Bible Commentaries

Proverbs 19:8 — wisdom. — Heb., He that getteth, or possesseth a heart; for we are born brutes, and are compared to "the horse and mule that have no understanding." Psalms 32:9 Hearts we have all, but our "foolish hearts are darkened," Romans 1:21 yea, "a deceived heart hath turned us aside that we cannot deliver our souls, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah 44:20 Well may the rich have many friends, but not many hearts: for without wisdom no man can love his own

Proverbs 20:12 — the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them. The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, … — There are those who have "ears to hear, and hear not; who have eyes to see, and see not: for they are a rebellious house." Ezekiel 12:2 Now when God shall say to such, as in Isaiah 42:18 , "Hear ye deaf, and look ye blind, that you may see"; when he shall give them an obedient ear, and a Scripture searching eye, "senses habitually exercised to discern both good and

Proverbs 21:4 — An high look, and a proud heart, [and] the plowing of the wicked, [is] sin. An high look and proud heart. — See Trapp on " Proverbs 6:17 " And the ploughing of the wicked is sin. — As they plot and plough mischief - being the devil’s hinds and drudges - so all their actions, natural, moral, spiritual, are turned into sin; whether they plough, or play, or pray, or eat,

Proverbs 24:32 — spiritual mind can extract good out of every object and occurrence, even out of other men’s faults and follies. He can gather grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles, as here. Well, therefore, may grace be called "the divine nature"; 2 Peter 1:4 for as God draws light out of darkness, good out of evil, …, so doth grace, by a heavenly kind of alchemy, as I may so say. And received instruction. — Exemplo alterius qui sapit, ille sapit. The worse others are, the better should we

Proverbs 25:23 — tale bearers is to browbeat them; for like whelps, if we stroke them they leap upon us and defile us with fawning; but give them a rap and they are gone; so here. Carry, therefore, in this case, a severe rebuke in thy countenance, as God doth Psalms 80:16 Be not a resetter to these privy thieves, a receptacle for these mures nominis, as one calls them; the tale hearer is as blameworthy as the tale bearer, and he that "loves" a lie as he that "makes" it Revelation 22:15 Psalms 15:3

Proverbs 28:5 — evil, but to do good they have no knowledge: their wits work not that way; they are bard and brutish as "horse and mule." Psalms 32:9 Yea, they fall beneath the stirrup of reason, and know not their owner, which yet the ox and ass doth; Isaiah 1:3 no wiser at seventy years old than at seven. Ut liberius peccent, libenter ignorant, not willing to know what they are not minded to practise. But they that seek the Lord understand all things. — Not all that is possible to be known, as Averroes

Proverbs 29:9 — [If] a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, [there is] no rest. If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man. — Such fools were the Pharisees, though for their worldly wisdom called princes of this world. 1 Corinthians 2:8 Christ piped to them, John mourned to them, neither wrought upon them. Matthew 11:16-17 Such was their peevishness and pertinace in evil, that they "rejected the counsel of God against themselves," Luke 7:30 being ingrati gratiae

Ecclesiastes 6:11 — unaccustomed to the yoke, gall his neck by wriggling? - make his crosses heavier than God makes them, by crossness and impatience? The very heathen could tell him that, “ Deus crudelius urit, Quos videt invitos succubuisse sibi. ” - Tibul. Eleg. 1. God will have the better of those that contend with him: and his own reason will tell him that it is not fit that God should cast down the bucklers first: and that the deeper a man wades, the more he shall be wet.

Ecclesiastes 7:18 — this, — i.e., Of this golden mean, walking accurately by line and by rule, and continuing constant in thine integrity, not turning aside to the right hand or to the left. As for those that "turn aside unto those crooked ways" Psalms 125:5 of being just too much by needless scrupulosity, or wicked excessively by detestable exorbitancy, "the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity," as cattle led to the slaughter, or malefactors to execution; whereas, "he

Isaiah 16:1 — Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. Send ye the lamb. — For prevention of those lions, Isaiah 15:9 submit to Hezekiah, your right liege lord, a lamb, i.e., your appointed number of tribute lambs, in token of homage. 2 Samuel 8:2 2 Kings 3:4 But especially make your peace with God, the Ruler of the whole world, 1 Chronicles 29:12 by paying him

