Bible Commentaries

Proverbs 31:6 — unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Give strong drink to him, … — To those that stand at the bar, rather than to them that sit on the bench. Wine maketh glad the heart of man. Judges 9:13 Psalms 104:15 Plato calls wine and music the μαλακτικα - mitigators of men’s miseries. Hence that laudable custom among the Jews at funerals to invite the friends of the deceased to a feast, and to give them

Ecclesiastes 1:13 — he this in pride and curiosity (as Hugo de Sancto Victore here sharply censureth him), but soberly and modestly, setting down his disquisitions and observations of things political and natural for the use of posterity. And forasmuch as these 1 Kings 4:32-33 . are now lost - because haply too much admired and trusted to, by those that had the use of them under the first temple, in and with the which some Jews say they were burnt - what a high price we all set upon this and the other two books of Solomon,

Ecclesiastes 4:12 — prayers and company, though they served him but sorrily. "My dove is but one." Song of Solomon 6:9 "Jerusalem is a city compact together." Psalms 122:3 The Church is "terrible as an army with banners"; Song of Solomon 6:4 "the gates of hell cannot prevail against her." Matthew 16:18 Unity hath victory, but division breeds dissolution, as it did once in this island when Caesar first entered it. Dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur, saith Tacitus of the ancient

Ecclesiastes 7:2 — animo suo, so Tremelius renders it, he will so mind it as to make his best use of it, so as to say with Job, "I know that thou wilt bring me unto death"; Job 30:23 and with David, "Behold, thou hast made my days as a span"; Psalms 39:4-5 and as Moses, who when he saw the people’s carcases fall so fast in the wilderness, "Lord, teach us," said he, "so to number our days, as to cause our hearts" (of themselves never a whit willing) "to come to wisdom."

Song of Solomon 2:11 — and no small tempest lay on them, all hope that they shall be saved was then taken away." Acts 27:20 All the hope is that God, who by his all-quickening voice "raiseth the dead, and calleth things that are not as if they were," Romans 4:17 that calleth those "his people that were not his people, and her beloved which was not beloved." Genesis 9:25 Together with his voice, there goeth forth a "power," as Luke 5:17 as when he bade Lazarus come forth, he made him rise

Song of Solomon 7:10 — husband; Genesis 3:16 his love to me is wonderful, passing the love of women. "His desire is so toward me," that, as Livia, by obeying her husband Augustus, commanded him, and might have what she would of him, so may I of Christ. Compare Genesis 4:7 Isaiah 45:11 . The Church here well understood the latitude of that royal charter, and makes it a prop to her faith and a pledge for her perseverance.

Isaiah 11:9 — fully explained. In God’s Holy Mountain-that is, in the Church - there shall be a holy, harmless, and a sweet harmony of hearts. The word among them shall be this, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 1 John 4:11 Some differences and jars there may occur among the best, as did between Paul and Barnabas, Jerome and Augustine, Luther and Zuinglius; but these last not long - at utmost but till they come to heaven; and the ground of such a distemper is, that

Isaiah 53:1 — showed himself to be the Son of God, and an arm to save all who believe in his name. John 12:37 And to whom is the arm of the Lord? — i.e., His gospel, which is his power to salvation, Romans 1:16 and is hid only to them that perish. 2 Corinthians 4:3

Isaiah 58:7 — hungry? — Thine "own bread" it must be, and that especially whereof thou hast on the fast day abridged thyself; for what the rich spare on such a day the poor should spend. Hereby (1.) Men’s prayers shall speed the better; Acts 10:4 (2.) They shall make God their debtor; Proverbs 19:17 (3.) That is best and most pleasing alms to God that is given in Church assemblies; for (1.) It is an ordinance of God, and a Sabbath duty; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 (2.) Christ there sitteth, and seeth

Jeremiah 1:5 — uncalled) turn teachers. Unto the nations, — i.e., First, To the Jews, qui fere in Gentiles evaserant, who were little better than Gentiles; so papagans are called pagans. Revelation 11:2 Secondly, To foreigners, of and to whom he prophesied. Jeremiah 44:30 ; Jeremiah 46:1 ; Jeremiah 47:1 ; Jeremiah 48:1 ; Jeremiah 49:1 ; Jeremiah 50:1 Thirdly, To people of all times, who may and must be instructed by this book; which is such as was highly set by, and cited in the Old Testament by Daniel, Ezekiel,

