Survey
of the Old and New Testament
Extracted
from the writings of
by
Stanford E. Murrell
Chapter 2 Exodus
Chapter 3 Leviticus
Chapter 4 Numbers
Chapter 5 Deuteronomy
Chapter 6 Joshua
1050-931 BC
Chapter 9 1
Samuel
Chapter 10 2
Samuel
931-586 BC
Chapter 11 1 Kings
Chapter
12 2 Kings
Chapter
13 1 Chronicles
Chapter
14 2 Chronicles
931-722
Chapter 16 Nehemiah
Chapter 17 Esther
Chapter 18 Job
Chapter 19 Psalms
Chapter 20 Proverbs
Chapter 21 Ecclesiastes
Chapter 22 Song
of Solomon
Chapter 23 Isaiah
Chapter 24 Jeremiah
Chapter 25 Lamentations
586-531 BC
Chapter 26 Ezekiel
Chapter 27 Daniel
Chapter 28 Hosea
Chapter 29 Joel
Chapter 30 Amos
Chapter 31 Obadiah
Chapter 32 Jonah
Chapter 33 Micah
Chapter 34 Nahum
Chapter 35 Habakkuk
Chapter 36 Zephaniah
Chapter 37 Haggai
Chapter 38 Zechariah
Chapter 39 Malachi
SURVEY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Chapter 1 Matthew
Chapter 2 Mark
Chapter 3 Luke
Chapter 4 John
Chapter 5 Acts
Chapter 6 Romans
Chapter 7 1
Corinthians
Chapter 8 2
Corinthians
Chapter 9 Galatians
Chapter 10 Ephesians
Chapter 11 Philippians
Chapter 12 Colossians
Chapter 13 1
Thessalonians
Chapter 14 2
Thessalonians
Chapter 15 1
Timothy
Chapter 16 2
Timothy
Chapter 17 Titus
Chapter 18 Philemon
Chapter 19 Hebrews
Chapter 20 James
Chapter 21 1
Peter
Chapter 22 2
Peter
Chapter 23 1
John
Chapter 24 2
John
Chapter 25 3
John
Chapter 26 Jude
Chapter 27 Revelation
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Genesis
We
have now before us the holy Bible, or book, for so bible signifies. We call it
the book, by way of eminency; for it is incomparably the best book that ever
was written, the book of books, shining like the sun in the firmament of
learning, other valuable and useful books, like the moon and stars, borrowing
their light from it. We call it the holy book, because it was written by holy
men, and indited by the Holy Ghost; it is perfectly pure from all falsehood and
corrupt intention; and the manifest tendency of it is to promote holiness among
men. The great things of God's law and gospel are here written to us, that they
might be reduced to a greater certainty, might spread further, remain longer,
and be transmitted to distant places and ages more pure and entire than
possibly they could be by report and tradition: and we shall have a great deal
to answer for if these things which belong to our peace, being thus committed
to us in black and white, be neglected by us as a strange and foreign thing,
Hos 8:12. The scriptures, or writings of the several inspired penmen, from
Moses down to St. John, in which divine light, like that of the morning, shone
gradually (the sacred canon being now completed), are all put together in this
blessed Bible, which, thanks be to God, we have in our hands, and they make as
perfect a day as we are to expect on this side of heaven. Every part was good,
but all together very good. This is the light that shines in a dark place 2
Peter 1:19, and a dark place indeed the world would be without the Bible.
We
have before us that part of the Bible which we call the Old Testament,
containing the acts and monuments of the church from the creation almost to the
coming of Christ in the flesh, which was about four thousand years-- the truths
then revealed, the laws then enacted, the devotions then paid, the prophecies
then given, and the events which concerned that distinguished body, so far as
God saw fit to preserve to us the knowledge of them. This is called a
testament, or covenant (Diatheke)(NT:1242), because it was a settled declaration
of the will of God concerning man in a federal way, and had its force from the
designed death of the great testator, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world, Rev 8:8. It is called the Old Testament, with relation to the New, which
does not cancel and supersede it, but crown and perfect it, by the bringing in
of that better hope which was typified and foretold in it; the Old Testament
still remains glorious, though the New far exceeds in glory, 2 Cor 3:9. We have
before us that part of the Old Testament which we call the Pentateuch, or five
books of Moses, that servant of the Lord who excelled all the other prophets,
and typified the great prophet. In our Saviour's distribution of the books of
the Old Testament into the law, the prophets, and the psalms, or
Hagiographa,(NT:40;NT:1124) these are the law; for they contain not only the
laws given to Israel, in the last four, but the laws given to Adam, to Noah,
and to Abraham, in the first. These five books were, for aught we know, the
first that ever were written; for we have not the least mention of any writing
in all the book of Genesis, nor till God bade Moses write Ex 17:14; and some
think Moses himself never learned to write till God set him his copy in the
writing of the ten Commandments upon the tables of stone. However, we are sure
these books are the most ancient writings now extant, and therefore best able
to give us a satisfactory account of the most ancient things.
We
have before us the first and longest of those five books, which we call
Genesis, written, some think, when Moses was in Midian, for the instruction and
comfort of his suffering brethren in Egypt: I rather think he wrote it in the
wilderness, after he had been in the mount with God, where, probably, he
received full and particular instructions for the writing of it. And, as he
framed the tabernacle, so he did the more excellent and durable fabric of this
book, exactly according to the pattern shown him in the mount, into which it is
better to resolve the certainty of the things herein contained than into any
tradition which possibly might be handed down from Adam to Methuselah, from him
to Shem, from him to Abraham, and so to the family of Jacob. Genesis is a name
borrowed from the Greek. It signifies the original, or generation: fitly is
this book so called, for it is a history of originals-- the creation of the
world, the entrance of sin and death into it, the invention of arts, the rise
of nations, and especially the planting of the church, and the state of it in
its early days. It is also a history of generations-- the generations of Adam,
Noah, Abraham, etc., not endless, but useful genealogies. The beginning of the
New Testament is called Genesis too Matt 1:1, Biblos (NT:976) geneseos,
(NT:1078) the book of the genesis, or generation, of Jesus Christ. Blessed be
God for that Book which shows us our remedy, as this opens our wound. Lord,
open our eyes, that we may see the wondrous things both of thy law and gospel!
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Exodus
Moses
(the servant of the Lord in writing for him as well as in acting for him-- with
the pen of God as well as with the rod of God in his hand) having, in the first
book of his history, preserved and transmitted the records of the church, while
it existed in private families, comes, in this second book, to give us an
account of its growth into a great nation; and, as the former furnishes us with
the best economics, so this with the best politics. The beginning of the former
book shows us how God formed the world for himself; the beginning of this shows
us how he formed Israel for himself, and both show forth his praise, Isa 43:21.
There we have the creation of the world in history, here the redemption of the
world in type. The Greek translators called this book Exodus (which signifies a
departure or going out) because it begins with the story of the going out of
the children of Israel from Egypt. Some allude to the names of this and the
foregoing book, and observe that immediately after Genesis, which signifies the
beginning or original, follows Exodus, which signifies a departure; for a time
to be born is immediately succeeded by a time to die. No sooner have we made
our entrance into the world than we must think of making our exit, and going
out of the world. When we begin to live we begin to die. The forming of Israel
into a people was a new creation. As the earth was, in the beginning, first
fetched from under water, and then beautified and replenished, so Israel was
first by an almighty power made to emerge out of Egyptian slavery, and then
enriched with God's law and tabernacle.
This
book gives us,
I. The accomplishment of the promises made
before to Abraham (ch. 1-19), and then,
II.
The establishment of the ordinances which were afterwards observed by Israel (ch.
20-40). Moses, in this book, begins, like Caesar, to write his own
Commentaries; nay, a greater, a far greater, than Caesar is here. But
henceforward the penman is himself the hero, and gives us the history of those
things of which he was himself an eye and ear-witness, et quorum pars magna
fuit-- and in which he bore a conspicuous part. There are more types of Christ
in this book than perhaps in any other book of the Old Testament; for Moses
wrote of him, John 5:46. The way of man's reconciliation to God, and coming
into covenant and communion with him by a Mediator, is here variously
represented; and it is of great use to us for the illustration of the New
Testament, now that we have that to assist us in the explication of the Old.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Leviticus
There is nothing historical in
all this book of Leviticus except the account which it gives us of the
consecration of the priesthood (ch. 8-9), of the punishment of Nadab and Abihu,
by the hand of God, for offering strange fire (ch. 10), and of Shelomith's son,
by the hand of the magistrate, for blasphemy (ch. 24). All the rest of the book
is taken up with the laws, chiefly the ecclesiastical laws, which God gave to
Israel by Moses, concerning their sacrifices and offerings, their meats and
drinks, and divers washings, and the other peculiarities by which God set that
people apart for himself, and distinguished them from other nations, all which
were shadows of good things to come, which are realized and superseded by the
gospel of Christ. We call the book Leviticus, from the Septuagint, because it
contains the laws and ordinances of the levitical priesthood (as it is called,
Heb 7:11), and the ministrations of it.
The Levites were principally
charged with these institutions, both to do their part and to teach the people
theirs. We read, in the close of the foregoing book, of the setting up of the
tabernacle, which was to be the place of worship; and, as that was framed
according to the pattern, so must the ordinances of worship be, which were
there to be administered. In these the divine appointment was as particular as
in the former, and must be as punctually observed. The remaining record of
these abrogated laws is of use to us, for the strengthening of our faith in
Jesus Christ, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and for the
increase of our thankfulness to God, that by him we are freed from the yoke of
the ceremonial law, and live in the times of reformation.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Numbers
The
titles of the five books of Moses, which we use in our Bibles, are all borrowed
from the Greek translation of the Seventy, the most ancient version of the Old
Testament that we know of. But the title of this book only we turn into
English; in all the rest we retain the Greek word itself, for which difference
I know no reason but that the Latin translators have generally done the same.
Otherwise this book might as well have been called Arithmoi,(NT:706) the Greek
title, as the first Genesis, and the second Exodus; or these might as well have
been translated, and called, the first the Generation, or Original, the second
the Out-let, or Escape, as this Numbers.-- This book was thus entitled because
of the numbers of the children of Israel, so often mentioned in this book, and so
well worthy to give a title to it, because it was the remarkable accomplishment
of God's promise to Abraham that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for
multitude. It also relates to two numberings of them, one at mount Sinai (ch.
1), the other in the plains of Moab, thirty-nine years after (ch. 26). And not
three men the same in the last account that were in the first. The book is
almost equally divided between histories and laws, intermixed.
We have here,
I. The histories of the numbering and marshalling
of the tribes (ch. 1-4), the dedication of the altar and Levites (ch. 7, 8),
their march (ch. 9, 10), their murmuring and unbelief, for which they were
sentenced to wander forty years in the wilderness (ch. 11-14), the rebellion of
Korah (ch. 16, 17), the history of the last year of the forty (ch. 20-26), the
conquest of Midian, and the settlement of the two tribes (ch. 31, 32), with an
account of their journeys (ch. 33),
II.
Divers laws about the Nazarites, etc. (ch. 5,
6); and again about the priests' charge, etc.
(ch. 18, 19), feasts
(ch. 28, 29), and vows (ch. 30), and relating to their settlement in Canaan
(ch. 27, 34, 35, 36).
An
abstract of much of this book we have in a few words in Ps 95:10, Forty years
long was I grieved with this generation; and an application of it to ourselves
in Heb 4:1, Let us fear lest we seem to come short. Many considerable nations
there were now in being, that dwelt in cities and fortified towns, of which no
notice is taken, no account kept, by the sacred history: but very exact records
are kept of the affairs of a handful of people, that dwelt in tents, and
wandered strangely in a wilderness, because they were the children of the
covenant. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Deuteronomy
This book is a repetition of very
much both of the history and of the laws contained in the three foregoing
books, which repetition Moses delivered to Israel (both by word of mouth, that
it might affect, and by writing, that it might abide) a little before his
death. There is no new history in it but that of the death of Moses in the last
chapter, nor any new revelation to Moses, for aught that appears, and therefore
the style here is not, as before, The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying. But the
former laws are repeated and commented upon, explained and enlarged, and some
particular precepts added to them, with copius reasonings for the enforcing of
them: in this Moses was divinely inspired and assisted, so that this is as
truly the word of the Lord by Moses as that which was spoken to him with an
audible voice out of the tabernacle of the congregation, Lev 1:1. The Greek
interpreters call it Deuteronomy, which signifies the second law, or a second
edition of the law, not with amendments, for there needed none, but with
additions, for the further direction of the people in divers cases not
mentioned before. Now,
I. It
was much for the honour of the divine law that it should be thus repeated; how
great were the things of that law which was thus inculcated, and how
inexcusable would those be by whom they were counted as a strange thing! Hos
8:12.
II.
There might be a particular reason for the
repeating of it now; the men of that generation
to which the law was
first given were all dead, and a new generation had sprung up, to whom God
would have it repeated by Moses himself, that, if possible, it might make a
lasting impression upon them. Now that they were just going to take possession
of the land of Canaan, Moses must read the articles of agreement to them, that
they might know upon what terms and conditions they were to hold and enjoy that
land, and might understand that they were upon their good behaviour in it.
III.
It would be of great use to the people to have
those parts of the law thus gathered up and
put together which did
more immediately concern them and their practice; for the laws which concerned
the priests and Levites, and the execution of their offices, are not repeated:
it was enough for them that they were once delivered.
But,
in compassion to the infirmities of the people, the laws of more common concern
are delivered a second time. Precept must be upon precept, and line upon line,
Isa 28:10. The great and needful truths of the gospel should be often pressed upon
people by the ministers of Christ. To write the same things (says Paul, Phil
3:1) to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. What God has spoken
once we have need to hear twice, to hear many times, and it is well if, after
all, it be duly perceived and regarded. In three ways this book of Deuteronomy
was magnified and made honourable—
1.
The king was to write a copy of it with his own
hand, and to read therein all the days of his
life,
ch. 17, 18, 19.
2.
It was to be written upon great stones plastered,
at their passing over Jordan, Deut 27:2-3.
3.
It was to be read publicly every seventh year,
at the feast of tabernacles, by the priests, in the audience of all Israel,
Deut 31:9, etc. The gospel is a kind of
Deuteronomy, a second law, a remedial law, a spiritual law, a law of faith; by
it we are under the law of Christ, and it is a law that makes the comers
thereunto perfect.
This
book of Deuteronomy begins with a brief rehearsal of the most remarkable events
that had befallen the Israelites since they came from Mount Sinai. In the
fourth chapter we have a most pathetic exhortation to obedience. In the twelfth
chapter, and so on to the twenty-seventh, are repeated many particular laws,
which are enforced (ch. 27 and 28) with promises and threatenings, blessings
and curses, formed into a covenant, ch. 29 and 30. Care is taken to perpetuate
the remembrance of these things among them (ch. 31), particularly by a song
(ch. 32), and so Moses concludes with a blessing, ch. 33. All this was
delivered by Moses to Israel in the last month of his life. The whole book
contains the history but of two months; compare Deut 1:3 with Josh 4:19, the
latter of which was the thirty days of Israel's mourning for Moses; see how
busy that great and good man was to do good when he knew that his time was
short, how quick his motion when he drew near his rest. Thus we have more
recorded of what our blessed Saviour said and did in the last week of his life
than in any other. The last words of eminent persons make or should make deep
impressions. Observe, for the honour of this book, that when our Saviour would
answer the devil's temptations with, It is written, he fetched all his
quotations out of this book, Matt 4:4,7,10.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Joshua
We
have now before us the history of the Jewish nation in this book and those that
follow it to the end of the book of Esther.
These books, to he end of the books of the Kings, the Jewish writers
call the first book of the prophets, to bring them within the distribution of
the books of the Old Testament, into the Law, the Prophets, and the Chetubim
(OT:3791), or Hagiographa,(NT:40;NT:1124), Luke 24:44. The rest they make part
of the Hagiographa. For, though history is their subject, it is justly supposed
that prophets were their penmen. To those books that are purely and properly
prophetical the name of the prophet is prefixed, because the credibility of the
prophecies depended much upon the character of the prophets; but these
historical books, it is probable, were collections of the authentic records of
the nation, which some of the prophets (and the Jewish church was for many ages
more or less continually blessed with such) were divinely directed and helped
to put together for the service of the church to the end of the world; as their
other officers, so their historiographers, had their authority from heaven.--
It should seem that though the substance of the several histories was written
when the events were fresh in memory, and written under a divine direction,
yet, under the same direction, they were put into the form in which we now have
them by some other hand, long afterwards, probably all by the same hand, or
about the same time. The grounds of the conjecture are,
1.
