Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 24:17 — the original by words of a like sound. God hath variety of plagues at command; his quiver is full of shafts, neither can he possibly want a weapon to beat his rebels with. If the Amorites escape the sword, yet they are brained with hailstones Joshua 10:11 If the Syrians get into a walled town, yet they are baned by the fall of a wall upon them. 1 Kings 20:30

Isaiah 40:21 — have ye not heard? — Both Jews and Gentiles went against the light; the former of the word, the latter of their own consciences, in thus "changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible creature." Romans 1:23 Their ignorance was wilful and affected; some render this text, "Will ye not know? will ye not hear?" Idolaters are brutish and blockish; they that make them are like unto them.

Isaiah 40:31 — up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint. Shall renew their strength. — Heb., Shall change, quotidie seipsis fortiores prodeuntes. By the new "supplies of the Spirit," Philippians 1:19 they shall pass from strength to strength. Psalms 84:7 "They shall mount as eagles." see Psalms 103:5 R. Saadias saith, that every tenth year the eagle mounteth up to the orb of the sun, singeth her wings there, and so reneweth her age,

Isaiah 43:22 — But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob. — During the captivity they prayed not to any purpose, as Daniel also acknowledgeth: Isaiah 9:13 "All this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth." Nevertheless, of his free grace, God brought them back again. But thou hast been weary of

Isaiah 46:7 — his trouble. They bear him upon their shoulders. — As the Papists’ breaden god, furfuraceum illud numen, is, at this day, borne about to be adored; whereas the true God "beareth up all things by the word of his power." Hebrews 1:3 Yea, one shall cry unto him. — As they did to Baal in Elijah’s days; and the Cretans to their Jupiter, whom they therefore pictured without ears.

Isaiah 47:6 — I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. I was wroth. — See on Zechariah 1:15 . I have polluted mine inheritance. — God is his people’s inheritance, and they are his; but now, for their sins, he had dealt with them as with a profane and unclean thing. Thou didst show them no mercy. — Heb., Thou didst set

Isaiah 50:8 — adversary? let him come near to me. He is near that justifieth me, — i.e., God the Father will shortly clear up mine innocence, and declare me to be the son of God (my only crime now), "with power by the resurrection from the dead." Romans 1:4 Who will contend with me? — So John 8:46 Romans 8:33-34 , where the apostle Paul, as a stout soldier and imitator of Christ, the "Captain of his salvation," useth the same argument, and teacheth us to do likewise.

Isaiah 57:17 — hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. For the iniquity of his covetousness. — Or, Of his concupiscence, the sin of his nature. But covetousness is a wickedness with a witness, the "root of all evil." 1 Timothy 6:10 Timon could say that there were two sources of all sin, viz., απληστιαν και φιλοδοξιαν , covetousness and vainglory. And

Jeremiah 10:8 — — The wise men are, for that, when they knew there was but one only true God - as did Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Seneca, … - they "detained the truth in unrighteousness," and taught the people to worship stocks and stones. Romans 1:21-23 The nations are, because they yield to be taught devotion by images under what pretext soever. Considerentur hic subterfugia Papistarum. Let them regard this strategm of Popery. Pope Gregory first taught that images in churches were laymen’s

Jeremiah 16:8 — Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink. Thou shall not also go into the house of feasting. — Ministers may lawfully go to feasts, John 2:1-2 but not in times of common calamity. See Isaiah 22:12-14 . Pliny Lib. ii. cap. 7. telleth us that when in the time of the second Punic war, one Fulvius Argentarius was seen at Rome looking out at a window with a rose garland on his head, the senate

Jeremiah 19:7 — of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And I will make void the counsel of Judah. — As vain and empty as this earthen bottle now is. See on Jeremiah 19:1 , and take notice of an elegant alliteration in the original. And their carcases will I give. — See Jeremiah 7:33 ; Jeremiah 16:4 .

Jeremiah 2:3 — [was] holiness unto the LORD, [and] the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD. Israel was holiness unto the Lord. — A people consecrated and set apart for his peculiar; Exodus 19:5 Psalms 114:2 holy with a federal holiness at least. And the firstfruits of his increase. — Yea, his "firstborn," and therefore, "higher than the kings of the earth." Psalms 89:27 All God’s people are so. Hebrews 12:23

Jeremiah 49:4 — valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, [saying], Who shall come unto me? Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys? — Because fat and fertile, as being near to Sodom and Gomorrah, that pleasant plain. Genesis 13:10 O backsliding daughter. — Appellat homines regni erroneos filiam vagam. Or, Untoward and refractory. Sept., Thou daughter of rashness, or of impudence, quae ita lascivis sicut puella quae libidinatur, et virum quaerit, saith Oecolampadius. That

Jeremiah 8:7 — against winter, as the crane. But my people know not the judgment of the Lord. — Whether his summer of grace offered, or his winter of punishment threatened; to embrace the one or to prevent the other. See a like dissimilitude and opposition, Isaiah 1:3 .

Lamentations 3:37 — one be so simple as to think that the enemy could do aught against us but by the divine permission and appointment? God, as he made all by his power, so he manageth all by his providence. This the Egyptians hieroglyphically set forth by painting God, (1.) As blowing an egg out of his mouth - that is, as making the round world by his word; (2.) To compassing about that orb with a girdle - that is, keeping all together, and governing all by his providence.

Ezekiel 11:17 — give you the land of Israel. I will even gather you from the people. — How impossible or improbable soever you may think it, and those of Jerusalem pronounce it. The prophet Isaiah in many chapters of his gospel, which beginneth at Ezekiel 40:1-49 , setteth himself to cheer up these poor captives with good hopes of a return, after a little while, paulisper, as some render the word megnat in the foregoing Ezekiel 11:16 .

Ezekiel 14:14 — Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver [but] their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD. Though these three men. — See on Jeremiah 15:1 . Noah, Daniel, and Job. — What could not these three, so mighty with God, have done if the matter had been feasible? Daniel was now alive and in his prime; Ezekiel, his contemporary and fellow prophet, envieth him not, but celebrateth him;

Ezekiel 16:56 — her not worthy to be named in the same day with thee, and little dreamedst that thou shouldst be matched with her in misery. Or thus, Thou wouldst neither hear nor speak of her, though I had thrown her forth for an example of divine vengeance. Judges 1:7 In the day of thy pride. — Heb., Prides; for pride buddeth, Ezekiel 7:10 and, like a great swelling in the body which breaks and runs with loathsome and foul matter, it breaks forth into odious practices.

Ezekiel 16:9 — Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. Then washed I thee with water. — I cleansed thee from all thy pollutions by the merit and Spirit of my dear Son. See 1 Corinthians 6:11 . And I anointed thee with oil. — Newly married wives were usually washed, anointed, and richly arrayed. The dead also were washed, as Dorcas; and embalmed, as Jacob; and Proverbs 31:8 , they are called bene chaloph, which signifieth

Ezekiel 21:19 — appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose [it] at the head of the way to the city. Appoint thee two wags. — Pinge duas vias, ut Ezekiel 4:1 ; by prophetic action draw out two ways, by either of which Nebuehadnezzar may march against Egypt, his present aim, as the great Turk’s now is Italy. Choose it at the head of the wag to the city. — All this the Jews heard and slighted,