Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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P R E F A C E.

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THIS second volume of methodized and practical

expositions of the inspired writings ventures abroad with fear and

trembling in the same plain and homely dress with the former on the

Pentateuch. Ornari res ipsa negat; contenta doceri–the subject

requires no ornament; to have it apprehended is all. But I trust,

through grace, it proceeds from the same honest design to promote the

knowledge of the scripture, in order to the reforming of men’s hearts

and lives. If I may but be instrumental to make my readers wise and

good, wiser and better, more watchful against sin and more careful of

their duty both to God and man, and, in order thereto, more in love

with the word and law of God, I have all I desire, all I aim at. May

he that ministereth seed to the sower multiply the seed sown, by

increasing the fruits of our righteousness,
2 Cor. ix. 10.

It is the history of the Jewish church and nation that fills this

volume, from their first settlement in the promised land, after their

430 years’ bondage in Egypt and their forty years’ wandering in the

wilderness, to their re-settlement there after their seventy years’

captivity in Babylon–from Joshua to Nehemiah. The five books of Moses

were taken up more with their laws, institutes, and charters; but all

these books are purely historical, and in this way of writing a great

deal of very valuable learning and wisdom has been conveyed from one

generation to another. The chronology of this history, and the

ascertaining of the times when the several events contained in it

happened, would very much illustrate the history, and add to the

brightness of it; it is therefore well worthy the search of the curious

and ingenious, and they may find both pleasure and profit in perusing

the labours of many learned men who have directed their studies that

way. I confess I could willingly have entertained myself and reader, in

this preface, with a calculation of the times through which this

history passes; but I consider that such a babe in knowledge as I am

could not pretend either to add to or correct what has been done by so

many great writers, much less to decide the controversies that have

been agitated among them. I had indeed some thoughts of consulting my

worthy and ever-honoured friend Mr. Tallents of Shrewsbury, the

learned author of the “View of Universal History,” and of begging some

advice and assistance from him in methodizing the contents of this

history; but, in the very week in which I put my last hand to this

part, it pleased God to put an end to his useful life (and useful it

was to the last) and to call him to his rest, in the eighty-ninth year

of his age: so that purpose was broken off, that thought of my heart.

But that elaborate performance of his commonly called his

“Chronological Tables” gives great light to this, as indeed to all

other parts of history. And Dr. Lightfoot’s “Chronology of the Old

Testament,” and Mr. Cradock’s “History of the Old Testament

Methodized,” may also be of great use to such readers as I write for.

As to the particular chronological difficulties which occur in the

thread of this history, I have not been large upon them, because many

times I could not satisfy myself, and how then could I satisfy my

reader concerning them? I have not indeed met with any difficulties so

great but that solutions might be given of them sufficient to silence

the atheists and antiscripturists, and roll away from the sacred

records all the reproach of contradiction and inconsistency with

themselves; for, to do that, it is enough to show that the difference

may be accommodated either this way or that, when at the same time one

cannot satisfy one’s self which way is the right. But it is well that

these are things about which we may very safely and very comfortably be

ignorant and unresolved. What concerns our salvation is plain enough,

and we need not perplex ourselves about the niceties of chronology,

genealogy, or chorography. At least my undertaking leads me not into

those labyrinths. What is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for

correction, and for instruction in righteousness, is what I intend

to observe, and I would endeavour to open what is dark and hard to be

understood only in order to that. Every author must be taken in his way

of writing; the sacred penman, as they have not left us formal systems,

so they have not left us formal annals, but useful narratives of things

proper for our direction in the way of duty, which some great judges of

common writers have thought to be the most pleasant and profitable

histories, and most likely to answer the end. The word of God

manifestis pascit, obscuris exercet (Aug. in Joh. Tract. 45), as

one of the ancients expresses it, that is, it has enough in it that

is easy to nourish the meanest to life eternal, yet enough that is

difficult to try the industry and humility of the greatest. There

are several things which should recommend this part of sacred writ to

our diligent and constant search.

     

I. That it is history, and therefore entertaining and very

pleasant, edifying and very serviceable to the conduct of human life.

It gratifies the inquisitive with the knowledge of that which the most

intense speculation could not discover any other way. By a retirement

into ourselves, and a serious contemplation of the objects we are

surrounded with, close reasoning may advance many excellent truths

without being beholden to any other. But for the knowledge of past

events we are entirely indebted (and must be so) to the reports and

records of others. A notion or hypothesis of man’s own framing may gain

him the reputation of a wit, but a history of man’s own framing will

lay him under the reproach of a cheat any further than as it respects

that which he himself is an eye or ear-witness of. How much are we

indebted then to the divine wisdom and goodness for these writings,

which have made things so long since past as familiar to us as any of

the occurrences of the age and place we live in! History is so

edifying that parables and apologues have been invented to make up the

deficiencies of it for our instruction concerning good and evil; and,

whatever may be said of other history, we are sure that in this history

there is no matter of fact recorded but what has its use and will help

either to expound God’s providence or guide man’s prudence.

