Bible Commentaries

Ezra 10:2 — hope in Israel concerning this thing. And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel — Egregie cordatus homo A prudent and a pious man, one that had feeding lips, and a healing tongue, one that knew how to time a word, and to set it upon the wheels, Isaiah 50:4 Proverbs 25:11 . Answered and said unto Ezra — Such words as were uttered more from the bowels than the brain, and thereby proved so effectual. We have trespassed against our God — His father Jehiel had taken a strange wife, Ezra 10:18 ;

Ezra 10:5 — Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word. And they sware. Then arose Ezra — According to the counsel of Shechaniah, Ezra 10:4 . "How forcible are right words!" Job 6:25 . One seasonable speech, falling upon a prepared heart, hath oft a strong and sweet operation; as that similitude used by Peter Martyr, reading upon the First to the Corinthians, had upon Galeacius

Nehemiah 10:31 — ανωμοτος . that is, I swore with my tongue, but not with my heart. But shall they thus escape by iniquity? Be not deceived, God is not mocked; a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he, Deuteronomy 32:4 . That we would not buy it of them — Lest we should trouble and disquiet that holy rest; and God should sue us upon an action of waste; "For the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God," Exodus 20:10 Jeremiah 17:12 . Or on the

Nehemiah 2:17 — and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then said I unto them — Then, when I saw it a fit season to say it. It is an excellent skill to time a word, Isaiah 50:4 . To circumstantiate it aright, Proverbs 25:11 . That it may run as upon wheels: Nehemiah’s words do so, notably. Verba prius ad limam revocata, quam ad linguam, words well weighed ere uttered. Nescit paenitenda loqui qui proferenda prius sue

Nehemiah 5:14 — himself in willing secrecy, as good corn lieth in the bottom of the heap, and as good balsam sinketh to the bottom of the vessel. I and my brethren have not eaten the bread, … — Rulers, as they are nursing fathers to the people, Isaiah 49:23 , so by them they are to be nourished, and their state maintained. See 1 Kings 4:7 . It is also observed, that although our Saviour Christ wrought many miracles; yet he never wrought any about honour or money, but that about tribute; rather than

Nehemiah 7:4 — collected and lamented. For present, they were so few that they were not able, without help, to defend the walls in so large a circuit. And the houses were not builded — All could not be done in a day. But some ceiled houses there were, Haggai 1:4 , and Nehemiah was all his time busy in building the old waste places, and raising up the foundations of many generations; so that he was worthily called, "The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in," Isaiah 58:12 . Eusebius

Nehemiah 9:13 — saints, as Moses (who climbed up that hill, and alone saw it) saith, Deuteronomy 33:2 . And spakest with them from heaven — He came down upon Sinai, and yet spake from heaven. See a like text, John 3:13 . There he spake also with us, Hosea 12:4 . See that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven, see that ye shift him not off, much less turn away from him, Hebrews 12:25 . And gavest them right judyments, … — All these high praises are far below the worth and excellency of God’s

Nehemiah 9:21 — greatest pomp as these rebellious Israelites were in the wilderness: they had their quails and their manna, and the rock to follow them, … So that they lacked nothing — Nor more shall they that seek the Lord lack any good thing, Psalms 34:10 ; Psalms 84:11 . God will not be a wilderness to them, or a land of darkness, Jeremiah 2:31 . A sufficiency they shall be sure of, if not a superfluity; yea, in the midst of straits they shall be in a sufficiency, 1 Timothy 6:6 . The ungodly are

Esther 5:10 — given here such pestilent counsel, but have warned her husband of meddling with just men. Have these workers of iniquity no knowledge, that they eat up God’s people as they eat bread? that they make account to make but a breakfast of them? Psalms 14:4 .

