Matthew Henry

“ How is the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. 22. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 23. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 24. Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 25. ”

“ While they promise themselves liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
In others of them, a reigning pride and affectation of singularity, and a spirit of contradiction, those lusts of the mind, which are as impetuous and imperious as any of the lusts of the flesh and of the world, forbid a freedom of thinking, and enslave the soul in all its inquiries after religion. Those can no more think freely, who resolve they will think by themselves, than those can, who resolve to think with their neighbours. ”

“ How wise therefore they are that cease from man; it is our duty, it is our interest, to do so. "Put not your trust in man, nor make even the greatest and mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not your eye be to the power of man, for it is finite and limited, derived and depending; it is not from him that your judgment proceeds: let not him be your fear, let not him be your hope; but look up to the power of God, to which all the powers of men are subject and subordinate; dread his wrath, secure his favour, take him for your Help, and let your hope be in the Lord your God." ”

“ Yes, he is, and we should be led by the contemplation of the heavens that are in our eye, to consider Our Father which is in heaven. The height of the heavens should remind us of God's supremacy, and the infinite distance that is between us and him; the brightness of the heavens and their purity should remind us of his glory and majesty, and perfect holiness; the vastness of the heavens, their encompassing of the earth, and the influence they have upon it, should remind us of his immensity and universal providence. ”

“ The Lord God planted this garden, that is, he had planted it—upon the third day, when the fruits of the earth were made. We may well suppose it to have been the most accomplished place for pleasure and delight that ever the sun saw; when the all-sufficient God himself designed it to be the present happiness of his beloved creature, man, in innocency, and a type and figure of the happiness of the chosen remnant in glory. No delights can be agreeable or satisfying to a soul, but those that God himself has provided and appointed for it; no true paradise, but of God's planting ”

“ Lightfoot conjectures, we cannot suppose Isaac so poor, or Rebekah so bad a house-keeper, but that he might have been supplied with food convenient, other ways, and might have saved his birth-right; but his appetite has the mastery of him, he is in a longing condition, nothing will please him but this red, this red pottage, and to palliate his desire, he pretends he is at the point to die; if it had been so, was it not better for him to die in honour than to live in disgrace; to die under a blessing than to live under a curse? ”

“ Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: 14. That I may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation. 15. The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. ”

“ Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp; 28. And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly in so doing. 29. It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 30. ”

“ How would it consist with natural affection to his own son? It would be not only murder, but the worst of murders. Cannot Abraham be obedient, but he must be unnatural? If God insist upon a human sacrifice, is there none but Isaac to be the offering; and none but Abraham to be the offerer? Must the father of the faithful be the monster of all fathers? ”

“ We ought to rejoice in the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, but rejoice with trembling, with a holy awe of him, a holy fear for ourselves, lest we come short, and a tender concern for the many precious souls to whom his gospel and kingdom are a savour of death unto death. Whatever we rejoice in, in this world, it must always be with trembling, lest we grow vain in our joy, and be puffed up with the things we rejoice in, and because of the uncertainty of them, and the damp which by a thousand accidents may soon be cast upon our joy. ”

“ It shall be for the remission of sins. Repent of your sin, and it shall not be your ruin; be baptized into the faith of Christ, and in truth you shall be justified, which you could never be by the law of Moses. Aim at this, and depend upon Christ for it, and this you shall have. As the cup of the Lord's supper is the New Testament in the blood of Christ for the remission of sins, so baptism is in the name of Christ for the remission of sins. Be washed, and you shall be washed. ”

“ What excuse can Satan make for the failure of his former attempt? What can he say to palliate it, when he had been so very confident that he should gain his point? Why, truly, he has this to say, Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for his life. Something of truth there is in this, that self-love and self-preservation are very powerful commanding principles in the hearts of men. Men love themselves better than their nearest relations, even their children, that are pieces of themselves; will not only venture, but give, their estates to save their lives. ”

“ This is the way to win people, rather than to rule with rigour. The word of God is indeed powerful; and as it comes often with awful authority upon the minds of men, as it always has enough in it to convince every impartial judgment, so it comes with the more pleasing power, when the ministers of the gospel recommend themselves to the affections of the people. And as a nursing mother bears with frowardness in a child, and condescends to mean offices for its good, and draws out her breast, cherishing it in her bosom; so in like manner should the ministers of Christ behave toward their people. ”

“ Note, Wickedness, as it is the shame of the human nature so it is the ruin of human society; it takes away conscience and the fear of God, and men become beasts and devils to one another, like the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the lesser. Sin fills the earth with violence, and so turns the world into a wilderness, into a cock-pit. ”

“ Sooner will the inanimate creatures hear, who observe the law, and answer the end of their creation, than this stupid senseless people. Let the lights of heaven shame their darkness, and the fruitfulness of the earth their barrenness, and the strictness of each to its time, their irregularity. ”

“ He is cursed, separated to all evil, laid under the wrath of God, as it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, Rom. 1. 18. Who knows the extent and weight of a divine curse, how far it reaches, how deep it pierces? God's pronouncing a man cursed makes him so; for those whom he curses, are cursed indeed. The curse for Adam's disobedience terminated on the ground, Cursed is the ground for thy sake; but that for Cain's rebellion fell immediately upon himself, Thou art cursed; for God had mercy in store for Adam, but none for Cain. ”

