Bible Commentaries

1 Kings 10:21 — carried a rich crucifix: and all to set forth the condition of man, who did once and should still shine as gold, but it is both within and without polluted with sin, till restored by Christ crucified, … Selneccer., Paedagog. Christian., pars ii. p. 118. It is fore-prophesied by Zechariah, that in the days of the gospel every pot and bowl in Jerusalem shall be "holiness to the Lord." Zechariah 14:20-21 This is "better than gold, yea, than fine gold." It was nothing accounted of.

2 Kings 16:9 — And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried [the people of] it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. And carried the people of it captive to Kir. — According to Amos 1:5 . This Kir some will have to be that Cyrene mentioned in Acts 2:10 ; others, Syromedia, which was so called from these Syrians translated thither, and Kir, that is a wall, because walled about, as it were, by the mountain Zagrus. And slew Rezin. —

1 Chronicles 29:2 — [things] of wood; onyx stones, and [stones] to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. Now I have prepared. — This he speaketh not of vainglory, but to God’s glory, 1 Chronicles 29:10 and for the good example of his princes and people. Of Vespasian it is said that he was imperio maximus, exemplo maior, and that he did segnes exemplo incitare saepius quam coercere, Tacit., lib. ii., Hist. prevail with his subjects

Nehemiah 13:26 — Bellarmine reckoneth him (but wrongfully) amongst reprobates? Yet among many nations was there no king like him — For honour, pleasure, wisdom, and wealth, …, the abundance he had of these drew out his spirits, and dissolved him. See Mark 10:23-25 1 Timothy 6:9 Isaiah 39:1-2 . Who was beloved of his God — His corculum, his darling, his Jedidiah, 2 Samuel 12:25 , but he did not reciprocate; his heart was disjointed and hung loose from the Lord, whom he grievously provoked by his sensuality

Esther 6:7 — man whom the king delighteth to honour, And Haman answered the king — After a short pause, he had his answer ready; but making a bridge of his own shadow, he soon fell into the brook. Ambition rideth without reins, and like those horses, Amos 6:11 runneth upon the rocks, where first she breaks her hoofs, and then her neck. It seemeth, by that which followeth, that Haman aspired to the kingdom: why, else did he ask the crown royal, and the kings horse? … When David would declare Solomon

Job 15:2 — frothy, empty discourses, that have no tack or substance in them, but only words that are no better than wind, a mere flash or airy nothing. Solomon thinks a wise man should beware of falling into this fault, lest he forfeit his reputation: Ecclesiastes 10:1 , "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour"; as spots are soonest observed in the whitest and finest garments; and envy, like

Job 15:21 — Theodosius! Panico terrore incusso, saith the historian, afraid of their own shadows, they desperately cast themselves into the river Euphrates, and there perished above a hundred thousand of them, A.D. 394. The wicked flee when none pursueth, Proverbs 28:1 ; the sound of a shaken leaf chaseth him, Leviticus 26:36 , when the righteous is bold as a lion, and not dismayed at evil tidings, Psalms 112:7 . His heart is balanced with the fear of God; and thence it is that he floateth steadily; blow what wind

Job 15:23 — wandereth abroad for bread, [saying], Where [is it]? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? — He is hard put to it for necessaries, and would be glad of a piece of bread, as 1 Samuel 2:5 ; 1 Samuel 2:36 . This was the case of Pythias, once so rich, that he entertained a million men (even Xerxes’ whole huge host) for three days’ time at his own proper charge; but afterwards so poor, that he died through hunger

Job 15:25 — valido impetu, arrogantia incurva cervice, saith Brentius upon the text, with stiff necks, full force, and insufferable insolence, as it were on purpose to cross the Almighty, and to wrestle a fall with him; they sin with a high hand, Leviticus 26:21 Numbers 15:30 , and do as wickedly as they can, Jeremiah 3:5 , yea, with both hands earnestly, Micah 7:3 ; persecuting his people who are unto him as the apple of his eye, and resisting the Holy Ghost always, Acts 7:51 . Surely he would even destroy

Job 18:19 — God, as he will be to his childless children better than ten sons; so he will give them in his house, and within his walls, a place and a name, better than of sons and of daughters, he will give them an everlasting name that shall never be cut off, 1 Samuel 1:8 Isaiah 56:5 . Not so the ungodly, those men of God’s hand, for though, full of children, they leave the rest of their substance to their babes, Psalms 17:14 , yet it will prove to be but luctuosa faecunditas, as Jerome speaketh, they