Jeremiah 4:14 — eius adlubescentia. - Oecol. Heb., In the midst of thee, in the very heart of thee. Creep in they will, but why should they lodge there? why should the devil be at inn with us? be any man’s bedfellow, as he is the angry man’s? Ephesians 4:26 David oft "communed with his own heart, and his spirit made diligent search" for such vagrants. Psalms 77:6 Scopabam spiritum meum, Vulgate. so some render it, I swept out my spirit. Carnal hearts are stews of unclean thoughts, slaughter

Jeremiah 41:1 — should be preferred before him. And the princes of the king. — Who had been princes and grandees, as the Hebrew hath it, in Zedekiah’s days, with whom likely they fled and escaped, stealing away by night, though he could not. 2 Kings 25:4 Even ten men with him. — Whom Ishmael had promised probably to restore their principalities when he should be king, or viceroy at least under Baalis King of Ammon, the great engineer of all the ensuing mischief wrought by Ishmael and these ten

Ezekiel 47:10 — stand upon it. — Upon the Dead Sea, where formerly they had little enough to do. This sea is the wide world dead in sins and trespasses. Ephesians 2:1 These fishers are Christ’s apostles and ministers, who are called fishers of men, Matthew 4:19 and their preaching compared to fishing. Matthew 13:47 They fish with various success, as did Peter; Luke 5:5 but may enclose a great multitude, as he did; Acts 2:41 and as Farellus, who gained five cities to Christ, who brought them to hand by whole

Ezekiel 48:1 — that of old, which was a plain prediction of a perfect and total abrogation of the Mosaic polity and Levitical worship, together with a new state of the Church of God after the coming of Jesus Christ. To the coast of the way of Hethlon. — Ezekiel 47:15-17 . Judea was not, say geographers, over two hundred miles long, and fifty miles broad; but R. Kimchi here noteth, that the Talmudists affirm that the possession of Israel shall extend unto the utmost coasts of the earth, id quod ex spiritu dictum

Daniel 4:25 — by the occasion, manner, degree, time, …, every circumstance seeming a new creation. Mr Huet. And seven times shall pass over thee. — For the glory of God’s justice in his expulsion, and of his mercy in his restoration. See Daniel 4:16 . Till thou know. — God will be sure to tame his rebels, for is it fit that he should lay down the bucklers first?

Hosea 12:7 — all this he loveth to do; he delights in it he not only is pleased with it, but pleadeth for it, and opposeth with crest and breast whatsoever standeth in the way of his own heart; exercised with covetousness (as St Peter’s phrase is, 2 Peter 2:14 ), which he constantly followeth as the artificer doth his trade. Let such Canaanites read that flaming text, 1 Thessalonians 4:6 and take heed, lest while they get all they can by wrench and wile, lest while they count all good fish that comes to net,

Hosea 4:19 — "dust of the mountains") stand before the tempest of God’s wrath, the thunder of his power? Well they may applaud and stroke themselves for a time; but the wind shall bind them up in her wings; God shall blow them to destruction, Job 4:9: his executioners have the "wings of a stork," large and long, and "wind in those wings," to note their ready obedience, Zechariah 5:9 . And although, Ezekiel 1:26 , God be represented as sitting upon a throne to show his slowness

Hosea 8:11 — going on from one sin to another, he may fill up his measure, till wrath come upon him to the utmost. “ Per quod quis peccat, per idem punitur et ipse. ” Idolatry is sin with an accent, wickedness with a witness, 1 Kings 15:30 ; 1 Kings 15:34 ; 1 Kings 16:2 ; 1 Kings 12:30 ; 1 Kings 13:34 , and shall be punished accordingly; for so the Chaldee paraphraseth here; Because they have multiplied their altars for sin, the altars of their idols shall be their ruin. There is one Hebrew word for

Joel 2:21 — shalt gain by thy losses and say, Periissem nisi periissem, I had been undone if I had not been undone. Wherefore be glad and rejoice with inward and outward joy. And because fear is a passion opposite to joy (for "fear hath torment," 1 John 4:18 . and that was a rare mixture in those good women that returned from our Saviour’s sepulchre "with fear and great joy," Matthew 28:8 see Psalms 2:11 ), therefore, "Fear not, O land," quit thine heart of that cowardly passion,

Amos 5:18 — abroad. But do they provoke the Lord to anger? are they stronger than he? The great and terrible day of the Lord will come time enough to their cost; they need not accelerate it. Can they stand to his trial? or abide the thunder of his power? Job 26:14 . To what end is it for you — When God shall answer you, as he did a far better man, out of the whirlwind, and say, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man," Job 38:2-3 . Where,