Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 51:14 — not die there, but should be conducted again to his own land. The word used here, and rendered ‘captive exile’ (צעה tso‛eh from צעה tsâ‛âh), means properly ‘that which is turned on one side,’ or inclined, as, e. g., a vessel for pouring Jeremiah 48:12. Then it means that which is inclined, bent, or bowed down as a captive in bonds. The Chaldee renders this, ‘Vengeance shall be quickly revealed, and the just shall not die in corruption, and their food shall not fail.’ Aben Ezra renders it, ‘Bound.’

Isaiah 55:11 — much adapted to produce an effect on the hard and sterile hearts of men as the rain is on the earth.It shall not return unto me void - It shall not return to me without accomplishing that which I intend.And it shall prosper - (See the note at Isaiah 52:13). This proves:1. That God has a design in giving his Word to people. He has as distinct an intention in his Word as he has in sending down rain upon the earth.2. That whatever is his design in giving the gospel, it shall be accomplished. It is never

Isaiah 56:1 — the Messiah, and the whole scope of the passage requires us to understand it of that event. Language similar to this occurs frequently in the New Testament, where the sacred writers seem to have had this passage in their eye (see Matthew 3:2; Luke 21:31; Romans 13:11; compare Isaiah 62:1-11). It is to be regarded, therefore, as having a reference to the future coming of the Messiah - perhaps as designed to describe the series of deliverances which were to close the painful bondage in Babylon, and

Isaiah 56:5 — in the favor of God, and none are to be excluded from the ‘house’ erected to his praise, and from within the ‘walls’ of the holy city where he dwells.A place - Hebrew, יד yâd - ‘A hand.’ The word is, however, used to denote ‘a place’ Deuteronomy 23:13; Numbers 2:17; Joshua 8:10. It is sometimes used in the sense of ‘monument,’ or ‘trophy’ 1 Samuel 15:12; 2 Samuel 18:18, as if a monument were a handpointing out or showing anything. The word here denotes, however, a place, and means that the excluded

Isaiah 59:3 — extent and depth of their depravity, he specifies the various members of the body - the hands, the fingers, the lips, the tongue, the feet as the agents by which people commit iniquity. See a similar argument on the subject of depravity in Romans 3:13-15, where a part of the description which the prophet here gives is quoted by Paul, and applied to the Jews in his own time. The phrase ‘your hands are defiled with blood,’ means with the blood of the innocent; that is, they were guilty of murder,

Ezekiel 20:32-44 — God’s future dealings with His people: (1) in judgment Ezekiel 20:32-38; (2) in mercy Ezekiel 20:39-44.Ezekiel 20:32The inquirers had thought that if Jerusalem were taken, and the whole people became sojourners in a foreign land, they would cease to be a separate nation. In their love for idolatry

Daniel 1:12 — limited to pulse - as pease or beans. It is rendered by Gesenius, “seed-herbs, greens, vegetables; i. e., vegetable food, such as was eaten in half-fast, opposed to meats and the more delicate kinds of food.” The word occurs only here and in Daniel 1:16. It is rendered in the Vulgate, “legumina;” and in the Greek, ἀπὸ τῶν σπερμάτων apo tōn spermatōn - “from seeds.” It is not a proper construction to limit this to “pulse,” or to suppose that Daniel desired to live solely on pease or beans;

Daniel 2:47 — God who had communicated the secret to him.Of a truth it is - It is truly so. This had been shown by the manner in which this secret was disclosed.That your God is a God of gods - Is superior to all other gods; is supreme over all. Compare Revelation 17:14; 1 Timothy 6:15. The idea is, that whatever subordinate beings there may be, He is supreme.And a Lord of kings - Supreme over kings. They are all inferior to him, and subject to his control.And a revealer of secrets - One of the attributes of divinity.

