Bible Commentaries

Song of Solomon 8:8 — her. What shall we do for our sister. — Love is not more cogitative than operative, and delights to be doing for the beloved. "I love the Lord," …, "What shall I render unto him? I will pay my vows," … Psalms 116:14 Jonathan will disrobe and strip himself even to his sword and belt for David, because he "loved him as his own soul." 1 Samuel 18:3-4 Shechem will do all that can be done for his beloved Dinah. The Macedonians will over do it for their poor

Isaiah 57:1 — righteous is taken away from the evil [to come]. The righteous perisheth. — So the world deemeth, but not rightly, for "the righteous hath hope in his death," when "the wicked dying is driven away in his wickedness" Proverbs 14:32 - by "him that had the power of death, even the devil" Hebrews 2:14 - having been "through fear of death all their lifetime subject to bondage." The Lacedaemonians all the time of their life adored death. The righteous can defy

Isaiah 7:14 — things?" Romans 8:32 A sign. — A singular sign - a sign both from above and from beneath; for he joined lumen suae aeternitatis limo tuae mortalitatis, Bernard. the light of his eternity to the mud of thy mortality, as a father hath it. John 1:14 Philippians 2:6-7 Behold. — A note of attention and admiration. One compareth it to the sounding of a trumpet before some notable proclamation; another to a hand in the margin pointing to some remarkable matter. So doth this Ecce to Christ’s

Hosea 10:10 — destruction, Prov. i. And although he bear long with men’s evil manners, ετροποφορησεν , Acts 13:18 , yet he beareth them as a burden whereof he desireth to be eased, Isaiah 1:24 , as a servitude whereof he desireth to be freed, Isaiah 43:24 , as a pain not inferior to that of a travailing woman; and albeit he bite in his pains, as it were, for a time, yet hear him what he saith, Isaiah 42:14 , "I have long time holden

Hosea 13:6 — they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. According to their pasture so were they filled — Saturity bred security; fulness, forgetfulness. This was a foul fault, and is much complained of, Deuteronomy 32:13-14 Psalms 78:10-11 . God had brought them out of a place of great drought into large and fat pastures, a land flowing with milk and honey, where he filled their "hearts with food and gladness," Acts 14:17 , where he fed them among the lilies,

Hosea 2:16 — warranted, but also such as may be suitable to our requests, and helpful to our faith in prayer; such as wherein we may see the thing prayed for coming towards us, as it were. This will notably excite devotion. Instances of it, see Psalms 80:1 Acts 1:24 ; Acts 4:24-30 Note there and in the next verse, that there is no small danger in words and names. What a deal of mischief hath the word Huguenot done in France, and Puritan here. In 1572, Cardinal Allen at Rheims instructed his emissary seducers, sent

Hosea 6:10 — Israel — Now a very den of thieves, as Hosea 6:9 , a pantheon of all sorts of idols, a chamber of imagery, an Egyptian temple, gay and goodly without, but within an ox or calf, with "women weeping for Tammuz," Ezekiel 8:12 ; Ezekiel 8:14 , that is, for Osiris, king of Egypt, whose image (under the shape of an ox) his wife, Isis, had advanced to be idolatrously there adored. This kind of abomination Jeroboam had learned in Egypt (whither he fled from Solomon, his master), and brought

Hosea 7:11 — silly dove, which flies from the claws of the hawk into the net of the fowler, who will soon make a breakfast of them; or that waits till the fowler be gone, that she may fall upon the bait, never fearing the snare that is laid for her. See 2 Kings 17:4 . A serpent’s eye in a dove’s head is a singular ornament. "Be ye wise as serpents, innocent as doves," Matthew 10:16 . The serpent, when charmed, stoppeth his ears, by applying one to the earth, and covering the other with his

Amos 6:1 — are] named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! Woe to them that are at ease in Zion — That lie sleeping on both sides ( In utramvis aurora dormiunt ), and slighting the former menaces, as Leviathan doth the iron weapons, Job 41:27 , that live as if ye were out of the reach of God’s rod; and as for all your enemies, ye puff at them, saying, We shall not be moved, we shall never be in adversity, Psalms 10:5-6 . To these sleepers in Zion God here sends forth his summons

