Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 41:29 — Behold, they are all vanity - They are unable to predict future events; they are unable to defend their friends, or to injure their enemies. This is the conclusion of the trial or debate (notes, Isaiah 41:1), and that conclusion is, that they were utterly destitute of strength, and that they were entirely unworthy of confidence and regard.Their molten images - (See the note at Isaiah 40:19).Are wind - Have no solidity or power. The doctrine of the whole

Isaiah 61:5 — And strangers shall stand - (See the notes at Isaiah 14:1-2; Isaiah 60:10).And feed your flocks - The keeping of flocks constituted a very considerable part of the husbandry of those who dwelt in Palestine. Of course, any considerable prosperity of a spiritual nature would be well represented by an accession

Isaiah 62:3 — Thou shalt also be a crown of glory - On the application of the word ‘crown’ to a place, see the notes at Isaiah 28:1, where it is applied to Samaria. Some difficulty has been felt by expositors in explaining this, from the fact that a crown or diadem was worn on the head and not held in the hand, and some have supposed that the word ‘crown’ here is equivalent to any

Lamentations 4:17-20 — A rapid sketch of the last days of the siege and the capture of the king.Lamentations 4:17Rather, “Still do our eyes waste away looking for our vain help.”In our watching - Or, “on our watchtower.”Lamentations 4:18Or, They hunted “our steps that we could not go out into the streets. To hunt” means here to lie in ambush, and catch by snares;

Ezekiel 16:35-43 — Judah is now represented as undergoing the punishment adjudged to an adulteress and murderess. Only in her utter destruction shall the wrath of the Lord, the jealous God, cease.Ezekiel 16:36Filthiness - Or, brass, i. e., money, is lavished. The Hebrews generally speak of money as gold Isaiah 46:6, but brass coins were not unknown in the time of the Maccabees. Compare Matthew 10:9; Mark 12:41. Ezekiel may here have put brass for gold

Ezekiel 24:16-27 — signify to the people that the Lord would take from them all that was most dear to them; and - owing to the extraordinary nature of the times - quiet lamentation for the dead, according to the usual forms of mourning, would be impossible.Ezekiel 24:17The priest in general was to mourn for his dead (Leviticus 21:1 ff); but Ezekiel was to be an exception to the rule. The “tire” was the priest’s mitre.Eat not the bread of men - Food supplied for the comfort of the mourners.Ezekiel 24:23Pine away -

Ezekiel 40:48-49 — up the “five cubits” on either side the central entrance, which, like the entrance into the temple itself, was ten cubits. Thus we have twenty cubits for the porch-front.Ezekiel 40:49The porch of Solomon’s Temple was twenty cubits broad and ten deep 1 Kings 6:3. This corresponds nearly with the dimensions of Ezekiel’s porch; the difference in the breadth may be explained by supposing a space of one cubit in front of the porch (as Ezekiel 40:11-12). The circumstance of this porch being approached

Ezekiel 42:3 — These “chambers” (compare Ezekiel 46:19) did not reach to the western wall; between it and them lay a court for cooking (M), probably forty cubits by thirty; such court with its approaches filled up the corner of fifty cubits square, as in the case of the kitchen-courts for the people. In

Ezekiel 8:3 — on the “outside” of this gate, so that the “image of jealousy” was set up in the outer or people’s court over against the northern entrance to the priest’s court. This image was the image of a false god provoking Yahweh to “jealousy” Deuteronomy 32:16, Deu 32:21; 1 Kings 14:22. It may be doubted whether the scenes described in this chapter are intended to represent what actually occurred. They may be ideal pictures to indicate the idolatrous corruption of priests and people. And this is in accordance

Ezekiel 9:4 — mercy precedes judgment. So in the case of Sodom Genesis 19:0, and in the last day Luke 21:18, Luke 21:28; Revelation 7:1. This accords with the eschatological character of the predictions in this chapter (see the introduction of Ezekiel).A mark - literally, “Tau,” the name of the last letter of the Hebrew

