68 matching verse commentaries
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead. For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see,.... Or, "to the isles of Chittim" (z); so called from Kittim the son of Javan, Genesis 10:4 who, as Josephus says (a), possessed the island of Chethima, now called Cyprus; and, from that, all islands, and most maritime places, are, by the Hebrews, called Chittim, he observes: it may regard all the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?.... Though they are not by nature gods which they worship, only nominal and fictitious deities, yet they did not change them for others; but when they once embraced the worship of them, continued therein; so did the Chittim, the inhabitants of the isles, who though they traded to distant...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this,.... Meaning either the angels in heaven, or the heavens themselves, by a personification: and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord; all which may be signified by storms and tempests, by thunder and lightning, and by the sun's withdrawing its light. This is said to aggravate the wickedness...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Be astonished O, ye heavens at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. If a man should change for the better, his selfishness might be a little excuse for...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold-no water. To go away from the flowing fountain to the stagnant waters of a cistern, is great...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For my people have committed two evils,.... Not but that they had committed more, but there were two principal ones they were guilty of, hereafter mentioned; and it was an aggravation of these crimes, that they were the professing people of God who had committed them: and it may be observed, that such sin; they are not without it, nor the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Is Israel a servant?.... That he does not abide in the house, in his own land, but is carried captive, becomes subject to others, and is used as a slave; so the Targum, "as a servant;'' is he not the Lord's first born? are not the people of Israel called the children of the living God? how come they then to be treated not as children, as free men,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Is Israel a servant? is he a home born slave? why is he spoiled? God made him to be his son, not his slave; but Israel went aside from God, and so became a slave, being carried away into captivity by the very nation whose gods the chosen people worshipped.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The young lions roared upon him, and yelled,.... Or, "gave out their voice" (e); meaning the kings of the nations, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi explain it; and are to be understood of the kings of Assyria and Babylon, and particularly of Nebuchadnezzar; see Jeremiah 50:17 compared to lions for their strength and cruelty; their "roaring" and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of Noph and Tuhapanes have broken the crown of thy head. The Israelites went and worshipped idols, and then the very nations whose gods they worshipped invaded the land, and broke the crown of their head, or made...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes,.... These were cities in Egypt. Noph is the same with Moph in Hosea 9:6 and which we there rightly render Memphis; as Noph is here by the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions; and was formerly, as Pliny (g) says, the palace of the kings of Egypt. It is the same that is now called...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hast thou not procured this unto thyself,.... All this desolation and destruction, both from the Egyptians and the Babylonians; their sin was the cause of it, their idolatry and forsaking the Lord their God, as follows: and so the Targum, "is not this vengeance taken upon thee?'' that is, by the Lord, for their sins and transgressions; he suffered...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Hast thou not procured this-unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? You who are depressed in soul, you who have grown spiritually poor, you who are in great trouble of heart, listen: “Hast thou not procured this unto thyself?” Didst thou not make the rod for thine own back by going away from thy God?...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt,.... By worshipping of idols, in imitation of them; or by sending ambassadors thither for help, when they had their Lord, their God, so nigh, had they not forsaken him; nor had Josiah any business to go out against Pharaohnecho, 2 Chronicles 35:21 and, contrary to the express word of God by the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? For instead of going to the fountain of living waters, they were hoping to be helped by the Egyptians or helped by the Assyrians. Just as there are some Christians who try to drink the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? “The waters of the Nile;” or, as it may be read, “the waters of that muddy river.” The Israelites had suffered so much during their long captivity in Egypt, that one would have thought they would never have wanted to go near the house of bondage again: “What hast thou...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee,.... That is, either their wickedness in going to Egypt and Assyria, and the ill success they had in so doing might be an instruction to them to act otherwise, and a correction of their sin and folly; or that their wickedness was a reason, and a very just one, why they were chastened and corrected of the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. A very solemn passage. May we lay it to heart. Not only is there guilt in our sin for which we shall...