Jonah 2:3 — sling, or as that mighty angel, Revelation 18:21 , that took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence," … In the midst of the seas — Heb. in the heart of the seas; so Matthew 12:40 , "So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." And Deuteronomy 4:11 , we read of the heart of heaven, that is, the middle of it, as the heart sitteth in the midst of the body as king of that Isle of

Jonah 3:3 — that naught is, so that I be not found guilty of sinful silence, and of betraying the trust committed unto me, by a dastardly deserting the cause of God. Jonah was now of another spirit, and fulfilled after God ( implevit post me ), as Caleb, Numbers 14:24 ; for what reason? he had now received not a "spirit of fear," and of bondage ( δειλειας, δουλειας , Romans 8:15 ), "but of

Micah 7:3 — one hand scratches another; and between the oppressive prince and unconscionable judge "the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth," Habakkuk 1:4 . And the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire — Heb. he speaketh out the corruption of his soul. "He" doth it. Emphaticum est pronomen Ipse, saith Calvin. This same "he" hath a special emphasis in it, q.d. This impudent

Nahum 1:4 — that God rateth and rattleth the sea, verborum pedumque strepitu, with such a voice and other noise, as causeth fright and flight. "The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest?" Psalms 114:3 ; Psalms 114:5 . "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled," Psalms 77:16: see Exodus 14:21 Psalms 78:14 ; Psalms 66:6 ; Psalms 136:16 ; Psalms 106:9 . This is not in the power of any

Zechariah 11:7 — should mean much ado is made among intrepreters. Some are for the two Covenants; others for the two Testaments; others for the order of Christ’s preaching, sweet and mild at first, terrible and full of threatenings at last, as appeareth in Matthew 24:24-25 . But what a wild conceit was that of Anthony, Archbishop of Florence, who understood the word of Dominic and his order; construing them thus: I, that is, God, took unto me two staves, viz. Beauty, that is, the order of Preachers, and Bands, that

Zechariah 2:13 — Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord — Heb. äñ Peace and be still, as our Saviour once said to the raging sea, Mark 4:39 , whereupon the wind ceased (which before had blown and blustered till it was weary again, as the Greek word there importeth) and there was a great calm, all was suddenly hushed, and silent ( εκοπασεν

Zechariah 7:5 — abolish them, as those that rested in them without true repentance, faith, and new obedience. When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month — sc. For the slaughter of Gedaliah and the sad consequence thereof, 2 Kings 25:22 Jeremiah 41:1 . Even those seventy years — Wherein ye have lost full seven score fasts; and were not a bit the better for them, because they fasted rather to get off their chains than their sins; they rested in their fasts, in the work done, neither regarding

Malachi 4:5 — to preserve the elect in the faith of Christ, and to convert the Jews. But we have better interpreters of this text. 1. An angel, who applies it to John Baptist, Luke 1:17 Luke 1:2 . Christ, that angel of the covenant, Matthew 17:10-11 ; Matthew 11:14 . Hear ye him, against all antichrist’s agitators. St Mark begins his Gospel with these very words of Malachi, to let us know that this Elias is the Baptist, who is called Elijah the prophet, because of the like gifts, calling, and ministry, office

Matthew 1:3 — δοκουντωνακριβεστερον των αλλων τον νομον εφηγεισθαι . B. J. i. 4. As for Pharos, he was a breachmaker (whence also he had his name, Genesis 38:29 ). He violently took the first birthright, and became both a father of the Messiah and a type. For Christ by his strength broke the power of death and hell; he broke down

Matthew 10:17 — will scourge you in their synagogues; But beware of men — Absurd and wicked men, saith Paul, 2 Thessalonians 3:2 ; "brutish men, skilful to destroy," saith the prophet, Ezekiel 21:31 ; "Men eaters," saith the Psalmist, Psalms 14:4 ; cannibals, that make no more conscience to mischief God’s people than to eat a meal’s meat when they are hungry. These be those lycanthropi, those wolves mentioned in the former verse. These are those mankind men that St Paul met with

Matthew 7:9 — filleth them with fat things full of marrow," Isaiah 25:6 . He nourisheth them with the best, as Joseph did his father’s household in Egypt, according to the mouth of the little ones, or as so many little ones (saith the original), Genesis 47:12 . εσιτομετρει , say the Septuagint; whereunto our Saviour seems to allude, Luke 12:42 . tenderly and lovingly, without their care or labour. And whereas some natural parents have (monstrously)