Bible Commentaries

Psalms 120:1 — sine periculo hic erratur, an error here is not dangerous. In my distress I cried unto the Lord — Oratio sine malis est, ut avis sine alis, Distress addeth wings to our devotions. Our Saviour, being in an agony, prayed more earnestly, Luke 22:44 . So do all his members, and especially when they lie under the lash of a lying tongue, as here, Psalms 120:2 . "Being defamed, we pray," saith Paul, 1 Corinthians 4:13 . And he heard me — "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous

Psalms 37:9 — shall inherit the earth. For evildoers shall be cut off — Yea, they shall soon be cut off, Psalms 37:10 , and so shall all such as, having a while fretted at them, do at length revolt to them; as David was ready to do, once at least, Psalms 73:12-14 , and as some others did out and out, as they say, Psalms 37:10 , therefore his people return hither to their temporal undoing at least. But those that wait upon the Lord — For deliverance in due season, and for accomplishment of the promises.

Psalms 51:4 — thou lookedst on. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, … — i.e. Declared to be just, whatever thou hast denounced against me or shalt inflict upon me. The unrighteousness of man commendeth the righteousness of God, Romans 3:4-5 . To thee, O Lord God, belongeth righteousness, but unto us confusion of face, saith Daniel, Psalms 9:7 .

Psalms 65:5 — God hath many souls even in such places; since there are thought to be no fewer than twenty thousand Protestants in Seville itself, a chief city of Spain (Spec. Europ.). It was long since foretold that the isles should wait for God’s law, Isaiah 42:4 ; Isaiah 51:5 ; Isaiah 60:9 .

Psalms 69:26 — For they persecute [him] whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten — Christ was "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted," Isaiah 53:4 . Him they persecuted to the death, and abused, when he was at the greatest under, with bitter taunts and Satanical sarcasms; so the pagans and Papists dealt by the dying martyrs; and so profane persons and malicious miscreants do still by God’s

Psalms 97:10 — LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Ye that love the Lord — As having tasted of Christ’s sweetness, being justified by his merit, and sanctified by his Spirit, 1 Peter 2:4 1 Corinthians 6:11 ; carried after him with strength of desire, Psalms 42:1 , and delight, Psalms 73:25 . Such as these only are Christ’s true subjects; others will pretend to him, but they are but hangbys, unless the love of Christ constrain

Proverbs 11:30 — of the palm tree, and do therefore greatly honour it. Should not we much more honour the multifarious gifts of God in his righteous ones for our good? For whether it be "Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas," "All is ours." 1 Corinthians 3:4-9 And he that winneth souls. — And useth singular art and industry therein, as fowlers do to take birds (for so the Hebrew word imports), or fishermen fishes. "He is wise, and wiseth others," as Daniel hath it; Proverbs 12:3 he is just,

Proverbs 12:4 — husband: but she that maketh ashamed [is] as rottenness in his bones. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. — Heb., A valiant woman; an able housewife, such as Bathsheba commends to her son, Proverbs 31:10-31 and as Paul describes. Titus 2:4-5 She is said to be a crown to her husband - not a ring for his finger, or a chain of gold for his neck, but a crown or garland for his head, a chief and choice ornament, as Sarah was to Abraham, as Livia to Augustus, as Placilla to Theodosius, as Nazianzen’s

Proverbs 14:4 — husbands and husbandmens that would thrive in the world to get first a house, then a wife, and then an ox that lustily plougheth and bringeth in much increase. Bede applies this text to painful preachers, set forth by oxen, 1 Corinthians 9:9 Revelation 4:7 for their tolerance and tugging at the work; where these labour lustily there is commonly a harvest of holiness, a crop of comfort. Only they must be dustily diligent. Dιακονος , of κονις

Proverbs 15:14 — knowledge. Psalms 119:103 Even Aristotle saith that a little knowledge, though conjectural, about heavenly things, is to be preferred above knowledge, though certain, about earthly things. And Agur saith, it is to "ascend into heaven." Proverbs 30:4

