Bible Commentaries

Genesis 16:6 — 2:20 Not so a wife. M. Aurelius, the emperor, though a heathen, could say to the shame of many bedlams among us: Uxor admonenda persaepe, reprehendenda raro, violentis manibus tractanda nunquam. She fled. — This was her fault. Ecclesiastes 10:4 But our natures are refractory, and will sooner break than bend, till God subdue them.

Genesis 27:40 — neck. When thou shalt have the dominion. — Cum planxeris, saith Junius; when thou hast for some time undergone hard, troublesome, and lamentable servitude, the grief whereof thou dost greatly groan under; as in David’s time, 2 Samuel 8:14 who "cast his shoe over them". Psalms 60:8 The Sodomites, those worst of men, were the first that we find in Scripture brought in bondage to others. Genesis 14:4 When the Danes and other foreigners domineered in this kingdom, was it not a

Genesis 33:17 — place is called Succoth. Built him an house, and made booths. — So did his posterity, at their going out of Egypt, Exodus 12:37 and, for a perpetual memorial thereof, were appointed to keep a yearly feast of booths or tabernacles, Leviticus 23:34 made of green boughs of trees, in praise of God, who had now vouchsafed them better houses. And here one would wonder, saith a divine, T. Goodwin. that all along, during the reign of David and Solomon, who gave a pattern of, and built the temple, and

1 Kings 11:1 — Israel, the beginning of whose sins, causing the destruction of Solomon’s temple, and ruin of that commonwealth, is reckoned from the seven and twentieth year of Solomon’s reign; about which began this his foul revolt here related, Ezekiel 4:5 as Junius observeth. Together with the daughter of Pharaoh. — Or, Besides her; by a monstrous kind of polygamy and γυναικομανια , such as hath hardly been heard of in any other.

Ezra 7:12 — Lord Christ is said to be written, 1. On his vesture, that all may see it and submit to it. 2. On his thigh, where hangs his sword, to show his absolute and unlimited empire, got out of the hands of his enemies with his sword and with his bow, Psalms 45:5 . "By me king’s reign," saith he, Proverbs 8:15 . And Nebuchadnezzar is made to know as much, Daniel 4:35 , who once vain gloriously vaunted that his princes were altogether kings, Isaiah 10:8 . Maximilian, emperor of Germany, also

Nehemiah 12:36 — Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God, and Ezra the scribe before them. And Ezra before them — Before the first company, as Nehemiah came after the second, Nehemiah 12:4 . As the first went round from the west southward till they came to the east; so the second company went from the west northward, till they came to the east, where they both met at length in the Temple, Nehemiah 12:41 . Praising God with all sorts of

Nehemiah 4:10 — was no end of their painstaking, their work grew upon them, … The truth was, deerat ignis, deerat animus, they were weary of well doing, and not valiant for the truth, Jeremiah 9:3 . More like they were to those fugitives of Ephraim, Judges 12:4 , than the lions of the tribe of Judah. Nehemiah therefore might well have said to them, as Alexander once did to a faint hearted soldier of his, that was of his own name, Either give up the name of Alexander, or be valiant. So, either hold out, and

Nehemiah 4:7 — tota moles in tantam magnitudinem ex unico ingenti lapide tam magnifice consurgeret. Then they were very wroth — That old enmity, Genesis 3:15 , stirred in them, and they were soon kindled; Satan being the boute-feu, or kindle coal. See Nehemiah 4:1 .

Nehemiah 5:18 — wine: yet for all this required not I the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people. Now that which was prepared for me daily — A very great table he kept, at his own charge all, yet nothing so great as Solomon, 1 Kings 4:22-23 , or as once Cardinal Wolsey here; who, besides all strangers that came, had four hundred of family, whereof one was an earl, nine barons, very many knights and esquires. But then he had more yearly revenue than all the bishops and deans in the

Nehemiah 8:12 — Not the threatenings only to the refractory, but the promises also to the penitent and obedient. The Levites had taught them, doubtless, as the truth is in Jesus, that God therefore threateneth that he may not punish, and desireth to be disarmed, Amos 4:12 ; that he giveth to do what he commandeth to be done; that his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him, to them that keep his covenant, and that think upon his commandments to do them, qui faciunt praecepta, etsi non perfieiant,

Esther 2:11 — sano, a sound mind in a sound body. And although he trusted God with his niece, yet he knew that an honest care of her might well stand with faith in God’s providence. God must be trusted, but not tempted, by the neglect of lawful means, Matthew 4:7 .