Joel 1:9 — place of all other inheritance. The meat and drink offerings were emblems of the materials of the holy eucharist, by which Malachi foretold that, when God had rejected the offering of the Jews, there should be a “pure offering” among the pagan Joel 1:11. When then holy communions become rare, the meat and drink offering are literally cut off from the house of the Lord, and those who are indeed priests, the ministers of the Lord, should mourn. Joel foretells that, however love should wax cold, there

Amos 5:1 — strength so fleeting, that the prophet of decay finds a response in man’s own conscience, however he may silence or resent it. He would not resent it, unless he felt its force.Dionysius: “Amos, an Israelite, mourneth over Israel, as Samuel did over Saul 1 Samuel 15:35, or as Isaiah says, “I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people” Isaiah 22:4; images of Him who wept over Jerusalem.” “So are they bewailed, who know not why they are bewailed, the

Amos 7:3 — The Lord repented for this - God is said to “repent, to have strong compassion upon” or “over” evil, which He has either inflicted Deuteronomy 32:36; 1 Chronicles 21:15, or has said that He would inflict Exodus 32:12; Joel 2:13; Jonah 3:10; Jeremiah 18:8, and which, upon repentance or prayer, He suspends or checks. Here, Amos does not intercede until after the judgment had been, in part, inflicted.

Micah 7:4 — prophets, had so long foreseen and forewarned of. “Now shall be their perplexity” ; “now”, without delay; for the day of destruction ever breakcth suddenly upon the sinner. “When they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them” 1 Thessalonians 5:3. : “whose destruction cometh suddenly at an instant”. They had perplexed the cause of the oppressed; they themselves were tangled together, intertwined in mischief, as a thorn-hedge. They should be caught in their own snare; they had

Nahum 2:8 — But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water - that is, of many peoples Revelation 17:1, gathered from all quarters and settled there, her multitudes being like the countless drops, full, untroubled, with no ebb or flow, fenced in, “from the days that she hath been,” yet even therefore stagnant and corrupted (see Jeremiah 48:11), not

Malachi 2:8 — it; much as we now hear Christianity spoken against, because of the inconsistency of Christians. So Paul saith to the Jews Romans 2:24, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written;” and, for the sins of Eli’s sons (1 Samuel 2:17, Pococke) “men abhorred the offering of the Lord.”And have corrupted the covenant of Levi - as it is said in Nehemiah, Nehemiah 13:29, “They have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood and of Levi, that covenant which

Matthew 12:6-7 — to my disciples a dispensation from those laws. An act which I command or permit them to do is therefore right.” This proves that he was divine. None but God can authorize people to do a thing contrary to the divine laws. He refers them again Matthew 12:7 to a passage he had before quoted (See the notes at Matthew 9:13), showing that God preferred acts of righteousness, rather than a precise observance of a ceremonial law.Mark adds Mark 2:27 “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

Matthew 27:33 — Golgotha, or Calvary, was probably a small eminence on the northwest of Jerusalem, without the walls of the city, but at a short distance. Jesus was put to death out of the city, because capital punishments were not allowed within the walls. See Numbers 15:35; 1 Kings 21:13. This was a law among the Romans as well as the Jews. He also died there, because the bodies of the beasts slain in sacrifice as typical of him were “burned without the camp.” He also, as the antitype, suffered “without the gate,”

Matthew 8:17 — Our English translation of that important passage is, “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” The Greek in Matthew is an exact translation of the Hebrew, and the same translation should have been made in both places. In Isaiah 53:1-12, Isaiah fully states the doctrine of the atonement, or that the Messiah was to suffer for sin. In the verse quoted here, however, he states the very truth which Matthew declares. The word translated “griefs” in Isaiah, and “infirmities” in Matthew,

Matthew 8:27 — threatens to ingulf him, he comes trembling to the Saviour. He hears; he rebukes the storm, and the sinner is safe. An indescribable peace takes possession of the soul, and he glides on a tranquil sea to the haven of eternal rest. See Isaiah 57:20-21; Romans 5:1; Philippians 4:7.