Because former writings are so often referred
to, as the Book of Jasher (Josh 10:13, and 2 Sam 1:18), the Chronicles of the
Kings of Israel and Judah, and the books of Gad, Nathan, and Iddo.
2.
Because the days when the things were done are
spoken of sometimes as days long since passed; as 1 Sam 9:9, He that is now
called a prophet was formerly called a seer. And,
3.
Because we so often read of things remaining
unto this day; as stones Josh 4:9; 7:26; 8:29; 10:27; 1 Sam 6:18, names of
places Josh 5:9; 7:26; Judg 1:26; 15:19; 18:12; 2 Kings 14:7, rights and possessions
Judg 1:21; 1 Sam 27:6, customs and
usages 1 Sam 5:5; 2 Kings 17:41, which clauses have been since added to
the history by the inspired collectors for the confirmation and illustration of
it to those of their own age.
And,
if one may offer a mere conjecture, it is not unlikely that the historical books, to the end of the
Kings, were put together by Jeremiah the prophet, a little before the
captivity; for it is said of Ziklag 1 Sam 27:6 that it pertains to the kings of
Judah (which style began after Solomon and ended in the captivity) unto this
day. And it is still more probable that those which follow were put together by
Ezra the scribe, some time after the captivity. However, though we are in the
dark concerning their authors, we are in no doubt concerning their authority;
they were a part of the oracles of God, which were committed to the Jews, and
were so received and referred to by our Saviour and the apostles.
In the five books of Moses we had
a very full account of the rise, advance, and constitution, of the
Old-Testament church, the family out of which it was raised, the promise, that
great charter by which it was incorporated, the miracles by which it was built
up, and the laws and ordinances by which it was to be governed, from which one
would conceive and expectation of its character and state very different from
what we find in this history. A nation that had statutes and judgments so
righteous, one would think, should have been very holy; and a nation what had
promises so rich should have been very happy. But, alas! a great part of the
history is a melancholy representation of their sins and miseries; for the law
made nothing perfect, but this was to be done by the bringing in of the better
hope. And yet, if we compare the history of the Christian church with its
constitution, we shall find the same cause for wonder, so many have been its
errors and corruptions; for neither does the gospel make any thing perfect in
this world, but leaves us still in expectation of a better hope in the future
state.
We have next before us the book
of Joshua, so called, perhaps, not because it was written by him, for that is
uncertain. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that Phinehas wrote it. Bishop Patrick is clear
that Joshua wrote it himself. However that be, it is written concerning him,
and, if any other wrote it, it was collected out of his journals or memoirs. It
contains the history of Israel under the command and government of Joshua, how
he presided as general of their armies,
I.
1. In their entrance into Canaan, ch. 1-5.
II.
2. In their conquest of Canaan, ch. 6-12.
III.
3. In the distribution of the land of Canaan
among the tribes of Israel, ch. 22-24.
In
all which he was a great example of wisdom, courage, fidelity, and piety, to
all that are in places of public trust. But this is not all the use that is to
be made of this history. We may see in it,
1.
Much of God and his providence-- his power in
the kingdom of nature, his justice in punishing the Canaanites when the measure
of their iniquity was full, his faithfulness to his covenant with the
patriarchs, and his kindness to his people Israel, notwithstanding their
provocations. We may see him as the Lord of Hosts determining the issues of
war, and as the director of the lot, determining the bounds of men's habitations.
2.
Much of Christ and his grace. Though Joshua is
not expressly mentioned in the New Testament as a type of Christ, yet all agree
that he was a very eminent one. He bore our Saviour's name, as did also another
type of him, Joshua the high priest, Zech 6:11-12. The Septuagint, giving the
name of Joshua a Greek termination, call him all along Iesous,(NT:2424) Jesus,
and so he is called Acts 7:45, and Heb 4:8. Justin Martyr, one of the first
writers of the Christian church (Dialog. cum Tryph. p. mihi 300), makes that
promise in Ex 23:20, My angel shall bring thee into the place I have prepared,
to point at Joshua; and these words, My name is in him, to refer to this, that
his names should be the same with that of the Messiah. It signifies, He shall
save. Joshua saves God's people from the Canaanites; our Lord Jesus saves them
from their sins. Christ, as Joshua, is the captain of our salvation, a leader
and commander of the people, to tread Satan under their feet, to put them in
possession of the heavenly Canaan, and to give them rest, which (it is said,
Heb 4:8) Joshua did not.
The Era of the Judges
Judge Area Scripture
Othniel
Judah Judges 3:9
Ehud Benjamin Judges 3:15
Shamgar Judges
3:31
Deborah Ephraim Judges 4:4-6
Barak Naphtali Judges 4:4-6
Gideon Manasseh Judges 6:11
Tola Issachar Judges 10:1
Jair Gilead Judges 10:3
Jephthah Gilead Judges 11:11
Ibzan Bethlehem Judges 12:8
Elon Zebulun Judges 12:11
Abdon Ephraim Judges 12:13
Samson
Dan Judges 15:20
Eli Levi 1 Samuel 1-4
Samuel Ephraim 1 Samuel 7-19
Saul Benjamin 1 Samuel 7-19
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Judges
This is called the Hebrew Shepher
Shophtim,(OT:8199) the Book of Judges, which the Syriac and Arabic versions
enlarge upon, and call it, The Book of the Judges of the Children of Israel;
the judgments of that nation being peculiar, so were their judges, whose office
differed vastly from that of the judges of other nations. The Septuagint entitles
it only Kritai, (NT:2923) Judges. It is the history of the commonwealth of
Israel, during the government of the judges from Othniel to Eli, so much of it
as God saw fit to transmit to us. It contains the history (according to Dr.
Lightfoot's computation) of 299 years, reckoning
to
Othniel of Judah forty
years,
to
Ehud of Benjamin eighty
years,
to
Barak of Naphtali forty
years,
to
Gideon of Manasseh forty
years,
to
Abimelech his son three
years,
to
Tola of Issachar twenty-three,
to
Jair of Manasseh twenty-two,
to
Jephtha of Manasseh six,
to
Ibzan of Judah seven,
to
Elon of Zebulun ten,
to
Abdon of Ephriam eight,
to
Samson of Dan twenty,
in all 299. As for the
years of their servitude, as were Eglon is said to oppress them eighteen years
and Jabin twenty years, and so some others, those must be reckoned to fall in
with some or other of the years of the judges. The judges here appear to have
been of eight several tribes; that honour was thus diffused, until at last it
centred in Judah. Eli and Samuel, the two judges that fall not within this
book, were of Levi. It seems, there was no judge of Reuben or Simeon, Gad or
Asher. The history of these judges in their order we have in this book to the
end of ch. 16. And then in the last five chapters we have an account of some
particular memorable events which happened, as the story of Ruth did Ruth 1:1
in the days when the judges ruled, but it is not certain in which judge's days;
but they are put together at the end of the book, that the thread of the
general history might not be interrupted. Now as to the state of the
commonwealth of Israel during this period,
I. They do not appear here either so
great or so good as one might have expected the character of such a peculiar
people would be, that were governed by such laws and enriched by such
promises. We find them wretchedly
corrupted, and wretchedly oppressed by their neighbours about them, and nowhere
in all the book, either in war or council, do they make any figure proportionable
to their glorious entry into Canaan. What shall we say to it? God would hereby
show us the lamentable imperfection of all persons and things under the sun,
that we may look for complete holiness and happiness in the other world, and
not in this. Yet,
II. We may hope that though the historian
in this book enlarges most upon their provocations and grievances, yet there
was a face of religion upon the land; and, however there were those among them
that were drawn aside to idolatry, yet the tabernacle-service, according to the
law of Moses, was kept up, and there were many that attended it.
III. Historians record
not the common course of justice and commerce in a nation, taking that for
granted, but only the wars and disturbances that happen; but the reader must
consider the other, to balance the blackness of them. It should seem that in these times each tribe had very much its
government in ordinary within itself, and acted separately, without one common
head, or council, which occasioned many differences among themselves, and kept
them from being or doing any thing considerable.
IV. The government of the judges was not
constant, but occasional; when it is said that after Ehud's victory the land
rested eighty years, and after Barak's forty, it is not certain that they
lived, much less that they governed, so long; but they and the rest were raised
up and animated by the Spirit of God to do particular service to the public
when there was occasion, to avenge Israel of their enemies, and to purge Israel
of their idolatries, which are the two things principally meant by their
judging Israel. Yet Deborah, as a prophetess, was attended for judgment by all
Israel, before there was occasion for her agency in war, Judg 4:4.
V. During the government of the judges,
God was in a more especial manner Israel's king; so Samuel tells them when they
were resolved to throw off this form of government, 1 Sam 12:12. God would try
what his own law and the constitutions of that would do to keep them in order,
and it proved that when there was no king in Israel every man did that which
was right in his own eyes; he therefore, towards the latter end of this time,
made the government of the judges more constant and universal that it was at
first, and at length gave them David, a king after his own heart; then, and not
till then, Israel began to flourish, which should make us very thankful for
magistrates both supreme and subordinate, for they are ministers of God unto us
for good. Four of the judges of Israel are canonized Heb 11:32, Gideon, Barak,
Samson, and Jephtha. The Learned bishop Patrick thinks the prophet Samuel was
the penman of this Book.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Ruth
This short history of the
domestic affairs of one particular family fitly follows the book of Judges (the
events related here happening in the days of the judges), and fitly goes before
the books of Samuel, because in the close it introduces David; yet the Jews, in
their Bibles, separate it from both, and make it one of the five Megilloth,(OT:4039)
or Volumes, which they put together towards the latter end, in this order:
Solomon's Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. It is probable
that Samuel was the penman of it. It relates not miracles nor laws, wars nor
victories, nor the revolutions of states, but the affliction first and
afterwards the comfort of Naomi, the conversion first and afterwards the
preferment of Ruth. Many such events have happened, which perhaps we may think
as well worthy to be recorded; but these God saw fit to transmit the knowledge
of to us; and even common historians think they have liberty to choose their
subject. The design of this book is,
I.
To lead to providence, to show us how conversant
it is about our private concerns, and to teach us in them all to have an eye to
it, acknowledging God in all our ways and in all events that concern us. See 1
Sam 2:7-8; Ps 113:7-9.
II.
To lead to Christ, who descended from Ruth, and
part of whose genealogy concludes the book, whence it is fetched into Matt 1.
In the conversion of Ruth the Moabitess, and the bringing of her into the
pedigree of the Messiah, we have a type of the calling of the Gentiles in due
time into the fellowship of Christ Jesus our Lord. The afflictions of Naomi and
Ruth we have an account of, ch. 1. Instances of their industry and humility,
ch. 2. The bringing of them into an alliance with Boaz, ch. 3. And their happy
settlement thereby, ch. 4. And let us remember the scene is laid in Bethlehem,
the city where our Redeemer was born.
The Era of the Kings
The United Kingdom
1050=931
BC
Reign of Saul 1 Samuel 9:1
1050-1011 2 Samuel 1:27
1
Chronicles 8:33-10:14
Victories
over
Amonnites Tiglath-pileser
I
Philistines king of Assyria
Amalelites
Saul
and David Agag,
king of Amalek
Death
of Saul at Mt. Gilboa Achish,
king of Gath
Reign of David 1 Samuel 16:1 Hiram,
king of Tyre
1011-971 1
Kings 2:11
1
Chronicles 11:1-29:30
Fall
of Jerusalem
Victories
and enlargement
Alliance
with Hamath and Tyre
Revolt
of Absalom
Reign of Solomon 1 Kings 1:11-11:43 Hiram, king of Tyre
1
Chronicles 29:20 –
2
Chronicles 9:31
Building
of the Temple Hadad
the Edomite
In
Egypt in exile
Visit
of Queen of Sheba Shishak,
king of Egypt
(22nd Dynasty)
Death
of Solomon Jeroboam
in exile
Division of the kingdom
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
1 Samuel
This book, and that which follows
it, bear the name of Samuel in the title, not because he was the penman of them
(except of so much of them as fell within his own time, to the twenty-fifth
chapter of the first book, in which we have an account of his death), but
because the first book begins with a large account of him, his birth and
childhood, his life and government; and the rest of these two volumes that are
denominated from him contains the history of the reigns of Saul and David, who
were both anointed by him. And, because the history of these two kings takes up
the greatest part of these books, the Vulgar latin calls them the First and Second
Books of the Kings, and the two that follow the Third and Fourth, which the
titles in our English Bibles take notice of with an alias: otherwise called the
First Book of the Kings, etc. The Septuagint calls them the first and second
Book of the Kingdoms. It is needless to contend about it, but there is no
occasion to vary from the Hebrew verity.
These two books contain the
history of the last two of the judges, Eli and Samuel, who were not, as the
rest, men of war, but priests (and so much of them is an appendix to the book
of Judges), and of the first two of the kings, Saul and David, and so much of
them is an entrance upon the history of the kings. They contain a considerable
part of the sacred history, are sometimes referred to in the New Testament, and
often in the titles of David's Psalms, which, if placed in their order, would
fall in these books. It is uncertain who was the penman of them; it is probable
that Samuel wrote the history of his own time, and that, after him, some of the
prophets that were with David (Nathan as likely as any) continued it. This
first book gives us a full account of Eli's fall and Samuel's rise and good
government, ch. 1-8. Of Samuel's resignation of the government and Saul's
advancement and mal-administration, ch. 9-15. The choice of David, his
struggles with Saul, Saul's ruin at last, and the opening of the way for David
to the throne, ch. 16-31. And these things are written for our learning.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
2 Samuel
This book is the history of the reign
of king David. We had in the foregoing book an account of his designation to
the government, and his struggles with Saul, which ended at length in the death
of his persecutor. This book begins with his accession to the throne, and is
entirely taken up with the affairs of the government during the forty years he
reigned, and therefore is entitled by the Septuagint. The Third Book of the
Kings. It gives us an account of David's triumphs and his troubles.
I.
His triumphs over the house of Saul (ch. 1-4), over
the Jebusites and Philistines (ch. 5), at the bringing up of the ark (ch. 6 and
7), over the neighbouring nations that opposed him (ch. 8-10); and so far the
history is agreeable to what we might expect from David's character and the
choice made of him. But his cloud has a dark side.
II.
II. We have his troubles, the causes of them,
his sin in the matter of Uriah (ch. 11 and 12), the troubles themselves from
the sin of Amnon (ch. 13), the rebellion of Absalom (ch. 14-19) and of Sheba
(ch. 20), and the plague in Israel for his numbering the people (ch. 24),
besides the famine of the Gibeonites (ch. 21).
His son we have (ch. 22), and his
words and worthies (ch. 23). Many things in his history are very instructive;
but for the hero who is the subject of it, though in many instances he appears
here very great, and very good, and very much the favourite of heaven, yet it
must be confessed that his honour shines brighter in his Psalms than in his
Annals.
THE ERA OF THE KINGS
The
Divided Kingdom
The Kingdom of Judah
931-586 BC
Reign
Time
Period Scripture
Rehoboam 931-913 1
Kings 11:43-14:31
2
Chronicles 9:31-12:15
Abijam
(Abijah) 913-911 1
Kings 14:31-15:8
Asa 911-875 1
Kings 15:8-24
2
Chronicles 14:1-16:14
Jehoshaphat 875-848 1
Kings 15:24-22:50
Jehoram
(Joram) 848-841 2 Kings
8:25-9:28
2
Chronicles 21:1-20
Ahaziah 841 2
Kings 8:25-9:28
Athalia 841-836 2
Kings 11:1-20
2
Chronicles 22:19
Jehoash
(Joash) 836-797 2
Kings 11:21-12:21
2
Chronicles 24:1-27
Amaziah 797-781 2
Kings 14:1-20
2
Chronicles 24:27-25:28
Uzziah
(Azariah) 781-740 2 Kings
14:21-15:7
Ministry of Jonah
Ministry of Amos
Jotham
740-732 2
Kings 15:7-38
2
Chronicles 26:23-27:9
Ahaz 731-715 2
Kings 15:38-16:20
2
Chronicles 27:9-28:27
End
of the Northern Kingdom
722 BC
The Kingdom of Judah
(cont.)
