Bible Commentaries

Job 14:1 — vita gemitibus (Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. ix. c. 10); it is not a life, but a death rather that is spent in sorrow; in which regard Plotinus, the philosopher, held mortality a mercy, that we may not always be held uuder the miseries of this life present. 4. Scarce one of a thousand live that little time that they are here, but woefully waste the flower of their age, the strength of their bodies, the vigour of their spirits, in sinful pleasures and sensual delights, and then either sit and sing all too

Job 22:12 — making Job’s atheistic speeches (here mimetically fathered upon him by Eliphaz) an argument of his great wickedness; as if Job should say, and so discover himself ("for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," Matthew 12:34 ) to be of Protagoras’s opinion, who doubted Deity, De Diis, utrum sint non ausim affirmare ( Prot.); or of Diagoras’s, who flatly denied it; or, at least, of Aristotle’s, who pent up God in heaven, and taught that he took little or

Job 22:19 — tents or building of an ark be the wiser work? Would you not give all the shoes in your shop, all the tools in your tents, all the cattle in your flocks, to be but where Noah’s dog lies? And now, sirs, you that were such men of renown, Genesis 6:4 , you that were the brave gallants of the earth, now tell me who is the fool and who is the wise man now.” Piscator takes the next verse, "Whereas" (or, though) "our substance is not cut down, but" (or yet) "the remnant

Job 24:14 — every such one may better say than that ancient did, Totum tempus perdidi, quia perdite vixi, I have lost all my time, by spending it loosely and basely (Bernard). I have been too faithful a drudge to the devil, whom Christ calleth a murderer, John 8:44 , and Tertullian calleth Furem veritatis, a thief of the truth. Two notable thieves of Naples (whereof one was called Paternoster, and the other Ave Maria ) had murdered a hundred and sixteen different people, at different times and in various places

Job 31:33 — himself; the lives of the best alive are fuller of sins than the firmament is of stars, or the furnace of sparks. But he did not act like Adam, or after the manner of men, cover or conceal them, extenuate or excuse them, denying them, as Cain did, Genesis 4:9 , and Gehazi, 2 Kings 5:25 , and Ananias, Acts 5:8 , or at least, dealing with them as the unjust steward did, who for a hundred set down fifty. Adam went about to hide his sin, alleging, non causam pro causa, that for the cause of his flight that

Job 34:18 — deeply for telling the pope his own. And Bajazet II took great revenge upon his janizaries, One of a former body of Turkish infantry, constituting the Sultan’s guard and the main part of the standing army. The body was first organized in the 14th century, and was composed mainly of tributary children of Christians; after a large number of them had been massacred in 1826, the organization was finally abolished. who, for his casting Achmetes Bassa into prison, they in an uproar insolently cried

Job 41:1 — leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord [which] thou lettest down? Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? — As men use to do the lesser fishes in angling? No, as little as thou canst bore behemoth’s nose with a snare, Job 40:24 . Leviathan is a common name for all great sea monsters, Psalms 104:26 . Beza and Diodati understand it to be the crocodile; others, of the sea dragon; others, of the whirlpool: but most, of the whale; in creating whereof, Creavit Deus vastitates

Job 6:14 — as that of the Tigurine translation, It were fit for friends to show kindness to their friend that is in misery: but the fear of the Almighty hath forsaken me, as you please to say. See what Eliphaz had said to this purpose. See Trapp on " Job 4:6 " Others read it thus, to him that is afflicted should reproach be given, that he hath forsaken the fear of the Almighty? q.d. Must a man therefore be reviled as irreligious because he is calamitous? The Vulgate translation runs thus, He that

Job 8:8 — immediately revealed, or handed down and transmitted from father to son, from generation to generation. Hence Bildad here bids Job inquire of the former ages; and thereto refers him for further information; so doth Moses the Israelites, Deuteronomy 4:20 ; Deuteronomy 32:7 . Antiquity, so it be right, is of no small authority; that is a received rule, Quod antiquissimum verissimum, That is truest which is most ancient; as we prefer the newest philosophy, so the ancientest divinity. The Papists boast

Psalms 14:1 — doeth good. The fool — That sapless fellow, that carcase of a man, that walking sepulchre of himself, in whom all religion and right reason is withered and wasted, dried up and decayed. Nabal, a fool or a churl; Nebalah, a carcase, Leviticus 11:40 . That apostate, in whom natural principles are extinct, and from whom God is departed; as when the prince is removing hangings are taken down. That mere animal, that hath no more than a reasonable soul, and for little other purpose than as salt, to

