Bible Commentaries

Genesis 6:2 — they [were] fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. That the sons of God saw the daughters. — Sons of God; such as had called themselves by his name, Genesis 4:26 his peculiar professant people, called sons of Jehovah, Deuteronomy 14:1 yea, his firstborn, and so higher than the kings of the earth. Psalms 89:27 Hence, after mention made of the four monarchies, a greater than them all succeeds; and that is the "kingdom of the saints of the Most High"; Daniel 7:17-18 saints

Genesis 6:3 — Vagina. here used. But they do best, in my mind, that sense it thus: My Spirit - whereby I hitherto "went and preached," by Noah and other patriarchs, to those "spirits" (once in pleasure, now) "in prison," Ecclesiastes 11:9 1 Peter 3:18-19 but prevailed not - shall not always strive with perverse men by preaching, disputing, convincing, in the mouths of my servants, whom I have sent unto them; nor in their own minds and consciences, by inward checks and motions, which

Ezra 9:11 — when it could bear them no longer, to spue them out. Sin is filthiness ( ρυπαρια ) in the abstract. St James calleth it the stinking filth of a pestilent ulcer, and the superfluity or garbage of naughtiness, James 1:21 . It is no better than the devil’s excrement; it sets his limbs in us, and draws his picture upon us; for malice is the devil’s eye, oppression is his hand, hypocrisy is his cloven foot, … Great sins do greatly pollute. Which have

Job 1:22 — chronicled holy Job, for his many good properties before, and here for his humility and patience. The trial of his faith, being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, is found to praise and honour and glory, 1 Peter 1:7 . It was a saying of Philostratus, that one Jupiter set out by Homer, the poet, was worth ten set out by Phydias, the carver; because the former flew abroad through all the world; whereas the other never stirred from his pedestal at Athens:

Job 15:4 — Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God. Yea, thou casiest off fear — Heb. Thou makest void fear; that is, religion, whereof the fear of God is both the beginning, Proverbs 1:7 , and the end, Ecclesiastes 12:1 . This is a heavy charge indeed; as if Job, by saying the extreme miseries of this life are common to the godly and the wicked, had by consequence taught men to cast off all religion as unprofitable, which none but

Job 20:26 — secretly. A fire not blown shall consume him — i.e. say some, calamities whose causes shall be unknown, and shall proceed immediately from God. See Isaiah 30:33 . Many of the Greeks interpret this text of hell, with its unquenchable fire, Matthew 3:12 , which being created by God, and kindled by his breath, that is, by his word, it burneth everlastingly. Albeit God many times punisheth wicked men here with fire from heaven, as he did Sodom, Nadab and Abihu, those captains of fifties with their companies,

Job 20:5 — like a blaze of thorns, that is quickly extinct, or as a bubble in the water, that is soon down; the pleasure of sin is but for a season. Huius sententiae exemptum habes in Goliath, saith Brentius here. An example of this sentence we have in Goliath, 1 Samuel 17:42-44 ; and another in his countrymen, the Philistines, who had twice beaten the Israelites, and taken the ark, 1 Samuel 5:1-12 , but this triumph was soon at an end; and so was that of the Jews when they had crucified Christ, and now danced

Job 30:10 — For, first, the bird in his own bosom sang sweetly still, as birds in the spring tune most melodiously when it rains most sadly. And, secondly, what if these miscreants prate against Job with malicious words, as Diotrephes did against Demetrius, 3 John 1:9-13 , yet it is enough for Job or Demetrius that they have a good report of all men; that is, of all good men, who indeed are the only men (because a good name only is a name, Ecclesiastes 7:1 , and a good wife only a wife, Proverbs 18:22 ) to be reckoned

Job 35:9 — they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. By reason of the multitude (or magnitude) of oppressions, … — Or, of the oppressed, whom they (that is, whom the oppressors, not worthy to be named, as neither is that rich glutton, Luke 16:19-31 ) make to cry. Job had said, Job 24:12 , "Men groan out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them." He punisheth not the wrong dealers according to their deserts, as Elihu interprets Job;

Psalms 13:1 — hide thy face from me? How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? — It appeareth that when David penned this psalm (which some think was about the end of Saul’s persecution, when he was forced to flee into the land of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 27:1 ) he was under a dreadful desertion, and that for a long while together; hence his many "How longs," and "for ever?" Christ, saith Greenham, was forsaken for a few hours, David for a few months, and Job for a few years.