Job 19:16 — affliction it is for a man to be despised and derided by his own family. A servant’s eye should look to the hands of his master, and the eye of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, to observe the motion thereof, and to pick out the meaning, Psalms 123:2 . Accounting their governors worthy of all honour, 1 Timothy 6:1 , as the centurion’s obsequious servants did, Matthew 8:9 . Sed sic fere sunt servorum ingenia, But so wild are the servants of nature, saith Merlin here. But such is the condition

Job 20:22 — as if he were not worth a halfpenny), much less a fulness of sufficiency, a superfluity, a superabundance. Whatsoever Esau pretended in his, "I have enough, my brother," Genesis 33:9 , Jacob could indeed say truly, I have enough, Genesis 33:11 , for godliness only hath an autarchy, 1 Timothy 6:6 . True piety hath true plenty, and is never without a well contenting sufficiency, wherein the good man is, when in the fulness of straits. See it in David, 1 Samuel 30:6 , in Habakkuk, Habakkuk

Job 22:23 — all fours, shalt be new set up, and made to stand in thy former strength. Only thou must return usque ad Omnipotentem, all out as far as to the Almighty, thou must not give the half turn only, as hypocrites do, but with thy whole heart; and as Joel 2:12 . See Trapp on " Joel 2:12 " Thus Eliphaz discourseth very well and handsomely of the business in hand; only he was out in this, that he looked upon Job as an impenitent person, and upon his family as ill ordered. As, also, in that he conceived

Job 22:5 — [Is] not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite? Is not thy wickedness great? — Why, no; God of his grace had kept Job innocent of the great transgression, Psalms 19:13 , and that wicked one had not touched him, 1 John 5:18 , sc. with a deadly touch, Tactu qualitativo (Cajetan); had not thrust his sting into him, or transformed him into sin’s image. Had Eliphaz ever found Job to be such a one as here he maketh

Job 23:16 — dissolved with manifold afflictions, so that I am hardly able to bear up any longer; I am almost done, as we use to speak, and my heart faileth me. How should it do otherwise when God withdraweth from his own the supplies of his Spirit, Philippians 1:19 , that Spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind, 2 Timothy 1:7 Acts 20:22 , saith that great apostle, "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit up to Jerusalem," … Whereupon Dr Preston gives this good note, The Spirit hemmeth

Job 28:16 — gold of Ophir — The word here rendered gold is not the same as that in the former or those in the following verses. Five different times gold is here mentioned (because so highly prized among men), and in four different words. Jerome on Jeremiah 10:1-25 observeth that the Hebrew have seven different words for gold; and five different sorts are here instanced. That here mentioned is a special name for the most resplendent and glistering gold, Psalms 45:9 Daniel 10:5 Song of Solomon 5:11 . Of it

Job 29:23 — words; they listened as for life. As for the latter rain — A rain which came very seldom in that country, saith Diodati; but was much desired for the refreshing and nourishing of the grain and other fruits and benefits of the earth, Proverbs 26:1 Zechariah 10:1 . Merlin collecteth from this text that Job came not into the public assemblies there to speak, and give counsel, but upon deliberate premeditation. Demosthenes would not be drawn to speak extemporarily to an audience. Aristides being

Job 32:21 — pains of pleasing and parasitical poems of oratorical and rhetorical insinuations. Nihil loquar ad gratiam, … I shall know no man after the flesh in this business, nor look on any face. If Job found this fault with his other three friends, Job 13:7 , he shall have no cause so to do with me; but, as a right moderator, I will hear arguments speak, and not persons; I will shut out my friend, or my senior, and speak the truth in love. Diem hominis non desideravi, saith Jeremiah, Jeremiah 17:16

Job 6:18 — which yet floweth not from the spring of true faith; and therefore cannot but, after a while, go to nothing and perish. A failing brook, saith another, is a clear emblem of a false heart, both to God and man. Lavater thus explaineth the comparison: 1. As brooks run with waters then when there is least need of them; so false friends are most officious when their courtesy might best be spared. 2. As the ice of such brooks is so condensed and hardened that it beareth men, horses, and other things of

2 Samuel 15:7 — thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the LORD, in Hebron. And it came to pass after forty years. — Not after four years, as Josephus hath it, but after forty years, via, after David’s first anointing by Samuel, say some, 1 Samuel 16:13 seven or eight years before he began his reign in Hebron, and ending about seven years before his death. Others of good note begin the computation of these forty years at the time that Israel asked a king, as if it intimated thus much,