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Ask a Questionthe night in which--rather "the night which said." The words in italics are not in the Hebrew. Night is personified and poetically made to speak. So in Job 3:7, and in Ps 19:2. The birth of a male...
The Hebrew is brief and bold, "his strength is hungry." destruction--that is, a great calamity (Pr 1:27). ready at his side--close at hand to destroy him (Pr 19:29).
The same wish as in Job 13:3 (compare Heb 10:19-22). Seat--The idea in the Hebrew is a well-prepared throne (Ps 9:7).
had spoken--Hebrew, "in words," referring rather to his own "words" of reply, which he had long ago ready, but kept back in deference to the seniority of the friends who spoke.
Save now--Hebrew, "Hosanna" (compare Ps 115:2, &c., as to now) a form of prayer (Ps 20:9), since, in our use, of praise.
The reason; such as are objects of God's favor. be thy confidence--literally, "in thy confidence," in the source of thy strength (compare Na 3:9, for the same construction, Hebrew).
when it cannot rest--rather, "for it can have no rest" (Job 15:20, &c.; Pr 4:16, 17). English Version represents the sea as occasionally agitated; but the Hebrew expresses that it can never be at...
shameful thing--Hebrew, "shame," namely, the idol, not merely shameful, but the essence of all that is shameful (Jer 3:24; Ho 9:10), which will bring shame and confusion on yourselves [Calvin].
him that offereth--namely, whole burnt offerings as the Hebrew requires [Grotius]. Compare the awful burnt offering of the king of Moab (2Ki 3:27). high places--(Isa 16:12).
read--not in public, for the Chaldeans would not have understood Hebrew; but in private, as is to be inferred from his addressing himself altogether to God (Jer 51:62) [Calvin].
set his throne above--a mark of respect. the kings--The Hebrew text reads (the other) "kings." "The kings" is a Masoretic correction.
As...mother...her daughter--"Is," and "so is," are not in the original; the ellipsis gives the proverb (but two words in the Hebrew) epigrammatic brevity. Jerusalem proved herself a true daughter...
Moses and Aaron went in--As representatives of the Hebrews, they were entitled to ask an audience of the king, and their thorough Egyptian training taught them how and when to seek it. and told...
Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, &c.--Jaazer, near a famed fountain, Ain Hazier, the waters of which flow into Wady Schaib, about fifteen miles from Hesbon. Beth-nimrah, now Nimrin; Heshbon, now...
this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes--Moses predicted that the faithful observance of the laws given them would raise their...
tower...fortress--(Jer 1:18), rather, "an assayer (and) explorer." By a metaphor from metallurgy in Jer 6:27-30, Jehovah, in conclusion, confirms the prophet in his office, and the latter sums up...
speckled bird--Many translate, "a ravenous beast, the hyena"; the corresponding Arabic word means hyena; so the Septuagint. But the Hebrew always elsewhere means "a bird of prey." The Hebrew for...
thy valiant men--manuscripts, the Septuagint, and Vulgate read, "thy valiant one," Apis, the bull-shaped Egyptian idol worshipped at Noph or Memphis. The contrast thus is between the palpable...
he spake--God (Ge 2:2). God did rest the seventh day--a rest not ending with the seventh day, but beginning then and still continuing, into which believers shall hereafter enter. God's rest is not...
Quoted in Ro 11:34; 1Co 2:16. The Hebrew here for "directed" is the same as in Isa 40:12 for "meted out"; thus the sense is, "Jehovah measures out heaven with His span"; but who can measure Him?...
I will go after--The Hebrew expresses a settled determination. lovers--the idols which Israel fancied to be the givers of all their goods, whereas God gave all these goods (Ho 2:8-13; compare...
For, &c.--the third of "the better promises" (Heb 8:6). The forgiveness of sins is, and will be, the root of this new state of inward grace and knowledge of the Lord. Sin being abolished, sinners...
the western border--There is no uncertainty about this boundary, as it is universally allowed to be the Mediterranean, which is called "the great sea" in comparison with the small inland seas or...
Baal-tamar--a palm-grove, where Baal was worshipped. The main army of the confederate tribes was drawn up there. out of the meadows of Gibeah--Hebrew, "the caves of Gibeah"; a hill in which the...
six measures of barley--Hebrew, "six seahs," a seah contained about two gallons and a half, six of which must have been rather a heavy load for a woman.
Blessed be the Lord--This language is no decisive evidence that Hiram was a worshipper of the true God, as he might use it only on the polytheistic principle of acknowledging Jehovah as the God of...
submitted themselves--Hebrew, "put their hands under Solomon," according to the custom still practised in the East of putting a hand under the king's extended hand and kissing the back of it (2Ki...
ten candlesticks--(See on 1Ki 7:49). The increased number was not only in conformity with the characteristic splendor of the edifice, but also a standing emblem to the Hebrews, that the growing...
It--the "wisdom" of God (Job 11:6). The abruptness of the Hebrew is forcible: "The heights of heaven! What canst thou do" (as to attaining to them with thy gaze, Ps 139:8)? know--namely, of His...
Hebrew, "are my scorners"; more forcibly, "my mockers--my friends!" A heart-cutting paradox [Umbreit]. God alone remains to whom he can look for attestation of his innocence; plaintively with...