Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

P R E F A C E.

THESE five books of scripture which are contained

in this third volume and which I have here endeavoured, according to

the measure of the gift given to me, to explain and improve, for the

use of those who desire to read them, not only with understanding, but

to their edification–though they have the same divine origin, design,

and authority, as those that went before, yet, upon some accounts, are

of a very different nature from them, and from the rest of the sacred

writings, such variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom seen fit to take

in conveying the light of divine revelation to the children of men,

that this heavenly food might have (as the Jews say of the manna)

something in it agreeable to every palate and suited to every

constitution. If every eye be not thus opened, every mouth will be

stopped, and such as perish in their ignorance will be left without

excuse. We have piped unto you, and you have not danced, we have

mourned unto you, and you have not lamented,
Matt. xi. 17.

I. The books of scripture have hitherto been, for the most part, very

plain and easy, narratives of matter of fact, which he that runs may

read and understand, and which are milk for babes, such as they can

receive and digest, and both entertain and nourish themselves with. The

waters of the sanctuary have hitherto been but to the ankles or to the

knees, such as a lamb might wade in, to drink of and wash in; but here

we are advanced to a higher form in God’s school, and have books put

into our hands wherein are many things dark and hard to be

understood, which we do not apprehend the meaning of so suddenly

and so certainly as we could wish, the study of which requires a more

close application of mind, a greater intenseness of thought, and the

accomplishing of a diligent search, which yet the treasure hid in them,

when it is found, will abundantly recompense. The waters of the

sanctuary are here to the loins, and still as we go forward we

shall find the waters still risen in the prophetical books, waters

to swim in

(Ezek. xlvii. 3-5),

not fordable, nor otherwise to be passed over–depths in which an

elephant will not find footing, strong meat for strong men. The

same method is observable in the New Testament, where we find the plain

history of Christ and his gospel placed first in the Evangelists and

the Acts of the Apostles; then the mystery of both in the Epistles,

which are more difficult to be understood; and, lastly, the prophesies

of things to come in the apocalyptic visions. This method, so exactly

observed in both the Testaments, directs us in what order to proceed

both in studying the things of God ourselves and in teaching them to

others; we must go in the order that the scripture does; and where can

we expect to find a better method of divinity and a better method of

preaching?

1. We must begin with those things that are most plain and easy, as,

blessed be God, those things are which are most necessary to salvation

and of the greatest use. We must lay our foundation firm, in a sound

experimental knowledge of the principles of religion, and then the

super-structure will be well reared and will stand firmly. It is not

safe to launch out into the deep at first, nor to venture into points

difficult and controverted until we have first thoroughly digested the

elements of the oracles of God and turned them in succum et

sanguinem–into juice and blood. Those that begin their Bible at

the wrong end commonly use their knowledge of it in the wrong way. And,

in training up others, we must be sure to ground them well at first in

those truths of God which are plain, and in some measure level to their

capacity, which we find they comprehend, and relish, and know how to

make use of, and not amuse those that are weak with things above them,

things of doubtful disputation, which they cannot apprehend any

certainty of nor advantage by. Our Lord Jesus spoke the word to the

people as they were able to hear it

(Mark iv. 33)

and had many things to say to his disciples which he did not say

because as yet they could not bear them,
John xvi. 12, 13.

And those whom St. Paul could not speak to as unto

spiritual–though he blamed them for their backwardness, yet he

accommodated himself to their weakness, and spoke to them as unto

babes in Christ,
1 Cor. iii. 1, 2.

2. Yet we must not rest in these things. We must not be always children

that have need of milk, but nourished up with that, and gaining

strength, we must go on to perfection

(Heb. vi. 1),

that having, by reason of use, our spiritual senses exercised

(Heb. v. 14),

we may come to full age, and put away childish things, and,

forgetting the things which are behind, that is, so well

remembering them

(Phil. iii. 13)

that we need not be still poring over them as those that are ever

learning the same lesson, we may reach forth to the things which are

before. Though we must never think to learn above our Bible, as long as

we are here in this world, yet we must still be getting forward in it.

