Bible Commentaries

Genesis 9:5 — 5. surely your blood of your lives will I require—The fourth part establishes a new power for protecting life—the institution of the civil magistrate ( :-), armed with public and official authority to repress the commission of violence and crime. Such a power had not previously existed in patriarchal society.

1 Kings 10:9 — 9. Blessed be the Lord thy God—(See on 1 Kings 5:7). It is quite possible, as Jewish writers say, that this queen was converted, through Solomon's influence, to the worship of the true God. But there is no record of her making any gift or offering in the temple.

Ecclesiastes 10:16 — 16. a child—given to pleasures; behaves with childish levity. Not in years; for a nation may be happy under a young prince, as Josiah. eat in the morning—the usual time for dispensing justice in the East ( :-); here, given to feasting (Isaiah 5:11; Acts 2:15).

Ecclesiastes 7:10 — 10. Do not call in question God's ways in making thy former days better than thy present, as Job did (Job 29:2-5). The very putting of the question argues that heavenly "wisdom" (Margin) is not as much as it ought made the chief good with thee.

Isaiah 24:13 — 13. the land—Judea. Put the comma after "land," not after "people." "There shall be among the people (a remnant left), as the shaking (the after-picking) of an olive tree"; as in gathering olives, a few remain on the highest boughs (Isaiah 17:5; Isaiah 17:6).

Jeremiah 16:5 — 5. (Ezekiel 24:17; Ezekiel 24:22; Ezekiel 24:23). house of mourning— (Ezekiel 24:23- :). Margin, "mourning-feast"; such feasts were usual at funerals. The Hebrew means, in Ezekiel 24:23- :, the cry of joy at a banquet; here, and Ezekiel 24:23- :, the cry of sorrow.

Jeremiah 37:17 — 17. secretly—Zedekiah was ashamed to be seen by his courtiers consulting Jeremiah (John 12:43; John 5:44; John 19:38). thou shalt be delivered—Had Jeremiah consulted his earthly interests, he would have answered very differently. Contrast Jeremiah 6:14; Isaiah 30:10; Ezekiel 13:10.

Jeremiah 7:9 — 9, 10. "Will ye steal . . . and then come and stand before Me?" whom ye know not—Ye have no grounds of "knowing" that they are gods; but I have manifested My Godhead by My law, by benefits conferred, and by miracles. This aggravates their crime [CALVIN] (Judges 5:8).

Lamentations 3:54 — 54. Waters—not literally, for there was "no water" ( :-) in the place of Jeremiah's confinement, but emblematical of overwhelming calamities (Psalms 69:2; Psalms 124:4; Psalms 124:5). cut off— (Isaiah 38:10; Isaiah 38:11). I am abandoned by God. He speaks according to carnal sense. Koph.

Ezekiel 12:5 — 5. Dig—as Zedekiah was to escape like one digging through a wall, furtively to effect an escape (Ezekiel 12:12). carry out—namely, "thy stuff" (Ezekiel 12:4). thereby—by the opening in the wall. Zedekiah escaped "by the gate betwixt the two walls" (Jeremiah 39:4).

Ezekiel 15:6 — 6. So will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as being utterly unprofitable (Matthew 21:33-41; Matthew 25:30; Mark 11:12-14; Luke 13:6-9) in answering God's design that they should be witnesses for Jehovah before the heathen (Matthew 3:10; Matthew 5:13).

Ezekiel 17:16 — 16. in the place where the king dwelleth—righteous retribution. He brought on himself in the worst form the evil which, in a mild form, he had sought to deliver himself from by perjured treachery, namely, vassalage (Ezekiel 12:13; Jeremiah 32:5; Jeremiah 34:3; Jeremiah 52:11).

Ezekiel 36:5 — 5. to cast it out for a prey—that is, to take the land for a prey, its inhabitants being cast out. Or the land is compared to a prey cast forth to wild beasts. FAIRBAIRN needlessly alters the Hebrew pointing and translates, "that they may plunder its pasturage."

Daniel 12:5 — 5. A vision of two other angels, one on one side of the Hiddekel or Tigris, the other on the other side, implying that on all sides angels attend to execute God's commands. The angel addressing Daniel had been over the river "from above" (Daniel 12:6, Margin).

Numbers 12:5 — 5. the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood the door of the tabernacle—without gaining admission, as was the usual privilege of Aaron, though it was denied to all other men and women. This public exclusion was designed to be a token of the divine displeasure.

Matthew 3:5 — 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan—From the metropolitan center to the extremities of the Judean province the cry of this great preacher of repentance and herald of the approaching Messiah brought trooping penitents and eager expectants.

Matthew 8 overview — CHAPTER 8 :-. HEALING OF A LEPER. ( = Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16). The time of this miracle seems too definitely fixed here to admit of our placing it where it stands in Mark and Luke, in whose Gospels no such precise note of time is given.

2 Corinthians 12:19 — 19. Again—The oldest manuscripts read, "This long time ye think that we are excusing ourselves unto you? (Nay). It is before God (as opposed to 'unto you') that we speak in Christ" ( :-). English Version Greek text was a correction from 2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 5:12.

Joshua 23:11 — 11. Take good heed, therefore, that ye love the Lord your God—The sum of his exhortation is comprised in the love of God, which is the end or fulfilment of the law (Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 11:13; Matthew 22:37). Matthew 22:37- :. BY THREATENINGS IN CASE OF DISOBEDIENCE.

2 Peter 2:7 — 7. just—righteous. filthy conversation—literally, "behavior in licentiousness" (Genesis 19:5). the wicked—Greek, "lawless": who set at defiance the laws of nature, as well as man and God. The Lord reminds us of Lot's faithfulness, but not of his sin in the cave: so in Rahab's case.