Bible Commentaries

Esther 8:6 — kindred? For how can I endure to see the evil, … — She had her life already given her at her petition; but unless she might have her people at her request, who were sold as well as herself, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish, Esther 7:3-4 , her life would be unto her a joyless, that is, a lifeless life, Mortis enim habet vices quae trahitur vita gemitibus. It is rather a death than a life that is spent in heaviness and horror. And this would be Esther’s case if her people should

Job 20:14 — have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without succour, mischief without measure, torments without end, and past imagination. When therefore thou art making a covenant with sin, say to thy soul, as Boaz said to his kinsman, Ruth 4:5 , What time thou buyest it, thou must have Ruth with it. So if thou wilt have the sweet of sin, thou must have the curse with it; and let thy soul answer, as he there doth, No, I may not do it, I shall mar and spoil a better inheritance.

Job 4:8 — Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. Even as I have seen — And therefore can boldly say: for what so sure as sight? See Numbers 11:23 Genesis 34:1-2 . Diligent inspection of a thing, and deep consideration upon it, makes confidence, which is the fruit of experience. That they plow iniquity, and sow wickedness — Here is ploughing and sowing, a mystical husbandry. Sinners are sore labourers,

Job 8:20 — "When they be in the land of their enemies" (and so may seem quite cast away) "I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God," Leviticus 26:44 . Lo, this is the portion of a perfect man. As for hypocrites (who are semiperfectae virtutis homines, as Philo calleth them; cakes half-baked, Hosea 7:8 ; Christians almost, but not altogether, Acts 26:29 ), my God will cast them away, because they

Proverbs 26:17 — up against Pharaohnecho, thinking thereby to ingratiate with the Assyrian, Pharaoh’s professed enemy. It is from idleness usually that men are thus busy in other men’s matters without thank or other benefit, 1 Timothy 5:13 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and therefore this proverb fitly follows the former. Howbeit this is not always true, for charity may move men to interpose for a right understanding and a good accord between disagreeing parties. Neither in this case must a man affect to be held

Proverbs 6:2 — taken. — For a bargain binds a man by the law of nature, and of nations. Judah, though in a shameful business, would make good his engagement to the harlot. Genesis 38:23 Every godly man will do so, though it be to his own hindrance. Psalms 15:4 The Romans had a great care always to perform their word, insomuch that the first temple built in Rome was dedicated to the goddess Fidelity. The Athenians were so careful this way, that Atticus testis is used for one that keeps touch, and Attica fides

Ecclesiastes 10:15 — and so must needs be full of trouble, since he wants wit to manage the one and improve the other. "Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way." Isaiah 57:10 And again, "Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels," Isaiah 47:13 saith God to such as had "wearied him also with their iniquities, and made him to serve with their sins." Isaiah 43:24 Yea, even then, when they think they have done him very good service. Thus Paul, before his conversion, persecuted the

Ecclesiastes 10:2 — discretion," Psalms 112:5 so he doth his affections too, reining them in with his right hand, and not suffering them to run riot, as the fool doth oft to his utter ruin. As the wise man’s "eyes are in his head," Ecclesiastes 2:14 so his "heart is at his right hand"; he hath it at command, to think of what he will when he will; it is as a hawk brought to the falconer’s lure; or as a horse that is taught his postures. Hence he keeps his credit untainted, he retains

Ecclesiastes 12:10 — truth. The Preacher sought, … — He sought and sought, by pains and prayer. He knew the rule, Bene orasse, est bene studuisse, Luther. To have prayed well is to have studied well. By prayer and tears St John got the book opened. Revelation 5:4 Luther got much of his insight into God’s matters by the same means. To find out acceptable words. — Verba desiderata; so Cajetan renders it. Verba delectabilia; so Tremellius. Verba expetibilia; so Vatablus. Delectable and desirable words,

Isaiah 1:15 — when ye spread forth your hands. — This was the ancient guise and garb in extraordinary and most earnest prayer, especially to spread forth the arms, and lay open the hands as it were, to receive a blessing from the Almighty. Exodus 9:23 Psalms 44:20 ; Psalms 143:6 1 Kings 8:22 ; 1 Kings 8:38 I will hide mine eyes from you. — Tanquam a teterrimo cadavere, quod oculos et nasum ut occludatis faciat. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry; but the

