Bible Commentaries

Ecclesiastes 6:2 — is like a stag that hath great horns, but no courage to use them; or rather like an ass loaded with gold and victuals, but feeding upon thistles. Pray we, therefore, that God would together with riches, "give us all things richly to enjoy." 1 Timothy 6:17 Vel mihi da clavem, vel mihi tolle feram. Either give me the key, saith one, or take away the lock. The Greeks describe a good householder to be κτητικον, φυλακτικον,

Ecclesiastes 6:8 — bread, with the disciples; upon a herring or two, as Luther, … This a fool can ill frame to. He eats as a beast with the old world - Tρωγοντες Matthew 24:38 - and "feeds without fear"; Judges 1:12 he "caters for the flesh" Romans 13:14 and "overchargeth it with surfeiting and drunkenness"; Luke 21:34 he measureth not his cheer by that which nature requireth, but that which greedy appetite desireth, as if therein consisteth

Ecclesiastes 7:17 — Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time? Be not wicked over much, — viz., Because thou seest some wicked men live long, and scape scot free for the present, as Ecclesiastes 7:15 . For God may cut thee short enough, and make thee die before thy time - i.e., before thou art fit to die - and when it were better for thee to do anything rather than die, since thou diest in thy sins, which is much worse than to die in a ditch. Now

Ecclesiastes 8:15 — tristitia. Bucholc. Cheerfulness is better pleasing to God than sourness and sullenness: this provokes him to anger, Deuteronomy 28:47 as that which puts a man under the reign of continual unthankfulness - "Is any man merry? let him sing" James 5:13 - makes him exceeding liable to temptations and perplexities, disableth him to make benefit of ordinances, indisposeth and unfitteth him for duties of active or passive obedience, takes off the wheels of the soul, and makes it as awkward as a limb

Isaiah 4:4 — of the soul, the superfluity or garbage of naughtiness, the devil’s vomit. From this abominable filth Christ hath "loved and washed his with his own blood, that he may make them kings and priests unto God and his Father." Revelation 1:5 He not only washeth his people from their sins, but taketh away their swinish natures, whereby they would else return to their former wallowing in the mire as so many Borboritae. Of the daughters of Zion. — Whose pride in apparel, wantonness,

Isaiah 53:6 — All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. — Gone of our own accords, as "longing to wander"; Jeremiah 14:10 to wander as sheep, lost sheep, than the which no creature is more apt to stray, and less able to return. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib. "The very swine accustomed to the trough, if he go abroad, yet at

Isaiah 58:4 — "what hast thou to do with peace?" Confessions and prayers are our messengers; but if the heart be not broken, there is no peace to such wicked. And to smite with the fist of wickedness, — scil., Your servants or your debtors, as Matthew 18:28 . They should have had, on such a day especially, Pacem cum hominibus, cum vitiis bellum (which was Otho II’s motto), Peace with men, and war with their wickednesses. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day. — For ye fast not to God, Zechariah

Jeremiah 17:10 — every turning and winding in the watch. God is the heart maker and the heart mender; neither is there any creature, no, not any creature of the heart, that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened before his eyes. Hebrews 4:13 "Naked" for the outside, and opened for the inside - dissected, quartered, and, as it were, "cleft through the back-bone," as the apostle’s word τετραχηλισμενα

Jeremiah 22:21 — Heb., In thy prosperities, or tranquillities. Prosperity rendereth men refractory. Demetrius called a peaceable and prosperous life a dead sea; because, being not tossed with any considerable troubles, it slayeth the simple, as Solomon hath it. Proverbs 1:32 Men are usually best when worst, and worst when best: like the snake which, when frozen, lieth quiet and still, but waxing warm, stirreth and stingeth. The parable of the sun and the wind is known, Anglica gens est optima flens et pessima ridens.