Job 10:9 — Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again? Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay — Remembrance and foreknowledge are not properly in God. See Trapp on " Job 10:4 " But he is said to remember us when he relieveth us, Psalms 136:23 ; Psalms 9:18 1 Samuel 1:19 . "That thou hast made me," …, viz. in those protoplasts, my first parents, formed out of the ground, Genesis 2:7 , whence the heathen

Job 8:10 — forefathers, Job 8:8 , these, though dead and gone, yet by their records and monuments, by their apopthegms and oracles (for the words of dying men are living oracles), do still teach us and tell us their minds, as if they were yet living, Hebrews 11:4 Luke 16:29 . Books are mute matters, silent voices. The way to be wise, said a heathen, is to converse with the dead, τοις νεκροις συγχρωτιζειν

Numbers 10:7 — simple. Non oratorum filii sumus, sed piscatorum: nec verborum υπεροχη , sed Spiritus επιδειξει , Nazianz., ad Libanium. … 1 Corinthians 2:1 ; 1 Corinthians 2:4

Deuteronomy 23:2 — wherewith they spitefully load us, call all Christians Mamzer Gel, that is, heathen bastards. Our Saviour, upon better grounds, called them long since, a bastardly brood. Matthew 12:39 And their own prophet Isaiah did the same thing long before, Isaiah 57:3-4 and that, for their profane scoffing at the truth and the professors thereof. Yet who so forward as they, to say, "We are not born of fornication," no bastards? John 8:41

1 Samuel 13:3 — Philistines that [was] in Geba, and the Philistines heard [of it]. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines. — By his father’s command no doubt, 1 Samuel 13:4 - else he might have been served as T. Manlius dealt by his son; for overcoming the enemy without order, he put him to death, - but Livy. God was not consulted with, and therefore the issue of this that Jonathan did was not so happy. That was in Geba.

1 Samuel 7:10 — but I am serving my gods, and therefore I fear them not; Plut., in Vita Numae. how much more might Samuel say so! But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day. — As Hannah had foretold; 1 Samuel 2:10 as happened; Joshua 10:10 Judges 4:15 as also at the prayers of the thundering legion under Antoninus, the emperor; Euseb., lib. v. cap. 5. and in the days of Theodosius, when that good prince, being to fight with Eugenius the tyrant, Dominum Christum solus solum corpore humi fusus mente

2 Samuel 12:31 — lege Manil. for irasci populo Romano nemo sapienter possit, saith Livy. No wise man will wrong the people of Rome: much less the people of God: and least of all the ambassadors of Christ. Hath any one ever waxed fierce against him and prospered? Job 9:4 I think not. And put them under saws, and under harrows of iron. — This was a kind of most terrible torture, Amos 1:3 Hebrews 11:37 when saws, harrows, axes were used in this sort, for punishment of offenders. Whether David did not herein overdo,

2 Samuel 12:7 — delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. — Tu is es, de te narratur fabula. You are the one and about you is the story told. This was downright plain dealing indeed. See the like, 1 Kings 20:35 ; 1 Kings 20:41 Genesis 40:18-19 Daniel 5:22 Matthew 14:4 . Truth must be spoken, however it be taken: it is a treacherous flattery in divine errands to regard greatness. If prophets must be mannerly in the form, yet in the matter of reproof they must be resolute.

2 Samuel 16:11 — my son, which came forth of my bowels. — If we can therefore suffer because we have suffered, as David did from Shimei, but first from Absalom, then we have profited by our afflictions: then "patience hath her perfect work." James 1:4 A weak heart faints with every addition of succeeding sorrow: the strong re-collecteth itself, and, like an old beaten porter to the cross, tolerare mavult guam deplorare, rather carrieth it, than crieth out of it. See Job 23:2 . See Trapp on "