Bible Commentaries

Esther 3:10 — And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. And the king took his ring from his hand — And thereby gave him power to do what he pleased, Genesis 41:42 1 Kings 21:8 , En regis huius inertiam et impcritiam. How weak (weak as water, Genesis 49:4 ) was the heart of this brutish barbarian, skilful to destroy! Ezekiel 21:31 , seeing he did all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman, Ezekiel

Esther 4:5 — air of that city, they breathed δικαιοσυνη , righteousness and devotion; so it might very well be here. It was so with Abraham’s servants, and Solomon’s, and Cornelius’s, Acts 10:7 . Nero complained (and no wonder) that he could never find a faithful servant. What could they learn from him but villany and cruelty? And gave him a commandment to Mordecai — i.e. She commanded him to deliver her mind to Mordecai. A servant

Esther 6:1 — been hanged on the morrow morning, and so early that Esther could not have begged his life, would she never so fain. God will appear for his poor people, εν τω καιρω , in the nick and opportunity of time, 1 Peter 5:6 . He will be seen in the mount, he will come as out of an engine. Could not the king sleep — Heb. the king’s sleep fled away, and, like a shadow, it fled away so much the faster as it was more followed. Sleep is best solicited

Job 2:5 — But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. Ver 5. But put forth thine hand now — See Trapp on " Job 1:11 " This God did at Satan’s motion, yet non ad exitium Iobi, sed ad exercitium; not for the destruction of Job but his training, Job’s temptation is of Satan, but his trial and invincible constancy is of God. God in a sense tempted

Psalms 19:12 — but do fly to God by prayer; and three things I have to beg of him: First, That he would graciously pardon my secret sins and errors, unknown to myself, or at least to others. Secondly, That he would keep me from proud and presumptuous sins, Psalms 19:13 . Thirdly, That he would bridle my tongue and mind from speaking, or but thinking, aught that may be offensive to his majesty, Psalms 19:14 . For the first of these, Humanum est, errare et ignorare suum, It is incident to every man to err, and then

Ecclesiastes 7:3 — their own hearts, and the allurements of this present evil world. These tears drive away the devil much better than holy water, as they call it; they quench hell flames, and as April showers, they bring on in full force the May flowers both of grace 1 Peter 5:5 and of glory. Jeremiah 4:14 What an ill match therefore make our mirthmongers, that purchase laughter many times with shame, loss, misery, beggary, rottenness of body, distress, damnation, that hunt after it to hell, and light a candle at

Ecclesiastes 9:1 — lights upon the best gardens, as well as upon the wild waste. Ahab’s and Josiah’s ends concur in the very circumstances. Saul and Jonathan, though different in their deportments, yet "in their deaths they were not divided." 2 Samuel 1:23 How far wide then is the Church of Rome, that borrows her marks from the market, plenty or cheapness, … And what an odd kind of reasoning was that of her champions with Marsh the martyr, Acts and Mon., fol. 14, 21. whom they would have persuaded

Hosea 10:13 — devil’s yoke, and promoted his kingdom with sides and shoulders; they let out the strength of their spirits for the furtherance of sin, and were at no small pains to go to hell, as being the devil’s hinds and horses to draw his plough, Proverbs 21:4 . "Even as I have seen," saith Eliphaz, "they that plough iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same," Job 4:8 . Ye have reaped iniquity, saith our prophet, that is dignum factis praemium, the reward of your wickedness. And her

Hosea 4:12 — Priapus, brings him in saying “ Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum. ” So the prophet cries shame upon the house of Israel for saying to a stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth, Jeremiah 2:27 Isaiah 44:11 . But to such senseless practices men fall many times when they grow sensual; see 2 Thessalonians 2:10 Revelation 17:5 . Spiritual whoredom and bodily go usually together. Rivet tells us here of a nobleman that went out of the church from hearing mass

Hosea 4:9 — many millions of souls as by them were daily sent down to him. The priests might haply hope to be privileged and provided for in a common calamity, for their office sake; as Chrysostom saith that Aaron (though in the same fault with Miriam, Numbers 12:1 , yet) was not smitten with leprosy as she, for the honour of the priesthood ( δια το της ειροσυνης αξιωμα . Chrys.), lest