     

II. That it is true history, and what we may rely upon the

credit of, and need not fear being deceived in. That which the heathens

reckoned tempus adelon (which they knew

nothing at all of) and tempus mythikon
(the account of which was wholly fabulous) is to us

tempus historikon, what we have a most

authentic account of. The Greeks were with them the most celebrated

historians, and yet their successors in learning and dominion, the

Romans, put them into no good name for their credibility, witness that

of the poet: Et quicquid Græcia mendax audet in historia–All

that lying Greece has dared to record, Juv. Sat. 10. But the history

which we have before us is of undoubted certainty, and no cunningly

devised fable. To be well assured of this is a great satisfaction,

especially since we meet with so many things in it truly miraculous,

and many more great and marvellous.

     

III. That it is ancient history, far more ancient than was ever

pretended to come from any other hand. Homer the most ancient genuine

heathen writer now entirely extant, is reckoned to have lived at the

beginning of the Olympiads, near the time when it is computed that the

city of Rome was founded by Romulus, which was but about the reign of

Hezekiah king of Judah. And his writings pretend not to be historical,

but poetical fiction all over: rhapsodies indeed they are, and the very

Alcoran of paganism. The most ancient authentic historians now extant

are Herodotus and Thucydides, who were contemporaries with the latest

of our historians, Ezra and Nehemiah, and could not write with any

certainty of events much before their own time. The obscurity,

deficiency, and uncertainty of all ancient history, except that which

we find in the scripture, is abundantly made out by the learned bishop

Stillingfleet, in that most useful book, his Origines Sacræ,

lib. i. Let the antiquity of this history not only recommend it to the

curious, but recommend to us all that way of religion it directs us in,

as the good old way, in which if we walk we shall find rest for our

souls,
Jer. vi. 16.

     

IV. That it is church history, the history of the Jewish church,

that sacred society, incorporated for religion, and the custody of the

oracles and ordinances of God, by a charter under the broad seal of

heaven, a covenant confirmed by miracles. Many great ant mighty

nations there were at this time in the world, celebrated it is likely

for wisdom, and learning, and valour, illustrious men and illustrious

actions; yet the records of them are all lost, either in silence or

fables, while that little inconsiderable people of the Jews that

dwelt alone, and was not reckoned among the nations

(Num. xxiii. 9),

makes so great a figure in the best known, most ancient, and most

lasting of all histories; and no notice is taken in it of the affairs

of other nations, except only as they fall in with the affairs of the

Jews: for the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his

inheritance,
Deut. xxxii. 8, 9.

Such a concern has God for his church in every age, and so dear have

its interests been to him. Let them therefore be so to us, that we may

be followers of him as dear children.

     

V. That it is a divine history, given by inspiration of God, and

a part of that blessed book which is to be the standing rule of our

faith and practice. And we are not to think it a part of it which might

have been spared, or which we may now pass over or cast a careless eye

upon, as if it were indifferent whether we read it or no; but we are to

read it as a sacred record, preserved for our benefit on whom the

ends of the world have come. 1. This history is of great use for

the understanding of some parts of the Old Testament. The account we

have here of David’s life and reign, and especially of his troubles, is

a key to many of his Psalms; and much light is given to most of the

prophecies by these histories. 2. Though we have not altogether so many

types of Christ here as we had in the history and the law of Moses, yet

even here we meet with many who were figures of him that was to come,

such as Joshua, Samson, Solomon, Cyrus, but especially David, whose

kingdom was typical of the kingdom of the Messiah and the covenant of

royalty made with him, a dark representation of the covenant of

redemption made with the eternal Word; nor know we how to call Christ

the son of David unless we be acquainted with this history nor how to

receive the declaration that John Baptist was the Elias that

was to come,
Mt. xi. 14.

3. The state of the Jewish church which is

here set before us was typical of the gospel church and the state of

that in the days of the Messiah; and as the prophecies which related to

it looked further to the latter days, so did the histories of it; and

still these things happened to them for ensamples,
1 Cor. x. 11.

By the tenour of this history we are given to understand these three

things concerning the church (for the thing that hath been is that

which shall be,
Eccl. i. 9):–

(1.) That we are not to expect the perfect purity and unity of the

church in this world, and therefore not to be stumbled, though we are

grieved, at its corruptions, distempers, and divisions; we are not to

think it strange concerning them, as though some strange thing

happened, much less to think the worse of its laws and constitutions

for the sake of them or to despair of its perpetuity. What wretched

stains of idolatry, impiety, and immorality, appear on the Jewish

church, and what a woeful breach was there between Judah and Ephraim!

yet God took them (as I may say) with all their faults, and never

wholly rejected them till they rejected the Messiah. Israel hath

not been forsaken, nor Judah, of their God, though their land was

filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel,
Jer. li. 5.

(2.) That we are not to expect the constant tranquillity and prosperity

of the church. It was then often oppressed and afflicted from its

youth, had its years of servitude as well as its days of triumph, was

often obscured, diminished, impoverished, and brought low; and yet

still God secured to himself a remnant, a holy seed, which was

the substance thereof,
Isa. vi. 13.

