Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 66:6 — noise’ (שׁאון קול qôl shâ'ôn), means properly the voice of a tumultuous assemblage; the voice of a multitude. The word ‘noise’ (שׁאון shâ'ôn) is applied to a noise or roaring, as of waters Psalms 65:8; or of a crowd or multitude of people Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 42:4; Isaiah 24:8; and of war Amos 2:2; Hosea 10:14. Here it seems probable that it refers to the confused clamor of war, the battle cry raised by soldiers attacking an army or a city; and the scene described is probably that when the Roman

Daniel 1:3 — females. The Kislar-Aga enjoys, through his situation, a vast influence, especially in regard to the offices of the court, the principal Agas deriving their situations through him.” See Jos. von Hammers “des Osmanischen Reichs Staatsverwalt,” Thes i. s. 71, as quoted in Rosenmuller’s “Alte und neue Morgenland,” ii. 357, 358.That it is common in the East to desire that those employed in public service should have vigorous bodies, and beauty of form, and to train them for this, will be apparent from the

Daniel 11:41 — He shall enter also into the glorious land - Margin, “land of delight,” or ornament, or goodly land. The Hebrew is, “land of ornament;” that is, of beauty, to wit, Palestine, or the holy land. The same word is used in Daniel 11:16. See the note at that place. As to the fact that he would invade that land, see the notes at Daniel 11:28, Daniel 11:31-33.And many countries shall be overthrown - The word countries here is supplied by the translators. The Hebrew word רבות rabôth

Daniel 6:16 — man standing on two sphinxes, and engaged with two fierce animals, possibly intended for lions. The third is from a block of white marble found near the tomb of Daniel at Susa, and thus described by Sir Robert Ker Porter in his Travels (vol. ii. p. 416): “It does not exceed ten inches in width and depth, measures twenty in length, and is hollow within, as if to receive some deposit. Three of its sides are cut in bass-relief, two of them with similar representations of a man apparently naked, except

Hosea 1:3 — So he went - He did not demur, nor excuse himself, as did even Moses Exodus 4:18, or Jeremiah Jeremiah 1:6, or Peter Acts 10:4, and were rebuked for it, although mercifully by the All-Merciful. Hosea, accustomed from childhood to obey God and every indication of the will of God, did at once, what he was bidden, however repulsive

Hosea 10:13 — in pride of heart to defend its sins against the law of God prohibiting them, and goes on unconcerned in impenitence, he is like one who, after harvest, eats the fruits stored up.”Ye have eaten the fruit of lies - They had been full of “lies” Hosea 4:1-2; Hosea 7:3; they had “lied” against God by hypocrisy Hosea 5:7; Hosea 6:7; Hosea 7:16; Hosea 10:4 and idolatry; they had “spoken lies against Him” Hosea 7:13; by denying that He gave them what He bestowed upon them, and ascribing it to their idols

Hosea 10:6 — god also. The victory over a nation was accounted of old a victory over its gods, as indeed it showed their impotence. Hence, the excuse made by the captains of Benhadad, that the gods of “Israel were gods of the hills, and not gods of the valleys” 1Ki 20:23, 1 Kings 20:28, and God’s vindication of His own Almightiness, which was thus denied. Hence, also the boast of Sennacherib by Rabshakeh, “have any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where

Hosea 11:9 — shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel, as a vine. Turn back thine hand, as a grapegatherer into the baskets” Jeremiah 6:9; and, “If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning-grapes? but I have made Esau bare” Jeremiah 49:9-10.For I am God and not man - o: “not swayed by human passions, but so tempering His wrath, as, in the midst of it, to remember mercy; so punishing the iniquity of the sinful children, as at once to make good His gracious promises which He made to their

Hosea 13:16 — sword; those already born were to be dashed in pieces; those as yet unborn were to be sought out for destruction, even in their mother’s womb. Such atrocities were common then. Elisha foretold to Hazael that he would perpetrate both cruelties 2 Kings 8:12, Shalmaneser clashed the young children in pieces 2 Kings 10:14, as did the conqueror of NoAmmon Nahum 3:10, and the Babylonians Psalms 137:9 afterward. The children of Ammon ripped up the women with child in Gilead Amos 1:13, and the usurper Menahem

Hosea 7:13 — Woe unto them, for they have fled from Me - The threatening rises in severity, as did the measure of their sin. Whereas “Salvation belonged to God” Psalms 3:8 alone, and they only “abide under His shadow” Psalms 91:1-2, who make Him their “refuge, woe” must needs come on them, who leave Him. “They forsake their own mercy” Jonah 2:8. “Woe” they draw upon themselves, who forget God; how much more then they, who willfully and with a high hand transgress against Him!

