Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 66:11 — That ye may suck - The same figure occurs in Isaiah 60:16; and substantidally in Isaiah 49:23. See the note at those places.That ye may milk out - The image is an obvious one. It means that they who sympathized with Zion would be nourished by the same truth, and comforted with the same sources of consolation.And

Jeremiah 10:4 — Isaiah, it is plain that the last 27 chapters of Isaiah were prior in date to Jeremiah’s time, and were not therefore written at the close of the Babylonian exile. This passage then is a crucial one to the pseudo-Isaiah theory. Two answers are attempted,(1) that the pseudo-Isaiah borrowed from Jeremiah. But this is refuted by the style, which is not that usual with Jeremiah.(2) that it is an interpolation in Jeremiah.But how then are we to account for its being found in the Septuagint Version? The only

Ezekiel 9:2 — people.The higher gate - The north gate of the court of the priests. The temple rose by platforms; as there was a north gate to the outer and also to the inner court, the latter was probably distinguished as the “higher gate.” It was built by Jotham 2 Kings 15:35.Clothed with linen - The priestly garment Exodus 28:6, Exodus 28:8; Leviticus 16:4. This “One Man” (Compare Daniel 10:5; Revelation 1:13) was the “angel of the covenant,” the great high priest, superior to those by whom He was surrounded, receiving

Daniel 10:8 — the communication which probably he understood was to be made.And there remained no strength in me - He was completely overcome. A similar effect was produced on John when he was in Patmos: “And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead,” Revelation 1:17. That he should be overcome, and his strength taken away, was not an unnatural effect; and what occurred to Daniel and John may demonstrate that there may be such views of the Divine character and glory now as to prostrate our physical powers. It

Daniel 2:10 — be supposed to be able to interpret the dream, if any could, and on whom most reliance was usually placed.There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter - Chaldee, על־יבשׁתא ‛al-yabeshethâ' - “upon the dry ground.” Compare Genesis 1:10. The meaning is, that the thing was utterly beyond the power of man. It was what none who practiced the arts of divining laid claim to. They doubtless supposed that as great proficients in that art as the world could produce might be found among

Daniel 5:19 — which he had put in his hands. It was so great that all people and nations trembled before him.All people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him - Stood in awe of him. On the extent of his empire, see the note at Daniel 3:4; Daniel 4:1, Daniel 4:22.Whom he would he slew ... - That is, he was an arbitrary - an absolute sovereign. This is exactly descriptive of the power which Oriental despotic monarchs have.Whom he would he kept alive - Whether they had, or had not, been guilty of

Hosea 1:6 — Call her name Lo-ruhamah - The name is rendered in Paul “not beloved” Romans 9:25, in Peter, “hath not obtained mercy” 1 Peter 2:10. Love and mercy are both contained in the full meaning of the intensive form of the Hebrew word, which expresses the deep tender yearnings of the inmost soul over one loved; as in the words Psalms 103:13, “As a father pitieth (yearneth over)

Hosea 2:11 — with his sin which he loves better. Jeroboam retained all of God’s worship, which he could combine with his own political ends; and even in Ahab’s time Israel “halted between two opinions,” and Judah “sware both by the Lord and by Malcham” Zephaniah 1:5, the true God and the false. All this their worship was vain, because contrary to the will of God. Yet since God says, “I will take away all her mirth,” they had, what they supposed to be, religious “mirth” in their “feasts,” fulfilling as they thought,

Hosea 7:3 — excitement in hearing of tales of sin, as the good joy to hear of good. Whence Paul says, “who, knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” Romans 1:32.But whereas, they all, kings, princes, and people, thus agreed and conspired in sin, and the sin of the great is the rarest destructive, the prophet here upbraids the people most for this common sin, apparently because they were free from the greater

Hosea 8:14 — where Isaiah blames them, that they were busy in repairing the breaches of the city, and cutting off the supplies of water from the enemy; “but ye have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him, that fashioned it long ago Isaiah 22:11. Jeremiah also says, “that they shall impoverish (or, crush) the fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword” Jeremiah 5:17.But I will send a fire upon his cities - In the letter, the words relate to Judah; but in substance, the whole relates

