Voices and influences
Albert Barnes
The Philadelphia pastor who rose at four every morning to write Bible notes for his own Sunday school, and sold a million volumes of them.
Summary
This site quotes Albert Barnes 8,265 times across 66 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived 1798 to 1870.
- Quoted here most in Isaiah: 746 of 8,265.
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Albert Barnes
- Lived
- 1798 to 1870
- Tradition
- Presbyterian
5 of 8,265 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Albert Barnes died in 1870 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts - Interpreters have differed in regard to the connection of this verse with the preceding.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
It is evident, I think, that it is properly connected with the subject of pardon; and the sense must be, that the plans and purposes of God in regard to forgiveness are as far above those of people as the heavens are higher than the earth, Isa 55:
Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. BSB
He hath shewed thee - Micah does not tell them now, as for the first time; which would have excused them. He says, “He hath shewed thee;” He, about whose mind and will and pleasure they were pretending to enquire, the Lord their God.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
He had shewn it to them. The law was full of it. He shewed it to them, when He said, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and to serve the Lord, thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command thee this day for thy good?” Deu 10:12-13. They had asked, “with what outward thing shall I come before the Lord;” the prophet tells them, “what thing is good,” the inward man of the heart, righteousness, love, humility. And what doth the Lord require (search, seek) of thee? - The very word implies an earnest search within. He would say (Rup.), “Trouble not thyself as to any of these things, burnt-offerings, rams, calves, without thee. For God seeketh not thine, but thee; not thy substance, but thy spirit; not ram or goat, but thy heart.” : “Thou askest, what thou shouldest offer for thee? Other thyself. For what else doth the Lord seek of thee, but thee? Because, of all earthly creatures, He hath made nothing better than thee, He seeketh thyself from thyself, because thou hadst lost thyself.” To do judgment - are chiefly all acts of equity; “to love mercy,” all deeds of love. Judgment, is what right requires; mercy, what love. Yet, secondarily, “to do judgment” is to pass righteous judgments in all cases; and so, as to others, “judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” Joh 7:24; and as to one’s self also. Judge equitably and kindly of others, humbly of thyself. […]
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? BSB
(Compare Exo. 39:1-31.) Moses is now commanded to commit all that pertains to the offerings made to the Lord in the sanctuary to the exclusive charge of the members of a single family, who were to hold their office from generation to generation.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
In the patriarchal times, the external rites of worship had generally been conducted by the head of the tribe or family, in accordance with the principle involved in the dedication of the firstborn Exo 13:2; Num 3:12-
Exodus 28:1 “Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests. BSB
The leper was to carry about with him the usual signs of mourning for the dead. Compare Lev 10:6 and margin reference.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
The leper was a living parable in the world of the sin of which death was the wages; not the less so because his suffering might have been in no degree due to his own personal deserts: he bore about with him at once the deadly fruit and the symbol of the sin of his race. Exo 20:
Leviticus 13:45 A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ BSB
Chambers - (Margin, floors). Rather, a lean-to, which completely surrounded three sides of the building, the north, the west, and the south.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
1 Kings 6:5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Albert Barnes 8,265 times across 66 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Albert Barnes was born at Rome, New York, on December 1, 1798. He was headed for the law. At Hamilton College he was converted, changed direction, and went to Princeton Theological Seminary instead, graduating in 1824. His first pastorate was Morristown, New Jersey, from 1825 to 1830. In 1830 he was called to the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he preached until 1867 — thirty-seven years in one pulpit. The habit that made him famous was the alarm clock. Barnes rose at four every morning and wrote until nine, before the day's pastoral work began. What he wrote were notes on the Bible for his own Sunday school teachers and Bible class — plain explanations, verse by verse, aimed at people with no Greek and no library. He published them, beginning with the Gospels in 1832. They did not stop. Notes, Explanatory and Practical eventually covered the whole New Testament and much of the Old — Job, the Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel — and sold more than a million volumes in his lifetime, an astonishing number for the period. Generations of American laymen learned their Bible out of Barnes. He was also tried for heresy. His 1829 sermon The Way of Salvation, and then his notes on Romans in 1835, were charged with departing from the Westminster Confession on original sin and the atonement; Barnes taught that Christ's death was a provision made for all rather than a payment restricted in advance to the elect. The Presbytery of Philadelphia suspended him from the ministry in 1835, and the General Assembly reversed the suspension in 1836. He was acquitted, but the fight was one of the fuses of the Old School–New School division that split the American Presbyterian church in 1837. Barnes stood on the New School side. He fought slavery hard and early. An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery (1846) took up the biblical arguments the Southern churches used and dismantled them one at a time; The Church and Slavery followed in 1857. The books were read widely in the North during the years the country came apart. His eyesight failed badly in later life, and he kept working with help. He resigned the pulpit in 1867 and died in Philadelphia on December 24, 1870, at seventy-two. What he left is unusual for a scholar. Not a monument — a tool. A working pastor's commentary, written before breakfast for people who had no one else to explain the text, still in print and still free more than a century and a half later. Sources: Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the New Testament and An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery; the published minutes of the Presbyterian General Assembly, 1835–1837; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church; George Marsden, The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience.