“ Note, Spiritual blessings which secure our felicity, are better and much more desirable than fine notions which satisfy our curiosity. An interest in the angel's blessing is better than acquaintance with his name. The tree of life is better than the tree of knowledge. Thus Jacob carried his point; a blessing he wrestled for, and a blessing he had; nor did ever any of his praying seed seek in vain. See how wonderfully God condescends to countenance and crown importunate prayer: those that resolve, though God slay them, yet to trust in him, will, at length, be more than conquerors. ”

“ Two things David here pleads further, 1. "Thou art the God of my righteousness; not only a righteous God thyself, but the Author of my righteous dispositions, who hast by thy grace wrought that good that is in me, hast made me a righteous man; therefore hear me, and so attest thine own work in me; thou art also the Patron of my righteous cause, the Protector of my wronged innocency, to whom I commit my way, and whom I trust to bring forth my righteousness as the light." When men condemn us unjustly, this is our comfort, It is God that justifies; he is the God of a believer's righteousness. ”

“ It is not an endless or needless genealogy; it is not a vain-glorious one, as those of great men commonly are. Stemmata, quia faciunt — Of what avail are ancient pedigrees? It is like a pedigree given in evidence, to prove a title, and make out a claim; the design is to prove that our Lord Jesus is the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham, and therefore of that nation and family out of which the Messiah was to arise. Abraham and David were, in their day, the great trustees of the promise relating to the Messiah. ”

“ Thus shall we walk in the beams of the Sun of righteousness.
6. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are sooth sayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. 7. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. 8. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. ”

“ God had set him apart for himself by distinguishing favours, and therefore he sets himself apart by a distinguishing character. "They are for any good, for worldly good, but so am not I; I will not say as they say; any good will not serve my turn; the wealth of the world will never make a portion for my soul, and therefore I cannot take up with it." ”

“ In the foregoing chapters, we have had the pleasant view of the holiness and happiness of our first parents, the grace and favour of God, and the peace and beauty of the whole creation, all good, very good: but here the scene is altered. We have here an account of the sin and misery of our first parents, the wrath and curse of God against them, the peace of the creation disturbed, and its beauty stained and sullied, all bad, very bad. How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed! ”

“ Jacob had easily believed his sons formerly, when they told him, Joseph is dead; but he can hardly believe them now that they tell him, Joseph is alive. Weak and tender spirits are influenced more by fear than hope, and are more apt to receive impressions that are discouraging than those that are encouraging. But, at length, Jacob is convinced of the truth of the story, especially when he sees the wagons which were sent to carry him; for seeing is believing; then his spirit revived. Death is as the wagons that are sent to fetch us to Christ: the very sight of it approaching should revive us. ”

“ And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest, is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? 44. Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. 45. And Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar. 46. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap. ”

“ There is a judgment to come, in which every man's present character and work, though ever so artfully concealed and disguised, shall be truly and perfectly discovered, and appear in their own colours, and every man's future state will be, by an irreversible sentence, determined for eternity. The ungodly must appear in that judgment, to receive according to the things done in the body; they may hope to come off, nay, to come off with honour, but their hope will deceive them; they shall not stand in the judgment ”

“ The earth did not bring forth its fruits of itself, by any innate virtue of its own, but purely by the almighty power of God, which formed every plant and every herb, before it grew in the earth. Thus grace in the soul, that plant of renown, grows not of itself in nature's soil, but is the work of God's own hands. ”

“ Of books we have a superabundance, but of books of the proper kind, we have not half enough. Copies of works of undisputed excellence ought to be multiplied, until all who can read are supplied with the precious treasure.
But let God have the glory of every invention, of every gift, and of every work, by which the progress and diffusion of truth are promoted or facilitated; and let all that is said in praise of men, be so spoken, as to redound to the honour and glory of the Triune God!—Amen. ”

“ The place appointed for Adam's residence was a garden; not an ivory house, or a palace overlaid with gold, but a garden furnished and adorned by nature, not by art. What little reason have men to be proud of stately and magnificent buildings, when it was the happiness of man in innocency, that he needed none! As clothes came in with sin, so did houses. The heaven was the roof of Adam's house; and never was any roof so curiously ceiled and painted: the earth was his floor ”

“ Note, It is very common for a righteous cause, particularly the righteous cause of Christ's religion, to be endeavoured to be run down by noise and clamour; what is wanting in reason is made up in tumult, and the cry of him that ruleth among fools, while the words of the wise are heard in quiet. They cried with a loud voice, as soldiers when they are going to engage in battle, mustering up all their spirit and vigour for this desperate encounter. ”

“ In heaven there is perfect and perpetual light, and no darkness at all; in hell, utter darkness, and no gleam of light. In that world, between these two there is a great gulf fixed; but in this world, they are counterchanged, and we pass daily from one to another; that we may learn to expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God, peace and trouble, joy and sorrow, and may set the one over against the other, and accommodate ourselves to both, as we do to the light and darkness, bidding both welcome, and making the best of both. ”