Bible Commentaries

Daniel 11:1 — the interests of the Hebrew people, and to secure those arrangements which were necessary for their welfare - particularly in the favorable disposition of Darius the Mede toward them.In the first year of Darius the Mede - See the notes at Daniel 5:31. He does not here state the things contemplated or done by Darius in which he had confirmed or strengthened him, but there can be no reasonable doubt that it was the purpose which he had conceived to restore the Jews to their own land, and to give them

Hosea 11:11 — East and West, from North and South, have they come, and daily do they come, who sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”And I will place them in their houses - “Their houses” may be their own particular Churches, in the one Church or “House of God” 1 Timothy 3:15. In this house, God says, that He will make them to dwell, not again to be removed from it, nor shaken in it, but in a secure dwelling-place here until they be suited to be removed to everlasting habitations. : “In their houses, i. e.,

Hosea 13:8 — As a bear bereaved of her whelps - The Syrian bear is fiercer than the brown bears to which we are accustomed. It attacks flocks 1 Samuel 17:34, and even oxen . The fierceness of the she-bear, “bereaved of her whelps,” became a proverb (2 Samuel 17:8; Proverbs 17:12; and here). : “They who have written on the nature of wild beasts, say that none is more savage than the she-bear,

Hosea 2:4 — entailed curse be cut off by repentance. God enforces His own word “lo-ruhamah, Unpitied,” by repeating it here, “lo-arahem,” “I will not pity.” Reproaches, which fall upon the mother, are ever felt with special keenness. Whence Saul called Jonathan 1 Samuel 20:30, “Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman.” Therefore, the more to arouse them, he says, “for they are the children of whoredoms,” evil children of an evil parent, as John the Immerser calls the hypocritical Jews, “ye generation of vipers”

Hosea 5:4 — “their God.” For the prophet continues, “and they have not known the Lord.” Him, “their God,” they knew not. For the spirit which possessed them hindered them from thought, from memory, from conception of spiritual things. They did not turn to God,(1) because the evil spirit held them, and so long as they allowed his hold, they were filled with carnal thoughts which kept them back from God.(2) they did not know God; so that, not knowing how good and how great a good He is in Himself, and how good

Amos 6:4 — meals; “and stretch themselves,” literally, “are poured” out , stretching their listless length, dissolved, unnerved, in luxury and sloth, “upon their couches,” perhaps under an awning: “and eat the lambs,” probably “fatted lambs (as in Deuteronomy 32:14; Psa 37:20; 1 Samuel 15:9; Jeremiah 51:40), out of the flock,” chosen, selected out of it as the best, and “calves out of the midst of the stall;” that is, the place where they were tied up (as the word means) to be fatted. They were stall-fed, as

Obadiah 1:6 — its belongings, all its people and all its property, one and all. The name “Esau” speaks of them as a whole; the plural verb, “are outsearched,” represents all its parts. The word signifies a diligent search and tracking out, as in Zephaniah Zephaniah 1:12, “I will search out Jerusalem with candles,” as a man holdeth a light in every dark corner, in seeking diligently some small thing which has been lost. “The hidden things,” i. e., his hidden treasures, “are sought up.” The enemy who should come upon

Jonah 1:6 — of those on board, would, in the common peril, have one common prayer. It was the prophet’s office to call the pagan to prayers and to calling upon God. God reproved the Scribes and Pharisees by the mouth of the children who “cried Hosanna” Matthew 21:15; Jonah by the shipmaster; David by Abigail; 1 Samuel 25:32-34; Naaman by his servants. Now too he reproves worldly priests by the devotion of laymen, sceptic intellect by the simplicity of faith.If so be that God will think upon us - , (literally

Micah 7:2 — this. But imaginary love of God without love of man, or love of man without the love of God, is mere self-deceit. “Is perished out of the earth,” that is, by an untimely death. The good had either been withdrawn by God from the evil to come Isaiah 57:1, or had Leon cut off by those who laid wait for blood; in which case their death brought a double evil, through the guilt which such sin contracted, and then, through the loss of those who might be an example to others, and whose prayers God would hear.

Nahum 3:5 — despise, avoid, take example by thee, and praise God for His righteous judgments upon thee. The Evangelist heard “much people in heaven saying Alleluia” to God that “He hath judged the whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication” Revelation 19:1-2. And Isaiah saith, “They shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that hath trangsressed against Me” Isaiah 66:24.

