Bible Commentaries

Hosea 11:8 — sins, worthy to be utterly destroyed, with no trace, no memorial, save that eternal desolation like the five “cities of the plain,” of which were Sodom and Gomorrah, which God “hath set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” Jude 1:7. Such was their desert. But God says, with inexpressible tenderness, “Mine heart is turned within Me” literally, “upon Me or against Me,” so as to be a burden to Him; as we say of the heart, that it is “heavy.” God deigneth to speak as if His love

Hosea 8:1 — The trumpet to thy mouth! - So God bids the prophet Isaiah, “Cry aloud, spare not, llft up thy voice like a trumpet” Isaiah 58:1. The prophets, as watchmen, were set by God to give notice of His coming judgments Ezekiel 33:3; Amos 3:6. As the sound of a war-trumpet would startle a sleeping people, so would God have the prophet’s warning burst upon their sleep of sin. The ministers

Hosea 8:12 — then wrote, were “the great things of His law” (as the converted Jews, on the day of Pentecost speak of “the great” or “wonderful things of God” ) or “the manifold things of His law,” as the Apostle speaks of “the manifold wisdom of God” Ephesians 3:10, and says, that “God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” Hebrews 1:1.They were counted as a strange thing by them - These “great,” or “manifold things of God’s law,” which ought to have been continually

Joel 2:16 — feedeth the young ravens when they cry, will not neglect the cry of poor children. He assigns as a reason, why it were fitting to spare Nineveh, the “six-score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left” Jonah 4:11. The sight of them who were involved in their parents’ punishment could not but move the parents to greater earnestness. So when Moab and Ammon 2 Chronicles 20:1-4, 2 Chronicles 20:13, a great multitude, came against Jehoshaphat, he proclaimed a fast

Joel 3:13 — together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them;” and this He explains, “The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the Angels” Matthew 13:30, Matthew 13:39. He then who saith, “put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe,” is the Son of Man, who, before He became the Son of Man, was, as He is now, the Son of God, and spake this and the other things by the Prohets; they to whom He speaketh

Obadiah 1:8 — destroy the wise out of Edom? - It was then no common, no recoverable, loss of wisdom, for God, the Author of wisdom, had destroyed it. The pagan had a proverb, “whom God willeth to destroy, he first dements.” So Isaiah foretells of Judah Isaiah 29:14, “The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid.” Edom was celebrated of old for its wisdom. Eliphaz, the chief of Job’s friends, the representative of human wisdom, was a Temanite Job 4:1. A vestige of

Micah 5:7 — And the remnant of Jacob - Micah (Micah 4:7), as well as Isaiah (Isaiah 10:21), had prophesied, that a remnant only should return unto the Mighty God. These, though very many in themselves, are yet but a remnant only of the unconverted mass; yet this, “the remnant, who shall be saved” Romans 9:27, who believe in Christ, “the

Zechariah 13:1 — In that day there shall be a fountain opened - Zechariah often repeats, “in that day” Zechariah 12:3-4, Zechariah 12:6, Zechariah 12:8-9, Zechariah 12:11; Zechariah 13:1-2, Zechariah 13:4; Zechariah 14:6, Zechariah 14:8, Zechariah 14:13, Zechariah 14:20, resuming his subject again and again, as a time not proximate, but fixed and known of God, of

Zechariah 14:21 — Canaanite had long since ceased to be; the Gibeonites, the last remnant of them, had been absorbed among the people of God. But “all Israel” were not “of Israel.” Isaiah had called its princes and people, “rulers of Sodom, people of Gomorrah” Isaiah 1:10. Ezekiel had said, “Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite” Ezekiel 16:3. Hosea used at least the term of two-fold meaning, “Canaan, in whose

Zechariah 14:5 — future (see the introduction to Amos). Such an earthquake is the more remarkable a visitation in Jerusalem, because it was out of the line of earthquakes. These were to the north and east of Palestine: within it, they were almost unknown (see Amos 4:11, vol. i. p. 286). Interpositions of God even in man’s favor, are full of awe and terror. They are tokens of the presence of the all-holy among the unholy. Fear was an accompaniment of special miracles in the Gospel, not only among the poor Gadarenes