Psalms 16:4 — hence that innumerable rabble. The Jesuits boast of their Ignatii Apotheosis; and Cardinal Bembus is not ashamed to say of his St Francis, quod in deorum numerum ab Ecclesia Romana sit relatus (Hist. Venet.). Is not this abominable idolatry? 1 Peter 4:3 . Their drink offerings of blood — Many heathens sacrificed to their idols (that is, to devils) with man’s blood, against all laws of humanity and piety. Thus they sacrificed to Bellona, the sister of Mars; as also with blood let out of

Psalms 19:8 — sight, Acts 26:18 , the saving knowledge of God and his will, of ourselves and of our duties; and bringing us out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Peter 2:9 . When Christ came preaching, the people which sat in darkness saw a great light, Matthew 4:16 . And we have a more sure light of prophecy, whereunto we must take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 2 Peter 1:19 . While the moon looketh directly upon the sun, she is bright and beautiful; but if she once turn aside, and be left

Psalms 19:9 — effect it. Other laws and religions are antiquated and altered, as all histories testify; not so this. The judgments of the Lord are true — Heb. truth, as coming from a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and righteous is he, Deuteronomy 32:4 . All his sayings are faithful, and therefore worthy of all acceptation, 1 Timothy 1:15 . The Eternity of Israel cannot lie, 1 Samuel 15:29 . He will not suffer his faithfulness to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth, Psalms 89:33-34

Psalms 5:3 — pleasure, pray constantly five times a day. Christians have a charge to continue instant in prayer, προσκαρτερειν , and to let all business wait upon it, Romans 12:12 , with Acts 6:4 . David knew that if prayer stand still the trade of godliness standeth still. He, therefore, will be up and at it betimes, and rather break his sleep than leave such a duty undone. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up

Psalms 6:6 — forethink what sin will cost us we dare not but be innocent. Transit voluptas, manet dolor. Nocet empta dolore voluptas, Desire passes, grief remains. Desire hurts with empty grief. But today, saith a reverend writer (Bishop Pilkinton on Nehemiah 1:4 ), weep a man may not, for disfiguring his face; fasting is thought hypocrisy and shame; and when his paunch is full, then, as priests with their drunken nowls said matins, and belched out, Eructavit cor meum verbum, with good devotion as they thought;

Proverbs 12:21 — chain at them, but shall not set his fangs in them, or so far thrust his sting into them as to infuse into them the venom of that sin unto death. Proverbs 12:17 Next, For evil of pain: though "many be the troubles of the righteous," Psalms 34:19 and they "fall into manifold temptations," James 1:2 they go not in step by step into these waters of Marah, but "fall into" them, being, as it were, precipitated, plunged over head and ears, yet are bidden to be "exceeding

Ecclesiastes 12:13 — Majesty, a reverential fear; and from this principle obey God in every part and point of duty. Do this, and live for ever. Do it in an evangelical way, I mean; for we can do it now no otherwise. Wish well to exact obedience, as David doth in Psalms 119:4-5 , "Oh that I could keep thy commandments accurately"; and woe is me that I cannot! And then be doing as thou canst; for affection without endeavour is like Rachel, beautiful but barren. Be doing, I say, at everything, as well as at anything;

Ecclesiastes 12:14 — shelter, since rocks shall rend and mountains melt at the presence of the Judge. Let us therefore judge ourselves, if he shall not judge us, and take unto us words against our sins, if we will not have him to take unto him words against our souls. Hosea 14:2 And then, Ira vivamus, ut rationem nobis reddendam arbitretour, saith the heathen orator, Let us so live as those that must shortly be called to an account. For who can tell but that he may suddenly hear as that Pope did, and was soon after found

Ecclesiastes 8:4 — with him that hath thirty legions at his command, Neque in eum scribere, qui potest proscribere, nor write against him that can as easily undo me as bid it to be done. Praesens praesentem Pontificem redarguit, et Polyeraticon conscripsit. Jac. Rev, 145 . Howbeit Elias, Micaiah, John Baptist, and other holy prophets and ministers have dealt plainly with great princes, and God hath secured them. John, Bishop of Salisbury, reproved the Pope to his face; and yet the Canonists say, that although the Pope

Song of Solomon 3:3 — go about the city found me: [to whom I said], Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? The watchmen that go about the city found me, — i.e., The angels, who are God’s watchmen εγρηγοροι . Daniel 4:10 Ezekiel 33:2 over the world, and are so called somewhere in Scripture, as also ministering spirits, guardians of the saints, … But here I conceive are meant either those princes of the world, strangers to the mystery of Christ, 1 Corinthians