Isaiah 23:11 — He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant [city], to destroy the strong holds thereof. He stretched out his hand. — That "mighty hand" of his, 1 Peter 5:6 wherewith he spanneth the heavens, Isaiah 48:13 brought the Red Sea upon the Egyptians, Exodus 14:26 and still shaketh the wicked out of the earth, as by a canvas. Job 38:13 He shook the kingdoms. — Shook and shattered them - viz., by

Isaiah 26:13 — liberty, and dancing, as it were, to hell in their bolts. Will we make mention of thy name. — For which end we would not be "the servants of men," much less the slaves of Satan, that basest of slaves, but the "freemen of Christ." 1 Corinthians 7:22 "Where the spirit is, there is liberty"; 2 Corinthians 3:17 and "if the Son set us free, we shall be free indeed." John 8:36

Isaiah 31:5 — of all from the nest, and seemeth to set herself among the clouds, still keeps her eye on her nest, so that if any come near her young ones to offend them, she makes all possible speed for their defence. Such an eagle is Almighty God, Deuteronomy 22:11 such a hen is Jesus Christ. Matthew 23:37 Psalms 91:1-2 The Church is God’s nest; who dare meddle with it? Sennacherib had threatened to destroy nest and young ones together, because he had done so elsewhere, and none dared wag the wing at him,

Isaiah 38:10 — instruct the judgment, enlarge the heart, and open the mouth. I shall go to the gates of the grave. — He maketh the grave to have gates, either by a poetic fiction, or else by a proverbial expression. So "the gates of death." Psalms 9:13 ; Psalms 107:18 1 Samuel 2:6 I am deprived of the residue of my years, — sc., That I might have lived in a natural course. Vox haec queritantis quidem est: Quis enim vult mori? prorsus nemo. Nature shunneth death as its slaughter man.

Isaiah 45:18 — [there is] none else. He created it not in vain. — Therefore never think that he will forsake it, or not take care of his Church therein, for whose sake he made it at first, and still upholdeth it "by the word of his power." Hebrews 1:3 Now, if God created not the earth in vain, much less the heavens - wherein he hath showed his greater skill Hebrews 11:10 See Trapp on " Hebrews 11:10 " - but that his people might there inhabit for ever. And here it is that they shall be

Isaiah 49:1 — people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Listen, O isles, unto me, — i.e., Ye foreigners; for wicked Israel will not, and therefore have no true peace. Isaiah 48:22 Psalms 119:165 Unto me. — Understand it of Isaiah, but especially of Christ: for from hence to the end of this book, as the Jewish doctors also acknowledge, are visions and sermons set down concerning Christ’s twofold kingdom, viz., of patience and

Isaiah 49:10 — water shall he guide them. They shall not hunger nor thirst. — A sufficiency the saints have, even of outward comforts, if not a superfluity; and for inward, sunt nobis pascua, pocula, et panis coelestis, they "shall not want"; Psalms 23:1 yea, they shall "over exceedingly abound." 2 Corinthians 7:4 So little cause is there for the Jew to jeer us as poor and forlorn; spiritual alimony we are sure of, and bread and water with the gospel are good cheer. See Revelation 7:16 . Neither

Isaiah 6:6 — seraphims unto me. — Relinquit chorum illum sanctissimum ut serviat polluto; He leaveth that holy company that he may do service to a poor polluted creature! The brightest angel in heaven thinketh not himself too good to serve the saints. Hebrews 1:14 If there come to us at any time a messenger, one of a thousand, to declare unto us our righteousness, to be unto us a minister of reconciliation, we are to receive him as an angel of God. Having a live coal in his hand. — A coal from the altar,

Isaiah 9:10 — what he had marred, whether he would or not. Thus this giant-like generation; and the like impiety is in the corrupt nature of us all. For "as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart of a man to a man," saith Solomon. Proverbs 27:19 The sycamores are cut down, &e. — Another proverbial speech to the same purpose. Sycamores were then very common in that country, and little set by. 1 Kings 10:27 Now they are not to be found there, saith Jerome, as neither are cedars in

Isaiah 9:17 — hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men. — Nay, he shall laugh at their destruction. Proverbs 1:26 Neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows. — They are deceived therefore that, being unregenerate, hope to find favour with God merely for their adversity; and because they have their hell, as they call it, here, think to have