35 matching verse commentaries
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. They had kept themselves poor by their own meanness. If they had behaved rightly towards...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,.... Or "eater" (m); the locust or caterpillar, or any such devouring creature, that eats up the herbage, corn, and fruits of trees; every such creature is under the restraint of Providence; and by a nod, a rebuke, they are easily prevented doing the mischief they otherwise would; these are the Lord's...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, with the LORD of hosts. The locust and the caterpillar came up and ate their harvests, all because God was angry with them; and he alone could change their miserable circumstances.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And all nations shall call you blessed,.... When they shall see the land freed from the devouring locust, and other hurtful creatures; the former and the latter rains given in their season, and the earth yielding a large increase: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts; or a desirable (n) one; not only pleasant to themselves,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. God is able, simply with a turn of his hand, or a glance of his eye, to enrich or to impoverish. He gives in a thousand ways that we cannot control, and he takes from us in as many ways which perhaps we cannot understand. It is always best to be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord,.... Hard and strong; they bore very hardly upon him, were exceeding impudent and insolent; murmuring at his providence; arraigning his justice and goodness; and despising his word, worship, and ordinances. Aben Ezra says, this is a prophecy concerning the time to come, that is, the times of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye have said, it [is] vain to serve God,.... This they said in their hearts, if not with their lips, that it was a vain thing for a man to serve God; he got nothing by it; he had no reward for it; it fared no better with him than the wicked; nay, the wicked fared better than he; and therefore who would be a worshipper of God? see Job 21:15....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And now we call the proud happy,.... Or "therefore now" (q); since this is the case, that the worshippers of God are not regarded, and there is nothing got by serving him; they that are proud and haughty, that neither fear God nor regard men, are the happy persons; even presumptuous sinners, as the word (r) signifies, that stretch out their hands...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another,.... Abarbinel thinks this is a continuation of the speech of the wicked; observing, that while they that work wickedness were set up, and they that tempted God escaped punishment, they that were religious, and feared God, "were destroyed one with another", particularly by the plague; so he...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then — At that very time, — Mal_3:16. They that feared the LORD spake often one to another: They could not bear to hear their God thus spoken of, so they went to one another’s houses, they found one another out, and talked to one another. Mal_3:16. And the Lord hearkened, — He loves to listen to the holy talk of a holy people: “The Lord...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts,.... That is, such as fear the Lord, and think of him, hereby they are known to be his; and hereafter, in the time referred to, it will be manifest that they are his: they are Christ's already by his Father's gift of them to him; by his own purchase; by the conquests of his grace; and by the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; “Others, who thought much of themselves, shall be thrown away like worthless pebbles, but these faithful ones shall be mine in that day when I am putting my jewels into my crown, for they shall be precious in my sight.” Mal_3:17. And I will spare them, as a man...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then shall ye return,.... Either the wicked, who will be "converted" (z), as some render the word, and will have a different view of things, and change their minds and language; or they that feared the Lord, who at the time before spoken of will have a new turn of thought, and another and clear discerning of persons and things, and better judge of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, Not now, but then; by-and-by, there shall be a distinguishing mark set upon all mankind: “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked,” — Mal_3:18. Between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. This exposition consisted of readings from...