You have dwelt long enough in this mountain; now turn and take

your journey onward in the wilderness towards Canaan. Our motto must be

Plus ultra–Onward. And then shall we know if thus, by regular

steps

(Hos. vi. 3),

we follow on to know the Lord and what the mind of the Lord

is.

II. The books of scripture have hitherto been mostly historical, but

now the matter is of another nature; it is doctrinal and devotional,

preaching and praying; and in this way of writing, as well as in the

former, a great deal of excellent knowledge is conveyed, which serves

very valuable purposes. It will be of good use to know not only what

others did that went before us, and how they fared, but what their

notions and sentiments were, what their thoughts and affections were,

that we may, with the help of them, form our minds aright. Plutarch’s

Morals are reputed as a useful treasure in the commonwealth of learning

as Plutarch’s Lives, and the wise disquisitions and discourses of the

philosophers as the records of the historians; nor is this divine

philosophy (if I may so call it), which we have in these books, less

needful, nor less serviceable, to the church, than the sacred history

was. Blessed be God for both.

III. The Jews make these books to be given by a divine inspiration

somewhat different from that both of Moses and the prophets. They

divided the books of the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets and

the ktwbym—Writings, which Epiphanius

emphatically translates grapheia—things written,

and these books are more commonly called among the Greeks

Hagiographa—Holy writings: the Jews attribute

them to that distinct kind of inspiration which they call rwh

hqds—The Holy Spirit. Moses they supposed to write by

the Spirit in a way above all the other prophets, for with him

God spoke mouth to mouth, even apparently

(Num. xii. 8)

knew him, that is, conversed with him face to face,
Deut. xxxiv. 10.

He was made partaker of divine revelation (as Maimonides distinguishes,

De Fund. Legis, c. 7) per vigiliam–while

awake,¹ whereas God manifested

himself to all the other prophets in a dream or vision: and he adds

that Moses understood the words of prophecy without any perturbation or

astonishment of mind, whereas the other prophets commonly fainted and

were troubled. But the writers of the Hagiographa they suppose to be

inspired in a degree somewhat below that of the other prophets, and to

receive divine revelation, not as they did by dreams, and visions, and

voices, but (as Maimonides describes it, More Nevochim–part 2

c. 45) they perceived some power to rise within them, and rest

upon them, which urged and enabled them to write or speak far above

their own natural ability, in psalms or hymns, or in history or in

rules of good living, still enjoying the ordinary vigour and use of

their senses. Let David himself describe it. The Spirit of the Lord

spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue; the God of Israel said, the

Rock of Israel spoke to me,
2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3.

This gives such a magnificent account of the inspiration by which David

wrote that I see not why it should be made inferior to that of the

other prophets, for David is expressly called a prophet,
Acts ii. 29, 30.