Amos 9:6 — He that buildeth His stories - The word commonly means “steps,” nor is there any reason to alter it. We read of “the third heavens 2 Corinthians 12:2, the heavens of heavens Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 148:4; that is, heavens to which this heaven is as earth. They are different ways of expressing the vast unseen space which God has created, divided, as we know, through the distance

Micah 7:19 — He will turn again - who seemed to be turned away from us when we were turned away from Him. “He will subdue, or trample under foot” Joel 2:14, our worst enemy, “our iniquities”, as He saith, “He shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” Romans 16:20. Hitherto, sinful passions had not rebelled only, but had had the mastery over us. Sin subdued man; it was his lord, a fierce tyrant over

Habakkuk 1:3 — Why dost Thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold - , or rather, “Why beholdest Thou grievance?” God seemed to reverse what He had said by Balaam Numbers 23:21, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, and hath not seen grievousness in Israel”; and in the Psalms Psalms 10:14, “Thou hast seen, for thou (emphatic) beholdest grievousness and wrong, to put it in Thy hand,” i. e., Thou layest it up in Thy hand, to

Habakkuk 2:11 — For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it - All things have a voice, in that they are . God’s works speak that, for which He made them Psalms 19:1 : “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psalms 65:13 : “the valleys are clad with corn, they laugh, yea, they sing;” their very look speaks gladness. Cyril: “For the creation itself proclaims the glory of the Maker, in that it is admired as well

Habakkuk 2:17 — For the violence of Lebanon - i. e., done to Lebanon, whether the land of Israel of which it was the entrance and the beauty (See Isaiah 37:24, and, as a symbol, Jeremiah 22:6, Jeremiah 22:23; Ezekiel 17:3; but it is used as a symbol of Sennacherib’s army, Isaiah 10:34, and the king of Asshur is not indeed spoken of under the name as a symbol (in Ezekiel 21:3,) but is compared to it), or the temple (See the note at Zechariah 12:1), both of which Nebuchadnezzar

Zephaniah 1:17 — counsel, seeing no more than the blind which way to turn, grasping blindly and franticly at anything, and going on headlong to their own destruction. So God forewarned them in the law; “Thou shalt grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness” Jer. 10:29; and Job, of the wicked generally, “They meet with the darkness in the day-time, and grope in the noon-day as in the night” Job 5:14; and, “They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man” Job 12:25; and Isaiah

Zephaniah 1:9 — not to superstition, but to plunder and goods unjustly gotten. As then, before, he had declared God’s judgments upon idolatry, so does he here upon sins against the second table, whether by open violence, or secret fraud, as do also Habakkuk Habakkuk 1:2-3, and Jeremiah Jeremiah 5:27. All, whether open or hidden from man, every wrongful dealing, (for every sin as to a neighbor’s goods falls under these two, violence or fraud) shall be avenged in that day. Here again all which remains is the sin. They

Haggai 1:13 — Haggai alone use the title, as the title of a prophet; perhaps as forerunners of the great prophet whom Malachi announced. Malachi also speaks of the priest, as Malachi 2:7 “the messenger of the Lord of hosts,” and prophesies of John Baptist as Malachi 3:1 “the messenger” of the Lord, who should go before His face. Haggai, as he throughout repeats that his words were God’s words, frames a new word to express, in the language of the New Testament; 2 Corinthians 5:20 that he had an embassy from God; “in

Zechariah 12:12-14 — This sorrow should be universal but also individual, the whole land, and that, family by family; the royal family in the direct line of its kings, and in a branch from Nathan, a son of David and whole brother of Solomon 1 Chronicles 3:5, which was continued on in private life yet was still to be an ancestral line of Jesus Luke 3:31 : in like way the main priestly family from Levi, and a subordinate line from a grandson of Levi, “the family of Shimei” Numbers 3:23; and

Zechariah 14:12 — shall consume away - Rather, “wasting away the flesh of each one.” It is the act of God, in His individual justice to each one of all those multitudes gathered against Him. One by one, “their eyes,” of which they said, “let our eye look on Zion” Micah 4:11, that is, with joy at its desolation, “shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue,” wherewith they blasphemed God, “shall consume away in their mouths” (compare Psalms 12:3; Isaiah 36:15, Isaiah 36:18; Isaiah 37:3-4, Isaiah 37:17, Isaiah 37:23,