Bible Commentaries

Nehemiah 8:15 — that they should publish and proclaim — Heb. Make a voice to pass, viz. for better preparation and greater solemnity. God will not take up with a careless and slubbered service; he is a great King, and stands greatly upon his seniority, Malachi 1:14 . Go forth unto the mount — Which is covered with all sorts of trees; and nothing like the country Axylus, which is so called, because no trees grow in it, no, not so much as thorns, or any kind of fuel. Through this country marched Manlius,

Nehemiah 8:17 — of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Made booths, and sat under the booths — See Nehemiah 8:14-16 . They that turn this history into mystery make an allusion of it, 1. To Christ, as dwelling in our flesh. 2. To Christians, as travelling toward heaven, and having here no settled habitation, Hebrews 11:13 . For since the days of Jeshua —

Nehemiah 9:20 — Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Thou gavest also thy good spirit — viz. To their governors and teachers, Numbers 11:16-17 ; Numbers 11:25-26 . Yea, to every good soul, that they might be all taught of God, led into all truth and holiness, Ephesians 5:9 . For which end God hath promised to pour his Spirit upon all flesh, that is, the best thing upon the basest, Joel

Job 14:5 — cannot pass; Seeing his days are determined, … — God hath set every man both his time (whether shorter, called here his days, or longer, the number of his months, they have both their bounds which none can pass) and also his task, Acts 13:25 . John fulfilled his course, et in brevi vitae spatio tempora virtutum multa replevit, and he lived long in a little time; he wrought hard, as not willing to be taken with his task undone (Hieron.). So Acts 13:36 . David, after he had served his

Job 15:18 — plentifully, as if they had showed us the things acted before our eyes. From their fathers — Who were careful to instil good instructions and heavenly truths into the minds of their children, their familiars, and families, as did Abraham, Genesis 18:17-19 , and others according to God’s own appointment, Deuteronomy 6:1-2 And have not hid it — But communicated it for the good of many. Light is diffusive of itself. Knowledge is perfected while it is communicated. The more you teach and

Job 15:31 — vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity — Let it suffice him that he hath been once already deceived by the uncertainty of riches, which were never true to those which trusted them, nor ever will be, 1 Timothy 6:17 . As Charondas was wont to say of going to sea, and another of going to law, That he wondered not at those that go once, but at those who go a second time. So may we at those that having found the deceitfulness of sin, and the instability

Job 16:10 — of mine, but all the creatures are up in arms against me, and threateneth to devour me at one morsel. They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully — i.e. They have done me all the disgrace that may be. See Lamentations 3:30 2 Corinthians 11:20-21 Micah 5 :1 John 18:22; John 18:22 . Our Saviour was so served according to the letter; they gaped upon him, mowed at him, buffeted him on the face, gathered themselves together against him, as here. Hence some of the ancients call Job a figure

Job 19:12 — tribulations and temptations, of pirates and robbers, σπειρατηρια (as the Seventy have it). Sickness and other sorrows are God’s soldiers, Matthew 8:8-9 , and they seldom come single, James 1:2 , but trooping and treading on the heels of one another, Concateuata piorum crux; a company comes. And raise up their way against me — As soldiers besieging a place cast up their trenches and fortifications. Vatablus rendereth it, And have beaten

Job 22:30 — — Or, He shall deliver the not innocent; him that is not guiltless; and even such shall be delivered for the purity of thine hands. Thus God gave Zoar to Lot, and all the souls in the ship to Paul, and the guilty Israelites to Moses. See Jeremiah 5:1 . Or, The innocent shall deliver the island; or, Liberabitur vita innocentis, the innocent shall be freed from affliction: so Brentius. And it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands — i.e. Of thy works, or by thy pure hands lifted up in prayer.

Job 27:6 — man’s overseer. It is Index, Iudex, Vindex: neither is a body so torn with stripes as a mind with remembrance of evil actions. This Job knew, and would therefore keep his conscience clear. This was also St Paul’s greatest, both care, Acts 24:16 , and comfort, 2 Corinthians 1:12 .