8,265 quotations across 66 books
Where this voice is quoted
On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
“Shall the deaf hear the words of the book - They who now have the law and do not understand it, the people who seem to be deaf to all that God says, shall hear and understand it. Shall see out of obscurity ...”
The humble will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
“The meek - The word ‘meek’ usually refers to those who are patient in the reception of injuries, but the Hebrew word used here (ענוים ‛ănâviym) means properly the oppressed, the afflicted, the unhappy Psa 9:13; Psa 10:12, Psa 10:17; Pro 3:34; Isa 11:4.”
For the ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who look for evil will be cut down—
“For the terrible one - The violent one (עריץ ‛ârı̂yts), the oppressor, who had exercised cruelty over them.”
those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.
“That make a man an offender - literally, ‘who cause a man to sin’ (מחטיאי machăṭı̂y'ēy); that is, who hold a man to be guilty, or a criminal.”
For when he sees his children around him, the work of My hands, they will honor My name, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will stand…
“But when he seeth his children - The sense is, ‘he shall not be ashamed of his sons, for he shall see them henceforward walking in the ways of piety and virtue.’”
Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.”
“They also that erred in spirit - (see Isa 29:9-10). Shall learn doctrine - When” this would occur the prophet does not state.”
“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin…
“Wo, - (see the note at Isa 18:1). To the rebellious children - To those whom he had nourished as children, and who had rebelled against him (see the note at Isa 1:23).”
They set out to go down to Egypt without asking My advice, to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.
“That walk to go down to Egypt - Hebrew, ‘Going in the descent to Egypt.’ That is, they do it by their ambassadors Isa 30:4.”
But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.
“Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame - (see the note at Isa 20:5). Your confusion - Hebrew, ‘For reproach.’”
Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.
“For the Egyptians shall help in vain - That is, if they enter into the alliance, they shall not be able to defend you from the invader.”
These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.
“That this is a rebellious people - (see the note at Isa 1:2). Lying children - They had promised in solemn covenant to take Yahweh as their God, but they had been unfaithful to their vows.”
Get out of the way; turn off the road. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”
“Get ye out of the way - Or, rather, ‘Recede from the way;’ or ‘Turn aside from the way.’ The words “way” and “path” are used to denote the true religion, or the true doctrines of God Mat 7:14; Mat 22:16; Joh 14:4; Act 18:26…”
this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
“Therefore this iniquity - That is, this refusing to trust in Yahweh, and this intention to seek the alliance of Egypt.”
It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found.
“And he shall break it as the breaking - That is, its breaking shall be like the breaking of a potter’s vessel.”
For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”
“For thus saith the Lord God - The design of this verse is to give a reason for the destruction that should come upon them.”
“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! “We will ride swift horses,” but your pursuers will be faster.
“But ye said, No - Ye who proposed an alliance with Egypt. For we will flee upon horses - The word ‘flee’ (נוּס nûc), usually signifies to flee before or from any person or thing.”
A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like…
“One thousand ... - The sense of this is, that you shall be easily alarmed and overcome by those who are inferior in numbers and strength. The number ‘one thousand,’ is put for a large indefinite number; probably meaning all.”
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
“And thine ears shall hear a word - A command or admonition. You shall not be left without spiritual guides and directors. Behind thee - That is, says Vitringa, the voice of conscience, as an “invisible” guide, shall admonish you.”
Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful.
“Then shall he give the rain of thy seed - That is, he shall send rain on the seed which is sown. You will be allowed to cultivate the soil without molestation, and God will give you fruitful seasons and abundant harvests.”
And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
“In the day of the great slaughter - When the enemies of the people of God shall have been destroyed - probably in a time subsequent to the slaughter of the army of the Assyrians.”
Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire.
“Behold, the name of the Lord cometh - (compare the notes at Isa 19:1). The verses following, to the end of the chapter, are designed evidently to describe the destruction of the army of Sennacherib.”
You will sing as on the night of a holy festival, and your heart will rejoice like one who walks to the music of a flute, going up to the…
“Ye shall have a song - That is, ye inhabitants of Jerusalem shall rejoice when the army of the Assyrian is destroyed.”
For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD; He will strike them with His scepter.
“For through the voice of the - Lord By the command of the Lord; that is, his voice going forth in the manner specified in Isa 30:30.”
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen.
“Wo - (see the note at Isa 30:1). To them that go down to Egypt - (see the note at Isa 30:2). And stay on horses - (see the note at Isa 30:16). And trust in chariots - (see the note at Isa 21:7).”
But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit.
“Now the Egyptians are men - They are nothing but people; they have no power but such as other people possess.”