Bible Commentaries

Genesis 27:31 — unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me. And he also had made savoury meat. — Esau’s works here are better than Jacob’s. Election is not of works, but of grace. Romans 9:11 Quis te discernit? saith the apostle. 1 Corinthians 4:7 Grevinchovius, the Arminian, saucily answers, Ego meipsum dicerno. And surely, had the cause of our election been either by our faith, or good works foreseen, as the Papists and Arminians would

Genesis 29:35 — and left bearing. Now will I praise the Lord. — So she had done before, at the birth of her other children: but now she would do it anew, upon the receipt of a new mercy: according to that, "Sing unto the Lord a new song." Isaiah 42:10 A good woman she seems to have been; and the better, because not so well beloved of her husband; which she could not but see to be just upon her, for her consenting (with her father) to the sin of deceiving Jacob. Genesis 30:1

Genesis 34:15 — respects! A horrible profanation: as when Naboth was put to death at a fast; Henry VII, Emperor, poisoned in the sacramental bread, by a monk. Herod pretends to worship Christ; intends to worry him, … "From such stand off," saith St Paul; 1 Timothy 6:5 or, if ye come near them, "set a mark upon them". Romans 16:17-18 Foenum habet in cornu.

Genesis 35:18 — be as if they had none. So love, as to think of loss. Iudaei vitrum ex quo sponsus et sponsa biberunt, confringunt; ut memores sint sponsi fragilitatis humanae. Let all outward things hang loose, as an upper garment that we can throw off at pleasure. 1 Corinthians 7:29

Genesis 37:13 — saith Chrysostom: our parents are Yεοι εφεστιοι , saith another; and Philo, for this maketh the fifth commandment a part of the first table, "for this is right." Ephesians 6:1 Blind nature saw it to be so. For it is not fit, saith the philosopher, to cross the gods, a man’s own father, and his tutor or teacher. Mη καλον κρινειν εναντια

Genesis 43:33 — feast is of that sort in use among the Romans, that were called χαριστια , to which were invited none but kinsfolks, to continue love and seek reconciliation where had been any breach. Val. Max., lib. ii. cap. 1.

Genesis 48:20 — and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And he set Ephraim before. — God many times sets the younger before the elder; makes the last to be first, and the first last; to show the freedom of his grace, and that "he seeth not as man seeth." 1 Samuel 16:7 The maids were first purified and perfmned, before Ahasuerus chose one. But Christ first loves, and then purifies his Church, Ephesians 5:25-26 and loves, because he loves. Deuteronomy 7:7-8 "And hath mercy on whom he will have mercy."

Genesis 49:19 — Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but. — This is every good Christian’s case in the spiritual warfare; he conquers, John 16:33 but comes to it through many conflicts and counter buffs. He "made war upon the saints, and overcame them": Revelation 13:7 for a season it may be, according to human conceit howsoever. But "they conquered and overcame him,"

Exodus 26:7 — tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make. Of goats’ hair. — The tabernacle was goats’ hair without, and gold within. God hid his Son under the carpenter’s son. "The king’s daughter is all glorious within." Psalms 45:13 And all her sons are princes in all lands. Psalms 45:16 Howbeit, they must be content to pass to heaven as Christ their Head did, as concealed men. "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew not him." John 1:10 "Our life is

Leviticus 25:10 — the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. And proclaim liberty. — See this expounded by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 61:1-2 Luke 4:21 A most joyful jubilee indeed. In the year of Christ, 1617, the Pope proclaimed a jubilee for the peace of Italy and Austria. The Protestants also of Germany did the like, in honour of God, and for joy of the Reformation begun by Luther

Numbers 1:1 — was then Christ in figure; as it doth now drive us to Christ in truth. The ceremonial law, saith one, was their gospel. We must also pass by Sinai to Sion, unless we like rather to be carnally secured than soundly comforted. See Trapp on " Exodus 19:1 "

Deuteronomy 14:5 — The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. The hart and the roebuck. — These were dainties fit for a king. 1 Kings 4:23 Rice and mutton is the cheer wherewith the great Turk entertaineth foreign ambassadors, and that so plainly and sparingly dressed, as if they would give check to our gormandise and excess. And the wild ox. — Pliny saith, Plin., lib.

Deuteronomy 33:2 — out; hence are those terrors which it flasheth in every conscience that hath felt remorse of sin. Every man’s heart is a Sinai, and resembles to him both heaven and hell. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." 1 Corinthians 15:56

Deuteronomy 4:42 — live: That thou mayest prolong thy days. — Hence some Lutherans Heming et alii. have gathered that God hath not determined the set period of man’s days, but that it is in men’s power to lengthen or shorten them. But this is against Job 7:1 ; Job 14:14 Ecclesiastes 2:3 Isaiah 38:5 ; Isaiah 38:15 . Stat sua cuique dies. Our hairs are numbered, much more our days. That the slayer. — See Trapp on " Numbers 35:6 " See Trapp on " Numbers 35:7 " …

Deuteronomy 7:13 — and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. And he will love thee. — So he did before, Deuteronomy 7:8 but so he will continue to do. See a like expression in 1 John 5:13 , "These things write I unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

Deuteronomy 7:4 — For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. For they will turn away thy son. — As the foreign women did Solomon. 1 Kings 11:2-4 What is the reason the Pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy, if a Papist marry a Protestant, yet here they will, but in hope to draw more to them? The tyrant Mezentius tied the living bodies of his captives to the dead; but the dead

Joshua 14:6 — thee in Kadeshbarnea. Then the children of Judah, — i.e., The chief of them came, as advocates for Caleb, who was a man of great eminency in their tribe. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh. — To distinguish him from Caleb the son of Hezron. 1 Chronicles 2:18 Thou knowest the thing. — What prerogative the Lord promised us for a reward of our constancy. God is a liberal paymaster, and sendeth no man away with cause to complain of a hard bargain.

Joshua 23:14 — I am going the way of all the earth. — I am a dying man: and the words of dying men are held to be living oracles: let therefore these last words of mine sink into your souls, and stick by you when I shall go hence and be no more seen. 2 Peter 1:13

Joshua 9:5 — hoariness, and deserveth no more reverence than an old fornicator, who is so much the more odious because old. It is here at best, as in books, some of which are odorandae rubiginis, of greater antiquity than authority. Those were old things spoken of in 1 Chronicles 4:22 , but no whit the better for that.

Judges 2:17 — — Carried on by a spirit of fornication, a strong inclination, a vehement impetus to whoredom; so that they care not how they waste all upon it, and will not be reclaimed: so idolaters. They turned quickly out of the way. — See Galatians 1:6 , with the note. Which their fathers walked in. — Grace is not hereditary. Good progenitors may have a degenerate and unregenerate offspring.