But, since our hand is in with the Jewish masters, let us see what

books they account Hagiographa. These five that are now before us

come, without dispute, into this rank of sacred writers, and the book

of the Lamentations is not unfitly added to them. Indeed the Jews, when

they would speak critically, reckon all those songs which we meet with

in the Old Testament among the Hagiographa; for though they were penned

by prophets, and under the direction of the Holy Ghost, yet, because

they were not the proper result of a visum propheticum–prophetic

vision, they were not strictly prophecy. As to the historical

books, they distinguish (but I think it is a distinction without a

difference); some of them they assign to the prophets, calling them the

prophetæ priores–the former prophets, namely, Joshua,

Judges, and the two books of the Kings; but others they rank among the

Hagiographa, as the book of Ruth (which yet is but an appendix to the

book of Judges), the two books of Chronicles, with Ezra, Nehemiah, and

the book of Esther, which last the rabbin have a great value for, and

think it is to be had in equal esteem with the law of Moses itself,

that it shall last as long as that lasts, and shall survive the

writings of the Prophets. And, lastly, they reckon the book of

Daniel among the Hagiographa,² for which

no reason can be given, since he was not inferior to any of the

prophets in the gift of prophecy; and therefore the learned Mr. Smith

thinks that their placing him among the Hagiographical writers was

fortuitous by mistake.³ Mr. Smith, in his

Discourse before quoted, though he supposes this kind of divine

inspiration to be more “pacate and serene than that which

was strictly called prophecy, not acting so much upon the

imagination, but seating itself in the higher and purer faculties of

the soul, yet shows that it manifested itself to be of a divine nature,

not only as it always elevated pious souls into strains of devotion, or

moved them strangely to dictate matters of true piety and goodness, but

as it came in abruptly upon the minds of those holy men, and

transported them from the temper of mind they were in before, so that

they perceived themselves captivated by the power of some higher light

than that which their own understanding commonly poured out upon them;

and this, says he, was a kind of vital form to that light of divine and

sanctified reason which they were perpetually possessed of and that

constant frame of holiness and goodness which dwelt in their hallowed

minds.” We have reason to glorify the God of Israel who gave such

power unto men and has here transmitted to us the blessed products

of that power.

IV. The style and composition of these books are different from those

that go before and those that follow. Our Saviour divides the books of

the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the

Psalms

(Luke xxiv. 44),

and thereby teaches us to distinguish those books that are poetical, or

metrical, from the Law and the Prophets; and such are all these that

are now before us, except Ecclesiastes, which yet, having something

restrained in its style, may well enough be reckoned among them. They

are books in verse, according to the ancient rules of versifying,

though not according to the Greek and Latin prosodies. Some of

the ancients call these five books the second Pentateuch of the Old

Testament,⁴ five sacred volumes which

are as the satellites to the five books of the law of Moses. Gregory

Nazianzen⁵ (carm. 33,

p. 98) calls these hai sticherai pente—the

five metrical books; first Job (so he reckons them up), then David,

then the three of Solomon-Ecclesiastes, the Song, and Proverbs.

Amphilochius, bishop at Iconium, in his iambic poem to

Seleucus, reckons them up particularly, and calls them

sticheras pente Biblos—the five verse-books.

Epiphanius (lib. de ponder. et mensur. p. 533)

pente stichereis—the five verse-books. And

Cyril. Hierosol. Collect. 4, p. 30 (mihi–in my

copy), calls these five books ta stichera—books

in verse. Polychronius, in his prologue to Job, says that as

those that are without call their tragedies and comedies

poietika—poetics, so, in sacred writ, those books

which are composed in Hebrew metre (of which he reckons Job the first)

we call stichera biblia—books in verse, written

kata stichon—according to order. What is written

in metre, or rhythm, is so called from metros—a

measure, and arithmos—a number, because

regulated by certain measures, or numbers of syllables, which please

the ear with their smoothness and cadency, and so insinuate the matter

the more movingly and powerfully into the fancy. Sir William

Temple,⁶ in his essay upon poetry, thinks

it is generally agreed to have been the first sort of writing that was

used in the world, nay, that, in several nations, poetical compositions

preceded the very invention or usage of letters. The Spaniards (he

says) found in America many strains of poetry, and such as seemed to

flow from a true poetic vein, before any letters were known in those

regions. The same (says he) is probable of the Scythians and Grecians:

the oracles of Apollo were delivered in verse. Homer and Hesiod wrote

their poems (the very Alcoran of the pagan dæmonology) many ages

before the appearing of any of the Greek philosophers or historians;

and long before them (if we may give credit to the antiquities of

Greece), even before the days of David, Orpheus and Linus were

celebrated poets and musicians in Greece; and at the same time

Carmenta, the mother of Evander, who was the first that introduced

letters among the natives of Greece, was so called à carmine–from a

song, because she expressed herself in verse. And in such

veneration was this way of writing among the ancients that their poets

were called vates–prophets, and their muses were deified. But,

which is more certain and considerable, the most ancient composition

that we meet with in scripture was the song of Moses at the Red Sea

(Exod. xv.),

which we find before the very first mention of writing, for that occurs

not until

Exod. xvii. 14,

when God bade Moses write a memorial of the war with Amalek. The first,

and indeed the true and general end of writing, is a help of memory;