Job 30:23 — that I plainly perceive I must shortly die, there is no avoiding of it. Thus good Job was pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch as he despaired even of life; and had the sentence (or denunciation) of death in himself, …, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 . But God was better to him than his fears, and delivered him from so great a death: this is usual. And to the house appointed for all living — That is, the grave, Psalms 49:14 ; Psalms 89:48 , that congregation house of all living; as heaven

Job 32:13 — Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God thrusteth him down, not man. Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom — Or, See that ye say not, We need not search out words, as Job 32:11 . For, we have found out wisdom, rem acu pertigimus, we have hit the nail on the head, and said sufficient to convince him, if any reason would do it, while we affirm that God thrusteth him down (as it were, with a thump on the back), and not man —

Job 38:2 — not wisely managed. If there be any good in us, he noteth and noticeth it; passing by our defects and failings; as when Sarah called her husband lord, she is much commended for it; though there was never another good word in all that sentence, Genesis 18:12 1 Peter 3:6 Job 35:16 .

Job 42:3 — confessing and disclaiming mine own folly therein, and by applying those words of thine to myself, with a holy indignation; for therein thou hast fully met with me, απογενομενοι , 1 Peter 2:24 . Therefore have I uttered that I understood not — I have rashly and imprudently, yea, gracelessly and impudently, spoken of thy judgments, and desired to dispute with thee; daring to reprehend that which I did not comprehend, and to

Psalms 10:1 — in the formed psalm; which the Greek and Latin versions make to be one and the same with this, as having no title, and tending almost to the same purpose. Hence the difference in numbers, which holdeth almost to the end of the psalter, viz. to Psalms 148:1-14 . Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? — So God seemeth to do when he helpeth not presently; neither doth anything more trouble the saints in affliction than the want of God’s gracious presence. This maketh them thus to expostulate

Psalms 22:12 — slipped aside, Saul’s spear stuck fast in the wall. In like manner, saith a divine, Christ standing before the tree of his cross, put on a red garment dipped and dyed in his own blood, as one that cometh with red garments from Bozra, Isaiah 63:1 . Therefore the devil and his agents, like wild bulls of Bashan, ran at him. But he, saving himself, their horns stick fast in the cross; as Abraham’s ram by his horns stuck fast in the briers.

Psalms 26:5 — to die, being in much trouble of conscience, O Lord, let me not go to hell where the wicked are, for, Lord, thou knowest I never loved their company here. And will not sit with the wicked — But hate the very garment spotted by the flesh, Judges 1:2-3 ; that is, avoid evil company, saith Mr Perkins, as Leviticus 15:4 ; so Deuteronomy 22:12 . It is not safe coming near stinking carrion, except one have the wind of it. Sin is as catching as the plague.

Psalms 31:1 — Musician, A Psalm of David. » In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. A Psalm of David — Made, say Vatablus and others, at that time when Saul pursued David in the wilderness of Maon, 1 Samuel 23:24 . But by many circumstances and passages of this psalm it appeareth more probable that it was, as the former, composed when Absalom was up, 2 Samuel 15:10-12 Sss Psalms 31:11-12 ; Psalms 31:22 of this psalm, with 2 Samuel 17:24 ; 2 Samuel

Psalms 6:9 — to my soul; as Ahasuerus afterwards did to his Esther, by granting her request. But how knew David, and how doth many another man in like sort know that God hath heard his prayer, though as yet no visible return appeareth? I answer, This he may know, 1. By a cast of God’s pleased countenance. 2. By the testimony of his own conscience, Philippians 4:6-7 , and by the assurance of faith, which saith to a man, as the angel once did to Cornelius, Thy prayers are heard and answered. Of Luther we read,

Psalms 7:5 — and take it — Thus he cleareth himself by a holy imprecation (the Spanish Bible hath the Shiggaion Davidis, in the title, Purgatio Davidis, as the same Hebrew word çשׁà signifieth both sin and purification from sin, Psalms 51:1-19 ), taking God to witness his innocence and good conscience, and wishing evil to himself if it were otherwise. This he did from a good cause, in a good manner, and for a good end. And not as many profane ones do today, who, taxed, though never so