Hezekiah 715-687 2
Kings 16:20-20:21
2
Chronicles 28:27-32:33
Assyrians conquers Judah 701
Ministry
of Nahum
Amon 642-640 2
Kings 21:18-26
Josiah 640-609 2
Kings 21:24-23:30
2
Chronicles 33:20-25
Religious
reforms
Ministry
of Jeremiah
Ministry
of Zephaniah
Jehoahaz (Shallum) 609 2
Kings 21:24-23:30
2
Chronicles 33:25-35:27
Jehoiakim 609-597 2
Kings 23:34-24:6
Daniel
in exile
Ministry
of Habakkuk
Ministry
of Ezekiel
Jehoiakin 587 2
Kings 24:6-25:30
Jerusalem
surrenders
Jehoiakin
deported
Zedekiah 597-586 2
Kings 24:17-25:7
2
Chronicles 36:10-21
Jerusalem
under siege 589
Jerusalem
falls 586
Exile
bgins
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
1 Kings
Many histories are books of kings
and their reigns, to which the affairs of their kingdoms are reduced; this is a
piece of honour that has commonly been paid to crowned heads. The holy
Scripture is the history of the kingdom of God among men, under the several
administrations of it; but there the King is one and his name one. The
particular history now before us accounts for the affairs of the kingdoms of
Judah and Israel, yet with special regard to the kingdom of God among them; for
still it is a sacred history, much more instructive and not less entertaining
than any of the histories of the kings of the earth, to which (those of them
that are of any certainty) it is prior in time; for though there were kings in
Edom before there was any king in Israel, Gen 36:31 (foreigners, in that point
of state, got the precedency), yet the history of the kings of Israel lives,
and will live, in holy Writ, to the end of the world, whereas that of the kings
of Edom is long since buried in oblivion; for the honour that comes from God is
durable, while the honour of the world is like a mushroom, which comes up in a
night and perishes in a night.—
The
Bible began with the story of patriarchs, and prophets, and judges, men whose
converse with heaven was more immediate, the record of which strengthens our
faith, but is not so easily accommodated to our case, now that we expect not
visions, as the subsequent history of affairs like ours under the direction of
common providence; and here also we find, though not many types and figures of
the Messiah, yet great expectations of him; for not only prophets, but kings,
desired to see the great mysteries of the gospel, Luke 10:24-- The two books of
Samuel are introductions to the books of the Kings, as they relate the origin
of the royal government in Saul and of the royal family in David.
These two books give us an
account of David's successor, Solomon, the division of his kingdom, and the
succession of the several kings both of Judah and Israel, with an abstract of
their history down to the captivity. And as from the book of Genesis we may
collect excellent rules of economics, for the good governing of families, so from
these books we may collect rules of politics, for the directing of public
affairs. There is in these books special regard had to the house and lineage of
David, from which Christ came. Some of his sons trod in his steps, and others
did not.
The
characters of the kings of Judah may be thus briefly given—
David
the
devout,
Solomon
the
wise
Rehoboam
the
simple
Abijah
the
valiant
Asa
the
upright
Jehoshaphat
the
religious
Jehoram
the
wicked
Ahaziah
the
profane
Joash
the
backslider
Amaziah
the
rash
Uzziah
the
mighty
Jotham
the
peaceable
Ahaz
the
idolater
Hezekiah
the
reformer
Manasseh
the
penitent
Amon
the
obscure
Josiah
the
tender-hearted
Jehoahaz
Jehoiakim,
Jehoiachin,
Zedekiah
all wicked
and such as brought
ruin quickly on themselves and their kingdom. The number of the good and bad is
nearly equal, but the reigns of the good were generally long and those of the
bad short, the consideration of which will make the state of Israel not
altogether so bad in this period as at first it seems. In this first book we
have,
I.
The death of David, ch. 1 and 2.
II.
The glorious reign of Solomon, and his building
the temple (ch. 3-10), but the cloud his sun set under, ch. 11.
III.
The division of the kingdoms in Rehoboam, and
his reign and Jeroboam's, ch. 12-14.
IV.
The reigns of Abijah and Asa over Judah, Baasha
and Omri over Israel, ch. 15 and 16.
V.
Elijah's miracles, ch. 17-19.
VI.
Ahab's success against Benhadad, his wickedness
and fall, ch. 20-22. And in all this history it appears that kings, though gods
to us, are men to God, mortal and accountable.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
2 Kings
This
second book of the Kings (which the Septuagint, numbering from Samuel, called
the fourth) is a continuation of the former book; and, some think, might better
have been made to begin with the fifty-first verse of the foregoing chapter,
where the reign of Ahaziah begins. The former book had an illustrious
beginning, in the glories of the kingdom of Israel, when it was entire; this
has a melancholy conclusion, in the desolations of the kingdoms of Israel
first, and then of Judah, after they had been long broken into two: for a
kingdom divided against itself cometh to destruction. But, as Elijah's mighty
works were very much the glory of the former book, towards the latter end of
it, so were Elisha's the glory of this, towards the beginning of it. These
prophets out-shone their princes; and therefore, as far as they go, the history
shall be accounted for in them. Here is,
I.
Elijah fetching fire from heaven and ascending
in fire to heaven, ch. 1 and 2.
II.
Elisha working many miracles, both for prince
and people, Israelites and foreigners, ch. 3-7.
III.
Hazael and Jehu anointed, the former for the
correction of Israel, the latter for the destruction of the house of Ahab and
the worship of Baal, ch. 8-10.
IV.
The reign of several of the kings, both of Judah
and Israel, ch. 11-16.
V.
The captivity of the ten tribes, ch. 17.
VI.
The good and glorious reign of Hezekiah, ch.
18-20.
VII.
Manassah's wicked reign, and Josiah's good one,
ch. 21-23.
VIII.
The destruction of Jerusalem by the king of
Babylon, ch. 24 and 25. This history, in the several passages of it, confirms
that observation of Solomon, That righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is the
reproach of any people.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
1 Chronicles
In common things repetition is
thought needless and nauseous; but, in sacred things, precept must be upon
precept and line upon line. To me, says the apostle, to write the same things
is not grievous, but for you it is safe, Phil 3:1. These books of Chronicles
are in a great measure repetition; so are much of the second and third of the
four evangelists: and yet there are no tautologies either here or there no vain
repetitions. We may be ready to think that of all the books of holy scripture
we could best spare these two books of Chronicles. Perhaps we might, and yet we
could ill spare them: for there are many most excellent useful things in them,
which we find not elsewhere. And as for what we find here which we have already
met with,
1.
It might be of great use to those who lived when
these books were first published, before the canon of the Old Testament was
completed and the particles of it put together; for it would remind them of
what was more fully related in the other books. Abstracts, abridgments, and
references, are of use in divinity as well as law. That, perhaps, may not be
said in vain which yet has been said before.
2.
It is still of use, that out of the mouth of two
witnesses every word may be established, and, being inculcated, may be
remembered.
The penman of these books is
supposed to be Ezra, that ready scribe in the law of the Lord, Ezra 7:6. It is
a groundless story of that apocryphal writer (2 Esdr. 14:21, etc.) that, all
the law being burnt, Ezra was divinely inspired to write it all over again,
which yet might take rise from the books of Chronicles, where we find, though
not all the same story repeated, yet the names of all those who were the
subjects of that story. These books are called in the Hebrew words of days--
journals or annals, because, by divine direction, collected out of some public
and authentic records. The collection was made after the captivity, and yet the
language of the originals, written before, it sometimes retained, as 2 Chron
5:9, there it is unto this day, which must have been written before the
destruction of the temple. The Septuagint calls it a book
Paraleipomenon(NT:3844;NT:3007)-- of things left, or overlooked, by the
preceding historians; and several such things there are in it. It is the
re-reward, the gathering host, of this sacred camp, which gathers up what
remained, that nothing might be lost. In this first book we have,
I.
A collection of sacred genealogies, from Adam to
David: and they are none of those which the apostle calls endless genealogies,
but have their use and end in Christ, ch. 1-9. Divers little passages of
history are here inserted which we had not before.
II.
A repetition of the history of the translation
of the kingdom from Saul to David, and of the triumph of David's reign, with
large additions, ch. 10-21.
III.
An original account of the settlement David made
of the ecclesiastical affairs, and the preparation he made for the building of
the temple, ch. 22-29. These are words of days, of the oldest days, of the best
days, of the Old-Testament church. The reigns of kings and dates of kingdoms,
as well as the lives of common persons, are reckoned by days; for a little time
often gives a great turn, and yet all time is nothing to eternity.
Matthew Henry’s
Commentary
2 Chronicles
This
book begins with the reign of Solomon and the building of the temple, and
continues the history of the kings of Judah thenceforward to the captivity and
so concludes with the fall of that illustrious monarchy and the destruction of
the temple. That monarchy of the house of David, as it was prior in time, so it
was superior in worth and dignity to all those four celebrated ones of which
Nebuchadnezzar dreamed. The Babylonian monarchy I reckon to begin in
Nebuchadnezzar himself-- Thou art that head of gold, and that lasted but about
seventy years; The Persian monarchy, in several families, about 130; the
Grecian, in their several branches, about 300; and 300 more went far with the
Roman. But as I reckon David a greater hero than any of the founders of those
monarchies, and Solomon a more magnificent prince than any of those that were
the glories of them, so the succession was kept up in a lineal descent
throughout the whole monarchy, which continued considerable between 400 and 500
years, and, after a long eclipse, shone forth again in the kingdom of the
Messiah, of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end.
This history of the Jewish monarchy, as it is more authentic, so it is more
entertaining and more instructive, than the histories of any of those
monarchies.
We
had the story of the house of David before, in the first and second books of
Kings, intermixed with that of the kings of Israel, which there took more room
than that of Judah; but here we have it entire. Much is repeated here which we
had before, yet many of the passages of the story are enlarged upon, and divers
added, which we had not before, especially relating to the affairs of religion;
for it is a church-history, and it is written for our learning, to let nations
and families know that then, and then only, they can expect to prosper, when
they keep in the way of their duty to God: for all along the good kings
prospered and the wicked kings suffered. The peaceable reign of Solomon we have
(ch. 1-9), the blemished reign of Rehoboam (ch. 10-12), the short but busy
reign of Abijah (ch. 13), the long and happy reign of Asa (ch. 14-16), the
pious and prosperous reign of Jehoshaphat (ch. 17-20), the impious and infamous
reigns of Jehoram and Ahaziah (ch. 21-22), the unsteady reigns of Joash and
Amaziah (ch. 24, 25), the long and prosperous reign of Uzziah (ch. 26), the
regular reign of Jotham (ch. 27), the profane and wicked reign of Ahaz (ch.
28), the gracious glorious reign of Hezekiah (ch. 29-32), the wicked reigns of
Manasseh and Amon (ch. 33), the reforming reign of Josiah (ch. 34, 35), the
ruining reigns of his sons (ch. 36). Put all these together, and the truth of
that word of God will appear, Those that honour me I will honour, but those
that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
The
learned Mr. Whiston, in his chronology, suggests that the historical books
which were written after the captivity (namely, the two books of Chronicles,
Ezra, and Nehemiah) have more mistakes in names and numbers than all the books
of the Old Testament besides, through the carelessness of transcribers: but,
though that should be allowed, the things are so very minute that we may be
confident the foundation of God stands sure notwithstanding.
The
Era of the Kings
The Divided Kingdom
The Kingdom of Israel
931-722 BC
Jeroboam I 931-910 1 Kings 12:20-14:20
2
Chronicles 10:2-13:20
ministry of Ahijah
Nadab 910-909 1 Kings 14:20-15:31
Baasha 909-886 1 Kings 15:16-16:7
Ministry of Hanani
Ministry of Jehu
Elah 886-885 1 Kings 16:8-14
Zimir 885 1
Kings 16:8-20
Omri 885-874 1 Kings 16:16-28
Samaria est.
Ahab 874-853 1 Kings 16:28-22:40
2
Chronicles 18:1-34
Ministry of Elijah
Ahaziah 853-852 1 Kings 22:40-2
Kings 1:1
2
Chronicles 20:35-37
Jehoram (Joram) 852-841 2 Kings 1:17-9:29
2
Chronicles 22:5-7
Ministry of Elisha
Ministry of Obadiah
Jehu kills the kings
Of Israel and Judah
Jehu 841-814 2 Kings 9:11-10:36
2
Chronicles 22:7-9
Jehoahaz 814-799 2 Kings 10:35-13:9
Joash (Jehoash) 799-782 2 Kings 13:9-14:16
2
Chronicles 25:17-25
Jeroboam II 782-743 2 Kings 13:13-14:29
Ministry of prophecy
Zachariah (Zechariah) 743 2 Kings 14:29-15:12
Menahem 743-738 2 Kings 15:22-26
Pekahiah 738-737 2 Kings 15:25-31
2
Chronicles 28:6
Hosea 731-722 2 Kings 15:30-18:12
Samaria falls and leading
citizen are deported
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Ezra
The
Jewish church puts on quite another face in this book from what it had appeared
with; its state much better, and more pleasant, than it was of late in Babylon,
and yet far inferior to what it had been formerly. The dry bones here live
again, but in the form of a servant; the yoke of their captivity is taken off,
but the marks of it in their galled necks remain. Kings we hear no more of; the
crown has fallen from their heads. Prophets they are blessed with, to direct
them in their re-establishment, but, after a while, prophecy ceases among them,
till the great prophet appears, and his fore-runner. The history of this book
is the accomplishment of Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the return of the Jews
out of Babylon at the end of seventy years, and a type of the accomplishment of
the prophecies of the Apocalypse concerning the deliverance of the gospel
church out of the New-Testament Babylon. Ezra preserved the records of that
great revolution and transmitted them to the church in this book. His name
signifies a helper; and so he was to that people. A particular account
concerning him we shall meet with, ch. 7, where he himself enters upon the
stage of action. The book gives us an account,
I.
Of the Jews' return out of their captivity, ch.
1, 2.
II.
Of the building of the temple, the opposition it
met with, and yet the perfecting of it at last, ch. 3-6.
III.
Of Ezra's coming to Jerusalem, ch. 7, 8.
IV.
Of the good service he did there, in obliging
those that had married strange wives to put them away, ch. 9, 10.
This
beginning again of the Jewish nation was small, yet its latter end greatly
increased.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Nehemiah
This
book continues the history of the children of the captivity, the poor Jews,
that had lately returned out of Babylon to their own land. At this time not
only the Persian monarchy flourished in great pomp and power, but Greece and Rome
began to be very great and to make a figure. Of the affairs of those high and
mighty states we have authentic accounts extant; but the sacred and inspired
history takes cognizance only of the state of the Jews, and makes no mention of
other nations but as the Israel of God had dealings with them: for the Lord's
portion is his people; they are his peculiar treasure, and, in comparison with
them, the rest of the world is but as lumber. In my esteem, Ezra the scribe and
Nehemiah the tirshatha, though neither of them ever wore a crown, commanded an
army, conquered any country, or was famed for philosophy or oratory, yet both
of them, being pious praying men, and very serviceable in their day to the
church of God and the interests of religion, were really greater men and more
honourable, not only than any of the Roman consuls or dictators, but than
Xenophon, or Demosthenes, or Plato himself, who lived at the same time, the
bright ornaments of Greece.
Nehemiah's
agency for the advancing of the settlement of Israel we have a full account of
in this book of his own commentaries or memoirs, wherein he records not only
the works of his hands, but the workings of his heart, in the management of
public affairs, inserting in the story many devout reflections and ejaculations,
which discover in his mind a very deep tincture of serious piety and are
peculiar to his writing. Twelve years, from his twentieth year Neh 1:1 to his
thirty-second year Neh 13:6, he was governor of Judea, under Artaxerxes king of
Persia, whom Dr. Lightfoot supposes to be the same Artaxerxes as Ezra has his
commission from. This book relates,
I.
Nehemiah's concern for Jerusalem and the
commission he obtained from the king to go thither, ch. 1, 2.
II.
His building the wall of Jerusalem
notwithstanding the opposition he met with, ch. 3, 4.
III.
His redressing the grievances of the people, ch.
5.
IV.
His finishing the wall, ch. 6.
V.
The account he took of the people, ch. 7.
VI.
The religions solemnities of reading the law,
fasting, and praying, and renewing their covenants, to which he called the
people (ch. 8-10).
VII.
