2610 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yea, they despised the pleasant land,.... Or "land of desire" (r); the land of Canaan; a very delightful and desirable country, the glory of all lands, a land that abounded with everything for necessity and pleasure. The spies themselves, that brought an ill report of it, owned it was a land flowing with milk and honey; but that there were such...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But murmured in their tents,.... Throughout their tents; the murmuring was general; they murmured often; but what is here referred to seems to be their murmuring upon the report of the spies, Numbers 14:2. To murmur against God and his providence is a very great evil; and which generally proceeds on one or other of these two things; either because...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore he lifted up his hand against them,.... A gesture used in swearing, Genesis 14:22. So the Targum understands it here, "and he lifted up his hand with an oath, because of them:'' and so it is interpreted by Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech; and agrees with Numbers 14:28. The same gesture was used by the Heathens in swearing, as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To overthrow their seed also among the nations,.... Their posterity was not overthrown in the wilderness; they were spared to possess the land their fathers despised. This respects later times, as does what follows: and to scatter them in the lands; which Kimchi explains by the discomfiture of them by the Amalekites and Canaanites, when they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor,.... Or to the idol Peor, as the Targum. Baal, which signifies Lord or master, was a common name for an idol in many countries; wherefore, to distinguish one from another, an additional name was used. Baalzephon was the god of the Egyptians; Baalzebub the god of the Ekronites; and here Baalpeor the god of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions,.... Sin is an invention of man's: when our first parents sinned, they found out many inventions; and their posterity ever since have been inventors of evil things; and man's invention is very quick at that work. All false doctrine and false worship are of men's finding out; all idolatrous...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment,.... When none else would, he rose up in great zeal for the Lord of hosts; and took on him the work of a civil magistrate, and slew two persons of noble birth in the very act of fornication. The Targum is, "he prayed'' and so the Syriac version "he interceded with the Lord, that the plague might...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And that was counted unto him for righteousness,.... Not for his justifying righteousness before God; for all the works of righteousness done by the best of men cannot justify them before him, much less a single action: but his executing judgment in the manner he did, or slaying the above two persons, was esteemed a righteous action by the Lord...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They angered him also at the waters of strife,.... Or, "at the waters of Meribah" (z); that is, Meribahkadesh, as it is called in Deuteronomy 32:51 to distinguish it from Meribahrephidim, where also were waters of strife or contradiction; at which the people murmured and strove with the Lord, and greatly displeased him, Exodus 17:7. So that it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Because they provoked his spirit;.... Though he was a very meek man, meeker than any upon the face of the earth, Numbers 12:2, yet, being greatly provoked, let fall some passionate and undue expressions: and this was not only his sin, but the fault of those also that provoked him, and with this view it is mentioned. The Targum is, "for they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They did not destroy the nations,.... Here begins an account of their sins and provocations, after they were settled in the land of Canaan. They did not destroy the inhabitants of the land, of the seven nations; whose land was given to them as an inheritance, and of which the Canaanites were dispossessed for their sins, and to be destroyed....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But were mingled among the Heathen,.... Not only dwelt among them, but made covenants and contracts, carried on trade and commerce, and intermarried with them, contrary to the express law of God, Deuteronomy 7:2. Nor should saints have communion with wicked men, especially in things sinful and superstitious, 2 Corinthians 6:14. And learned their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they served their idols,.... Of gold and silver, wood and stone; the works of men's hands, senseless creatures; which are nothing in the world, and bring grief and sorrow to the worshippers of them, from whence they have their name here given them; see Psalms 16:4. They served "their" idols, the idols of the Canaanites, who were dispossessed...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. Who have their name here given them from a word that signifies to waste and destroy, they being the destroyers of mankind. So the Targum renders it by מזיקיא, which signifies spirits noxious and hurtful; but R. Elias Levita, in his Tishbi, p. 233, says it is a mistake to derive it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And shed innocent blood,.... The blood of innocent persons; not that any of Adam's posterity, descending from him by ordinary generation, are strictly and properly innocent, or free from sin; self-righteous persons have thought themselves, touching the righteousness of the law, blameless; and some perfectionists have pretended to be free from sin,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus were they defiled with their own works,.... Not the land only, but they themselves also; or "with their works" (a), with the works of the Heathen they learned, Psalms 106:35, or rather with their own works, the works of the flesh, especially their shocking idolatries: sin is of a defiling nature; it has defiled all men, it defiles all of men,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people,.... Sin is the cause of wrath, which is compared to fire kindled by the breath of the Almighty, and is intolerable; this shows that the offence must be very great, as to incense the Lord against a people he had chosen above all others to be his peculiar people; as well as it was an...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he gave them into the hand of the Heathen,.... In the times of the judges; as into the hands of the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Canaanites, Midianites, and Philistines, to whom they became tributaries; see the book of Judges. And they that hated them ruled over them; as it was threatened and foretold they should, in case they did not observe the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Their enemies also oppressed them,.... By taxes, and taking the increase of their fields and sustenance, which often obliged them to cry for a deliverer, who upon this was sent to them; see Judges 2:9. And they were brought into subjection under their hand; or were humbled under their hand, as the Targum; they were not only made to submit to their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Many times did he deliver them,.... By means of the judges, Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and others. But they provoked him with their counsel; in asking a king, whom he gave in his anger, and took away in his wrath, Hosea 13:11, and with their idolatries which they devised, setting up the calves at Dan and Bethel; and by taking...