Bible Commentaries

Genesis 16:5 — I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee. My wrong be upon thee. — The greatest wrong doers are the greatest complainers commonly; as Exodus 2:13-14 guiltiness is ever exceptious and clamorous. Here be verba stomachantis atque imprecantis . Or, as some think rather, verba implorantis vindictam divinam seque consolantis spe defensionis divinae . Take it which way you will, as a passionate person,

Genesis 22:10 — utinamoque oculos in pectora posses Inserere . - Sol Phaetonti, apud Ovid. But a man in Christ is more than a man, and can do that which other men cannot reach unto. It was a matter of blame to the carnal Corinthians, that "they walked as men". 1 Corinthians 3:3 And our Saviour looks for some singular thing to be done to those that pretend to him. Matthew 5:47 Abraham had denied himself in his beloved Isaac, and therefore went an end with his work, hard though it were. Another that hath not

Genesis 3:6 — she gave him the fruit, she gave him also a relation of the serpent’s promise concerning the force of that fruit, that it would make them wise as God, knowing good and evil, …, whence he is said to have hearkened to her voice. Genesis 3:17 And surely, every Adam hath still his Eve, every David his Bathsheba, a tempter in his own bosom, his own flesh, whereby he is so soon "drawn away, and enticed" as a fish by the bait, - beauty Dελεξομενος

Genesis 32:4 — Laban, and stayed there until now: Unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob, … — This was not baseness of spirit, much less a renouncing of his birthright and blessing; but a necessary submission for a time, such as was that of David to Saul, 1 Samuel 24:7 ; 1 Samuel 24:9 till the prophecy of his superiority should be fulfilled. That was baseness in the Samaritans, that in writing to Antiochus Epiphanes, that great king of Syria, because he tormented the Jews, to excuse themselves that they

Ezra 1:7 — Titus, and recovered from Gensericus) into the public treasury, but restored them. Which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth — With profane and sacrilegious hands some of these sacred vessels and utensils of the Temple he had cut in pieces, 2 Kings 24:13 , and others he carried away, 2 Chronicles 36:7 , whole and entire. This he did out of covetousness (that auri sacra fames ) and in scorn of all religion (rather than hatred of the Jewish superstition, or to avenge the quarrel of God’s covenant),

Esther 8:11 — the people and province that would assault them, [both] little ones and women, and [to take] the spoil of them for a prey, Wherein the king granted the Jews — The slaughter, therefore, that they made of their enemies was not unlawful; because, 1. They were armed with authority. 2. In their own necessary defence. To gather themselves together — Which till now they might not do, lest it should seem a riot or rebellion. Conquerors use to disarm and disperse those whom they have vanquished,

Esther 9:26 — Thereby to perpetuate the memory of that mercy, worthy to be engraven in pillars of marble. This was a notable name; for it served to remind the Jews of all that God had done for them at this bout. As there is edification in the choice of fit psalms, 1 Corinthians 14:26 , so in the imposing of fit names upon persons, things, and times. As the Christian Sabbath is to good purpose called the Lord’s day; and those festivities of Easter and Whitsuntide were not so fitly called Pasch and Pentecost

Job 1:7 — said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan — Either by forming and creating a voice in the air, as Matthew 3:17 Job 12:25 , or by an inward word, after an unspeakable manner; manifesting his will, as he willed, to Satan. The schoolmen have great disputes about the speech of spirits, but this they agree in, that the intention of one spirit is as plain an expression

Job 26:2 — How hast thou helped [him that is] without power? [how] savest thou the arm [that hath] no strength? How hast thou helped him that is without power? — q.d. Full well hast thou done it, surely. (See a like irony Mark 7:9 1 Corinthians 4:8 ; 1 Corinthians 4:10 ) Thou art a very goodly comforter, and with a great deal of wisdom thou hast framed thy discourse to my present necessity. Thou lookest upon me as a poor, forlorn, strengthless, fruitless creature. Thou shouldest

Job 29:25 — he was at once both feared as a king, and loved as a comforter. As one that comforteth the mourners — That mourn for the loss of some dear thing or person, as the word signifieth, and especially for the loss of God’s favour, as Zechariah 12:10 , groaning under the sense of sin and fear of wrath. Now to comfort such mourners in Zion is as difficult a work as to raise the dead, saith Lather; and scarce one of a thousand can skill of it, Job 33:23 . Every Christian should have feeding lips