The care he took for the replenishing of the
holy city and the settling of the holy tribe, ch. 11, 12.
VIII.
His zeal in reforming various abuses, ch. 13.
Some call this the second book of Ezra, not because he was the penman of it, but because it is a continuation of the history of the foregoing book, with which it is connected (v. 1). This was the last historical book that was written, as Malachi was the last prophetical book, of the Old Testament.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Esther
How
the providence of God watched over the Jews that had returned out of captivity
to their own land, and what great and kind things were done for them, we read
in the two foregoing books; but there were many who staid behind, having not
zeal enough for God's house, and the holy land and city, to carry them through
the difficulties of a removal thither. These, one would think, should have been
excluded the special protection of Providence, as unworthy the name of
Israelites; but our God deals not with us according to our folly and weakness.
We
find in this book that even those Jews who were scattered in the provinces of
the heathen were taken care of, as well as those who were gathered in the land
of Judea, and were wonderfully preserved, when doomed to destruction and
appointed as sheep for the slaughter. Who drew up this story is uncertain.
Mordecai was as able as any man to relate, on his own knowledge, the several
passages of it; quorum pars magna fuit-- for he bore a conspicuous part in it;
and that he wrote such an account of them as was necessary to inform his people
of the grounds of their observing the feast of Purim we are told (Est 9:20,
Mordecai wrote these things, and sent them enclosed in letters to all the
Jews), and therefore we have reason to think he was the penman of the whole
book.
It
is the narrative of a plot laid against the Jews to cut them all off, and which
was wonderfully disappointed by a concurrence of providences. The most
compendious exposition of it will be to read it deliberately all together at
one time, for the latter events expound the former and show what providence
intended in them. The name of God is not found in this book; but the apocryphal
addition to it (which is not in the Hebrew, nor was ever received by the Jews
into the can on), containing six chapters, begins thus, Then Mordecai said, God
has done these things. But, though the name of God be not in it, the finger of
God is, directing many minute events for the bringing about of his people's deliverance.
The particulars are not only surprising and very entertaining, but edifying and
very encouraging to the faith and hope of God's people in the most difficult
and dangerous times. We cannot now expect such miracles to be wrought for us as
were for Israel when they were brought out of Egypt, but we may expect that in
such ways as God here took to defeat Haman's plot he will still protect his
people. We are told,
I.
How Esther came to be queen and Mordecai to be
great at court, who were to be the instruments of the intended deliverance, ch.
1, 2.
II.
Upon what provocation, and by what arts, Haman
the Amalekite obtained an order for the destruction of all the Jews, ch. 3.
III.
The great distress the Jews, and their patriots
especially, were in thereupon, ch. 4.
IV.
The defeating of Haman's particular plot against
Mordecai's life, ch. 5-7.
V.
The defeating of his general plot against the
Jews, ch. 8.
VI.
The care that was taken to perpetuate the
remembrance of this, ch. 9, 10.
The
whole story confirms the Psalmist's observation Ps 37:12-13, The wicked
plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall
laugh at him; he sees that his day is coming.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Job
This book of Job stands by
itself, is not connected with any other, and is therefore to be considered
alone. Many copies of the Hebrew Bible place it after the book of Psalms, and
some after the Proverbs, which perhaps has given occasion to some learned men
to imagine it to have been written by Isaiah or some of the later prophets.
But, as the subject appears to have been much more ancient, so we have no
reason to think but that the composition of the book was, and that therefore it
is most fitly placed first in this collection of divine morals: also, being
doctrinal, it is proper to precede and introduce the book of Psalms, which is
devotional, and the book of Proverbs, which is practical; for how shall we
worship or obey a God whom we know not? As to this book,
I.
We are sure that it is given by inspiration of God, though we are not certain
who was the penman of it. The Jews, though no friends to Job, because he was a
stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, yet, as faithful conservators of the
oracles of God committed to them, always retained this book in their sacred canon.
The history is referred to by one apostle James 5:11 and one passage Job 5:13
is quoted by another apostle, with the usual form of quoting scripture, It is written, 1 Cor 3:19. It is the opinion of many of the ancients
that this history was written by Moses himself in Midian, and delivered to his
suffering brethren in Egypt, for their support and comfort under their burdens,
and the encouragement of their hope that God would in due time deliver and
enrich them, as he did this patient sufferer. Some conjecture that it was
written originally in Arabic, and afterwards translated into Hebrew, for the
use of the Jewish church, by Solomon (so Monsieur Jurieu) or some other
inspired writer. It seems most probable to me that Elihu was the penman of it,
at least of the discourses, because Job 32:15-16 he mingles the words of a
historian with those of a disputant: but Moses perhaps wrote the first two
chapters and the last, to give light to the discourses; for in them God is
frequently called Jehovah, but not once in all the discourses, except Job 12:9.
That name was but little known to the patriarchs before Moses, Ex 6:3. If Job
wrote it himself, some of the Jewish writers themselves own him a prophet among
the Gentiles; if Elihu, we find he had a spirit of prophecy which filled him
with matter and constrained him, Job 32:18.
II.
We are sure that it is, for the substance of it, a true history, and not a
romance, though the dialogues are poetical. No doubt there was such a man as
Job; the prophet Ezekiel names him with Noah and Dan; Ezek 14:14. The narrative
we have here of his prosperity and piety, his strange afflictions and exemplary
patience, the substance of his conferences with his friends, and God's
discourse with him out of the whirlwind, with his return at length to a very
prosperous condition, no doubt is exactly true, though the inspired penman is
allowed the usual liberty of putting the matter of which Job and his friends
discoursed into his own words.
III.
We are sure that it is very ancient, though we cannot fix the precise time
either when Job lived or when the book was written. So many, so evident, are
its hoary hairs, the marks of its antiquity, that we have reason to think it of
equal date with the book of Genesis itself, and that holy Job was contemporary
with Isaac and Jacob; though not coheir with them of the promise of the earthly
Canaan, yet a joint-expectant with them of the better country, that is, the
heavenly. Probably he was of the posterity of Nahor, Abraham's brother, whose
first-born was Uz Gen 22:21, and in whose family religion was for some ages
kept up, as appears, Gen 31:53, where God is called, not only the God of
Abraham, but the God of Nahor.
IV.
He lived before the age of man was shortened to seventy or eighty, as it was in
Moses's time, before sacrifices were confined to one altar, before the general
apostasy of the nations from the knowledge and worship of the true God, and
while yet there was no other idolatry known than the worship of the sun and
moon, and that punished by the Judg; Job 31:26-28. He lived while God was known by the name of God Almighty more
than by the name of Jehovah; for he is called Shaddai(OT:7706)-- the Almighty,
above thirty times in this book. He lived while divine knowledge was conveyed,
not by writing, but by tradition; for to that appeals are here made, Job 8:8;
21:29; 15:18; 5:1. And we have therefore reason to think that he lived before
Moses, because here is no mention at all of the deliverance of Israel out of
Egypt, or the giving of the law. There is indeed one passage which might be
made to allude to the drowning of Pharaoh Job 26:12: He divideth the sea with
his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab, which name Egypt
is frequently called by in scripture, as Ps 87:4; 89:10; Isa 51:9. But that may
as well refer to the proud waves of the sea. We conclude therefore that we are
here got back to the patriarchal age, and, besides its authority, we receive
this book with veneration for its antiquity.
V. We are sure that it is of great use to the
church, and to every good Christian, though there are many passages in it dark and hard to be understood. We
cannot perhaps be confident of the true meaning of every Arabic word and phrase
we meet with in it. It is a book that finds a great deal of work for the
critics; but enough is plain to make the whole profitable, and it was all
written for our learning.
1. This
noble poem presents to us, in very clear and lively characters, these five
things among others—
(1) A
monument of primitive theology. The
first and great principles of the light of nature, on which natural religion is
founded, are here, in a warm, and long, and learned dispute, not only taken for
granted on all sides and not the least doubt made of them, but by common
consent plainly laid down as eternal truths, illustrated and urged as affecting
commanding truths. Were ever the being of God, his glorious attributes and
perfections, his unsearchable wisdom, his irresistible power, his inconceivable
glory, his inflexible justice, and his incontestable sovereignty, discoursed of
with more clearness, fulness, reverence, and divine eloquence, than in this
book?
The
creation of the world, and the government of it, are here admirably described,
not as matters of nice speculation, but as laying most powerful obligations
upon us to fear and serve, to submit to and trust in, our Creator, owner, Lord,
and ruler. Moral good and evil, virtue and vice, were never drawn more to the
life (the beauty of the one and the deformity of the other) than in this book;
nor the inviolable rule of God's judgment more plainly laid down, That happy
are the righteous, it shall be well with them; and Woe to the wicked, it shall
be ill with them. These are not questions of the schools to keep the learned
world in action, nor engines of state to keep the unlearned world in awe; no,
it appears by this book that they are sacred truths of undoubted certainty, and
which all the wise and sober part of mankind have in every age subscribed and
submitted to.
(2) It
presents us with a specimen of Gentile piety. This great saint descended
probably not from Abraham, but Nahor; or, if from Abraham, not from Isaac, but
from one of the sons of the concubines that were sent into the east-country Gen
25:6; or, if from Isaac, yet not from Jacob, but Esau; so that he was out of
the pale of the covenant of peculiarity, no Israelite, no proselyte, and yet
none like him for religion, nor such a favourite of heaven upon this earth. It
was a truth therefore, before St. Peter perceived it, that in every nation he
that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him, Acts 10:35. There
were children of God scattered abroad John 11:52 besides the incorporated
children of the kingdom, Matt 8:11-12.
(3) It
presents us with an exposition of the book of Providence, and a clear and
satisfactory solution of many of the difficult and obscure passages of it. The
prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of the righteous have always been
reckoned two as hard chapters as any in that book; but they are here expounded,
and reconciled with the divine wisdom, purity, and goodness, by the end of
these things.
(4) It
presents us with a great example of patience and close adherence to God in the
midst of the sorest calamities. Sir Richard Blackmore's most ingenious pen, in
his excellent preface to his paraphrase on this book, makes Job a hero proper
for an epic poem; for, says he, "He appears brave in distress and valiant
in affliction, maintains his virtue, and with that his character, under the
most exasperating provocations that the malice of hell could invent, and
thereby gives a most noble example of passive fortitude, a character no way
inferior to that of the active hero," etc.
(5) It
presents us with an illustrious type of Christ, the particulars of which we
shall endeavour to take notice of as we go along.
In general, Job was a great
sufferer, was emptied and humbled, but in order to his greater glory. So Christ
abased himself, that we might be exalted. The learned bishop Patrick quotes St.
Jerome ore than once speaking of Job as a type of Christ, who for the job that
was set before him endured the cross, who was persecuted, for a time, by men
and devils, and seemed forsaken of God too, but was raised to be an intercessor
even for his friends and had added affliction to his misery. When the apostle
speaks of the patience of Job he immediately takes notice of the end of the
Lord, that is, of the Lord Jesus (as some understand it), typified by Job,
James 5:11.
2. In
this book we have,
(1) The
history of Job's sufferings, and his patience under them (ch. 1, 2), not
without a mixture of human frailty, ch. 3.
(2) A
dispute between him and his friends upon them, in which,
[1.] The opponents were Eliphaz, Bildad,
and Zophar.
[2.] The respondent was Job.
[3.]
The moderators were, First, Elihu, ch. 32-37. Secondly, God himself, ch. 38-41.
(3.) The issue of all in Job's honour and prosperity, ch.
42. Upon the whole, we learn
that many are
the afflictions of the righteous, but that when the Lord delivers
them
out of them all the trial of their
faith will be found to praise, and honour,
and
glory.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Psalms
We
have now before us one of the choicest and most excellent parts of all the Old
Testament; nay, so much is there in it of Christ and his gospel, as well as of
God and his law, that it had been called the abstract, or summary, of both
Testaments. The History of Israel, which we were long upon, let us to camps and
council-boards, and there entertained and instructed us in the knowledge of
God. The book of Job brought us into the schools, and treated us with
profitable disputations concerning God and his providence. But this book brings
us into the sanctuary, draws us off from converse with men, with the
politicians, philosophers, or disputers of this world, and directs us into
communion with God, by solacing and reposing our souls in him, lifting up and
letting out our hearts towards him. Thus may we be in the mount with God; and
we understand not our interests if we say not, It is good to be here. Let us
consider, I. The title of this book. It
is called,
1.
The Psalms; under that title it is referred to, Luke 24:44. The Hebrew calls it
Tehillim,(OT:8416) which properly signifies Psalms of praise, because many of
them are such; but Psalms is a more general word, meaning all metrical
compositions fitted to be sung, which may as well be historical, doctrinal, or
supplicatory, as laudatory. Though singing be properly the voice of joy, yet
the intention of songs is of a much greater latitude, to assist the memory, and
both to express and to excite all the other affections as well as this of joy.
The priests had a mournful muse as well as joyful ones; and the divine
institution of singing psalms is thus largely intended; for we are directed not
only to praise God, but to teach and admonish ourselves and one another in
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, Col 3:16.
2.
It is called the Book of Psalms; so it is quoted by St. Peter, Acts 1:20. It is
a collection of psalms, of all the psalms that were divinely inspired, which,
though composed at several times and upon several occasions, are here put
together without any reference to or dependence upon one another; thus they
were preserved from being scattered and lost, and were in so much greater
readiness for the service of the church. See what a good master we serve, and
what pleasantness there is in wisdom's ways, when we are not only commanded to
sing at our work, and have cause enough given us to do so, but have words also
put in our mouths and songs prepared to our hands.
II. The author of this book.
It
is, no doubt, derived originally from the blessed Spirit. They are spiritual
songs, words which the Holy Ghost taught. The penman of most of them was David
the son of Jesse, who is therefore called the sweet psalmist of Israel, 2 Sam
23:1. Some that have not his name in their titles yet are expressly ascribed to
him elsewhere, as Ps 2 (Acts 4:25) and Ps 96 and 105 (1 Chron 16). One psalm is
expressly said to be the prayer of Moses (Ps 90); and that some of the psalms
were penned by Asaph is intimated, 2 Chron 29:30, where they are said to praise
the Lord in the words of David and Asaph, who is there called a seer or
prophet. Some of the psalms seem to have been penned long after, as Ps 137, at
the time of the captivity in Babylon; but the far greater part of them were
certainly penned by David himself, whose genius lay towards poetry and music,
and who was raised up, qualified, and animated, for the establishing of the
ordinance of singing psalms in the church of God, as Moses and Aaron were, in
their day, for the settling of the ordinances of sacrifice; theirs is
superseded, but his remains, and will to the end of time, when it shall be
swallowed up in the songs of eternity. Herein David was a type of Christ, who
descended from him, not from Moses, because he came to take away sacrifice (the
family of Moses was soon lost and extinct), but to establish and perpetuate joy
and praise; for of the family of David in Christ there shall be no end.
III.
The scope of it. It is manifestly intended,
1. To
assist the exercises of natural religion, and to kindle in the souls of men
those
devout affections
which we owe to God as our Creator, owner, ruler, and benefactor. The book of
Job helps to prove our first principles of the divine perfections and
providence; but this helps to improve them in prayers and praises, and
professions of desire towards him, dependence on him, and an entire devotedness
and resignation to him. Other parts of scripture show that God is infinitely
above man, and his sovereign Lord; but this shows us that he may,
notwithstanding, be conversed with by us sinful worms of the earth; and there
are ways in which, if it be not our own fault, we may keep up communion with
him in all the various conditions of human life.
2.
To advance the excellencies of revealed religion, and in the most pleasing
powerful manner to recommend it to the world. There is indeed little or nothing
of the ceremonial law in all the book of Psalms. Though sacrifice and offering
were yet to continue many ages, yet they are here represented as things which
God did not desire Ps 40:6, 51:16, as things comparatively little, and which in
time were to vanish away. But the word and law of God, those parts of it which
are moral and of perpetual obligation are here all along magnified and made
honourable, nowhere more. And Christ, the crown and centre of revealed
religion, the foundation, corner, and top-stone, of that blessed building, is
here clearly spoken of in type and prophecy, his sufferings and the glory that
should follow, and the kingdom that he should set up in the world, in which
God's covenant with David, concerning his kingdom, was to have its
accomplishment. What a high value does this book put upon the word of God, his
statutes and judgments, his covenant and the great and precious promises of it;
and how does it recommend them to us as our guide and stay, and our heritage
for ever!