Proverbs 22:15 — God to abide in their heads. Therefore, that we may loose the bands of death and works of the devil, parents must bring their sons in their arms, and their daughters upon their shoulders, to the house of God, that they may learn to know him. Isaiah 49:22 They must also see to their profiting, and exact of them a daily growth, "nurturing," as well as nourishing them, Ephesians 6:4 - the one being as needful as the other, - and using the rod where words will not do; so to chase away that

Proverbs 26:19 — good fellowship without horse play. Salt jests, and dry flouts, to the just grief or disgrace of another, is counted facetious and fine. But St Paul calls it foolish ευτραπελια . Ephesians 5:4 and further saith, that "for such things’ sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." Quid mihi cum fabulis, cum iocis? saith Bernard, - What hath a Christian to do with jesting and jeering? We allow a horse to prance

Ecclesiastes 4:16 — το παρον βαρυ , as Thucydides long since observed, The present government, be it never so good, is always grievous. "O that I were made judge in the land," said Absalom. 2 Samuel 15:4 Oh that thou wert, said the people, who yet soon had enough of him. And so had they of their new king, Saul, whom contra gentes, they would needlessly have, after the manner of all other nations. 1 Samuel 8:6-7 How soon did the Baptist grow stale to

Ecclesiastes 9:16 — it befalls God’s poor ministers, either to be rejected with scorn, or if heard, yet not regarded, much less rewarded, unless it be as Micaiah was by Ahab, and Jeremiah by his countrymen of Anathoth, Jesus Christ by the proud Pharisees, John 7:14-15 ; John 7:27 St Paul by the ungrateful Corinthians; 1 Corinthians 4:7 "His bodily presence," said they, "is weak," his sermons without philosophy and rhetoric. 2 Corinthians 10:10

Isaiah 11:3 — righteousness as the light, and their judgment as the noonday." Psalms 37:6 And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes. — He cannot be deceived, as knowing all hearts, and as having all things naked and dissected before his eyes. Hebrews 4:13 Matthew 9:12 John 2:24 Others judge by relation of others, and secundum allegata et probata - not so Jesus Christ; but he shall always proceed upon his own knowledge, and so pass a most righteous sentence. Oecolampadius thinks the prophet here alludeth

Isaiah 3:1 — pulled away the pillars, so that God is about to ruin a state when he plucketh away those that are the shores and props of it. The stay and the staff. — Validum et validam, Septuagint. so some render it, the Miriams as well as the Moseses. Micah 6:4 Others, Piscator. baculum et bacillum, the staff and the little staff: all the supports and stays of the State, both great and small, one with another; cease ye therefore from man. as Isaiah 2:22 The whole stay of bread. — Sustenance as well as

Isaiah 43:1 — it from other vile and sordid vessels; so have I dealt by thee. I have redeemed thee. — A mercy much celebrated in this book, and for very great reason. I have called thee by thy name. — Which was no small favour. See Exodus 33:17 Psalms 147:4 . Some think he alludeth to his giving Jacob the name of Israel, when he had wrestled with God and prevailed. Thou art mine. — I have adopted thee, which is no small honour. 1 John 3:1 Meus es tu, you are mine, may very well be the new name

Isaiah 5:13 — consideration, as having buried their wits in their guts, and being miserably besotted by their daily sensualities. "Surely they are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." Jeremiah 5:4 And their honourable men are famished. — Heb., Are men of hunger or famine; Congrua huic malo lues. They had abused their food and drink to surfeiting and drunkenness; now they shall know the worth of those good creatures by the want of them. And

Isaiah 5:5 — break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And now go to, I will tell you, … — God loveth to foresignify, to warn ere he woundeth, and to foretell a judgment ere he inflicteth it. This he doth that he may be prevented. Amos 4:12 Prolata est sententia ut non fiat. Well might the Lord say, "Fury is not in me." Isaiah 27:3 I will take away the hedge thereof. — Hedge and wall shall be taken away at once from an ungrateful people, and all laid open to the wrath

Lamentations 1:8 — her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned. — Perpetuo, assidue, et graviter peccavit. Heb., Hath sinned sin, hath sinned sinningly, doing wickedly as she could, Jeremiah 3:4 and having many transgressions wrapped up in her sins and their circumstances. Leviticus 16:21 And this is here acknowledged as the true cause of her calamity. Profane persons lay all the blame in this case upon God, as he in the poet - “ O patria,