Job 34:30 — That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared. That the hypocrite reign not — That he reign no longer. Almighty God taketh order, by putting these mighties from their seat, and exalting them of low degree, Luke 1:52 . And why? 1. Lest the hypocrite, or the impure and impious man, reign; such as was Jehu, Herod, Julian, our Richard III, Pope Sixtus Quintus, of whom one saith, that he was the most crouching humble cardinal that ever was lodged in an oven, and

Job 42:11 — world’s usage. Tempera si fuerint nubila, solus eris. Summer birds there are not a few; Samaritans who would own the Jews while they flourished but otherwise disavow them; as they did to Antiochus Epiphanes: rich Job had many friends, Proverbs 14:20 . Qui tamen persistebant amicitia sicut lepus iuxta tympanum, as the proverb is. All this good Job passeth by, and forgetting all unkindnesses, magnificently treateth them; as Isaac in like case had done Abimelech and his train, Genesis 26:30 . And

Job 6:4 — me. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me — What marvel, then, though his flesh had no rest, but he was troubled on every side, since without were fightings, within were fears? 2 Corinthians 7:5 . The arrows, not of a mighty man, as Psalms 127:4 , but of an Almighty God; troubles without and terrors within. David felt these arrows, and complaineth of them heavily, Psalms 38:1-2 . "He shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded," saith he of his enemies who

Ecclesiastes 7:14 — Thus God sets the one against the other, as it were, in equilibrio, in even balance, for our greatest good. Sometimes he weighs us in the balance and finds us too light, then he thinks best to make us "heavy through manifold temptations." 1 Peter 1:6 Sometimes he finds our water somewhat too high, and then as a physician, no less cunning than loving, he fits us with that which will reduce all to the healthsome temper of a broken spirit. But if we be but prosperity proof, there is no such

Isaiah 26:19 — [men] shall live, [together with] my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew [is as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Thy dead men shall rise. — So shall not thine enemies. Isaiah 26:14 This may seem to be Christ’s gracious answer to his poor desponding people; and it is, say some, argumentum a beata resurrectione sumptum, an argument taken from the happy resurrection of the righteous; the wicked also shall be raised at the

Hosea 2:13 — Y la visitaré en los días de los baales, en que les quemó incienso, y se engalanó con sus zarcillos y sus alhajas, y fue tras sus amantes, y me olvidó, dice el SEÑOR. Ver. 13. Y la visitaré en los días de los baales ] Es decir, castigaré los pecados cometidos en aquellos días en que fueron tras aquella multitud de dioses paganos: 30.000 de ellos cuenta Hesíodo en sus días. Y Servio sobre Virgilio nos dice que por temor

Hosea 2:17 — For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth — So precise she shall be, so circumspect, according to Exodus 23:13 , that she should spit out of her mouth those dunghill deities with utmost contempt, as David had done before her, Psalms 16:4 . If bodily filthiness may not be once named among Christians, Ephesians 5:3 , why should spiritual? The primitive Christians

Hosea 7:2 — own affections. He is never less alone than when he is alone; for still he hath God and himself to talk to. That I remember all their wickedness — i.e. Record and register them, as in a book, with a pen of iron and point of a diamond, Jeremiah 17:1 ; that I seal them up in a bag, Job 14:17 , as the clerk of assizes seals up indictments, and at the assizes brings his bag, and produceth them. "Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?" Deuteronomy 32:34

Malachi 3:15 — set up; yea, [they that] tempt God are even delivered. And now we call the proud happy — Such as, boiling and swelling with spite and spleen against God and his people, deal arrogantly and insolently, doing wickedly with hands earnestly, Exodus 18:11 ; Exodus 21:11 , and working their own ends confidently and daringly; these we call and count happy, because wealthy and well underlaid, as they say, because they live in the height of the world’s blandishments. But the whole book of Ecclesiastes

2 Peter 3:16 — unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Hard to be understood — See my True Treasure. In things necessary the Scripture is plain and easy; and the very entrance thereinto giveth light, saith David, Psalms 119:30 ; yea, subtilty and sagacity, saith Solomon, Proverbs 1:4 . And for the more dark and difficult places, Legum obscuritates non assignemus culpae scribentium, sed inscitiae non assequentium, saith he in Gellius, the fault is not to be laid upon