IV. The use of it.
All
scripture, being given by inspiration of God, is profitable to convey divine
light into our understandings; but this book is of singular use with that to
convey divine life and power, and a holy warmth, into our affections. There is
no one book of scripture that is more helpful to the devotions of the saints than
this, and it has been so in all ages of the church, ever since it was written
and the several parts of it were delivered to the chief musician for the
service of the church.
1. It is of use to be sung.
Further than David's psalms we may go, but we need not, for hymns and spiritual
songs. What the rules of the Hebrew metre were even the learned are not
certain. But these psalms ought to be rendered according to the metre of every
language, at least so as that they may be sung for the edification of the church.
And methinks it is a great comfort to us, when we are singing David's psalms,
that we are offering the very same praises to God that were offered to him in
the days of David and the other godly kings of Judah. So rich, so well made,
are these divine poems, that they can never be exhausted, can never be worn
thread-bare.
2.It is of use to be read and opened by the
ministers of Christ, as containing great and excellent truths, and rules
concerning good and evil. Our Lord Jesus expounded the psalms to his disciples,
the gospel psalms, and opened their understandings (for he had the key of
David) to understand them, Luke 24:44. 3. It is of use to be read and meditated
upon by all good people. It is a full fountain, out of which we may all be
drawing water with joy.
(1) The
Psalmist's experiences are of great use for our direction, caution, and
encouragement. In telling us, as he often does, what passed between God and his
soul, he lets us know what we may expect from God, and what he will expect, and
require, and graciously accept, from us. David was a man after God's own heart,
and therefore those who find themselves in some measure according to his heart
have reason to hope that they are renewed by the grace of God, after the image
of God, and many have much comfort in the testimony of their consciences for
them that they can heartily say Amen to David's prayers and praises.
(2) Even
the Psalmist's expressions too are of great use; and by them the Spirit helps
our praying infirmities, because we know not what to pray for as we ought. In
all our approaches to God, as well as in our first returns to God, we are
directed to take with us words Hos 14:2, these word, words which the Holy Ghost
teaches. If we make David's psalms familiar to us, as we ought to do, whatever
errand we have at the throne of grace, by way of confession, petition, or
thanksgiving, we may thence be assisted in the delivery of it; whatever devout
affection is working in us, holy desire or hope, sorrow or joy, we may there
find apt words wherewith to clothe it, sound speech which cannot be condemned.
It will be good to collect the most proper and lively expressions of devotion
which we find here, and to methodize them, and reduce them to the several heads
of prayer, that they may be the more ready to us.
Or
we may take sometimes one choice psalm and sometimes another, and pray it over,
that is, enlarge upon each verse in our own thoughts, and offer up our
meditations to God as they arise from the expressions we find there. The
learned Dr. Hammond, in his preface to his paraphrase on the Psalms (sect. 29),
says, "That going over a few psalms with these interpunctions of mental
devotion, suggested, animated, and maintained, by the native life and vigour
which is in the psalms, is much to be preferred before the saying over the
whole Psalter, since nothing is more fit to be averted in religious offices
than their degenerating into heartless dispirited recitations." If, as St.
Austin advises, we form our spirit by the affection of the psalm, we may then
be sure of acceptance with God in using the language of it. Nor is it only our
devotion, and the affections of our mind, that the book of Psalms assists,
teaching us how to offer praise so as to glorify God, but, it is also a
directory to the actions of our lives, and teaches us how to order our
conversation aright, so as that, in the end, we may see the salvation of God,
Ps. 1:23. The Psalms were thus serviceable to the Old-Testament church, but to
us Christians they may be of more use than they could be to those who lived
before the coming of Christ; for, as Moses's sacrifices, so David's songs, are
expounded and made more intelligible by the gospel of Christ, which lets us
within the veil; so that if to David's prayers and praises we all St. Paul's prayers
in his epistles, and the new songs in the Revelation, we shall be thoroughly
furnished for this good work; for the scripture, perfected, makes the man of
God perfect.
As
to the division of this book, we need not be solicitous; there is no connexion
(or very seldom) between one psalm and another, nor any reason discernable for
the placing of them in the order wherein we here find them; but it seems to be
ancient, for that which is now the second psalm was so in the apostles' time,
Acts 13:33. The vulgar Latin joins the 9th and 10th together; all popish
authors quote by that, so that, thenceforward, throughout the book, their
number is one short of ours; our 11 is their 10, our 119 is their 118. But they
divide the 147th into two, and so make up the number of 150. Some have
endeavoured to reduce the psalms to proper heads, according to the matter of
them, but there is often such a variety of matter in one and the same psalm
that this cannot be done with any certainty. But the seven penitential Psalms have
been in a particular manner singled out by the devotions of many. They are
reckoned to be Ps 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130, and 143. The Psalms were divided
into five books, each concluding with Amen, Amen, or Hallelujah; the first
ending with Ps 41, the second with Ps 72, the third with Ps 89, the fourth with
Ps 106, the fifth with Ps. Others divide them into three fifties; others into
sixty parts, two for every day of the month, one for the morning, the other for
the evening. Let good Christians divide them for themselves, so as may best
increase their acquaintance with them, that they may have them at hand upon all
occasions and may sing them in the spirit and with the understanding.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Proverbs
We have now before us,
I. A new author, or penman rather, or pen (if you will) made use of by
the Holy Ghost for making known the mind of God to us, writing as moved by the
finger of God (so the Spirit of God is called), and that is Solomon; through
his hand came this book of Scripture and the two that follow it, Ecclesiastes
and Canticles, a sermon and a song. Some think he wrote Canticles when he was
very young, Proverbs in the midst of his days, and Ecclesiastes when he was
old. In the title of his song he only writes himself Solomon, perhaps because
he wrote it before his accession to the throne, being filled with the Holy
Ghost when he was young. In the title of his Proverbs he writes himself the son
of David, king of Israel, for then he ruled over all Israel. In the title of
his Ecclesiastes he writes himself the son of David, king of Jerusalem, because
then perhaps his influence had grown less upon the distant tribes, and he
confined himself very much in Jerusalem. Concerning
this author we may observe,
1. That he was a king, and a king's son.
The penmen of scripture,
hitherto, were most of them men of the first rank in the world, as Moses and
Joshua, Samuel and David, and now Solomon; but, after him, the inspired writers
were generally poor prophets, men of no figure in the world, because that
dispensation was approaching in the which God would choose the weak and foolish
things of the world to confound the wise and mighty and the poor should be
employed to evangelize. Solomon was a very rich king, and his dominions were
very large, a king of the first magnitude, and yet he addicted himself to the
study of divine things, and was a prophet and a prophet's son. It is no
disparagement to the greatest princes and potentates in the world to instruct
those about them in religion and the laws of it.
2. That he was one whom God endued with extraordinary measures of
wisdom and knowledge, in answer to his prayers at his accession to the throne.
His prayer was exemplary: Give me a wise and an understanding heart; the answer
to it was encouraging: he had what he desired and all other things were added
to him.
Now here we find what
good use he made of the wisdom God gave him; he not only governed himself and
his kingdom with it, but he gave rules of wisdom to others also, and
transmitted them to posterity. Thus must we trade with the talents with which
we are entrusted, according as they are.
3. That he was one who had his faults,
and in his latter end turned aside from those good ways of God which in this
book he had directed others in. We have the story of it 1 Kings 11, and a sad
story it is, that the penman of such a book as this should apostatize as he
did. Tell it not in Gath. But let those who are most eminently useful take
warning by this not to be proud or secure; and let us all learn not to think
the worse of good instructions though we have them from those who do not
themselves altogether live up to them.
II.
A new way of writing, in which
divine wisdom is taught us by Proverbs, or short sentences, which contain their
whole design within themselves and are not connected with one another. We have
had divine laws, histories, and songs, and how divine proverbs; such various
methods has Infinite Wisdom used for our instruction, that, no stone being left
unturned to do us good, we may be inexcusable if we perish in our folly.
Teaching by proverbs was,
1. An ancient way of teaching.
It was the most ancient way among
the Greeks; each of the seven wise men of Greece had some one saying that he
valued himself upon, and that made him famous. These sentences were inscribed
on pillars, and had in great veneration as that which was said to come down
from heaven. A coelo descendit, Gnothi seauton-- Know thyself is a precept
which came down from heaven.
2. It was a plain and easy way of
teaching, which cost neither the teachers nor the learners much pains, nor put
their understandings nor their memories to the stretch.
Long periods, and
arguments far-fetched, must be laboured both by him that frames them and by him
that would understand them, while a proverb, which carries both its sense and
its evidence in a little compass, is quickly apprehended and subscribed to, and
is easily retained. Both David's devotions and Solomon's instructions are
sententious, which may recommend that way of expression to those who minister
about holy things, both in praying and preaching.
3. It was a very profitable way
of teaching, and served admirably well to answer the end.
The word
Mashal,(OT:4911) here used for a proverb, comes from a word that signifies to
rule or have dominion, because of the commanding power and influence which wise
and weighty sayings have upon the children of men; he that teaches by them
dominatur in concionibus-- rules his auditory. It is easy to observe how the
world is governed by proverbs. As saith the proverb of the ancients 1 Sam
24:13, or (as we commonly express it) As the old saying is, goes very far with
most men in forming their notions and fixing their resolves. Much of the wisdom
of the ancients has been handed down to posterity by proverbs; and some think
we may judge of the temper and character of a nation by the complexion of its
vulgar proverbs. Proverbs in conversation are like axious in philosophy, maxims
in law, and postulata in the mathematics, which nobody disputes, but every one
endeavours to expound so as to have them on his side.
Yet there are many corrupt
proverbs, which tend to debauch men's minds and harden them in sin. The devil
has his proverbs, and the world and the flesh have their proverbs, which
reflect reproach on God and religion (as Ezek 12:22; 18:2), to guard us against
the corrupt influences of which God has his proverbs, which are all wise and
good, and tend to make us so. These proverbs of Solomon were not merely a
collection of the wise sayings that had been formerly delivered, as some have
imagined, but were the dictates of the Spirit of God in Solomon. The very first
of them Prov 1:7 agrees with what God said to man in the beginning (Job 28:28,
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom); so that though Solomon was
great, and his name may serve as much as any man's to recommend his writings,
yet, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. It is God, by Solomon, that here
speaks to us: I say, to us; for these proverbs were written for our learning,
and, when Solomon speaks to his son, the exhortation is said to speak to us as
unto children, Heb 12:5. And, as we have no book so useful to us in our
devotions as David's psalms, so have we none so serviceable to us, for the
right ordering of our conversations, as Solomon's proverbs, which as David says
of the commandments, are exceedingly broad, containing, in a little compass, a
complete body of divine ethics, politics, and economics, exposing every vice,
recommending every virtue, and suggesting rules for the government of ourselves
in every relation and condition, and every turn of the conversation. The
learned bishop Hall has drawn up a system of moral philosophy out of Solomon's
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The first nine chapters of this book are reckoned as
a preface, by way of exhortation to the study and practice of wisdom's rules,
and caution against those things that would hinder therein. We have then the
first volume of Solomon's proverbs (ch. 10-24); after that a second volume (ch.
25-29); and then Agur's prophecy (ch. 30), and Lemuel's (ch. 31). The scope of
all is one and the same, to direct us so to order our conversation aright as
that in the end we may see the salvation of the Lord. The best comment on these
rules is to be ruled by them.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Ecclesiastes
We are still among Solomon's
happy men, his happy servants, that stood continually before him to hear his
wisdom; and they are the choicest of all the dictates of his wisdom, such as
were more immediately given by divine inspiration, that are here transmitted to
us, not to be heard, as by them, but once, and then liable to be mistaken or
forgotten, and by repetition to lose their beauty, but to be read, reviewed,
revolved, and had in everlasting remembrance. The account we have of Solomon's
apostasy from God, in the latter end of his reign 1 Kings 11:1, is the tragical
part of his story; we may suppose that he spoke his Proverbs in the prime of
his time, while he kept his integrity, but delivered his Ecclesiastes when he
had grown old (for of the burdens and decays of age he speaks feelingly ch.
12), and was, by the grace of God, recovered from his backslidings. There he
dictated his observations; here he wrote his own experiences; this is what days
speak, and wisdom which the multitude of years teaches. The title of the book
and the penman we shall meet with in the first verse, and therefore shall here
only observe,
I. That it is a sermon, a sermon in print; the text is Eccl 1:2, Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity; that is the doctrine too; it is proved at large by
many arguments and an induction of particulars, and divers objections are
answered, and in the close we have the use and application of all, by way of
exhortation, to remember our Creator, to fear him, and to keep his
commandments.
There are indeed many things in
this book which are dark and hard to be understood, and some things which men
of corrupt minds wrest to their own destruction, for want of distinguishing
between Solomon's arguments and the objections of atheists and epicures; but
there is enough easy and plain to convince us (if we will admit the conviction)
of the vanity of the world, and its utter insufficiency to make us happy, the
vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make us miserable, and of the
wisdom of being religious, and the solid comfort and satisfaction that are to
be had in doing our duty both to God and man. This should be intended in every
sermon, and that is a good sermon by which these points are in any measure
gained.
II. That it is a penitential sermon,
as some of David's psalms are penitential psalms; it is a recantation-sermon,
in which the preacher sadly laments his own folly and mistake, in promising
himself satisfaction in the things of this world, and even in the forbidden
pleasures of sense, which now he finds more bitter than death.
III.
His fall is a proof of the weakness of
man's nature: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor say, "I
shall never be such a fool as to do so and so," when Solomon himself, the
wisest of men, played the fool so egregiously; nor let the rich man glory in
his riches, since Solomon's wealth was so great a snare to him, and did him a
great deal more hurt than Job's poverty did him. His recovery is a proof of the
power of God's grace, in bringing one back to God that has gone so far from
him; it is a proof too of the riches of God's mercy in accepting him
notwithstanding the many aggravations of his sin, pursuant to the promise made
to David, that if his children should commit iniquity they should be corrected,
but not abandoned and disinherited, 2 Sam 7:14-15. Let him therefore that
thinks he stands take heed lest he fall; and let him that has fallen make haste
to get up again, and not despair either of assistance or acceptance therein.
IV.
That it is a practical profitable sermon. Solomon, being brought to repentance,
resolves, like his father, to teach transgressors God's way Ps 51:13 and to
give warning to all to take heed of splitting upon those rocks which had been
fatal to him; and these were fruits meet for repentance.
The
fundamental error of the children of men, and that which is at the bottom of
all their departures from God, is the same with that of our first parents,
hoping to be as gods by entertaining themselves with that which seems good for
food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. Now the scope of
this book is to show that this is a great mistake, that our happiness consists
not in being as gods to ourselves, to have what we will and do what we will,
but in having him that made us to be a God to us. The moral philosophers
disputed much about man's felicity, or chief good. Various opinions they had
about it; but Solomon, in this book, determines the question, and assures us
that to fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole of man. He tried
what satisfaction might be found in the wealth of the world and the pleasures
of sense, and at last pronounced all vanity and vexation; yet multitudes will
not take his word, but will make the same dangerous experiment, and it proves
fatal to them. He,
1. Shows the vanity of those
things in which men commonly look for happiness, as human learning and policy,
sensual delight, honour and power, riches and great possessions.
And then,
2.
He prescribes remedies against the vexation of
spirit that attends them. Though we cannot cure them of their vanity, we may
prevent the trouble they give us, by sitting loose to them, enjoying them
comfortable, but laying our expectations low from them, and acquiescing in the
will of God concerning us in every event, especially by remembering God in the
days of our youth, and continuing in his fear and service all our days, with an
eye to the judgment.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Song of Solomon
All scripture, we are sure, is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for the support and advancement
of the interests of his kingdom among men, and it is never the less so for
there being found in it some things dark and hard to be understood, which those
that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction. In our belief
both of the divine extraction and of the spiritual exposition of this book we
are confirmed by the ancient, constant, and concurring testimony both of the
church of the Jews, to whom were committed the oracles of God, and who never
made any doubt of the authority of this book, and of the Christian church,
which happily succeeds them in that trust and honour.
I.
