992 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[They shall be] burnt with hunger,.... This is the arrow of famine, Ezekiel 5:16; the force of which is such that it makes the skin black as if burnt, Lamentations 5:10; Onkelos paraphrases it, "inflated or swelled with famine,'' which is a phrase Josephus (b) makes use of in describing the famine at the siege of Jerusalem. Jarchi observes, that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The sword without,.... Either without the city, the sword of the Roman army besieging it, which destroyed all that came out or attempted to go in; or in the streets of the city, the sword of the seditious, which destroyed multitudes among themselves: and terror within; within the city, on account of the sword of the Romans, and the close siege...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I said,.... Or could have said, or might have said; that is, determined and resolved, as it was in his power, and in right and justice might have done what follows: I would scatter them into corners; which does not fitly express the sense of the word used, and besides this was what was done; it is notorious that the Jews were and are scattered...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy,.... Satan, the enemy of mankind in general, of the people of God in particular, and especially of the Messiah, the seed of the woman, and of God himself, whom he would dethrone, or at least place himself on an equality with him; this enemy is full of wrath, enmity, and blasphemy, against God, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they [are] a nation void of counsel,.... This is said not of the Jews, whose character is given, Deuteronomy 32:6; and instances of their ingratitude, folly, and want of counsel and understanding, have been already mentioned, and punishment for the same inflicted on them, according to this prophetic song; so that the prophecy respecting them...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
O that they were wise,.... These are not the words of God, and so no instances of mere velleities, and unsuccessful wishes in him, and as arguing a power in man to make himself wise if he would; but of Moses, under a spirit of prophecy, foreseeing the ignorance and stupidity of the above persons; or as representing a true believer in Christ, in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight,.... This is said for the conviction of the Pagan Romans of their folly in behaving strangely, attributing to their gods what belonged to the true God; for since the Jews were more numerous than they, both in Judea, in the times of Titus Vespasian, when the country was subdued by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For their rock [is] not as our rock,.... That is, the gods of the Heathens, the rock in which they trusted, are not like the God of Israel, the rock of salvation, in which all true believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, place their confidence; and indeed let that be what it will, that is short of Christ the rock, men lay the stress of their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah,.... This respects the false Christians in the Roman empire, who should have taken warning by the Jews, and not have embraced such sentiments of theirs, which had been resented by the Lord, and condemned in them; such as the doctrines of man's freewill, of justification and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Their wine [is] the poison of dragons,.... Of these creatures, both land and sea dragons, [See comments on Micah 1:8]; [See comments on Malachi 1:3]; Pliny says (l) the dragon has no poison in it; yet, as Dalechamp, in his notes on that writer observes, he in many places prescribes remedies against the bite of the dragon; but Heliodorus (m)...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Is] not this laid up in store with me,.... The fruit of the degenerate vine, its bitter clusters of grapes, and poisonous wine; meaning the evil principles and practices of the apostate church, well known to God, taken notice of by him, and laid up in his mind and memory; for both she and her sins will come in remembrance before God, and will be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To me [belongeth] vengeance and recompense,.... Or, I will repay, or recompence, as it is quoted in Romans 12:19; and so all the three Targums, the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, here, and so Jarchi interprets it. Vengeance belongs only to a divine Person, not to an Heathen deity called Dice, or vengeance, Acts 28:4; nor to Satan and his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the Lord shall judge his people,.... The true church and members of it, in opposition to the false and apostate church; his chosen and covenant people, whom he gave to Christ, and who are redeemed by his blood, and effectually called by his grace; the people he shall call out of Babylon, or preserve from the corruptions of it before its fall;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he shall say, where [are] their gods?.... Not the Lord shall say to Israel, upbraiding them with their idols and their idolatries; but, as the Targum of Jonathan, "the enemy shall say, where is the God of Israel?'' and to the same purpose is, the Jerusalem Targum, and which is the sense of other Jewish writers (w); and the words may be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, [and] drank the wine of their drink offerings,.... Alluding to the fat of the sacrifices under the law, which was claimed by the Lord as his, and represented as his food, Leviticus 3:11; and to the drink offerings of wine, which were of a sweet savour to God, and with respect to which wine is said to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
See now that I, [even] I, [am] he,.... Which words are directed to the people of God in their low estate, to look to Christ, and expect deliverance and salvation from him; or to their enemies that insult them, to the despisers, to look, and wonder, and perish, as they will, when the witnesses slain by them shall arise, and go up to heaven in their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For I lift up my hand to heaven,.... Which is a gesture used in swearing, Genesis 14:22, and is ascribed to a divine Person, Ezekiel 20:5; and particularly to Christ the angel, that is so wonderfully described, Revelation 10:1; though sometimes it is used, as Aben Ezra observes, to excite the attention of hearers, but here it signifies swearing;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If I whet my glittering sword,.... That is, I will do it as sure as I live, if I do not, be it so and so; what that is is not said, but left to be concluded. A glittering sword is a sword drawn, the blade of it drawn out of the scabbard, cleaned and polished, whetted and made sharp, that it may more easily penetrate and pierce; and this, being...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood,.... Signifying, that by various judgments he would bring upon them, which, like arrows, would come suddenly, fly swiftly, and pierce deeply, there would be a prodigious effusion of blood like that in Revelation 14:20; so that these arrows, which cause it, being plunged and soaked, and covered in it, may be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people,.... Or, "rejoice, ye nations", who are "his" people; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; the Gentiles, who are the Lord's chosen and covenant people, redeemed and called, and the fulness of them now brought in, and so matter of great rejoicing; or rather, as the Septuagint, which is approved and...