Isaiah 53:10 — humiliation and of exaltation, that whereas other oracles of the Old Testament borrow light from the New, this chapter lendeth light to the New in several places. He hath put him to grief. — Or, He suffered him to be put to pain. See Acts 2:23 ; Acts 4:28 . God the Father had a main hand in his Son’s sufferings, and that out of his free mercy, John 3:16 for the good of many. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. — Compare 2 Corinthians 5:20 , "He made him sin for us that

Isaiah 53:3 — better purpose than that Popish convent of friars do, who have hired those places of the Turk, built temples, altars, and silver floors in honour of the passion. And acquainted with grief. — Heb., Knowing of infirmity, or inured to it. See Hebrews 4:15 . The Greek Litany hath, "By thine unknown sorrows and sufferings, good Lord, deliver us." And we hid as it were our faces from him. — Or, And he hid as it were the face from us, viz., as one for his loathsomeness, his low condition,

Isaiah 56:10 — such are as are here described. Hebrew Text Note They are all dumb dogs that cannot bark, — i.e., Will not deal plainly and faithfully with men’s souls; but either preach not at all, or placentia only, toothless truths. Pliny Lib xxix. cap. 4. tells of the dogs in Rome that were set to keep the capitol; because, when the Gauls scaled it, the dogs being fed too full, lay sleeping, and did not give warning, they not only hanged them up, but every year on that day of the year, hanged up certain

Jeremiah 21:1 — unto him Pashur. — Not that Magormissabib, Jeremiah 20:1 but another of his name, though not much better, as it afterwards appeared, when, seeing Jeremiah’s stoutness for the truth, he counselled the king to put him to death. Jeremiah 38:4 And Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah. — Of whom see further, Jeremiah 29:25-29 ; Jeremiah 37:3 .

Daniel 9:21 — caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. Yea; whilst I was speaking in prayer. — This he recogniseth and celebrateth as a sweet and singular mercy. God sometimes heareth his people before they pray; Isaiah 65:24 Psalms 21:3 David was sure up early when he anticipated the Lord with his prayer; Psalms 88:13 ; Psalms 119:147 sometimes while they are praying, as he did those in Acts 4:31 ; Acts 12:5 ; Acts 12:17 , and Luther, who came leaping oat of his study,

Hosea 13:16 — desolate," or be found guilty, rea peragetur, (as the Chaldee hath it, and the words may bear). How can she be otherwise, whereas she hath rebelled against her God — She hath embittered him, or bitterly provoked him to wrath, as Hosea 12:14 See Trapp on " Hosea 12:14 " who therefore sent in the Assyrian to desolate her: "that bitter and hasty nation, to march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that were not theirs," Habakkuk 1:6 . This was

Joel 2:2 — subit, et primo feriente cacumina sole. (Ovid.) Hereby is imported that the calamity here threatened is such as they can neither avert nor avoid. Irretensibilis est, saith Luther. A great people and a strong — So the locusts are called, see Joel 1:4-6 , not without some respect to the Chaldeans, that should afterwards carry them captive, as Jerome here glosseth. There hath not been ever the like — sc. in the land of Judea, nor of the like continuance. See Joel 1:2-3 . Even to the years of

Amos 3:10 — glimmering of Divine light left in the natural man; this in a defiled conscience is wholly extinct. "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" No, not they, as appears by what follows: "they eat up my people as they eat bread," Psalms 14:4 . These cannibals, like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in the sea, devour the poorer as they the lesser fishes. And though they cannot but know this to be evil, condemned by the light of nature, and much more of Scripture, yet they do it, and will

Amos 9:4 — of her own bowels; and, when the besom comes, swept to the muckhill. Before their enemies — Whose custom was to drive their captives before them, Lamentations 1:5 young and o1d, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, Isaiah 20:4 . Or, "before their enemies," that is, before they are taken captive by the enemies, by voluntary yielding, in hope of quarter for their lives. The Jews indeed had a promise from the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 21:9 , that if they went out

Jonah 1:7 — strike not their dogs, much less their children, without a cause. A bee stings not till provoked; neither doth God punish his creatures till there be no other remedy, 2 Chronicles 36:16 . Good, therefore, is the counsel of the prophet, Lamentations 3:39-40 , "Why is living man sorrowful, a man for the punishment of his sin Let us search and try our ways" (find out the sin that God strikes at), "and turn again to the Lord"; turn and live. So they cast lots — They should have