It must be confessed, on the one hand, that if he who barely reads this book be
asked, as the eunuch was Understandest thou what thou readest? he will have
more reason than he had to say, How can I, except some man shall guide me? The
books of scripture-history and prophecy are very much like one another, but
this Song of Solomon's is very much unlike the songs of his father David; here
is not the name of God in it; it is never quoted in the New Testament; we find
not in it any expressions of natural religion or pious devotion, no, nor is it
introduced by vision, or any of the marks of immediate revelation. It seems as
hard as any part of scripture to be made a savour of life unto life, nay, and
to those who come to the reading of it with carnal minds and corrupt affections,
it is in danger of being made a savour of death unto death; it is a flower out
of which they extract poison; and therefore the Jewish doctors advised their
young people not to read it till they were thirty years old, lest by the abuse
of that which is most pure and sacred (horrendum dictu-- horrible to say!) the
flames of lust should be kindled with fire from heaven, which is intended for
the altar only. But,
II.
It must be confessed, on the other hand, that with the help of the many
faithful guides we have for the understanding of this book it appears to be a
very bright and powerful ray of heavenly light, admirable fitted to excite
pious and devout affections in holy souls, to draw out their desires towards
God, to increase their delight in him, and improve their acquaintance and
communion with him.
It is an allegory, the letter of
which kills those who rest in that and look no further, but the spirit of which
gives life, 2 Cor 3:6; John 6:63. It is a parable, which makes divine things
more difficult to those who do not love them, but more plain and pleasant to
those who do, Matt 13:14,16. Experienced Christians here find a counterpart of
their experiences, and to them it is intelligible, while those neither
understand it nor relish it who have no part nor lot in the matter. It is a
son, an Epithalamium, or nuptial song, wherein, by the expressions of love
between a bridegroom and his bride, are set forth and illustrated the mutual
affections that pass between God and a distinguished remnant of mankind. It is
a pastoral; the bride and bridegroom, for the more lively representation of
humility and innocence, are brought in as a shepherd and his shepherdess. Now,
1.
This song might easily be taken in a spiritual sense by the Jewish church, for
whose use it was first composed, and was so taken, as appears by the
Chaldee-Paraphrase and the most ancient Jewish expositors. God betrothed the
people of Israel to himself; he entered into covenant with them, and it was a
marriage-covenant. He had given abundant proofs of his love to them, and
required of them that they should love him with all their heart and soul.
Idolatry was often spoken of as spiritual adultery, and doting upon idols, to
prevent which this song was penned, representing the complacency which God took
in Israel and which Israel ought to take in God, and encouraging them to
continue faithful to him, though he might seem sometimes to withdraw and hide
himself from them, and to wait for the further manifestation of himself in the
promised Messiah.
2. It may more easily be taken in
a spiritual sense by the Christian church, because the condescensions and communications of divine
love appear more rich and free under the gospel than they did under the law,
and the communion between heaven and earth more familiar. God sometimes spoke
of himself as the husband of the Jewish church Isa 64:5; Hos 2:16,19, and
rejoiced in it as his bride, Isa 62:4-5. But more frequently is Christ
represented as the bridegroom of his church Matt 25:1; Rom 7:4; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph
5:32, and the church as the bride, the Lamb's wife, Rev 19:7; 21:2,9. Pursuant
to this metaphor Christ and the church in general, Christ and particular
believers, are here discoursing with abundance of mutual esteem and endearment. The best key to this book is the 45th Psalm,
which we find applied to Christ in the New
Testament, and therefore this ought to be so too. It requires some pains to
find out what may, probably, be the meaning of the Holy Spirit in the several
parts of this book; as David's songs are many of them level to the capacity of
the meanest, and there are shallows in them learned, and there are depths in it
in which an elephant may swim. But, when the meaning is found out, it will be
of admirable use to excite pious and devout affections in us; and the same
truths which are plainly laid down in other scriptures when they are extracted
out of this come to the soul with a more pleasing power. When we apply
ourselves to the study of this book we must not only, with Moses and Joshua, put
off our shoe from off our foot, and even forget that we have bodies, because
the place where we stand is holy ground, but we must, with John, come up
hither, must spread our wings, take a noble flight, and soar upwards, till by
faith and holy love we enter into the holiest, for this is no other than the
house of God and this is the gate of heaven.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Isaiah
Prophet
is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it, though, in the
eye of the world, many of those that were dignified with it appeared very mean.
A prophet is one that has a great intimacy with Heaven and a great interest
there, and consequently a commanding authority upon earth. Prophecy is put for
all divine revelation 2 Peter 1:20-21, because that was most commonly by
dreams, voices, or visions, communicated to prophets first, and by them to the
children of men, Num 12:6. Once indeed God himself spoke to all the thousands
of Israel from the top of Mount Sinai; but the effect was so intolerably
dreadful that they entreated God would for the future speak to them as he had
done before, by men like themselves, whose terror should not make them afraid,
nor their hands be heavy upon them, Job 33:7. God approved the motion (they
have well said, says he, Deut 5:27-28), and the matter was then settled by
consent of parties, that we must never expect to hear from God any more in that
way, but by prophets, who received their instructions immediately from God,
with a charge to deliver them to his church.
Before
the sacred canon of the Old Testament began to be written there were prophets,
who were instead of Bibles to the church. Our Saviour seems to reckon Abel
among the prophets, Matt 23:31,35. Enoch was a prophet; and by him that was
first in prediction which is to be last in execution-- the judgment of the
great day. Jude 14, Behold, the Lord comes with his holy myriads. Noah was a
preacher of righteousness. God said of Abraham, He is a prophet, Gen 20:7.
Jacob foretold things to come, Gen 49:1. Nay, all the patriarchs are called
prophets. Ps 105:15, Do my prophets no harm. Moses was, beyond all comparison,
the most illustrious of all the Old-Testament prophets, for with him the Lord
spoke face to face, Deut 34:10. He was the first writing prophet, and by his
hand the first foundations of holy writ were laid. Even those that were called
to be his assistants in the government had the spirit of prophecy, such a
plentiful effusion was there of that spirit at that time, Num 11:25.
But
after the death of Moses, for some ages, the Spirit of the Lord appeared and
acted in the church of Israel more as a martial spirit than as a spirit of
prophecy, and inspired men more for acting than speaking. I mean in the time of
the judges. We find the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Othniel, Gideon, Samson,
and others, for the service of their country, with their swords, not with their
pens. Messages were then sent from heaven by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah,
and to the people, Judg 2:1. In all the book of judges there is never once
mention of a prophet, only Deborah is called a prophetess. Then the word of the
Lord was precious; there was no open vision, 1 Sam 3:1. They had the law of
Moses, recently written; let them study that. But in Samuel prophecy revived,
and in him a famous epocha, or period of the church began, a time of great
light in a constant uninterrupted succession of prophets, till some time after
the captivity, when the canon of the Old Testament was completed in Malachi,
and then prophecy ceased for nearly 400 years, till the coming of the great
prophet and his forerunner.
Some
prophets were divinely inspired to write the histories of the church. But they
did not put their names to their writings; they only referred for proof to the
authentic records of those times, which were known to be drawn up by prophets,
as Gad, Iddo, etc. David and others were prophets, to write sacred songs for
the use of the church. After them we often read of prophets sent on particular
errands, and raised up for special public services, among whom the most famous
were Elijah and Elisha in the kingdom of Israel. But none of these put their
prophecies in writing, nor have we any remains of them but some fragments in
the histories of their times; there was nothing of their own writing (that I
remember) but one epistle of Elijah's, 2 Chron 21:12. But towards the latter
end of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it pleased God to direct his servants
the prophets to write and publish some of their sermons, or abstracts of them.
The dates of many of their prophecies are uncertain, but the earliest of them
was in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and Jeroboam the second, his
contemporary, king of Israel, about 200 years before the captivity, and not
long after Joash had slain Zechariah the son of Jehoiada in the courts of the
temple. If they begin to murder the prophets, yet they shall not murder their
prophecies; these shall remain as witnesses against them. Hosea was the first
of the writing prophets; and Joel, Amos, and Obadiah, published their
prophecies about the same time. Isaiah began some time after, and not long; but
his prophecy is placed first, because it is the largest of them all, and has
most in it of him to whom all the prophets bore witness; and indeed so much of
Christ that he is justly styled the Evangelical Prophet, and, by some of the
ancients, a fifth Evangelist. We shall have the general title of this book (v.
1) and therefore shall here only observe some things,
I.
Concerning the prophet himself. He was (if we may believe the tradition of the
Jews) of the royal family, his father being (they say) brother to king Uzziah.
He was certainly much at court, especially in Hezekiah's time, as we find in
his story, to which many think it is owing that his style is more curious and
polite than that of some other of the prophets, and, in some places,
exceedingly lofty and soaring. The Spirit of God sometimes served his own
purpose by the particular genius of the prophet; for prophets were not speaking
trumpets, through which the Spirit spoke, but speaking men, by whom the Spirit
spoke, making use of their natural powers, in respect both of light and flame,
and advancing them above themselves.
II.
Concerning the prophecy. It is transcendently excellent and useful; it was so
to the church of God then, serving for conviction of sin, direction in duty,
and consolation in trouble. Two great distresses of the church are here
referred to, and comfort prescribed in reference to them, that by Sennacherib's
invasion, which happened in his own time, and that of the captivity in Babylon,
which happened long after; and in the supports and encouragements laid up for
each of these times of need we find abundance of the grace of the gospel. There
are not so many quotations in the gospels out of any, perhaps not out of all,
the prophecies of the Old Testament, as out of this; nor such express
testimonies concerning Christ, witness that of his being born of a virgin (ch.
7) and that of his sufferings, ch. 53. The beginning of this book abounds most
with reproofs for sin and threatenings of judgment; the latter end of it is
full of wood words and comfortable words. This method the Spirit of Christ took
formerly in the prophets and does still, first to convince and then to comfort;
and those that would be blessed with the comforts must submit to the
convictions. Doubtless Isaiah preached many sermons, and delivered many
messages to the people, which are not written in this book, as Christ did; and
probably these sermons were delivered more largely and fully than they are here
related, but so much is left on record as Infinite Wisdom thought fit to convey
to us on whom the ends of the world have come; and these prophecies, as well as
the histories of Christ, are written that we might believe on the name of the
Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through his name; for to us
is the gospel here preached as well as unto those that lived then, and more
clearly. O that it may be mixed with faith!
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Jeremiah
The
Prophecies of the Old Testament, as the Epistles of the New, are placed rather
according to their bulk than their seniority-- the longest first, not the
oldest. There were several prophets, and writing ones, that were contemporaries
with Isaiah, as Micah, or a little before him, as Hosea, and Joel, and Amos, or
soon after him, as Habakkuk and Nahum are supposed to have been; and yet the
prophecy of Jeremiah, who began many years after Isaiah finished, is placed
next to his, because there is so much in it. Where we meet with most of God's
word, there let the preference be given; and yet those of less gifts are not to
be despised nor excluded. Nothing now occurs to be observed further concerning
prophecy in general; but concerning this prophet Jeremiah we may observe,
I.
That he was betimes a prophet; he began young, and therefore could say, from
his own experience, that it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth,
the yoke both of service and of affliction, Lam 3:27.
Jerome
observes that Isaiah, who had more years over his head, had his tongue touched
with a coal of fire, to purge away his iniquity (6:7), but that when God
touched Jeremiah's mouth, who was yet but young, nothing was said of the
purging of his iniquity (1:9), because, by reason of his tender years, he had
not so much sin to answer for.
II.
That he continued long a prophet, some reckon fifty years, others above forty.
He began in the thirteenth year of Josiah, when things went well under that
good king, but he continued through all the wicked reigns that followed; for
when we set out for the service of God, though the wind may then be fair and
favourable, we know not how soon it may turn and be tempestuous.
III.
That he was a reproving prophet, was sent in God's name to tell Jacob of their
sins and to warn them of the judgments of God that were coming upon them; and
the critics observe that therefore his style or manner of speaking is more
plain and rough, and less polite, than that of Isaiah and some others of the
prophets. Those that are sent to discover sin ought to lay aside the enticing
words of man's wisdom. Plain-dealing is best when we are dealing with sinners
to bring them to repentance.
IV.
That he was a weeping prophet; so he is commonly called, not only because he penned
the Lamentations, but because he was all along a mournful spectator of the sins
of his people and of the desolating judgments that were coming upon them. And
for this reason, perhaps, those who imagined our Saviour to be one of the
prophets thought him of any of them to be most like to Jeremiah Matt 16:14,
because he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
V.
That he was a suffering prophet. He was persecuted by his own people more than
any of them, as we shall find in the story of this book; for he lived and
preached just before the Jews' destruction by the Chaldeans, when their
character seems to have been the same as it was just before their destruction
by the Romans, when they killed the Lord Jesus, and persecuted his disciples,
pleased not God, and were contrary to all men, for wrath had come upon them to
the uttermost, 1 Thess 2:15-16.
The
last account we have of him in his history is that the remaining Jews forced
him to go down with them into Egypt; whereas the current tradition is, among
Jews and Christians, that he suffered martyrdom. Hottinger, out of Elmakin, an
Arabic historian, relates that, continuing to prophesy in Egypt against the
Egyptians and other nations, he was stoned to death; and that long after, when
Alexander entered Egypt, he took up the bones of Jeremiah where they were
buried in obscurity, and carried them to Alexandria, and buried them there.
The
prophecies of this book which we have in the first nineteen chapters seem to be
the heads of the sermons he preached in a way of general reproof for sin and
denunciation of judgment; afterwards they are more particular and occasional,
and mixed with the history of his day, but not placed in due order of time.
With the threatenings are intermixed many gracious promises of mercy to the
penitent, of the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity, and some that
have a plain reference to the kingdom of the Messiah. Among the Apocryphal
writings an epistle is extant said to be written by Jeremiah to the captives in
Babylon, warning them against the worship of idols, by exposing the vanity of
idols and the folly of idolaters. It is in Baruch, ch. 6. But it is supposed
not to be authentic; nor has it, I think, any thing like the life and spirit of
Jeremiah's writings. It is also related concerning Jeremiah (2 Mac. 2:4) that,
when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans, he, by direction from God, took
the ark and the altar of incense, and, carrying them to Mount Nebo lodged them
in a hollow cave there and stopped the door; but some that followed him, and
thought that they had marked the place, could not find it. He blamed them for
seeking it, telling them that the place should be unknown till the time that
God should gather his people together again. But I know not what credit is to
be given to that story, though it is there said to be found in the records. We
cannot but be concerned, in the reading of Jeremiah's prophecies, to find that
they were so little regarded by the men of that generation; but let us make use
of that as a reason why we should regard them the more; for they are written
for our learning too, and for warning to us and to our land.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Lamentations
Since what Solomon says, though
contrary to the common opinion of the world, is certainly true, that sorrow is
better than laughter, and it is better to go to the house of mourning than to
the house of feasting, we should come to the reading and consideration of the
melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with an expectation
to edify ourselves by them; and, that we may do this, we must compose ourselves
to a holy sadness and resolve to weep with the weeping prophet. Let us
consider,
I. The title of this book; in the
Hebrew it has one, but is called (as the books of Moses are) from the first
word Ecah-- How; but the Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we
from them, Kinoth-- Lamentations.
As we have sacred odes or songs
of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation; such variety of
methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and move our affections, and
so soften our hearts and make them susceptible of the impressions of divine
truths, as the wax of the seal. We have not only piped unto you, but have
mourned likewise, Matt 11:17.
II. The penman of this book; it
was Jeremiah the prophet, who is here Jeremiah the poet, and vates signifies
both; therefore this book is fitly adjoined to the book of his prophecy, and is
as an appendix to it.
We had there at large the
predictions of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, and then the history of
them, to show how punctually the predictions were accomplished, for the
confirming of our faith: now here we have the expressions of his sorrow upon
occasion of them, to show that he was very sincere in the protestations he had
often made that he did not desire the woeful day, but that, on the contrary,
the prospect of it filled him with bitterness. When he saw these calamities at
a distance, he wished that his head were waters and his eyes fountains of
tears; and, when they came, he made it to appear that he did not dissemble in
that wish, and that he was far from being disaffected to his country, which was
the crime his enemies charged him with. Though his country had been very unkind
to him, and though the ruin of it was both a proof that he was a true prophet
and a punishment of them for prosecuting him as a false prophet, which might
have tempted him to rejoice in it, yet he sadly lamented it, and herein showed
a better temper than that which Jonah was of with respect to Nineveh.
III. The occasion of these
Lamentations was the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldean army
and the dissolution of the Jewish state both civil and ecclesiastical thereby.
