Bible Commentaries

Genesis 17:1 — conqueror: others, a destroyer, which a conqueror must needs be. Eundem victorem et vastatorem esse oportet , saith Cameron. And to this the Scripture alludes when it saith Shod shall come from Shaddai , "Destruction from the Almighty". Isaiah 13:6 Some there are that derive Shaddai of Shad a dug, because God feeds his children with sufficiency of all good things, as the loving mother doth the child with the milk of her breasts. Hence the heathen called Diana (and likewise Ceres) πολυμαθον

Genesis 17:8 — proclamation not so much as to look toward it, from any tower or high mountain. Funccius. Yea, long before this, the Lord, for their wickedness, counted them but usurpers, and called them "sojourners in that land." Ezekiel 20:38 ; Ezekiel 11:15 If men forfeit their privileges, God may, at his pleasure, take the forfeiture, and disprivilege them, as he did Saul, and Judas, who "by transgression fell" from his office, "that he might go to his own place". Acts 1:25 I will

Genesis 22:13 — — Be like the angel called behind him; which when he turned to listen to, he spied the ram caught in a thicket, Heb., Sabbech , which signifies the perplexity; winding or binding of a bush or brier. And to this both David seems to allude, Psalms 116:19 and the son of David in that famous "Lama Sabachthani" of his. Mark 15:34 And Abraham went and took the ram, … — How likely is it, saith one, Bastard’s Serm. on Genesis 22:1 . that we will offer to God Isaac, our joy,

Genesis 26:22 — land. And he removed from thence, … — See here a pattern of a patient and peaceable disposition, not broken by the continual injuries and affronts of the Philistines, that maligned and molested him, "I am peace," saith David; Psalms 120:7 and I, saith Isaac; and I, saith every son of peace, every child of wisdom. How well might good Isaac take up that of David, and say, "My feet stand in an even place" Barthol. Westmer., in Ps. xxvi. Psalms 26:12 now that he was at Rehoboth

Genesis 27:42 — mere mercy of "the Father of lights," who was pleased to put a divine sentence into the mouth of the king. Sorex suo perit indicio. Hunc tibi pugionem mittit Senatus, dixit ille: detexit facinus fatuus, et non implevit. So here. See the like, 1 Samuel 19:2 Acts 9:24 ; Acts 23:16 . And she sent and called Jacob. — Why did she not call both her sons together, and make them friends, by causing the younger to resign up his blessing to the elder? Because she preferred heaven before earth,

2 Kings 20:3 — obedience in their lives issuing from there. And Hezekiah wept sore. — Heb., With a great weeping. See on 2 Kings 20:2 . Now if the message of death made this good man weep sore, and the approach of it was mar mar, bitter bitterness, Isaiah 38:17 what marvel if such a one as Saul swoon quite away at it, and fall to the earth in his full length, as in 1 Samuel 28:20 ? Death is dreadful in his best looks, as is the lion, though his teeth and claws be beaten out; or as the hawk to the partridge;

Ezra 9:1 — shallow-brained but many headed beast, that loves to follow the herd and do as the most do, though thereby they be utterly undone for ever. And the priests, and the Levites — This was much; for these knew the law, and made their boast of it, Romans 2:18 ; Romans 2:23 . They could not be ignorant of the unlawfulness of this mixing themselves in marriage with heathens not proselyted. Now sins against knowledge and conscience are of a double dye, of a crimson colour; and make a great breach, a deep gash

Nehemiah 5:7 — of the fault these are duly warm, and tend to make the medicine work more kindly. Every one of his brother — This was a presumptuous violation of the law, Exodus 22:25 Leviticus 25:36-37 , and a sin that they had soundly smarted for, Ezekiel 22:12 . Usurers are men eaters, Psalms 14:4 , like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in the sea, that devour the lesser fishes. A.D. 1235, there were spread through England certain Roman usurers, called Caursini ( quasi capientes ursi, devouring bears, quoth

Nehemiah 6:6 — public person needeth carry a spare handkerchief to wipe off dirt cast upon him by disaffected persons, that seek to soil their reputation, and to deprave their best actions. And Gashmu saith so — Geshmu, alias Geshem, the Arabian, Nehemiah 6:1-2 , a worthy wight, a credible witness. Nehemiah might well have replied, as Seneca did in like case, Male de me loquuntur, sed mali. Gashmu’s tongue was no slander; for he was known to be mendaeiorum artifex, one that had taught his tongue the