Esther 5:13 — must have to complain of that shall give an unsavoury verdure to their sweetest morsels, and make their felicity miserable. Totum hoc non est utile mihi, I enjoy nothing of all this. No more did Ahab, when sick of Naboth’s vineyard, 1 Kings 21:4 . His heart did more afflict and vex itself with greedy longing for that bit of earth than the vast and spacious compass of a kingdom could counter comfort. So long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate — So full of torment

Esther 9:22 — his fetters into a chain of gold, his rags into robes, his stocks into a chariot, his prison into a palace, his brown bread and water into fine bread and wine; and as he had turned again the captivity of his people as the streams in the south, Psalms 146:4 ; so here he had made a great alteration, bringing them from the jaws of death to the joys of a glorious deliverance; turning their sadness into gladness, their sighing into singing, their musing into music, their tears into triumph, luctum in laetitiam,

Job 13:22 — offering to be either defendant or plaintiff, respondent or opponent: Hoc multum erat, saith Lavater. This was much, and indeed too much; for if God should enter into judgment with his best servants, no man living should be justified in his sight, Psalms 143:2 . The best may bear a part in that song of mercy, Asperge me, Domine, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me," …, Psalms 51:7 . Job is confident of his innocence, and he might be for that particular wherewith his friends

Job 13:5 — I could heartily wish, therefore, that you would now stop your mouths, and open your ears, as Job 13:6 , that you would be as mute as fishes, since I can hear nothing from you but what speaks you to be mere mutes, ciphers, nullities’ as Job 13:4 . And it should be your wisdom — For "even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding," Proverbs 17:28 . Pας τις απαιδευτος

Job 14:10 — Ecclesiastes 2:16 ; Ecclesiastes 8:10 ; Ecclesiastes 9:5 . Hence the state of the dead is called "the land of forgetfulness," Psalms 88:12 ; Psalms 31:12 , "I am forgotten, as a dead man out of mind." Heathens also say the same (Hor. lib. 4, Carm. 7): Fecerit arbitria, Non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te Restituet pietas.

Job 3:7 — be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. Lo, let that night be solitary — And so consequently sorrowful; for aloneness is comfortless, et optimum solatium sodalitium. There is a desirable solitariness, such as was that of Isaac, Genesis 24:63 , of Jacob, Genesis 32:24 , of Christ, Mark 1:35 , of Peter, Acts 10:9 , to talk with God and with themselves. But usually to sit solitary is a misery, Lamentations 1:1 (for Satan is readiest to assault when none is by to assist), neither is there

Job 6:18 — do their utmost to suffer anything for our good and comfort. 3. But as those brooks are dried up in summer, and frozen up in winter, so that we can set no sight on them; in like sort these are not to be found when we are in distress and affliction. 4. As brooks in winter are covered with snow and ice; so these would seem to be whiter than snow when their affections towards us are colder than 1 Chronicles 5:0 . Lastly, as the ice that was hard and firm, upon a thaw breaketh and melteth; so false

Job 6:3 — heavy and cold; afflicting it, as an unsupportable burden doth the body. It so oppressed the poor Israelites in Egypt, that they had no mind to hearken to Moses, Exodus 6:9 . Solomon cries out, "A wounded spirit who can bear?" Proverbs 18:14 . My soul is very heavy, and exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, saith our blessed Saviour, Matthew 26:37-38 , then when the Father made all our sins to meet upon him, and he bare our griefs and carried our sorrows, Isaiah 53:4 ; Isaiah 53:12 . Sure

Job 7:7 — wind, or as a wind (so the Chaldee paraphraseth), that speedily passeth away, and returneth not. So St James, "What is your life?" saith he; "it is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away," James 4:14 . One hath well observed, that the Holy Ghost giveth us very many items of this (and especially in this book), which shows that we are very apt to forget it. A point that is easy to be known, but very hard to be believed; every man assents to it,

Job 8:17 — rooted there; as a rotten leg cleaves to the body, but is no part of it; or as wens and ulcers, which are taken away without any loss to it. How far a hypocrite may go, see the parable of the stony and thorny grounds, Matthew 13:20-23 See also Hebrews 6:4-5 ; Hebrews 10:39 2 Peter 2:20-21 . He may come as far as Kadeshbarnea, within 11 days’ journey of the heavenly Canaan, and yet fall short of it; he may seem to be steadfast and unmoveable, as a tree whose roots are wrapped about a rock. He seeth

Job 9:2 — hath punished thee, is just, therefore thou art unjust. Job grants the antecedent here, but denies and refutes the consequent, Job 9:22-23 , … To Eliphaz also Job grants, not only that man could not be more just than God, as he had said, Job 4:3 , but also that none could ever be found so just that he might any way be compared to God. Job is one of those candidates of immortality, who can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth, 2 Corinthians 13:8 , every parcel whereof he accounted