1358 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment on one day,.... Suddenly, at once, at one and the same time. The destruction of Babylon was very sudden; the city was taken by surprise, before the inhabitants were aware of it, while the king and his nobles were regaling themselves at a feast; that very night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness,.... In wealth and power wickedly obtained; in political schemes wickedly contrived; in her ambition and pride, tyranny and cruelty; and especially in her wicked arts of astrology, divination, and magic: thou hast said, none seeth me; lay her schemes of policy, which she thought so deeply laid, as not to be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore shall evil come upon thee,.... The evil of punishment, a great calamity; so Nebuchadnezzar foretold, as Abydenus relates (o), that συμφορη, a calamity, should come upon the Babylonians; a day of evil, because of the above sins Babylon was guilty of: thou shall not know from whence it riseth; from what quarter it will come, little...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries,.... An ironic expression, deriding those evil arts, bidding defiance to them, calling upon the masters of them to do their utmost by them: wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; from the infancy of their state; as soon as their monarchy was founded, or they became a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels,.... Taken of astrologers, diviners, and soothsayers; who were never able to give any satisfactory answers to questions put to them, or to give good advice in cases of emergency; as appears from Nebuchadnezzar's consultation with them about his dream; and Belshazzar's about the handwriting upon the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them,.... That is, these astrologers and diviners shall be like stubble; weak as that, as the Targum; they shall be no more able to stand before the fire of divine wrath, or before the judgments of God, by the hands of the Medes and Persians, than stubble can stand before a consuming fire: they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured,.... In training them up in those arts, and in consulting with them in cases of difficulty; in which they were of no service, and now in time of danger as useless as stubble, or a blaze of straw: even thy merchants from thy youth; either the above astrologers and diviners, who had been with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Isaiah 48 The prophecy of this chapter is concerning the deliverance and salvation of the Jews, and is addressed unto them; who are described by their natural descent and lineage, and by their hypocrisy in religious things, Isaiah 48:1. By their obstinacy and impudence, and by their proneness to idolatry, and to ascribe that to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hear ye this, O house of Jacob,.... Who were of the house and family of Jacob, his descendants and posterity; and who were of the house of the God of Jacob, had a name and a place there, at least in profession: which are called by the name of Israel; a name given to Jacob, because of his prevalence with God in prayer; but these had only the name,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they call themselves of the holy city,.... The city Jerusalem, so called because the temple, the place of divine worship, was in it, the residence of the Holy One of Israel: they valued themselves, not only upon their being of the family of Jacob, and of the tribe of Judah, but that they were inhabitants of Jerusalem, the holy city; as many...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I have declared the former things from the beginning,.... From the time of their first ancestors, from the time of Abraham their father, to whom was declared what should befall his posterity; that they should sojourn in Egypt, be afflicted there, and come out from thence with great substance; that they be brought into the land of Canaan, and the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Because I knew that thou art obstinate,.... Or "hard" (a), hard hearted, an obdurate and rebellious people, contradicting and gainsaying: and thy neck is as an iron sinew; stiffnecked, inflexible, not compliant with the will of God, and his commands; unwilling to admit his yoke, and bear it: and thy brow brass; impudent, not ashamed of sin, nor...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I have even from the beginning declared it to thee,.... From the beginning of their being a people, even before they were formed into a body politic; yea, from the original of them, from the time of Abraham their ancestor, as before observed: before it came to pass I showed it thee; some hundreds of years before; first to Abraham, then to Isaac,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast heard, see all this: and will ye not declare it?.... You have heard of all these things, how they were foretold before they were; how they came to pass exactly as they were predicted; now look over these prophecies, and compare them with the events; see the exact completion of them; and when you have so done, can you be so stouthearted...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They are created now, and not from the beginning,.... Not that they were now done or brought into being, for as yet Cyrus was not born; though the raising of him up, and holding his right hand, and his executing the counsel of God, are spoken of as if they were already done, because of the certainty of them, Isaiah 45:1. Aben Ezra interprets...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened,.... This, as Kimchi rightly observes, is said by way of reproof; showing that they were so far from knowing these things before the prophecy of them was given out, that when it was, they did not hearken or listen to them; they did not understand them,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For my name's sake will I defer mine anger,.... From age to age, for those sins which had been committed, and continued in ever since they were a people. The above account of them shows that it was not for any merits of theirs, or any works of righteousness done by them, that he showed favour to them, as afterwards expressed; but for his own...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver,.... But it is not usual to refine with silver; not silver with silver, nor any other metal with it; that itself is what is refined; this therefore cannot be the sense of the words; wherefore they are, by others, differently rendered; by some, "not in silver" (d); not in a furnace of silver, as Aben...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it,.... Defer his anger, not cut off his people and destroy them, but redeem and save them: this, in the literal sense, respects the redemption and deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus from the Babylonish captivity; which the Lord did, not for any deserts of theirs, but for the sake of his own...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called,.... Called before out of Egypt, and now out of Babylon, and who had the name of God called upon them, and who called upon the name of the Lord; so such who are called with a holy calling, according to the purpose and grace of God, by the Spirit and grace of Christ, unto fellowship with him, to...