Esther 4:1 — γινομενον , saith Josephus, when he had learned or fully informed himself, so that he knew it to be so, as the Hebrew text hath it (Jadang.). Solicitous he was of the Church’s welfare, and sat listening, as Eli did once, what would become of the ark, 1 Samuel 3:13 . Now therefore, as ill news is swift of foot, saith Sophocles, αι βλαβαι ποδωκεις , and comes like ill weather, before it be sent for, Mordecai

Esther 6:14 — would have found out for him some good occasion, some means of supplanting Mordecai, now his co-rival and counterfactionist, and of incensing the king against him, that he might build upon his ruins. But the hope of unjust men shall perish, Proverbs 11:7 , Etiam spes valentissimo perit, so some render it, and themselves with it. As Haman had not one to speak for him when the king frowned upon him; so here he hath not one to speak to his heart, or to shore him up, now that he is upon the fall. Those

Job 1:13 — eldest brother’s house: And there was a day — A dismal day it proved to Job, "a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness," as Zephaniah 1:15 . That subtle serpent set upon mischief, purposely picketh out such a time to do it as wherein such a sad and sudden change was least of all looked for; and then lays on amain (as if he were wood) with the hail shot, hell shot of sharpest afflictions.

Job 13:27 — paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet. Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks — Mercer here observeth an elegant gradation in God’s proceeding with Job, as himself describeth it, rising higher and higher in his discourse. 1. God hid his face, and denied him his favour. 2. He counted him as his enemy. 3. He broke him like a leaf or stubble. 4. He wrote bitter things against him. 5. He made him possess the sins of his youth. 6. For his young sins he claps him up close prisoner

Job 22:14 — him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven. Thick clouds are a covering to him — He lieth close hid among the clouds, and seeth nothing. But be the clouds never so thick, Christ’s eyes are a flaming fire, Revelation 1:14 . And the school of nature teacheth, that the fiery eye needeth no outward light, but seeth extra mittendo, by sending out a ray, … He will freely blot out the sins of his people as a cloud, and their transgressions as a thick cloud, Isaiah

Job 24:12 — not folly [to them]. Men groan from out of the city — viz. Under the pressures of their oppressors. Thus did Jerusalem, that faithful city, when once become a harlot; it was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers, Isaiah 1:21 . The like did the city of Rome, when, under the government of Marius set up against Sulla, she cried out that the remedy was worse than the disease; and under Pompey, Calamitas nostra magnus est; Our calamity is great, and under the Caesars, that

Job 3:15 — do, he slighted them. These princes that had gold, and filled their houses with silver, what would not they have given to have bought off death? but riches avail not in the day of wrath; it is righteousness only that delivereth from death, Proverbs 11:4 . Thrice happy, then, are they who are rich to God, as our Saviour phraseth it, who have the Almighty to be their gold; and who have silver of strength, as Eliphaz speaketh, Job 22:25 . Who filled their houses with silver — That is, their graves,

Job 3:21 — wealth, will dig to hell, light a candle at the devil, as they say: with such an eagerness of desire do some (that have little reason for it, all things reckoned) long and labour after death, not to be rid of sin, or to be with Christ, as Philippians 1:23 , but to be freed from misery incumbent or impendent. Thus Cato (having first read Plato’s book of the soul’s immortality) committed suicide, that he might not fall into the hands of the conqueror. Thus Adrian the emperor, having lain

Job 31:9 — door; If my heart hath been deceived by a woman — By a female sinner, as they call such, a strange woman (as the Scripture), whose lips are snares, whose hands are bands, whose words are cords to draw a man in, as an ox to the slaughter, Proverbs 7:21 , whose face is as a glass, wherein while larks gaze they are taken in a day net ( ôçä , Hinc πειθω , persuadeo ). Here Job disavoweth and disclaimeth the sin of adultery, purging himself, as it were, by

Job 4:5 — is a galling. But hitherto Eliphaz had commended Job; now he dasheth all, and draweth a black line over that he had spoken once. To commend a man with a but is a wound instead of a commendation; it sounds like that which is said of Naaman, 2 Kings 5:1 , he was an honourable and a valiant man, but a leper; it sprinkleth black upon white, and so smutteth a man’s good name, which is slander in a high degree. It is come upon thee — What is come? The evil thou fearedst, by thine own confession,

Job 5:14 — without, but want light within; they lack discretion and judgment to do for the best: this was threatened, Deuteronomy 28:29 , and accordingly fulfilled upon those blind Pharisees, as our Saviour often calleth them, and now upon that whole nation, Romans 11:18 2 Corinthians 3:14 . Since they crucified the Lord of glory, they never prospered in anything they uudertook, neither will they be driven out of that fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage whereinto they have long since wrought themselves: They