and poetry does in some measure answer that end, and even in the want

of writing, much more with writing, helps to preserve the remembrance

of ancient things. The book of the wars of the Lord

(Num. xxi. 14),

and the book of Jasher

(Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam. i. 18),

seem to have been both written in poetic measures. Many sacred songs

we meet with in the Old Testament, scattered both in the historical and

prophetical books, penned on particular occasions, which, in the

opinion of very competent judges, “have in them as true and noble

strains of poetry and picture as are met with in any other language

whatsoever, in spite of all disadvantages from translations into such

different tongues and common prose,⁷ nay,

are nobler examples of the true sublime style of poetry than any that

can be found in the Pagan writers; the images are so strong, the

thoughts so great, the expressions so divine, and the figures so

admirably bold and moving, that the wonderful manner of these writers

is quite inimitable.”⁸ It is fit that

what is employed in the service of the sanctuary should be the best in

its kind.

The books here put together are poetical. Job is an heroic poem, the

book of Psalms a collection of divine odes or lyrics, Solomon’s Song a

pastoral and an epithalamium; they are poetical, and yet sacred and

serious, grave and full of majesty. They have a poetic force and flame,

with out poetic fury and fiction, and strangely command and move the

affections, without corrupting the imagination or putting a cheat upon

it; and, while they gratify the ear, they edify the mind and profit the

more by pleasing. It is therefore much to be lamented that so powerful

an art, which was at first consecrated to the honour of God, and has

been so often employed in his service, should be debauched, as it has

been, and is at this day, into the service of his enemies–that his

corn, and wine, and oil should be prepared for Baal.

V. As the manner of the composition of these books is excellent, and

very proper to engage the attention, move the affections, and fix them

in the memory, so the matter is highly useful, and such as will be

every way serviceable to us. They have in them the very sum and

substance of religion, and what they contain is more fitted to our

hand, and made ready for use, than any part of the Old Testament, upon

which account, if we may be allowed to compare one star with another in

the firmament of the scripture, these will be reckoned stars of the

first magnitude. All scripture is profitable (and this part of

it in a special manner) for instruction in doctrine, in

devotion, and in the right ordering of the conversation. The book of

Job directs us what we are to believe concerning God, the book of

Psalms how we are to worship him, pay our homage to him, and maintain

our communion with him, and then the book of the Proverbs shows very

particularly how we are to govern ourselves en pase

anastrophe—in every turn of human life; thus shall the

man of God, by a due attention to these lights, be perfect,

thoroughly furnished for every good work. And these are placed

according to their natural order, as well as according to the order of

time; for very fitly are we first led into the knowledge of God, our

judgments rightly formed concerning him, and our mistakes rectified,

and then instructed how to worship him and to choose the things that

please him. We have here much of natural religion, its principles, its

precepts–much of God, his infinite perfections, his relations to man,

and his government both of the world and of the church; here is much of

Christ, who is the spring, and soul, and centre, of revealed religion,

and whom both Job and David were eminent types of, and had clear and

happy prospects of. We have here that which will be of use to enlighten

our understandings, and to acquaint us more and more with the things of

God, with the deep things of God–speculations to entertain the most

contemplative, and discoveries to satisfy the most inquisitive and

increase the knowledge of those that are most knowing. Here is that

also which, with a divine light, will bring into the soul the heat and

influence of a divine fire, will kindle and inflame pious and devout

affections, on which wings we may soar upwards until we enter into the

holiest. We may here be in the mount with God, to behold his beauty;

and when we come down from that mount, if we retain (as we ought) the

impressions of our devotion upon our spirits and make conscience of

doing that good which the Lord our God here requires of us, our faces

shall shine before all with whom we converse, who shall take occasion

thence to glorify our Father who is in heaven,
Matt. v. 16.

