Recent Commentaries

In previous instructions it was decreed that the inheritance of a man who died without sons must go to the daughters (27:8). In this passage (vv. 1-12) a situation has arisen involving the daughters of Zelophehad, a descendant of the Manassehite clan of Gilead (27:1-11). The ques …

Jeremiah pauses in his condemnation of sin to offer a message of hope to backsliding Israel. An invitation is given to backsliding Israel to return to God (v. 11-12). Also (vv. 6,8,14).They are instructed to acknowledge their sin against God, by worshiping false gods (v. 13). Precio …

This is a song celebrating God’s triumphal ascent to Mount Zion. If this psalm was written by David, as many writers think, it could have been written when the ark was removed from the house of God at Obed-Edom to Mount Zion (2 Samuel 6). In olden times when the sacred ark …

Is it harder for you to maintain a proper relationship with God in prosperity or in hardship? Why? Moses doesn’t want Israel to forget God and be proud of their own attainments once they get in the promised land (v. 1). He reminds them of how they had learned humility, how God had proved …

Esther is unique among the books of the Bible in that it is the only book in which the Lord God of Israel is never mentioned. But you can’t read this book without seeing the Lord’s hand of providence moving in the background, preparing the way of salvation for his people. Last time …

Ahithophel told Absalom that he will choose twelve thousand men and attack David at night while he is tired and discouraged (vv. 1-2). He will panic and everyone will run away so I can kill him (v. 3). Then I will bring everyone back to you and this way there won’t be a civ …

Some day you may visit the interesting and historic French-Canadian city of Quebec. There you will see the Plains of Abraham, where the English forces of General Wolfe won Quebec from the French. When you see the steep ascent that Wolf’s men had to make up the face of the great rocky cliffs, you will be amazed that they succeeded. Mere boys should have been able to hold off a force of soldiers from scaling such cliffs and gaining the heights. Yet Wolfe and his men made the ascent and gained the citadel. Why? Because the overconfident defenders became careless and pleasure-loving; and one night, when they were off guard, the enemy saw his opportunity, scaled the heights, and took the city. Quebec fell because its defenders failed to keep watch. (Joseph Harris in Sunday School Times).

The Lord also told Ezekiel to shave all of the hair off his head and face and to divide the hair into three equal parts to symbolize what was going to happen to the people in Jerusalem (vv. 1-10). He was to burn one third, cut up another third with a sword, and throw the …

Jerusalem was about to fall into the hands of the political enemy from without because of the spiritual enemies of God working from within. Jeremiah is commanded to search Jerusalem and Judah for a man. He searched among the common people in the city squares, but he found none (v …

Amos shocked his listeners by singing a funeral song for the northern kingdom of Israel (vv. 1-3). The Israelites believed that their wealth and religious ritual made them secure but they were doomed for an untimely destruction. Furthermore, those who attempted to pro …