Joel 2:5 — people a spot, central hereafter for the conversion of the world, yet where, meantime, they lay enveloped and sheltered “amid the mountains” which “His Right Hand purchased” Psalms 78:54. The Syrians owned that “their God” was “the God of the hills” 1 Kings 20:23; and the people confessed, “as the hills are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people” Psalms 125:2. Their protection was a symbol of His. But His protection withdrawn, nothing should be a hindrance to those whom He should

Amos 6:8 — Lord God - He who alone is and who alone hath power, “hath sworn by Himself,” literally, “by His soul;” as our “self” comes from the same root as “soul.” Jerome: “So God saith in Isaiah, “Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth” Isaiah 1:14; not that God hath a soul, but that He speaks after the way of human feelings. Nor is it any marvel that He condescends to speak of Himself, as having a soul, seeing He speaks of Himself as having the other members, feet, hands, bowels, which are

Amos 9:9 — away His people? God forbid! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin - God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew - At this present time also there is a remnant, according to the election of grace” Romans 11:1-2, Romans 11:5.Rib.: “What is here said of all, God doth daily in each of the elect. For they are ‘the wheat” of God, which, in order to be “laid up in” the heavenly “garner,” must be pure from chaff and dust. To this end He sifts them by afflictions

Jonah 1:2 — Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city - The Assyrian history, as far as it has yet been discovered, is very bare of events in regard to this period. We have as yet the names of three kings only for 150 years. But Assyria, as far as we know its history, was in its meridian. Just before the time of Jonah, perhaps ending in it, were the victorious reigns of Shalmanubar and Shamasiva; after him was that of Ivalush or Pul, the first aggressor upon Israel.

Micah 1:10 — God is the sorest part of His chastisements. Whence David prays “let not mine enemies exult over me” Psalms 25:2; and the sons of Korah, “With a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, where is thy God?” Psalms 42:10; and Ethan; “Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servant” Psalms 89:42, Psalms 89:50 - wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed. It is

Micah 2:11 — If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood - Literally, “in spirit” (not My Spirit) “and falsehood,” that is, in a lying spirit; such as they, whose woe Ezekiel pronounces Ezekiel 13:3, “Woe unto the foolish prophets who walk after their own spirit and what they have not seen Ezekiel 13:2, Ezekiel 13:17; prophets out of their own hearts, who prophesied a vision of falsehood, and a destruction and nothingness; prophesied falsehood;

Habakkuk 1:5 — bids them look out among them for the instrument of His displeasure. It was an aggravation of their punishment, that God, who had once chosen them, would now choose these whom He had not chosen, to chasten them. So Moses had foretold; Deuteronomy 32:21, “They have moved Me to jealousy by that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with not-a-people, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” There were no tokens of the storm

Haggai 1:8 — buy, expend, but simply to give their own labor. They were themselves to “go up to the mountain,” i. e., the mountainous country where the trees grew, “and bring” them. So, in order to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, Ezra made a proclamation Nehemiah 8:15 “in all their cities and in Jerusalem, go ye up to the mountain and bring leafy branches of vines, olives, myrtles, palms.” The palms, anyhow, were timber. God required not goodly stones, such as had been already used, and such as hereafter, in the

Haggai 2:21 — in the crucifixion of the rebel. The Jews, if they heard of them, knew them to be of no account. For the destroyer of the Persian empire was to come from the West Daniel 8:5, the fourth sovereign was to stir up all against the realm of Grecia Daniel 11:2, and Darius was but the third. In the same second year of Darius, in which Haggai gave this prophecy, the whole earth was exhibited to Zechariah as Zechariah 1:11, “sitting still and at rest.”The overthrow prophesied is also universal. It is not

Zechariah 8:13 — tribes bore the name of Israel, in contrast with the two tribes with the name of Judah, not only in the history but in the prophets; as Hosea says, “I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, and on the house of Judah I will have mercy” Hosea 1:6-7. Here he unites both; both, in the time of their captivity, were a curse, were held to be a thing accursed, as it is said, “He that is hanged is the curse of God” Deuteronomy 21:23, that is, a thing accursed by Him; and God foretold of Judah, that