Bible Commentaries

Lamentations 4:5 — did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. They that did feed delicately. — Such uncertainty there is of outward affluence. Our Richard II was famished to death. Speed, lib. iii. cap. 4. Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, grandchild to John of Gaunt, was seen to run on foot bare legged after the Duke of Burgundy’s train, begging his bread for God’s sake. This I saw, saith Philip de Comines. This Henry was brother-in-law to

Lamentations 4:9 — better than [they that be] slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field. They that be slain with the sword are better. — They suffer less pain in dying; they are soon despatched. See on Lamentations 4:6 . But famine is a hard weapon. “ Triste genus mortis miseris mortalibus omne: Est tureen imprimis triste perire fame. ” For these pine away. — By a lingering death, as Drusus the Roman, to whom food being denied, he had eaten the

Ezekiel 33:11 — for why will ye die, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, … — This is one of those precious places, those mellifluous honeycombs, which we should go on sucking towards heaven, as Samson once did towards his parents. Judges 14:9 Here, if anywhere, we may find "strong consolation." God, when he swears, desires certainly to be credited, saith Tertullian. Lib. de Poenitent., cap. 4. Oh happy we, for whose sakes God vouchsafeth to swear! and oh, thrice wretched we,

Ezekiel 40:4 — thine heart, … — We should give all possible diligence and heed to a discourse of the New Jerusalem, that city of pearl; setting to work both our outward and inward senses, and those well exercised, to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5:14 Declare all that thou seest unto the house of Israel. — For therefore hast thou seen it. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with. 1 Corinthians 12:7 And as any man hath received the gift, so let him minister the same

Ezekiel 6:9 — heart - so Polanus rendereth it; that is, saith he, I leave them, though loath to do it: the breach is merely on their part; for they have an impetus, a spirit of whoredoms in them, that causeth them to err, and go whoring from under their God. Hosea 4:12 ; Hosea 9:1 And with their eyes. — Those windows of wickedness through which the devil (who is ειδωλοχαρης , as saith Synesius) doth oft wind himself into the soul. And they shall

Ezekiel 7:12 — though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not," … Rebus non me trado sed commodo, said the wise heathen. Sen. Hang loose to all things here below, and labour after that undefiled and unfadable inheritance. 1 Peter 1:4-7

Daniel 11:18 — that he had thrown out against the Romans; who afterwards overcame him thrice by sea and land, forced him to accept very hard conditions, shred him of a great part of his kingdom, and called him, in contempt, Antiochus, sometime the Great. Liv., dec. 4, lib. xviii., Appian. in Syriac.

Daniel 2:39 — belly and thighs note the plucking up of this kingdom after Alexander’s death, to be divided into four, whereof the principal were two - the one of the Seleucidae, the other of the Lagidae, figured here by the two thighs of brass. See Daniel 11:4-5 .

Obadiah 1:2 — Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen — That is, vile, despicable, and abject, as Psalms 119:141 , "I am small and despised." Nothing is more ordinary than to "despise the day of small things," Zechariah 4:10 . And whereas God is said to be magnus in magnis, nec parvus in minimis, much in the greater neither little in the least,

Jonah 3:9 — and yet despaireth not, like that of David praying for his sick child, "Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?" 2 Samuel 12:22 . We are staggering, saith Saint Paul, but not wholly sticking, 2 Corinthians 4:8 . They that go down to the pit (of despair, as well as of the grave, Isaiah 38:18 ) cannot hope for thy truth, but are hurried headlong into hell, as the Gergesites’ swine were into the sea. The prophet Jonah was peremptory, that by such a day

Habakkuk 1:11 — to his god — Bel, or Jupiter Belus. This was a wickedness with a witness; thus to transfer the glory of victory due to God alone upon an idol. When Nebuchadnezzar offended in this sort God turned him a grazing till he had learned better, Daniel 4:37 . For, be the gods of the heathen good fellows, saith one; the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another, Isaiah 42:8 .

Habakkuk 1:15 — please and applaud themselves in their wickedness, that they hug and stroke themselves on the head, as Doeg did, Psalms 52:2 , and those Sodomites, Isaiah 3:9 . This shows that men are arrived at that dead and dedolent disposition spoken of Ephesians 4:19 , and are even straddling over hell’s mouth, which gapeth for them.

Habakkuk 3:10 — mountains saw thee, [and] they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, [and] lifted up his hands on high. The mountains saw thee, and they trembled — sc. At the promulgation of the law, Exodus 19:17 Psalms 114:4 ; Psalms 114:6 , when God came with ten thousand of his saints, Deuteronomy 33:2 ; and so terrible was the earthquake, that it wrought an earthquake, even in Moses himself, Hebrews 12:21 . It is the office of the law to do so; and happy is he who,

Zephaniah 3:8 — indignation, fierce anger, fire of jealousy against nations and kingdoms; the better to persuade people to that which they are so hardly drawn to believe, viz. that God is not made all of mercy; but, though fury be not in him, to speak properly, Isaiah 27:4 , yet that he will not by any means "clear the guilty," Exodus 34:7 , but punish them severely, taking vengeance of their inventions, Psalms 99:8 .

Haggai 2:21 — ceremonies and heathenish superstitions, Hebrews 12:27 . As also by national commotions, and translations of monarchies; the Greeks shall break the power of the Persians, the Romans of the Greeks, the Goths and other barbarous nations of the Romans, Matthew 24:7 . But especially, by casting the devil out of the heaven of men s hearts, Luke 10:18 , those strongholds wherein he had entrenched himself, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 , that the ransomed of the Lord may receive a kingdom, which cannot be moved, Hebrews

Zechariah 14:6 — should say, it shall be always day and no night, ανεσπερος ημερα , a nightless day, a morning without clouds, a clear shining after rain, as David in another case, 2 Samuel 22:4 , and as with the Hyperboreans, the whole half year is said to be but one continuous day; so that they sow and reap in a day.

Zechariah 7:10 — the poor — Whose misery moves compassion without an orator. In the Low Countries they may not beg, but only look pitifully. To grind the faces of such is barbarous cruelty; to wrong them, or but wrangle with them, is called man-eating, Psalms 14:4 . And let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart — For though you never act it, yet Fecit quisque quantum voluit, He does anything whatever he wished, saith Seneca. It is said, Joshua 24:9 "Balak arose and fought with

Matthew 17:23 — they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry. And they were exceeding sorry — Out of love to their Lord, saith Jerome; out of ignorance and stupidity, saith St Mark Mark 9:32 and St Luke: Luke 9:45 so they grieve where no cause was, as we do often upon like grounds and causes. How well might our Saviour have said to them, as afterwards he did to the women, "Grieve not for me, but grieve for yourselves." They knew well that if Christ

Matthew 17:9 — it; to set a word upon its wheels, as Solomon; to circumstantiate it so as the people can hear, can bear, as our Saviour did. This is surely a high point of heavenly husbandry. As it is also in all sorts of Christians to be sober in prayer, 1 Peter 4:7 , that is, as Bifield saith, to keep God’s counsel, not to be proud, or boast of success, or speak of the secret sweetness of God’s love, without calling; it is to conceal the familiarity of God in secret.

Matthew 21:33 — and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: Planted a vineyard, and hedged it — Of all possessions, saith Cato, Nulla maiorem operam requirit, none requires more pains than that of a vineyard. Grain comes up and grows alone, Mark 4:28 . Iniussa virescunt gramina, saith the poet; but vines must be dressed, supported, pruned, sheltered every day almost, John 15:2 . The Church is God’s continual care, αιρει, καλθαιρει