Let us not then be surprised to see the gospel church sometimes under

hatches, and driven into the wilderness, and the gates of hell

prevailing far against it. (3.) That yet we need not fear the utter

extirpation of it. The gospel church is called the Israel of God

(Gal. vi. 16),

and the Jerusalem which is above

(Gal. iv. 26),

the heavenly Jerusalem; for as Israel after the flesh,

and the Jerusalem that then was, by the wonderful care of the

divine Providence, outrode all the storms with which they were tossed

and threatened, and continued in being till they were made to resign

all their honours to the gospel church, which they were the figures of,

so shall that also, notwithstanding all its shocks, be preserved, till

the mystery of God shall be finished, and the kingdom of grace shall

have its perfection in the kingdom of glory. 4. This history is of

great use to us for our direction in the way of our duty; it was

written for our learning, that we may see the evil we should avoid and

be armed against it, and the good we should do and be quickened to it.

Though they are generally judges, and kings, and great men, whose lives

are here written, yet in them even those of the meanest rank may see

the deformity of sin and hate it, and the beauty of holiness and be in

love with it; nay, the greater the person is the more evident are both

these; for, if the great be good, it is their goodness that makes their

greatness honourable; if bad, their greatness does but make their

badness the more shameful. The failings even of good people are also

recorded here for our admonition, that he who thinks he stands may take

heed lest he fall, and that he who has fallen may not despair of

forgiveness if he recover himself by repentance. 5. This history, as

it shows what God requires of us, so it shows what we may expect from

his providence, especially concerning states and kingdoms. By the

dealings of God with the Jewish nation it appears that, as nations are,

so they must expect to fare–that while princes and people serve the

interests of God’s kingdom among men he will secure and advance their

interests, but that when they shake off his government, and rebel

against him, they can look for no other than an inundation of

judgments. It was so all along with Israel; while they kept close to

God they prospered; when they forsook him every thing went cross. That

great man archbishop Tillotson (Vol. 1. Serm. 3. on Prov. xiv.

34) suggests that though, as to particular persons, the providences of

God are promiscuously administered in this world, because there is

another world of rewards and punishments for them, yet it is not so

with nations as such, but national virtues are ordinarily rewarded with

temporal blessings and national sins punished with temporal judgments,

because, as he says, public bodies and communities of men, as such, can

be rewarded and punished only in this world, for in the next they will

all be dissolved. So plainly are God’s ways of disposing kingdoms laid

before us in the glass of this history that I could wish Christian

statesmen would think themselves as much concerned as preachers to

acquaint themselves with it; they might fetch as good maxims of state

and rules of policy from this as from the best of the Greek and Roman

historians. We are blessed (as the Jews were) with a divine revelation,

and make a national profession of religion and relation to God, and

therefore are to look upon ourselves as in a peculiar manner under a

divine regimen, so that the things which happened to them were designed

for ensamples to us.

     

I cannot pretend to write for great ones. But if what is here done may

be delightful to any in reading and helpful in understanding and

improving this sacred history, and governing themselves by the dictates

of it, let God have all the glory and let all the rivers return to the

ocean whence they came. When I look back on what is done I see nothing

to boast of, but a great deal to be ashamed of; and, when I look

forward on what is to be done, I see nothing in myself to trust to for

the doing of it. I have no sufficiency of my own; but by the grace

of God I am what I am, and that grace will, I trust, be sufficient

for me. Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.

That blessed epichoregia which the apostle speaks of

(Phil. i. 19),

that continual supply or communication of the Spirit of Jesus

Christ, is what we may in faith pray for, and depend upon, to

furnish us for every good word and work. The pleasantness of the study

has drawn me on to the writing of this, and the candour with which my

friends have been pleased to receive my poor endeavours on the

Pentateuch encourages me to publish it; it is done according to the

best of my skill, not without some care and application of mind, in the

same method and manner with that; I wish I could have done it in less

compass, that it might have been more within reach of the poor of

the flock. But then it would not have been so plain and full as I

desire it may be for the benefit of the lambs of the flock. Brevis

esse laboro, obscurus fio–labouring to be concise I become

obscure. With a humble submission to the divine providence and its

disposals, and a humble reliance on the divine grace and its guidance

and operation, I purpose still to proceed, as I have time, in this

work. Two volumes more will, if God permit, conclude the Old Testament;

and then if my friends encourage me, and my God spare me and enable me

for it, I intend to go on to the New Testament. For though many have

taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those parts of

scripture which are yet before us

(Luke i. 1),

whose works praise them in the gates and are likely to outlive

mine, yet while the subject is really so copious as it is and the

manner of handling it may possibly be so various, and while one book

comes into the hands of some and another into the hands of others, and

all concur in the same design to advance the common interests of

Christ’s kingdom, the common faith once delivered to the saints,

and the common salvation of precious souls

(Tit. i. 4; Jude 3),

I hope store of this kind will be thought no sore. I make bold to

mention my purpose to proceed thus publicly in hopes I may have the

advice of my friends in it, and their prayers for me that I may be made

more ready and mighty in the scriptures, that understanding and

utterance may be given to me, and that I may obtain mercy of the

Lord Jesus to be found his faithful servant, who am less

than the least of all that call him Master.

M. H.

Chester,       June 2, 1708.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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