Zechariah 2:8 — from heaven; when Israel had passed the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s hosts were drowned; the election obtained what israel sought for, the rest were blinded. “The glory” then would be the glory, of which God says, “I will be the glory in the midst of you” Romans 11:7.But further He who speaketh is Almighty God, “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, He hath sent me; For lo I wave My hand against them - and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me; Lo I come and dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord, and

Zechariah 8:4 — their maidens were not given to marriage; the priests were slain by the sword and their widows made no lamentation” Psalms 78:63-64; apart from the horrible atrocities of pagan war, when the unborn children were destroyed in their mothers’ womb 2 Kings 15:16; Hosea 13:16; Amos 1:13, with their mothers. Yet (as in Zechariah 1:17), once more as in the days of old, and as conditionally promised in the law Deuteronomy 4:10; Deuteronomy 5:16, Deuteronomy 5:33; Deuteronomy 6:2; Deuteronomy 11:9; Deuteronomy

Matthew 5:14 — The light of the world - The light of the world often denotes the sun, John 11:9. The sun renders objects visible, shows their form, their nature, their beauties, their deformities. The term light is often applied to religious teachers. See Matthew 4:16; Luke 2:32; John 1:4; John 8:12; Isaiah 49:6. It is pre-eminently applied

Mark 1:40-45 — And there came a leper ... - See the notes at Matthew 8:1-4.Kneeling down to him - He kneeled and inclined his face to the ground, in token of deep humiliation and earnest entreaty. Compare Luke 5:12.If thou wilt - This was an acknowledgment of the almighty power of Jesus, and an appeal to his benevolence.Make

Luke 23:43 — garden of Eden means, also, the garden of “pleasure,” and in Genesis 2:8 the Septuagint renders the word “Eden by Paradise.” Hence, this name in the Scriptures comes to denote the abodes of the blessed in the other world. See the notes at 2 Corinthians 12:4. The Jews supposed that the souls of the righteous would be received into such a place, and those of the wicked cast down to Gehenna until the time of the judgment. They had many fables about this state which it is unnecessary to repeat. The plain

John 11:51 — be the truth about the death of Jesus. Great importance was attached to the opinion of the high priest by the Jews, because it was by him that the judgment by Urim and Thummim was formerly declared in cases of importance and difficulty, Numbers 27:21. It is not certain or probable that the high priest ever was endowed with the gift of prophecy; but he sustained a high office, the authority of his name was great, and it was thence remarkable that he uttered a declaration which the result showed to

John 12:31 — whatever he means by judgment here relates to something that was to be accomplished by that death. It cannot mean that then was to be the time in which the world was to be finally judged, for he says that he did not come then to judge the world John 12:47; John 8:15, and he has clearly declared that there shall be a future day when he will judge all mankind. The meaning of it may be thus expressed: “Now is approaching the decisive scene, the eventful period - the crisis - when it shall be determined

Acts 2:47 — the community, and silenced opposition and cavil. This was a remarkable effect, but God has power to silence opposition; and there it nothing so well suited to do this as the humble and consistent lives of his friends.And the Lord added - See Acts 5:14; Acts 11:24, etc. It was the Lord who did this. There was no power in man to do it; and the Christian loves to trace all increase of the church to the grace of God.Added - Caused, or inclined them to be joined to the church.The church - To the assembly

Acts 4:33 — And with great power - See Acts 1:8. The word “power” here denotes “efficacy,” and means that they had “ability” given them to bear witness of the resurrection of the Saviour. it refers, therefore, I rather to their preaching than to their miracles.Gave the apostles witness - The apostles

Acts 8:9 — person. (See the note in Whiston’s Josephus.) Simon Magus was probably a “Jew” or a “Samaritan,” who had addicted himself to the arts of magic, and who was much celebrated for it. He had studied philosophy in Alexandria in Egypt (Mosheim, vol. i., pp. 113, 114, Murdock’s translation), and then lived in Samaria. After he was cut off from the hope of adding to his other powers the power of working miracles, the “fathers” say that he fell into many errors, and became the founder of the sect of the Simonians.