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
There is nothing Egypt can do—head or tail, palm or reed.
“Neither shall there be any work - The sense is, that there shall be such discord that no man, whether a prince, a politician, or a priest, shall be able to give any advice, or form any plan for the national safety and security, which…”
The land of Judah will bring terror to Egypt; whenever Judah is mentioned, Egypt will tremble over what the LORD of Hosts has planned against it.
“And the land of Judah - The fear and consternation of Egypt shall be increased when they learn what events are occurring there, and what Yahweh has purposed in regard to it.”
In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the center of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near her border.
“In that day shall there be an altar - An “altar” is properly a place on which sacrifices are offered. According to the Mosaic law, but one great altar was to be erected for sacrifices.”
It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of Hosts in the land of Egypt.
“And it shall be for a sign - The altar, and the pillar. This shows that the altar was not to be for sacrifice, but was a “memorial,” or designed to designate a place of worship.”
The LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and on that day Egypt will acknowledge the LORD.
“And the Lord shall be known to Egypt - Shall be worshipped and honored by the Jews who shall dwell there, and by those who shall be proselyted to their religion.”
And the LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; He will strike them but heal them.
“And the Lord shall smite Egypt - That is, in the manner described in the previous part of this prophecy Isa 19:2-10. And heal it - Or restore it to more than its former splendor and prosperity, as described in the previous verses Isa 19:18-20.”
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.
“There shall be a highway - A communication; that is, there shall be an alliance between Egypt and Assyria, as constituting parts of one empire, and as united in the service of the true God.”
In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing upon the earth.
“In that day shall Israel be the third - That is, the three shall be united as one people. Instead of being rival, hostile, and contending kingdoms, they shall be united and friendly; and instead of having different and jarring religions, they shall all worship…”
The LORD of Hosts will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”
“whom the Lord of hosts shall bless - That is, which united country he shall acknowledge as truly worshipping him, and on which he shall bestow his favors as his favored people.”
Before the year that the chief commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it,
“In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod - Tartan was one of the generals of Sennacherib. Ashdod, called by the Greeks Azotus, was a seaport on the Mediterranean, between Askelon and Ekron, and not far from Gaza (Reland’s “Palestine,” iii.)”
Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,
“Like as - That is, as Isaiah has gone stripped of his special garment as a prophet, so shall the Egyptians and Ethiopians be stripped of all that they value, and be carried captive into Assyria.’ Hath walked ...”
so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.
“So shall the king of Assyria - The emphasis here is on the word “so.” As Isaiah has walked naked, that is, stripped off his usual clothing, “so” shall the Egyptians and Ethiopians be led away “stripped” of all their possessions.”
Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.
“And they shall be afraid - The Jews, or the party or faction among the Jews, that were expecting aid from allied Ethiopia and Egypt.”
And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from…
“And the inhabitant - The dwellers generally. Of this isle - The word אי 'iy “isle” is used here in the sense of “coast, or maritime” country, and is evidently applied to Palestine, or the land of Canaan, which is a narrow coast lying on…”
Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
“Therefore - In this verse, and the following, the prophet represents himself as “in” Babylon, and as a witness of the calamities which would come upon the city.”
My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight of my desire has turned to horror.
“My heart panted - Margin, ‘My mind wandered.’ The Hebrew word rendered ‘panted’ (תעה tâ‛âh) means to wander about; to stagger; to be giddy; and is applied often to one that staggers by being intoxicated.”
They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet, they eat, they drink! Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!
“Prepare the table - This verse is one of the most striking and remarkable that occurs in this prophecy, or indeed in any part of Isaiah. It is language supposed to be spoken in Babylon.”
When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, fully alert.”
“And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen - This passage is very obscure from the ambiguity of the word רכב rekeb - ‘chariot.’”
Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
“And, behold ... a chariot of men - This place shows that the word ‘chariot’ (רכב rekeb) may denote something else than a wagon or carriage, as a chariot drawn by men cannot be intended.”
O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.
“O my threshing - The words ‘to thresh,’ ‘to tread down,’ etc., are often used in the Scriptures to denote punishments inflicted on the enemies of God.”
The watchman replies, “Morning has come, but also the night. If you would inquire, then inquire. Come back yet again.”
“The watchman said - Or rather “saith;” indicating that this is the answer which the prophet returned to the inquiry from Idumea. The morning cometh - There are signs of approaching day.”
This is the burden against Arabia: In the thickets of Arabia you must lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.
“Analysis of Isa 21:13-17. - Vision 18. “Arabia.” The remainder of this chapter is occupied with a single prophecy respecting Arabia. It was “probably” delivered about the time that the former was uttered - during the reign of Hezekiah, and before the invasion of Sennacherib.”
For they flee from the sword—the sword that is drawn—from the bow that is bent, and from the stress of battle.
“For they fled - The inhabitants of one part of the land. The grievousness of war - Hebrew, כבד kobed - “the weight, the heaviness, the oppression” of war; probably from the calamities that would result from the march of the Assyrian through their land…”
For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.
“Within a year - What has been said before was figurative. Here the prophet speaks without a metaphor, and fixes the time when this should be accomplished.”
The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.
“And the residue of the number - That is, those who shall be left in the invasion. Or perhaps it may be read, ‘There shall be a renmant of the number of bowmen; the mighty people of Kedar shall be diminished.’”