Proverbs 8:4 — man. Unto you, O men, I call. — O viri praestantes, - so some render it, O ye eminent men, whether for greatness of birth, wealth, or learning. The Pharisees and philosophers, for their learning, are called the "princes of this world." 1 Corinthians 2:8 Sed sapientes sapienter in infernum descendunt, saith one; et potentes potenter torguebuntur, saith another. But "the world by wisdom knows not God"; 1 Corinthians 1:21 and "not many wise men, not many mighty, not many

Song of Solomon 7:4 — and well cleared to look into her own heart and life. Tears instead of gems were the ornaments of David’s bed, saith Chrysostom. And surely that sweet singer never sang more melodiously than when his heart was broken most penitentially. Psalms 6:1-10 Psalms 51:1-19 Thus birds in the spring sing most sweetly when it rains most sadly; and tears of true contrition are pillulae lucis, pills made on purpose to clear the eyesight. When John wept, the sealed book was set open to him; Lilium lachryma

Song of Solomon 8:13 — Lyons called their meeting house paradise. The companions hearken to thy voice. — The angels, so some interpret it, learn of the Church, and profit in the knowledge of the "manifold wisdom of God" in man’s redemption. Ephesians 3:10 1 Corinthians 11:10 1 Peter 1:12 Or rather, thy fellowChristians, thine obedient children, that will hearken to their mother’s counsel. No sooner can she say, "Hear and give ear, be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken it," but they

Isaiah 66:3 — have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man. — Unless, together with his ox, he kill his corruptions, and lay fast hold upon Christ (who himself was sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5:7 ) by a lively faith. Heathens sacrificed men to Saturn; dogs also, and swine, and other unclean creatures, to their other dunghill deities. Mass priests do the like by their cruelty, hypocrisy, idolatry, impudence, luxury: their prayers,

Joel 2:9 — Sardanapalus the Assyrian monarch did; who, straited by the enemy, sacrificed himself with his wealth and wenches to Vulcan in a woodpile (as one phraseth it) in his royal palace. They shall enter in at the windows, as a thief — Whose property is, 1. To climb up some other way and not to enter in by the door, John 10:1 ; death also getteth in by the windows and that way entereth into palaces, Jeremiah 9:21 ; so doth Satan (that thief of the truth, as Basil calleth him) wind himself into the soul

Amos 6:2 — [be they] better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? Pass ye unto Calneh and see — Take a voyage to and a view of those most famous bordering cities, Calneh, or Seleucia, in Mesopotamia on the east (whereof see Genesis 10:10 , the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom), Hamath the great, or Antiochia (now Aleppo, a famous market town), on the north. Then go down southward to Gath of the Philistines, which was of all the five satrapies potissima et potentissima, most strong

Habakkuk 2:2 — And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make [it] plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. And the Lord answered me, and said — Wisdom he had sought of God, who giveth liberally, James 1:5 ; and wisdom is granted him without hitting him in the teeth with his bold expostulations and contestations about providence. Faithful prayer never miscarrieth, but is sure of an answer, either before, as the prodigal, see Isaiah 65:24 , or in the

Zephaniah 1:1 — prophets (as the Jewish doctors make them), yet men famous in the Church ( Hebraei Prophetarum patres, quotquot nominatim recensentur, ipsos quoque prophetas fuisse dicunt ); as were Alexander and Rufus, though they be but mentioned and no more, Mark 15:21 . In the days of Josiah — Who reigned thirty-one years, but, being in his minority, began not to reform religion, much corrupted in the days of his idolatrous father, Amon, till the eighteenth year of his reign, 2 Kings 22:1 ; 2 Kings 23:23

Zephaniah 3:20 — an appointed time, Habakkuk 2:3 . See Trapp on " Habakkuk 2:3 " Limit not the Holy One of Israel, set him not a day, say not now or never; wake not your beloved till he please. He is a God of judgment, and waiteth to be gracious, Isaiah 30:18 . Have patience, therefore, yea, let patience have her perfect work, James 1:4 , that ye may receive a full reward, 2 John 1:8 . For behold I come, and my reward is with me, to give you an expected end, Jeremiah 29:11 . When I turn back your captivity

Ruth 2:4 — to loss. Boaz had a bailiff of his husbandry, Aγρονομον , as Josephus calleth him, careful and painful; and yet we find him not only looking to, but even lodging in the midst of his hinds. Ruth 3:7 ; Ruth 3:14 The Lord be with you … The Lord bless thee. — Piety not only stands with humanity and civil courtesy, but also exacteth and requireth it. Matthew 10:11 1 Peter 3:8 Luke 10:5 God hath his ethics, and commandeth good manners as well as good