Jeremiah 6:16 — as one complained of old. He is nobody that cannot invent a new way; but as old wine is better, so is the old way; hold to it therefore. Quod primum verum, a That which was first is true; but beware of new truths that cannot be proven to be old. as 1 John 2:7 “ Qui veteres linquit, calles sequiturque novatos Saepius in fraudes incidet ille suns. ” But they said, We will not walk therein. — So Jeremiah 6:17 , "But they said, We will not hearken." See the like resolute

Daniel 4:27 — counsel than by all the wealth they had from him. But Nebuchadnezzar was as yet uncounsellable, till God had tamed and humbled him. Break off thy sins by righteousness. — Be abrupt in the work, for delays are dangerous; Hebrews 3:7 ; Hebrews 3:13 cut the cart ropes of vanity as soon as may be, lest they pull down upon us heaviest judgments. For the diversion of God’s anger, get sin removed: Anticipa iudicium eius vera rescipiscentia. - Jun. take the bark from the tree, and the sap can

Daniel 6:20 — servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice. — With a piteous distressed voice: far otherwise than did Daniel, Daniel 6:21 who chose rather to be cast into the den of lions than to carry about a lion in his bosom, an enraged conscience, as did Darius here, and afterwards Theodoricus, king of Italy, who had caused Boetius and Symmachus to be unjustly beheaded, but carried

Joel 1:8 — νομιζομενα , iusta defunctorum. It is fit that the body, when sown in corruption, should be watered by the tears of those that plant it in the earth. Only we must not mourn in this case as heathens, without hope, 1 Thessalonians 4:13 . Our grief must not be excessive, either for measure or continuance; neither must we mourn so much for our friends departed as for our sins against God. In the former case baldness is forbidden; in the latter it is required, Isaiah

Amos 3:2 — families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. You only have I known — That is, owned and honoured, called and culled, chosen and accepted to be my people, when I had all the world before me to choose in, Deuteronomy 10:14-15 , and nothing to move me thereto but mine own mere grace, even the good pleasure of my will ( ευδοκια ). Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities — Not passing by the least without

Amos 9:12 — planters of Churches (being Israelites by birth), are said to possess by inheritance, because Christ was pleased to make use of their ministry; and upon these his white horses to ride abroad the world, "conquering, and to conquer," Revelation 6:1-2 . In a like sense it is promised, Isaiah 14:2 , that the house of Israel shall possess their proselytes in the land of the Lord for servants and for handmaids, and take them captives whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors. Such a

Micah 5:7 — shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob — The "remnant according to the election of grace," Romans 11:5 . These are but a few in comparison, as a remnant to the whole piece, or a handful to a houseful; but they shall increase and multiply, by God’s blessing upon them, as is here set forth by two similitudes. First, for their propagation and multiplication,

Micah 5:9 — Church, but thou shalt have the better of them. Thou shalt keep footing still under the standard of the cross, and prevail, Sub militia crucis (Calv.). The mountain of the house of the Lord shall overtop all other mountains of worldly power, Micah 4:1 . It shall be as that mountain not far from Arbela (where the empire of the world was won and lost in one day), called Nicatorium by Alexander the Great, as a constant trophy of that famous victory he there got over Darius, νικατοριον

Micah 7:6 — the men of his own house. For the son dishonoureth the father — Or, revileth the father (Menabbel), be-Nabals him, beknaves him (of Nabal comes Nebulo ), turpitudine afficit, bepastles him, vilifleth him. This is monstrous wickedness, Malachi 1:6 , and a sure sign the devil hath set his limbs in a man that is thus unnatural, fierce, traitorous, heady, high-minded; which yet is foretold of these dregs of time, these last and worst days, both by our Saviour, Matthew 10:21 ; Matthew 10:35-36

Nahum 1:8 — with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof — i.e. Of Nineveh, that great but bloody city, Nahum 3:1 . Her state shall be utterly ruined, as the old world by the general deluge. But because the word here rendered flood is used for rivers that overflow the banks, 2 Chronicles 32:4 , and the adjunct, overrunning, also implies as much, see Isaiah 8:8

Habakkuk 1:4 — compass about the righteous — As a crown compasseth the head; he surroundeth and circumventeth him to his hurt. "The children of this world are wiser in their generation," … The Midianites outwitted the Israelites, Numbers 25:18 . The Pharisees hemmed in our Saviour to insnare him; but were disappointed. Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth — Distorted judgment. So Ezekiel 9:9 , the city was full of Mutteh, that is, of ( mishpat din mitteh, as Kimchi expoundeth it, κατα