639 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then were the horse hoofs broken by means of the pransings,.... Either through the force of the waters of the river, where they pranced and plunged, and could have no standing; or through the swift haste they made to run away, striking the earth so quick, and with such force and vehemence, that their hoofs were broken thereby, especially on stony...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord,.... Not Barak, as the Targum and Jarchi, but Deborah herself said this under a spirit of prophecy, not from her own spirit in a revengeful way, but from the Spirit of God; or this was suggested to her by an angel, not a created, but the uncreated one, the Angel of the covenant, by whom she was inspired,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be,.... Under the same influence that Meroz was cursed, Jael is blessed, the one for not helping Israel in a public way, the other for doing it in a private manner; this blessing is pronounced, either in a way of prayer that it might be, or in a way of prophecy that it should be, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He asked water, and she gave him milk,.... That is, Sisera asked it of her, as the Targum expresses it, when he turned into her tent: she brought him fresh butter in a lordly dish; which signifies either the same, the milk with cream on it, for that is meant by butter; or having first taken off the cream, she gave him milk to drink, and then...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
She put her hand to the nail,.... Her left hand, as the Septuagint, Arabic, and Vulgate Latin versions express it, and as appears by what follows; she having taken up a pin from her tent, with which it was fastened to the ground, she clapped it to the temples of Sisera: and her right hand to the workman's hammer; in her right hand she took a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ver. 27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down,.... Perhaps at her first approach to him, and attempt to drive the nail, or at the blow she gave, he rose up, but she had done the business so effectually at the first stroke, that he dropped at once, and laid down his head again: at her feet he bowed, he fell; when she redoubled her blow: where...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The mother of Sisera looked out at a window,.... Which perhaps looked towards the high road, in which she expected Sisera to return in his chariot with his victorious army; and she was looking out for him, not through fear of any ill that had befallen him, or suspicion of misfortunte, but through impatience to see him in triumph return, wreathed...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Her wise ladies answered her,.... Every one in their turn endeavouring to comfort her and make her easy. The Vulgate Latin version is, "one that was wiser than the rest of his wives;'' but they seem rather to be her maids of honour, or ladies of her acquaintance, who were come to pay her a visit, and share in the pleasing sight they expected to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Have they not sped?.... Or "found" (u) the enemy, Barak and his army, or the spoil of them? no doubt they have: have they not divided the prey? doubtless they have, which being large, and the captives many, has taken up much of their time to look over, and make an equal and proper division of, and that most certainly is the cause of the delay: to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord!.... As Sisera and his army did, and be disappointed as his mother and her ladies were; which is not only a wish or prayer that it might be, but a prophecy that so it would be: but let them that love him; that love the Lord superlatively and sincerely, with all their heart and soul, and from love serve and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Judges 6 In this chapter we have an account of the distressed condition Israel was in through the Midianites, Judges 6:1, of a prophet being sent unto them to reprieve them for their sins, Judges 6:7 of an angel appearing to Gideon, with an order to him to go and save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, Judges 6:11 and of a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... After the death of Deborah and Barak, during whose life they kept to the pure worship of God, and who, perhaps, lived pretty near the close of the forty years' rest, or of the twenty years from their victory over Jabin; but they dying, the children of Israel fell into idolatry, for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel,.... They were too strong for them, and overcame them, and brought them into subjection to them, and no wonder, when the Lord delivered them into their hand: and because of the Midianites; because of their usage of them, their manner of coming upon them yearly, and pillaging and plundering their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And so it was, when Israel had sown,.... Their land, and it was grown up, and near being ripe, or quite; for the Midianites gave them no disturbance in the winter, and during seedtime, when they came out of their lurking holes, and manured their land, and sowed it: that the Midianites came up; into the land of Canaan, from the other side Jordan,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they encamped against them,.... Formed a camp, from whence they sent out parties to plunder the people; or "they were fixing their tents among them,'' as the Vulgate Latin version; and so the Targum, "they dwelt by them,'' or fixed their habitations by them; for they seem not to have come as a regular army, but as a sort of banditti to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they came up with their cattle, and their tents,.... Brought their flocks and their herds with them, to eat up the increase of the earth, and their tents, which they pitched and removed from place to place, for the convenience of feeding their cattle, and while they cut down the fruit of the earth everywhere, which serves to confirm the sense...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Israel was greatly impoverished, because of the Midianites,.... Were reduced very low, brought into famishing circumstances through the Midianites thus destroying the fruits of the earth year after year: and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord; which they should have done at first, instead of going into dens and caves; however, better...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because of the Midianites. Because of their oppressions and ill usage of them, and not because of their sins, which had brought those evils on them, of which, at present, they seemed not to be sensible; and yet such was the goodness and compassion of God to them, that having a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel,.... "A man, a prophet" (f), as in the Hebrew text, not an angel, but a man; and this not Phinehas, as say some Jewish writers (g); for it is not probable he should live so long as more than two hundred years; and had he been living, it is very much he should not have been heard of in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,.... Even after they were brought out of Egypt, when the Egyptians pursued after them, and overtook them at the Red sea; where they were in the utmost distress, and the Lord wrought salvation for them, gave them a passage through it, and destroyed the Egyptians in it: and out of the hand of all...