Thus great, thus noble, thus truly excellent, is the subject, and thus

capable of being improved, which gives me the more reason to be ashamed

of the meanness of my performance, that the comment breathes so little

of the life and spirit of the text. We often wonder at those that are

not at all affected with the great things of God, and have no taste nor

relish of them, because they know little of them; but perhaps we have

more reason to wonder at ourselves, that conversing so frequently, so

intimately, with them, we are not more affected with them, so as even

to be wholly taken up with them, and in a continual transport of

delight in the contemplation of them. We hope to be so shortly; in the

mean time, though like the three disciples that were the witnesses of

Christ’s transfiguration upon the mount we are but dull and sleepy, yet

we can say, Master, it is good to be here; here let us make

tabernacles,
Luke ix. 32, 33.

I have nothing here to boast of–nothing at all, but a great deal to be

humbled for, that I have not come up to what I have aimed at in respect

of fulness and exactness. In the review of the work, I find many

defects, and those who are critical, perhaps, will meet with some

mistakes in it; but I have done it with what care I could, and desire

to be thankful to God who by his grace has carried me on in his work

thus far: let that grace have all the glory

(Phil. ii. 13),

which works in us both to will and to do whatever we will or do

that is good or serves any good purpose. What is from God will, I

trust, be to him, will be graciously accepted by him, according to

what a man has, and not according to what he had not, and will be

of some use to his church; and what is from myself (that is, all the

defects and errors) will, I trust, be favourably passed by and

pardoned. That prayer of St. Austin is mine, Domine Deus,

quæcunque dixi in his libris de tuo, agnoscant et tui; et quæ de meo,

et tu ignosce et tui–Lord God, whatever I have maintained in these

books correspondent with what is contained in thine grant that thy

people may approve as well as thyself; whatever is but the doctrine of

my book forgive thou, and grant that thy people may forgive it

also. I must beg likewise to own, to the honour of our great

Master, that I have found the work to be its own wages, and that the

more we converse with the word of God the more it is to us as the

honey and the honeycomb,
Ps. xix. 10.

In gathering some gleaning of this harvest for others we may feast

ourselves; and, when we are enabled by the grace of God to do so, we

are best qualified to feed others. I was much pleased with a passage I

lately met with of Erasmus, that great scholar and celebrated wit, in

an epistle dedicatory before his book De Ratione Concionandi,

where, as one weary of the world and the hurry of it, he expresses an

earnest desire to spend the rest of his days in secret communion with

Jesus Christ, encouraged by his gracious invitation to those who

labour and are heavy laden to come unto him for rest

(Matt. xi. 28),

and this alone is that which he thinks will yield him true

satisfaction. I think his words worth transcribing, and such as deserve

to be inserted among the testimonies of great men to serious godliness.

Neque quisquam facilè credat quàm miserè animus

jamdudum affectet ab his laboribus in tranquillam otium secedere,

quodque superest vitæ (superest autem vix brevis palmus sive

pugillus), solum cum eo solo colloqui, qui clamavit olim (nec

hodiè mutat vocem suam), “Venite ad me, omnes qui laboratis et

onerati estis, ego reficiam vos;” quandoquidem in tam turbulento, ne

dicam furente, sæculo, in tot molestiis quas vel ipsa tempora

publicè invehunt, vel privatim adfert oetas ac valetudo, nihil

reperio in quo mens mea libentius conquiescat quàm in hoc arcano

colloquio–No one will easily believe how anxiously, for a long time

past, I have wished to retire from these labours into a scene of

tranquility, and, during the remainder of life (dwindled, it is true,

to the shortest span), to converse only with him who once cried (nor

does he now retract), “Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy

laden, and I will refresh you,” for in this turbulent, not to say

furious, age, the many public sources of disquietude, connected with

the infirmities of advancing age, leave no solace to my mind to be

compared with this secret communion. In the pleasing contemplation

of the divine beauty and benignity we hope to spend a blessed eternity,

and therefore in this work it is good t o spend as much as may be of

our time.

One volume more, containing the prophetical books, will finish the Old

Testament, if the Lord continue my life, and leisure, and ability of

mind and body for this work. It is begun, and I find it will be larger

than any of the other volumes, and longer in the doing; but, as God by

his grace shall furnish me for it and assist me in it (without which

grace I am nothing, less than nothing, worse than nothing), it shall be

carried on with all convenient speed; and sat citò,

si sat benè–if