Bible Commentaries

Genesis 17:17 — his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall [a child] be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed. — Not as doubting, much less deriding, Romans 4:19 but as rejoicing and admiring the goodness and power of God. The narrow-mouthed vessel of his heart not quickly capable of so great comfort - for, Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides - he fell upon his face, and laughed.

Genesis 31:36 — Laban, What [is] my trespass? what [is] my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? And Jacob was wroth, and chode. — An angry expostulation; but not without some error, in the heat of altercation. "Be angry, and sin not," Ephesians 4:26 is, saith one, the easiest charge, under the hardest condition, that can be. It is difficult to kindle and keep quick the fire of zeal, which is the best kind of anger, without all smoke of sin.

Genesis 34:23 — us. Shall not their cattle, … — Profit persuades mightily with the multitude. They all look to their own way; "Every one for his gain from his quarter". Isaiah 56:11 "Who will show us any good?" is Vox populi . Psalms 4:6 And who begs not attention, or inoculates not his faithful endeavour into his friend’s creed and belief, with a tale of gain!

Exodus 10:3 — And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me. Ver 3. How long wilt thou refuse? — God thinks long of the time that men misspend and waste in wicked courses. Jeremiah 4:14 ; Jeremiah 13:27 It is a savoury saying of Bernard, Totum vitae meae tempus perdidi, quia perdite vixi: the time of my looseness I have utterly lost.

Exodus 14:18 — in far countries. Jethro, the first proselyte to the Jewish Church, was hereby converted, say the Rabbins. And the Philistines cry, "Woe unto us! these are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness." 1 Samuel 4:8

Exodus 24:16 — required of ministers: the measures of the sanctuary were double to the ordinary, as the shekel, cubit, … Ministers had need wish, as Elisha did, a doubled and trebled spirit, that they may save themselves and those that hear them. 1 Timothy 4:16

Exodus 27:2 — And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. Horns of it. — To bind the beasts unto, that were to be slain in sacrifice. Psalms 118:27 And to signify the power of Christ’s priesthood. Habakkuk 3:4 Thou shalt overlay it with brass. — The brass kept the wood; so did the deity of Christ keep his humanity from being consumed by the fire of God’s wrath, wherein it was roasted.

Exodus 33:5 — consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And consume thee. — God’s threatenings are cordial, but conditional. Minatur Deus ut non puniat. "Fury is not in me." Isaiah 27:4 He punisheth not "till there be no other remedy," 2 Chronicles 36:16 as the bee stings not till provoked.

Exodus 5:1 — And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. That they may hold a feast. — "That they may serve me." Exodus 4:23 "Let us keep the feast," εορταζωμεν , 1 Corinthians 5:8 which is the same with "Let us serve God acceptably." Hebrews 12:28 It is a feast, and better, for a good soul to converse

Leviticus 25:43 — See Galatians 3:28 . The servant paid the half shekel as well as the master. Stand not therefore on terms of inequality, but know that yourselves also have a Master in heaven. Do therefore to them "that which is right and equal." Colossians 4:1

Leviticus 4:18 — LORD, that [is] in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall pour out all the blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which [is at] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Upon the horns. — See Trapp on " Leviticus 4:7 " At the bottom of the altar. — To set forth the plenty and sufficiency of grace and merit in Christ’s death, for many more than are actually saved by it.

Numbers 10:12 — And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran. Out of the wilderness of Sinai. — Where they had dwelt long enough. Deuteronomy 1:6-8 It being a place of bondage, by reason of the law there given. Galatians 4:24-25 The law is a yoke of bondage, as Jerome calls it; and they who look for righteousness from thence, are like oxen, who toil and draw, and when they have done their labour, are fatted for slaughter.

Numbers 18:7 — office [unto you] as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. As a service of gift. — So our Saviour counts and calls his work a gift; "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." John 17:4 Any employment for, and about God, is a special favour, a high honour.

Numbers 6:3 — grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. He shall separate himself from wine. — Lest he should drink and forget the law, Proverbs 31:5 which he was to study diligently: but loaden bellies make leaden wits: intemperance takes away the heart, Hosea 4:11 overchargeth it. Luke 21:34 Moist grapes or dried. — Dried as raisins, currants, or grapes of Corinth, whence they come, and are called.

Numbers 8:19 — the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary. As a gift to Aaron. — “ Clarissima semper Munera sunt, Author quae pretiosa facit. ” Ministers also are given as an honorary to the Church. Ephesians 4:11

Numbers 9:8 — in the wilderness": St Paul "received of the Lord" what he delivered to the Church, 1 Corinthians 11:23 and took care that the faith of his hearers "might not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 Unwarranted doctrines come not cum gratia et privilegio.

Deuteronomy 17:19 — And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: And it shall be with him. — As his Vade-mecum, his manual, his running library, the man of his counsel. Luther said, he would not live in Paradise without the Bible, as with it he could easily live in hell itself. Tom. 4, Oper. Latin., p. 424.

Deuteronomy 2:23 — which dwelt in Hazerim, [even] unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.) And the Avims, which dwelt in Hazeroth. — These are ancient things, as it is said in another case, 1 Chronicles 4:22 such, as whereof there is no record but this extant in the world. Well might that Egyptian priest say to Solon, that wise man of Greece, You Greeks are very babies - γερων δε ελλην

Deuteronomy 32:4 — [He is] the Rock, his work [is] perfect: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right [is] he. He is the rock. — A firm and everlasting refuge, a "Rock of Ages." Isaiah 26:4 One age passeth away, and another, and a third, …, but the rock remains. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower"; Proverbs 18:10 "munition of rocks"; Isaiah 33:16 rocks so deep, no pioneer can undermine them; so thick, no

Revelation 3:7 — therefore to be "sanctified in righteousness,"Isaiah 5:16; Isaiah 5:16 . True — And therefore to be trusted. That hath the key of David — And is therefore to be sought unto for a door both of utterance and of entrance, Colossians 4:13 ; 2 Corinthians 2:12 ; Acts 16:14 .