Daniel 6:3 — to the premiership. “And the king thought to set him over the whole realm.”The whole kingdom over which he presided, embracing Media, Persia, Babylonia, and all the dependent, conquered provinces. This shows that the princes referred to in Daniel 6:1, were those which were appointed over Babylonia, since Daniel Daniel 6:2 was already placed at the head of all these princes. Yet, in consequence of his talents and fidelity the king was meditating the important measure of placing him over the whole

Amos 2:10 — from the land of Egypt It is this language in which God, in the law, reminded them of that great benefit, as a motive to obedience; “I brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6; Deuteronomy 6:12; only there, since God has not as yet “brought them up” into the land which He promised them, but they were yet in the wilderness, He says, “brought them forth;” here, “brought them up,” as to a place of dignity, His own land.And led you forty years

Micah 1:12 — pray for temporal good, while living in bitternesses, bitter ways, displeasing to God. The words are calculated to be a religious proverb. “Living in sin,” as we say, dwelling in bitternesses, she looked for good! Bitternesses! for it is Jeremiah 2:19 an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee.But evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem - It came, like the sulphur and fire which God rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah, but as yet

Micah 3:6 — one common darkness of night all present brightness and all sight of the future.Rup.: “After Caiaphas had in heart spoken falsehood and a prophecy of blood, although God overruled it to truth which he meant not, all grace of prophecy departed Matthew 11:13. The law and the prophets prophesied until John. “The Sun of Righteousness went down over them,” inwardly and outwardly, withdrawing the brightness of His Providence and the inward light of grace.” So Christ Himself forewarned; “Walk while ye have

Habakkuk 2:1 — I will stand - , i. e. I would stand now, as a servant awaiting his master,Upon my watch - or, keep (Isaiah 21:8. משׁמר in the same sense Jeremiah 51:12), and “set me (plant myself firmly) upon the tower” (literally, fenced place, but also one straitened and narrowly hemmed in), “and will watch” (it is a title of the prophets , as spying by God’s enabling, things

Zephaniah 2:13 — Zephaniah began by singling out Judah amid the general destruction, “I will also stretch out My Hand upon Judah” Zephaniah 1:4; he sums up the judgment of the world in the same way; “He will stretch out, or, Stretch He forth, “His Hand against the north and destroy Asshur, and make Nineveh a desolation.” Judah had, in Zephaniah’s time, nothing to fear from Assyria. Isaiah

Zechariah 10:11 — “When thou walkest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not oveflow thee. And shall smite the waves in the sea” Isaiah 43:2, as in Isaiah, “The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea” Isaiah 11:15. The image is from the deliverance of Egypt: yet it is said, that it should not be any exact repetition of the miracles of Egypt; it would be as the Red Sea Exodus 14:10, Exodus 14:12, which would as effectually shut them in, and in presence of

Zechariah 10:8 — in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria, and they shall come, and shall rest all of them in. the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns and upon all bushes” Isaiah 7:18-19. “He will hiss unto them from the ends of the earth, and behold they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary or stumble among them” . He would gather them, like the countless numbers of the insect creation, which, if united, would irresistibly

Zechariah 6:12 — already foretold the Messiah, under the name of the Branch. Here he adds,And he shall grow up out of His place - Lowly and of no seeming account, as God foretold by Jeremiah, “I will cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David” Jeremiah 33:15; and Jesus Himself said, “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” John 12:24. Alone He grew up before God, as a tender plant Isaiah 53:2, unknown of man, known to God. It is

Malachi 2:11 — laws of nature, but also all other sins, as adultery, which violate His most sacred laws and alienate from Him.Hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which He loved - , in themselves, who had been separated and set apart by God to Himself as a Exodus 19:6. “holy nation. Jeremiah 2:3. Israel was holiness to the Lord.” “The Lord is holy, perfect holiness; His name, holy; all things relating to Him, holy; His law, covenant and all His ordinances and institutions holy; Israel, His special people, an holy

Matthew 5:3 — whatever quarter it may come.Poor in spirit - Luke says simply, Blessed are the poor. It has been disputed whether Christ meant the poor in reference to the things of this life, or to the humble. The gospel is said to be preached to the poor, Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5. It was predicted that the Messiah would preach to the poor, Isaiah 61:1. It is said that they have special facilities for being saved, Matthew 19:23; Luke 18:24. The state of such persons is therefore comparatively blessed, or happy.

Luke 1:17 — to the “Lord their God” in the previous verse. If so, then it will follow that the Messiah was the Lord God of Israel - a character abundantly given him in other parts of the New Testament.In the spirit and power of Elias - See the notes at Matthew 11:14.To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children - In the time of John the Jews were divided into a number of different sects. See the notes at Matthew 3:7. They were opposed violently to each other, and pursued their opposition with great animosity.