Hosea 6:8 — πονηροπολις ; such a city there was in Greece, and so called by King Philip, for the naughtiness of the inhabitants. This Gilead was one of those ten cities of refuge beyond Jordan, given to the priests for a possession, Joshua 21:38 , …, and probably the chief city, which therefore bare the name of the whole country, as Athens was called the Greece of Greece ( ’ Eλλας ‘ Eλλαδος ). The inhabitants

Hosea 7:15 — Though I have bound [and] strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. Though I have bound and strengthened their arms — Quum ego erudivi, so Pagnine, Polanus, and others; when I taught them, or chastened them, as Hosea 7:12 , "and strengthened their arms"; there is no and in the original; it is an asyndeton; to show that God had done both for them, together and at once: he had acted the part both of an instructor and of a surgeon (like as, Revelation 3:18 ,

Hosea 9:12 — [be] a man [left]: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them! Though they bring up children, yet will I bereave them — "If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread," Job 27:14 . This was fulfilled in Ahab’s seventy sons, beheaded together, 2 Kings 10:6-7 , in whom be had vainly promised himself the establishment of his house, which God had threatened to root out: in Jehu and his posterity after the fourth generation:

Amos 2:9 — of the cedars, and he [was] strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them — It is not usual with God to hit men in the teeth with what he hath done for them, James 1:5 , unless in case of unthankfulness, as here. Then, indeed, people shall hear of what they have had, and be taught the worth of good turns by the want of them. Good turns aggravate unkindnesses; and our offences are not a little increased by our obligations.

Amos 8:9 — Diodati) to encumber the land with horrible and mournful calamities, when it shall be least thought of. Earthquakes, inundations, sudden and dreadful darkness, are sure effects and signs of God’s heavy displeasure against men’s sins, Psalms 18:8 ; Psalms 18:12 Matthew 24:6-7 Luke 21:10-11 Joel 2:10 Jeremiah 15:8-9 , and promise contrary to this threat, Job 18:5-6 . I will cause the sun to go down at noon — A sudden change, as was at Sodom; the sun was fair risen upon it that very day

Amos 9:7 — ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me — The emphasis lieth in this last word, "unto me," who am no respecter of persons, "but in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him," Acts 10:35 . Unto yourselves indeed you seem some great business, because Israelites; "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants," Romans 9:4 . To others also you seem a great nation, yea, a wise and understanding people,

Micah 2:3 — the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time [is] evil. Behold, against this family do I devise an evil — They had devised iniquity, Micah 2:1 , and now he deviseth their misery. God usually retaliates, and proportions provocation to provocation, Deuteronomy 32:21 , frowardness to frowardness, Psalms 18:26 , contrariety to contrariety, Leviticus 26:18 ; Leviticus 26:21 , and device to device,

Micah 4:3 — Greeks, and the censors among the Romans. This seems to have been the effect of that old prophecy among the Easterlings, that Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur, some that came out of Jewry should conquer all. Vide Sueton. in Vespas., et Tacit. lib. 21. The Lord that "sent the rod of his strength out of Zion," as Micah 4:2 , doth also give him to "rule in the midst of his enemies, while his people are willing in the day of his power, in the beauties of holiness," Psalms 110:3 ,

Habakkuk 2:3 — Austin, he is come, he is come (Mr Glover. Act. and Mon.). And not lie — That is, not disappoint; as the earth is said to lie when it yields not her expected increase. God is faithful, and cannot lie. Christ hath a rainbow on his head, Revelation 10:1 , to show that be is faithful and constant in his promises, and that tempests which blow over the sky shall be cleared. He hath hitherto kept promise witb nights and days, that the one shall succeed the other, Jeremiah 33:20 ; Jeremiah 33:25 , and

2 Samuel 17:23 — divine, of an oraculous counsellor, have turned such a notorious fool or madman, as to put his house in order, and himself into such a desperate and irrecoverable confusion. But the world’s wizards must show themselves in their colours. Romans 1:22 Cato first readeth Plato’s book of the immortality of the soul, and then stabbeth himself at Utica. Pliny thinketh that God never gave a man any greater happiness than this, that he may die when he pleaseth. Sensit idem et reipsa comprobavit