Some of the rabbies
will have these to be the Lamentations which Jeremiah penned upon occasion of
the death of Josiah, which are mentioned 2 Chron 35:25. But, though it is true
that that opened the door to all the following calamities, yet these
Lamentations seem to be penned in the sight, not in the foresight, of those
calamities-- when they had already come, not when they were at a distance; and
these is nothing of Josiah in them, and his praise, as was no question, in the
lamentations for him. No, it is Jerusalem's funeral that this is an elegy upon.
Others of them will have these Lamentations to be contained in the roll which
Baruch wrote from Jeremiah's mouth, and which Jehoiakim burnt, and they suggest
that at first there were in it only the 1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters, but that
the 3rd and 5th were the many like words that were afterwards added; but this
is a groundless fancy; that roll is expressly said to be a repetition and
summary of the prophet's sermons, Jer 36:2.
IV. The composition of it; it is
not only poetical, but alphabetical, all except the 5th chapter, as some of
David's psalms are; each verse begins with a several letter in the order of the
Hebrew alphabet, the first aleph, the second beth, etc., but the 3rd chapter is
a triple alphabet, the first three beginning with aleph, the next three with
beth, etc., which was a help to memory (it being designed that these mournful
ditties should be got by heart) and was an elegance in writing then valued and
therefore not now to be despised. They observe that in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
chapters, the letter pe is put before ain, which in all the Hebrew alphabets
follows it, for a reason of which Dr. Lightfoot offers this conjecture, That
the letter ajin, which is the numeral letter for Septuagint, was thus, by being
displaced, made remarkable, to put them in mind of the seventy years at the end
of which God would turn again their captivity.
V.
The use of it: of great use, no doubt, it was to
the pious Jews in their sufferings, furnishing them with spiritual language to
express their natural grief by, helping to preserve the lively remembrance of
Zion among them, and their children that never saw it, when they were in
Babylon, directing their tears into the right channel (for they are here taught
to mourn for sin and mourn to God), and withal encouraging their hopes that God
would yet return and have mercy upon them; and it is of use to us, to affect us
with godly sorrow for the calamities of the church of God, as becomes those
that are living members of it and are resolved to take our lot with it.
The
Era of the Exile and Return
586
BC - 331 BC
Ministry of Ezekiel ends 571 Ezekiel 17-21
Release of Jehoiachin 562 2
Kings 25:28
A Feast for Belshazzar 539 Daniel
5
Daniel in a den of lions 538 Daniel
6
Edict of Cyrus 538 2
Chronicles 36:22; Ezra 1:1
Zerubbabel appointed
governor of Jerusalem 538 Ezra
1:5-2:70
Temple foundation laid 537 Ezra
3-6
Temple rebuilt 520 Ezra
4:24
Temple dedicated 516 Ezra
6:15
Feast of Ahasuerus (Xerxes
I) 483 Esther 1
Esther becomes queen 479 Esther
2
A second return 458 Ezra
7:1,8,9
Return under Nehemiah 445 Nehemiah
2:1
Rebuilding of city wall 444 Nehemiah
6:15
Religious reforms Nehemiah
10
Ministry of Malachi 430 Malachi
1-4
Nehemiah dies c. 400
Judah appointed High Priest 359
Alexander the Great
is greeted in Jerusalem 332
Onias I Appointed High
Priest 330
Ptolemy conquers Jerusalem 320
Seleucides rule Syria 312
Egypt rules Palestine 301
Septuagint (LXX) translated 284
Antiochus the Great rules
Palestine 198
Revolt of the Maccabees 167
Temple rededicated 165
Judea freed 141
Rise of Pharisees/
Sadducees 109
Jerusalem taken by Pompey 63
Temple plundered by Crassus
54
Antipater appointed Procurator 47
Herod the Great dies and Christ is born
4 BC
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Ezekiel
When
we entered upon the writings of the prophets, which speak of the things that
should be hereafter, we seemed to have the same call that St. John had Rev 4:1,
Come up hither; but, when we enter upon the prophecy of this book, it is as if
the voice said, Come up higher; as we go forward in time (for Ezekiel
prophesied in the captivity, as Jeremiah prophesied just before it), so we soar
upward in discoveries yet more sublime of the divine glory. These waters of the
sanctuary still grow deeper; so far are they from being fordable that in some
places they are scarcely fathomable; yet, deep as they are, out of them flow
streams which make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles
of the Most High. As to this prophecy now before us, we may enquire,
I.
Concerning the penman of it-- it was Ezekiel; his name signifies, The strength
of God, or one girt or strengthened of God. He girded up the loins of his mind
to the service, and God put strength into him.
Whom
God calls to any service he will himself enable for it; if he give commission,
he will give power to execute it. Ezekiel's name was answered when God said
(and no doubt did as he said), I have made thy face strong against their faces.
The learned Selden, in his book De Diis Syris, says that it was the opinion of
some of the ancients that the prophet Ezekiel was the same with that Nazaratus
Assyrius whom Pythagoras (as himself relates) had for his tutor for some time,
and whose lectures he attended. It is agreed that they lived much about the
same time; and we have reason to think that many of the Greek philosophers were
acquainted with the sacred writings and borrowed some of the best of their
notions from them. If we may give credit to the tradition of the Jews, he was
put to death by the captives in Babylon, for his faithfulness and boldness in
reproving them; it is stated that they dragged him upon the stones till his
brains were dashed out. An Arabic historian says that he was put to death and
was buried in the sepulchre of Shem the son of Noah. So Hottinger relates,
Thesaur. Philol. lib. 2 cap. 1.
II.
Concerning the date of it-- the place whence it is dated and the time when.
The scene is laid in
Babylon, when it was a house of bondage to the Israel of God; there the
prophecies of this book were preached, there they were written, when the
prophet himself, and the people to whom he prophesied, were captives there.
Ezekiel and Daniel are the only writing prophets of the Old Testament who lived
and prophesied any where but in the land of Israel, except we add Jonah, who
was sent to Nineveh to prophesy. Ezekiel prophesied in the beginning of the
captivity, Daniel in the latter end of it. It was an indication of God's
good-will to them, and his gracious designs concerning them in their
affliction, that he raised up prophets among them, both to convince them when,
in the beginning of their troubles, they were secure and unhumbled, which was Ezekiel's
business, and to comfort them when, in the latter end of their troubles, they
were dejected and discouraged. If the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he
would not have used such apt and proper means to cure them.
III.
Concerning the matter and scope of it.
1.
There is much in it that is very mysterious, dark, and hard to be understood,
especially in the beginning and the latter end of it, which therefore the
Jewish rabbin forbade the reading of to their young men, till they came to be
thirty years of age, lest by the difficulties they met with there they should
be prejudiced against the scriptures; but if we read these difficult parts of
scripture with humility and reverence, and search them diligently, though we
may not be able to untie all the knots we meet with, any more than we can solve
all the phenomena in the book of nature, yet we may from them, as from the book
of nature, gather a great deal for the confirming of our faith and the
encouraging of our hope in the God we worship.
2.
Though the visions here be intricate, such as an elephant may swim in, yet the
sermons are mostly plain, such as a lamb may wade in; and the chief design of
them is to show God's people their transgressions, that in their captivity they
might be repenting and not repining. It should seem the prophet was constantly
attended (for we read of their sitting before him as God's people sat to hear
his words, 33:31), and that he was occasionally consulted, for we read of the
elders of Israel who came to enquire of the Lord by him, 14:1,3. And as it was
of great use to the oppressed captives themselves to have a prophet with them,
so it was a testimony to their holy religion against their oppressors who
ridiculed it and them.
3.
Though the reproofs and the threatenings here are very sharp and bold, yet
towards the close of the book very comfortable assurances are given of great
mercy God had in store for them; and there, at length, we shall meet with
something that has reference to gospel times, and which was to have its accomplishment
in the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom indeed this prophet speaks less than
almost any of the prophets. But by opening the terrors of the Lord he prepares
Christ's way. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and so it becomes our
school-master to bring us to Christ.
The
visions which were the prophet's credentials we have ch. 1-3, the reproofs and
threatenings ch. 4-24 betwixt which and the comforts which we have in the
latter part of the book we have messages sent to the nations that bordered upon
the land of Israel, whose destruction is foretold (ch. 25-35), to make way for
the restoration of God's Israel and the re-establishment of their city and
temple, which are foretold ch. 36 to the end. Those who would apply the
comforts to themselves must apply the convictions to themselves.
The Ptolemies and the Seleucids
Daniel
11:5-35
PTOLEMIES SELEUCIDS
Kings
"of the South" Kings
"of the North”
Egypt Syria
Daniel
11:5 BC Daniel
11:5 BC
Ptolemy
I Soter 323-285 Seleucus
I Nicator 312-281
Antiochus
I Soter 281-262
Daniel
11:6
Ptolemy
II Philadelphus 285-246 Antiochus
II Theos 262-246
Daniel
11:7-8 Daniel
11:7-9
Ptolemy
III Euergetes 246-221 Seleucus
II Callinicus 246-227
Daniel
11:10
Seleucus
III Soter 227-223
Daniel
11:11-12 Daniel
11:10-11,13,15-19
Ptolemy
IV Philopator 221-204 Antiochus
III The Great 223-187
Daniel 11:17
Ptolemy V Epiphanes 204-181
Daniel
11:20
Seleucus
IV Philopator 187-176
Daniel
11:25 Daniel
11:21-32
Ptolemy
VI Philometer 181-145
Antiochus
IV Epiphanes 175-163
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Daniel
The
book of Ezekiel left the affairs of Jerusalem under a doleful aspect, all in
ruins, but with a joyful prospect of all in glory again. This of Daniel fitly
follows. Ezekiel told us what was seen, and what was foreseen, by him in the
former years of the captivity: Daniel tells us what was seen, and foreseen, in
the latter years of the captivity. When God employs different hands, yet it is
about the same work. And it was a comfort to the poor captives that they had
first one prophet among them and then another, to show them how long, and a
sign that God had not quite cast them off. Let us inquire,
I.
Concerning this prophet His Hebrew name was Daniel, which signifies the
judgment of God; his Chaldean name was Belteshazzar. He was of the tribe of
Judah, and, as it should seem, of the royal family. He was betimes eminent for
wisdom and piety. Ezekiel, his contemporary, but much his senior, speaks of him
as an oracle when thus he upbraids the king of Tyre with his conceitedness of
himself: Thou art wiser then Daniel, Ezek 38:3. He is likewise there celebrated
for success in prayer, when Noah, Daniel, and Job are reckoned as three men
that had the greatest interest in heaven of any, Ezek 14:14.
He
began betimes to be famous, and continued long so. Some of the Jewish rabbin
are loth to acknowledge him to be a prophet of the higher form, and therefore
rank his book among the Hagiographa,(NT:40;NT:1124) not among the prophecies,
and would not have their disciples pay much regard to it. One reason they
pretend is because he did not live such a mean mortified life as Jeremiah and
some other of the prophets did, but lived like a prince, and was a
prime-minister of state; whereas we find him persecuted as other prophets were
(ch. 6), and mortifying himself as other prophets did, when he ate no pleasant
bread (10:3), and fainting sick when he was under the power of the Spirit of
prophecy, 8:27.
Another
reason they pretend is because he wrote his book in a heathen country, and
there had his visions, and not in the land of Israel; but, for the same reason,
Ezekiel also must be expunged out of the roll of prophets. But the true reason
is that he speaks so plainly of the time of the Messiah's coming that the Jews
cannot avoid the conviction of it and therefore do not care to hear of it. But
Josephus calls him one of the greatest of the prophets, nay, the angel Gabriel
calls him a man greatly beloved. He lived long an active life in the courts and
councils of some of the greatest monarchs the world ever had, Nebuchadnezzar,
Cyrus, Darius; for we mistake of we confine the privilege of an intercourse
with heaven to speculative men, or those that spend their time in
contemplation; no, who was more intimately acquainted with the mind of God than
Daniel, a courtier, a statesman, and a man of business? The Spirit, as the
wind, blows where it lists. And, if those that have much to do in the world
plead that as an excuse for the infrequency and slightness of their converse
with God, Daniel will condemn them. Some have thought that he returned to
Jerusalem, and was one of the masters of the Greek synagogue; but nothing of
that appears in scripture; it is therefore generally concluded that he died in
Persia at Susan, where he lived to be very old.
I.
Concerning this book. The first six chapters of
it are historical, and are plain and
easy; the last six are prophetical, and in
them are many things dark, and hard to be understood, which yet would be more
intelligible if we had a more complete history of the nations, and especially
the Jewish nation, from Daniel's time to the coming of the Messiah. Our Saviour
intimates the difficulty of apprehending the sense of Daniel's prophecies when,
speaking of them, he says, Let him that readeth understand, Matt 24:15. The
first chapter, and the first three verses of the second chapter, are in Hebrew;
thence to the eighth chapter is in the Chaldee dialect; and thence to the end
is in Hebrew. Mr. Broughton observes that, as the Chaldeans were kind to
Daniel, and gave cups of cold water to him when he requested it, rather than
the king's wine, God would not have them lose their reward, but made that
language which they taught him to have honour in his writings through all the
world, unto this day. Daniel, according to his computation, continues the holy
story from the first surprising of Jerusalem by the Chaldean Babel, when he
himself was carried away captive, until the last destruction of it by Rome, the
mystical Babel, for so far forward his predictions look, 9:27. The fables of
Susannah, and of Bel and the Dragon, in both which Daniel is made a party, are
apocryphal stories, which we think we have no reason to give any credit to,
they being never found in the Hebrew or Chaldee, but only in the Greek, nor
ever admitted by the Jewish church. There are some both of the histories and of
the prophecies of this book that bear date in the latter end of the Chaldean
monarchy, and others of both that are dated in the beginning of the Persian
monarchy. But both Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which Daniel interpreted, and his
own visions, point at the Grecian and Roman monarchies, and very particularly
at the Jews' troubles under Antiochus, which it would be of great use to them
to prepare for; as his fixing the very time for the coming of the Messiah was
of use to all those that waited for the consolation of Israel, and is to us,
for the confirming of our belief, That this is he who should come, and we
are
to look for no other.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Hosea
I.
We have now before us the twelve minor prophets, which some of the ancients, in
reckoning up the books of the Old Testament, put all together, and reckon but
as one book. They are called the minor prophets, not because their writings are
of any less authority or usefulness than those of the greater prophets, or as
if these prophets were less in God's account or might be so in ours than the
other, but only because they are shorter, and less in bulk, than the other. We
have reason to think that these prophets preached as much as the others, but
that they did not write so much, nor is so much of their preaching kept upon
record. Many excellent prophets wrote nothing, and others but little, who yet
were very useful in their day. And so in the Christian church there have been
many burning and shining lights, who are not known to posterity by their
writings, and yet were no way inferior in gifts, and graces, and
serviceableness to their own generation, than those who are; and some who have
left but little behind them, and make no great figure among authors, were yet
as valuable men as the more voluminous writers. These twelve small prophets,
Josephus says, were put into one volume by the men of the great synagogue in
Ezra's time, of which learned and pious body of men the last three of these
twelve prophets are supposed to have been themselves members. These are what
remained of the scattered pieces of inspired writing. Antiquaries value the
fragmenta veterum-- the fragments of antiquity; these are the fragments of
prophecy, which are carefully gathered up by the divine Providence and the care
of the church, that nothing might be lost, as St. Paul's short epistles after
his long ones. The son of Sirach speaks of these twelve prophets with honour,
as men that strengthened Jacob, Ecclus. 49:10. Nine of these prophets
prophesied before the captivity, and the last three after the return of the
Jews to their own land. Some difference there is in the order of these books.
We place them as the ancient Hebrew did; and all agree to put Hosea first; but
the ancient thing is not material. And, if we covet to place them according to
their seniority, as to some of them we shall find no certainty.
II.
