiled, in spite of their literal circumcision, by idolatry. The Jews, with all their glorying in their spiritual privileges, were no better (Jeremiah 4:4 Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28; Romans 2:29; Colossians 2:11). However, Ezekiel 31:18; Ezekiel 32:19, may imply that the Egyptians were uncircumcised; and it is uncertain as to the other nations specified whether they were at that

Ezekiel 26:20 — 20. the pit—Tyre's disappearance is compared to that of the dead placed in their sepulchres and no more seen among the living (compare Ezekiel 32:18; Ezekiel 32:23; Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 14:15; Isaiah 14:19). I shall set glory in the land—In contrast to Tyre consigned to the "pit" of death, I shall set glory (that is, My presence symbolized by the Shekinah cloud, the antitype to which shall be Messiah, "the glory as of the

Ezekiel 33:30 — though less flagrantly, betrayed the same unbelieving spirit. talking against thee—Though going to the prophet to hear the word of the Lord, they criticised, in an unfriendly spirit, his peculiarities of manner and his enigmatical style (Ezekiel 20:49); making these the excuse for their impenitence. Their talking was not directly "against" Ezekiel, for they professed to like his ministrations; but God's word speaks of things as they really are, not as they appear. by the walls—in the public haunts.

Joel 3:10 — converted to God by them, after the overthrow of the antichristian confederacy, shall, on the contrary, "beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks," when under Messiah's coming reign there shall be war no more (Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Micah 4:3). let the weak say, I am strong—So universal shall be the rage of Israel's foes for invading her, that even the weak among them will fancy themselves strong enough to join the invading forces. Age and infirmity were ordinarily

Matthew 7:2 — 2. For with what judgments ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete—whatever standard of judgment ye apply to others. it shall be measured to you again—This proverbial maxim is used by our Lord in other connections—as in Mark 4:24, and with a slightly different application in Mark 4:24- : —as a great principle in the divine administration. Unkind judgment of others will be judicially returned upon ourselves, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 25:5 — husband's brother . . . shall take her to him to wife—This usage existed before the age of Moses (Genesis 38:8). But the Mosaic law rendered the custom obligatory (Genesis 38:8- :) on younger brothers, or the nearest kinsman, to marry the widow (Ruth 4:4), by associating the natural desire of perpetuating a brother's name with the preservation of property in the Hebrew families and tribes. If the younger brother declined to comply with the law, the widow brought her claim before the authorities of

John 9:4 — 4. I must work the works of him that sent me, c.—a most interesting statement from the mouth of Christ intimating, (1) that He had a precise work to do upon earth, with every particular of it arranged and laid out to Him; (2) that all He did upon earth

1 Corinthians 9:9 — 9. ox . . . treadeth . . . corn— (Deuteronomy 25:4). In the East to the present day they do not after reaping carry the sheaves home to barns as we do, but take them to an area under the open air to be threshed by the oxen treading them with their feet, or else drawing a threshing instrument over them

2 Corinthians 5:15 — 15. they which live—in the present life (2 Corinthians 4:11, "we which live") [ALFORD]; or, they who are thus indebted to Him for life of soul as well as body [MENOCHIUS]. died for them—He does not add, "rose again for them," a phrase not found in Paul's language [BENGEL]. He died in their stead, He arose

Joshua 18:1 — west, to the different tribes. But "the tabernacle of the congregation was also set up there," and its removal therefore must have been made or sanctioned by divine intimation ( :-). It remained in Shiloh for more than three hundred years (1 Samuel 4:1-11). 1 Samuel 4:1-9.4.11- :. THE REMAINDER OF THE LAND DESCRIBED.

Judges 4:21 — and friendship that are usually held sacred among pastoral people, and for which it is impossible to conceive a woman in Jael's circumstances to have had any motive, except that of gaining favor with the victors. Though predicted by Deborah [Judges 4:9], it was the result of divine foreknowledge only—not the divine appointment or sanction; and though it is praised in the song [Judges 4:9- :], the eulogy must be considered as pronounced not on the moral character of the woman and her deed, but on