Habakkuk 1:6 — Him to withhold them. They lift themselves up for some end of covetousness or pride. But there is a higher order of things, in which God orders their actions to fulfill His righteousness by their iniquities.The Chaldaeans, that bitter - מר. In Judges 18:25; 2 Samuel 17:8, the less concise נפשׁ מר.And hasty nation - נמהר as Isaiah 32:4. Jerome: “To its might and warlike boldness almost all the Greeks who have written histories of the barbarians, witness.”Which shall march through the breadth of the

Zephaniah 2:10 — birth, but ever molesting the children of Abraham, so heretics profess to believe in Christ, to be children of Christ, and yet ever seek to overthrow the faith of Christians. As the Church says, “My mothers children are” “angry with me” Song of Solomon 1:5. They seem to have escaped the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (pagan sins), and to have found a place of refuge (Zoar); and yet they are in darkness and cannot see the light of faith; and in an unlawful manner they mingle, against all right, the

Haggai 1:12 — This was the beginning of a conversion. In this one thing they began to do, what, all along, in their history, and most in their decay before the captivity they refused to do - obey God’s word. So God sums up their history, by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 22:21. “I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, thou saidst, I will not hear. This is thy way from thy youth, that thou hearkenedst not unto My voice.” Zephaniah 3:2 still more briefly , “she hearkened not unto (any) voice.” Now in reference, it seems, to that

Zechariah 1:14 — Cry thou - The vision was not for the prophet alone. What he saw and heard, that he was to proclaim to others. The vision, which he now saw alone, was to be the basis and substance of his subsequent preaching Jonah 1:2; Isaiah 40:2, Isaiah 40:6, whereby he was to encourage his people to persevere.I am jealous for Jerusalem - Literally, “I have been,” not now only but in time past even when I did not show it, “and am jealous”, with the tender love which allows not

Zechariah 11:10 — signified that this relation was at an end.That I might dissolve My covenant which I had made with all the people - Rather, “with all the peoples,” that is, with all nations. Often as it is said of Israel, that they brake the covenant of God Leviticus 26:15; Deuteronomy 31:16, Deuteronomy 31:20; Isaiah 24:5; Jeremiah 11:10; Jeremiah 31:32; Ezekiel 16:59; Ezekiel 44:7, it is spoken of God, only to deny that He would break it (Leviticus 26:44; Judges 2:1, and, strongly, Jeremiah 33:20-21), or in prayer

Zechariah 8:8 — 30:22), and, “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and will write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people” Jeremiah 31:33.Osorius: “The circuit of one city will not contain so great a multitude. But one confession of faith, one conspiration of sanctity, one communion of religion and righteousness, can easily enfold all born of the holy fathers, united to them in faith

Malachi 1:12 — which they do, say,The table of the Lord is despised - Not the “table of showbread,” since it is so called in reference to the sacrifice offered thereon. Ezekiel had probably so called the altar, which he saw in his vision of the new temple. Ezekiel 44:16. It is what was before called “the altar;” an altar, in regard to the sacrifices offered to God; a “table,” in regard to the food of the sacrifice therefrom received. Both names, “altar” Matthew 5:23; Hebrews 13:10. and “table” 1 Corinthians 10:21.

Matthew 4:13 — Leaving Nazareth - Because his townsmen cast him out, and rejected him. See Luke 4:14-30.Came and dwelt in Capernaum - This was a city on the northwest corner of the Sea of Tiberias. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament, but is repeatedly referred to in the Gospels. Though it was once a city of renown, and the metropolis of all

Matthew 5:19 — commandments shall be in no esteem, or shall not be regarded as a proper religious teacher. The Pharisees, by dividing the law into greater and lesser precepts, made no small part of it void by their traditions and divisions, Matthew 23:23; Matthew 15:3-6. Jesus says that in his kingdom all this vain division and tradition would cease. Such divisions and distinctions would be a small matter. He that attempted it should be the least of all. People would be engaged in yielding obedience to all the

Matthew 9:13 — declared that he prefers benevolence or mercy to those external duties. It is proper, therefore, that I should associate with sinners for the purpose of doing them good.”I came not to call the righteous ... - No human beings are by nature righteous, Psalms 14:3; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3:10-18. The Pharisees, however, “pretended” to be righteous. Christ might have meant by this answer that it was not the design of his coming to cal such persons to repentance, knowing that they would spurn his efforts, and