We have before us the prophecy of Hosea, who was the first of all the writing
prophets, being raised up somewhat before the time of Isaiah. The ancients say,
He was of Bethshemesh, and of the tribe of Issachar. He continued very long a
prophet; the Jews reckoned that he prophesied nearly fourscore and ten years;
so that, as Jerome observes, he prophesied of the destruction of the kingdom of
the ten tribes when it was at a great distance, and lived himself to see and
lament it, and to improve it when it was over, for warning to its sister
kingdom. The scope of his prophecy is to discover sin, and to denounce the
judgments of God against a people that would not be reformed. The style is very
concise and sententious, above any of the prophets; and in some places it seems
to be like the book of Proverbs, without connexion, and rather to be called
Hosea's sayings than Hosea's sermons. And a weighty adage may sometimes do more
service than a laboured discourse. Huetius observes that many passages in the
prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to refer to, and to be borrowed from,
the prophet Hosea, who wrote a good while before them. As Jer 7:34; 16:9;
25:10; and Ezek 26:13, speak the same with Hos 2:11; so Ezek 16:16, etc., is
taken from Hos 2:8. And that promise of serving the Lord their God, and David
their king, Jer 30:8-9. Ezek 34:23, Hosea had before, 3:5. And Ezek 19:12 is
taken from Hos 13:15. Thus one prophet confirms and corroborates another; and
all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Joel
We are altogether
uncertain concerning the time when this prophet prophesied; it is probable that
it was about the same time Amos prophesied, not for the reason that the rabbin
give, "Because Amos begins his prophecy with that wherewith Joel concludes
his, The Lord shall roar out of Zion," but for the reason Dr. Lightfoot
gives, "Because he speaks of the same judgments of locusts, and drought,
and fire, that Amos laments, which is an intimation that they appeared about
the same time, Amos in Israel and Joel in Judah. Hosea and Obadiah prophesied
about the same time; and it appears that Amos prophesied in the says of
Jeroboam, the second king of Israel, Amos 7:10. God sent a variety of prophets,
that they might strengthen the hands one of another, and that out of the mouth
of two or three witnesses every word might be established. In this prophecy,
I.
The desolations made by hosts of noxious insects is described, ch. 1 and part
of ch. 2.
II.
The people are hereupon called to repentance, ch. 2.
III.
Promises are made of the return of mercy upon their repentance (ch. 2), and
promises of the pouring out of the Spirit in the latter days.
IV.
The cause of God's people is pleaded against
their enemies, whom God would in due time reckon with (ch. 3); and glorious
things are spoken of the gospel-Jerusalem and of the prosperity and perpetuity
of it.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Amos
Though this prophet appeared a
little before Isaiah, yet he was not, as some have mistaken, that Amos who was
the father of Isaiah Isa 1:1, for in the Hebrew their names are very different;
their families too were of a different character, for Isaiah was a courtier,
Amos a country-farmer. Amos signifies a burden, whence the Jews have a
tradition that he was of a slow tongue and spoke with stammering lips; we may
rather, in allusion to his name, say that his speech was weighty and his word
the burden of the Lord. He was (as most think) of Judah, yet prophesied chiefly
against Israel, and at Bethel, 7:13. Some think his style savours of his
extraction, and is more plain and rustic than that of some other of the
prophets; I do not see it so; but it is plain that his matter agreed with that
of his contemporary Hosea, that out of the mouth of these two witnesses the
word might be established. It appears by his contest with Amaziah the priest of
Bethel that he met with opposition in his work, but was a man of undaunted
resolution in it, faithful and bold in reproving sin and denouncing the
judgments of God for it, and pressing in his exhortations to repentance and
reformation. He begins with threatenings against the neighbouring nations that
were enemies to Israel, ch. 1 and 2. He then calls Israel to account, and
judges them for their idolatry, their unworthy walking under the favours God
had bestowed upon them, and their incorrigibleness under his judgments, ch. 3
and 4. He calls them to repentance (ch. 5), rejecting their hypocritical
sacrifices unless they did repent. He foretells the desolations that were
coming upon them notwithstanding their security (ch. 6), some particular
judgments (ch. 7), particularly on Amaziah; and, after other reproofs and
threatenings (ch. 8 and 9), concludes with a promise of the setting up of the
Messiah's kingdom and the happiness of God's spiritual Israel therein, just as
the prophecy of Joel concluded. These prophets, having opened the wound in
their reproofs and threatenings, which show all wrong, in the promises of
gospel-grace open the remedy, which alone will set all to rights.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Jonah
This
book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical books
of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line of prediction
there is in it, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; the rest of
the book is a narrative of the preface to and the consequences of that
prediction. In the midst of the obscure prophecies before and after this book,
wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to
the learned, and are strong meat for strong men, comes in this plain and
pleasant story, which is entertaining to the weakest, and milk for babes.
Probably Jonah was himself the penman of this book, and he, as Moses and other
inspired penmen, records his own faults, which is an evidence that in these
writings they designed God's glory and not their own. We read of this same
Jonah 2 Kings 14:25, where we find that he was of Gath-hepher in Galilee, a
city that belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, in a remote corner of the land of
Israel; for the Spirit, which like the wind, blows where it listeth, will as
easily find out Jonah in Galilee as Isaiah at Jerusalem. We find also that he
was a messenger of mercy to Israel in the reign of Jeroboam the second; for the
success of his arms, in the restoring of the coast of Israel, is said to be
according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servant
Jonah the prophet. Those prophecies were not committed to writing, but this
against Nineveh was, chiefly for the sake of the story that depends upon it,
and that is recorded chiefly for the sake of Christ, of whom Jonah was a type;
it contains also very remarkable instances of human infirmity in Jonah, and of
God's mercy both in pardoning repenting sinners, witness Nineveh, and in
bearing with repining saints, witness Jonah.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Micah
We shall have some account of
this prophet in the first verse of the book of his prophecy; and therefore
shall here only observe that, being contemporary with the prophet Isaiah (only
that he began to prophesy a little after him), there is a near resemblance
between that prophet's prophecy and this; and there is a prediction of the
advancement and establishment of the gospel-church, which both of them have,
almost in the same words, that out of the mouth of two such witnesses so great
a word might be established. Compare Isa 2:2-3, with Mic 4:1-2. Isaiah's
prophecy is said to be concerning Judah and Jerusalem, but Micah's concerning
Samaria and Jerusalem; for, though this prophecy be dated only by the reigns of
the kings of Judah, yet it refers to the kingdom of Israel, the approaching
ruin of which, in the captivity of the ten tribes, he plainly foretells and
sadly laments. What we find here in writing was but an abstract of the sermons
he preached during the reigns of three kings. The scope of the whole is,
I.
To convince sinners of their sins, by setting
them in order before them, charging both Israel and Judah with idolatry,
covetousness, oppression, contempt of the word of God, and their rulers
especially, both in church and state, with the abuse of their power; and also
by showing them the judgments of God ready to break in upon them for their
sins.
II.
To comfort God's people with promises of mercy
and deliverance, especially with an assurance of the coming of the Messiah and
of the grace of the gospel through him. It is remarkable concerning this
prophecy, and confirms its authority, that we find two quotations out of it
made publicly upon very solemn occasions, and both referring to very great
events.
1. One
is a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem (3:12), which we find quoted in
the Old Testament, by the elders of the land Jer 26:17-18, in justification of
Jeremiah, when he foretold the judgments of God coming upon Jerusalem, and to
stay the proceedings of the court
against him. "Micah (say they) foretold that Zion should be ploughed as a
field, and Hezekiah did not put him to death; why then should we punish
Jeremiah for saying the same?"
2. 2.
Another is a prediction of the birth of Christ (5:2) which we find quoted in
the New Testament, by the chief priests and scribes of the people, in answer to
Herod's enquiry, where Christ should be born Matt 2:5-6; for still we find that
to him bear all the prophets witness.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Nahum
The
name of this prophet signifies a comforter; for it was a charge given to all
the prophets, Comfort you, comfort you, my people: and even this prophet,
though wholly taken up in foretelling the destruction of Nineveh, which speaks
terror to the Assyrians, is, even in that, comforter to the ten tribes of
Israel, who, it is probable, were now lately carried captives into Assyria. It
is very uncertain at what time he lived and prophesied, but it is most probable
that he lied in the time of Hezekiah, and prophesied against Nineveh, after the
captivity of Israel by the king of Assyria, which was in the ninth year of
Hezekiah, and before Sennacherib's invading Judah, which was in the fourteenth
year of Hezekiah, for to that attempt, and the defeat of it, it is supposed,
the first chapter has reference; and it is probable that it was delivered a
little before it, for the encouragement of God's people in that day of treading
down and perplexity. It is the conjecture of the learned Huetius that the two
other chapters of this book were delivered by Nahum some years after, perhaps
in the reign of Manasseh, and in that reign the Jewish chronologies generally
place him, somewhat nearer to the time when Nineveh was conquered, and the
Assyrian monarchy reduced, by Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar, some time before the
first captivity of Judah. It is probable that Nahum did by word of mouth prophesy
many things concerning Israel and Judah, as it is certain that Jonah did 2
Kings 14:25, though we have nothing of either of them in writing, but what
related to Nineveh, of which though a great and ancient city, yet probably we
should never have heard in sacred writ if the Israel of God had not had some
concern in it.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Habakkuk
It
is a very foolish fancy of some of the Jewish rabbin that this prophet was the
son of the Shunamite woman that was at first miraculously given, and afterwards
raised to life, by Elisha (2 Kings 4), as they say also that the prophet Jonah
was the son of the widow of Zarephath, which Elijah raised to life. It is a
more probable conjecture of their modern chronologers that he lived and
prophesied in the reign of king Manasseh, when wickedness abounded, and
destruction was hastening on, destruction by the Chaldeans, whom this prophet
mentions as the instruments of God's judgments; and Manasseh was himself
carried to Babylon, as an earnest of what should come afterwards. In the
apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon mention is made of Habakkuk the prophet
in the land of Judah, who was carried thence by an angel to Babylon, to feed
Daniel in the den; those who give credit to that story take pains to reconcile
our prophet's living before the captivity, and foretelling it, with that.
Huetius thinks that that was another of the same name, a prophet, this of the
tribe of Simeon, that of Levi; others that he lived so long as to the end of
that captivity, though he prophesied of it before it came. And some have
imagined that Habakkuk's feeding Daniel in the den is to be understood
mystically, that Daniel then lived by faith, as Habakkuk had said the just
should do; he was fed by that word, Hab 2:4. The prophecy of this book is a
mixture of the prophet's addresses to God in the people's name and to the
people in God's name; for it is the office of the prophet to carry messages
both ways. We have in it a lively representation of the intercourse and
communion between a gracious God and a gracious soul. The whole refers
particularly to the invasion of the land of Judah by the Chaldeans, which
brought spoil upon the people of God, a just punishment of the spoil they had
been guilty of among themselves; but it is of general use, especially to help
us through that great temptation with which good men have in all ages been
exercised, arising from the power and prosperity of the wicked and the
sufferings of the righteous by it.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Zephaniah
This
prophet is placed last, as he was last in time, of all the minor prophets
before the captivity, and not long before Jeremiah, who lived at the time of
the captivity. He foretels the general destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by
the Chaldeans, and sets their sins in order before them, which had provoked God
to bring their ruin upon them, calls them to repentance, threatens the
neighboring nations with the like destruction, and gives encouraging promises
of their joyful return out of captivity in due time, which have a reference to
the grace of the gospel. We have, in the first verse, an account of the prophet
and the date of his prophecy, which supersedes our enquiry concerning them
here.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Haggai
The captivity in Babylon gave a
very remarkable turn to the affairs of the Jewish church both in history and
prophecy. It is made a signal epocha in our Saviour's genealogy, Matt 1:17.
Nine of the twelve minor prophets, whose oracles we have been hitherto
consulting, lived and preached before that captivity, and most of them had an
eye to it in their prophecies, foretelling it as the just punishment of
Jerusalem's wickedness. But the last three (in whom the Spirit of prophecy took
its period, until it revived in Christ's forerunner) lived and preached after
the return out of captivity, not immediately upon it, but some time after.
Haggai and Zechariah appeared much about the same time, eighteen years after
the return, when the building of the temple was both retarded by its enemies
and neglected by its friends. Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet and
Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Jerusalem, in
the name of the God of Israel, even unto them (so we read Ezra 5:1), to reprove
them for their remissness, and to encourage them to revive that good work when
it had stood still for some time, and to go on with it vigorously,
notwithstanding the opposition they met with in it.
Haggai began two
months before Zechariah, who was raised up to second him, that out of the mouth
of two witnesses the word might be established. But Zechariah continued longer
at the work; for all Haggai's prophecies that are recorded were delivered
within four months, in the second year of Darius, between the beginning of the
sixth month and the end of the ninth. But we have Zechariah's prophecies dated
above two years after, Zech 7:1. Some have the honour to lead, others to last,
in the work of God. The Jews ascribe to these two prophets the honour of being
members of the great synagogue (as they call it), which was formed after the
return out of captivity; we think it more certain, and it was their honour, and
a much greater honour, that they prophesied of Christ. Haggai spoke of him as
the glory of the latter house, and Zechariah as the man, the branch. In them
the light of that morning star shone more brightly than in the foregoing
prophecies, as they lived nearer the time of the rising of the Sun of
righteousness, and now began to see his day approaching. The Septuagint makes
Haggai and Zechariah to be the penmen of Ps 138 and Ps 146; 147, and 148.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Zechariah
This prophet was colleague with
the prophet Haggai, and a worker together with him in forwarding the building
of the second temple Ezra 5:1; for two are better than one. Christ sent forth
his disciples two and two. Zechariah began to prophesy some time after Haggai.
But he continued longer, soared higher in visions and revelations, wrote more,
and prophesied more particularly concerning Christ, than Haggai had done; so
the last shall be first: the last in time sometimes proves first in dignity. He
begins with a plain practical sermon, expressive of that which was the scope of
his prophesying, in the first five verses; but afterwards, to the end of ch. 6,
he relates the visions he saw, and the instructions he received immediately
from heaven by them. At ch. 7, from an enquiry made by the Jews concerning
fasting, he takes occasion to show them the duty of their present day, and to
encourage them to hope for God's favour, to the end of ch. 8, after which there
are two sermons, which are both called burdens of the word of the Lord (one
begins with ch. 9, the other with ch. 12), which probably were preached some
time after; the scope of them is to reprove for sin, and threaten God's
judgments against the impenitent, and to encourage those that feared God with
assurances of the mercy God had in store for his church, and especially of the
coming of the Messiah and the setting up of his kingdom in the world.
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary
Malachi
God's prophets were his witnesses
to his church, each in his day, for several ages, witnesses for him and his
authority, witnesses against sin and sinners, attesting the true intents of
God's providences in his dealings with his people then and the kind intentions
of his grace concerning his church in the days of the Messiah, to whom all the
prophets bore witness, for they all agreed in their testimony; and now we have
only one witness more to call, and we have done with our evidence; and though
he be the last, and in him prophecy ceased, yet the Spirit of prophecy shines
as clearly, as strongly, as brightly in him as in any that went before, and his
testimony challenges an equal regard. The Jews say, Prophecy continued forty
years under the second temple, and this prophet they call the seal of prophecy,
because in him the series or succession of prophets broke off and came to a
period. God wisely ordered it so that divine inspiration should cease for some
ages before the coming of the Messiah, that that great prophet might appear the
more conspicuous and distinguishable and be the more welcome. Let us consider,
I.
The person of the prophet. We have only his
name, Malachi, and no account of his country or parentage. Malachi(OT:4397)
signifies my angel, which has given occasion for a conjecture that this prophet
was indeed an angel from heaven and not a man, as that Judg 2:1. But there is
no just ground for the conjecture. Prophets were messengers, God's messengers;
this prophet was so; his name is the very same with that which we find in the
original (3:1) for my messenger; and perhaps from that word he might (though,
probably, he had another name) be called Malachi. The Chaldee paraphrase, and
some of the Jews, suggest that Malachi was the same with Ezra; but that also is
groundless. Ezra was a scribe, but we never read that he was a prophet. Others,
yet further from probability, make him to be Mordecai. But we have reason to
conclude he was a person whose proper name was that by which he is here called;
the tradition of some of the ancients is that he was of the tribe of Zebulun,
and that he died young.
II.
II. The scope of the prophecy. Haggai and
Zechariah were sent to reprove the people for delaying to build the temple;
Malachi was sent to reprove them for the neglect of it when it was built, and
for their profanation of the temple-service (for from idolatry and superstition
they ran into the other extreme of impiety and irreligion), and the sins he
witnesses against are the same that we find complained of in Nehemiah's time,
with whom, it is probable, he was contemporary. And now that prophecy was to
cease he speaks more clearly of the Messiah, as nigh at hand, than any other of
the prophets had done, and concludes with a direction to the people of God to
keep in remembrance the law of Moses, while they were in expectation of the
gospel of Christ.