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
How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.
“In these two verses is the same sad image as appears in the well-known medal of Titus, struck to celebrate his triumph over Jerusalem. A woman sits weeping beneath a palm-tree, and below is the legend “Judaea capta.””
Judah has gone into exile under affliction and harsh slavery; she dwells among the nations but finds no place to rest.
“Because of ... - i. e. the people, not of Jerusalem only, but of the whole land, “is gone into exile to escape from the affliction and laborious servitude,” to which they are subject in their own land. Persecutors ...”
Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. For the LORD has brought her grief because of her many transgressions.
“Are the chief ... prosper - Or, “are become the head”... are at rest. Judaea is so entirely crushed that her enemies did not need to take precautions against resistance on her part. Children - i. e.”
All the splendor has departed from the Daughter of Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; they lack the strength to flee in the face of the…
“Her princes ... - Jeremiah had before his mind the sad flight of Zedekiah and his men of war, and their capture within a few miles of Jerusalem Jer 39:4-5.”
In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old.
“Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction, And of her homelessness, All her pleasant things which have been from the days of old: Now that her people fall by the hand of the adversary, And she hath no helper; Her adversaries have seen her…”
Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn.
“Grievously sinned - literally, “Jerusalem hath sinned a sin,” giving the idea of a persistent continuance in wickedness. Removed - Or, become an abomination. Sin has made Jerusalem an object of horror, and therefore she is cast away. Yea, she sigheth ...”
Her uncleanness stains her skirts; she did not consider her end. Her downfall was astounding; there was no one to comfort her.
“Her filthiness is in her skirts - Her personal defilement is no longer concealed beneath the raiment Jer 13:22. She came down wonderfully - Jerusalem once enthroned as a princess must sit on the ground as a slave.”
The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
“Her pleasant things - Chiefly, the sacred vessels of the temple 2Ch 36:10. Sanctuary ... congregation - Even a Jew might not enter the innermost sanctuary, which was for the priests only; but now the tramp of pagan soldiery has been heard within its sacred…”
All her people groan as they search for bread. They have traded their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. Look, O LORD, and consider, for I have become despised.
“Sigh ... seek - Are sighing ... are seeking. The words are present participles, describing the condition of the people. After a siege lasting a year and a half the whole country, far and near, would be exhausted.”
Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has decreed against Jacob that his neighbors become his foes.
“Spreadeth forth her hands - In prayer Exo 9:29, Exo 9:33, but Zion entreats in vain. There is no one to comfort her - not God, for He is chastising her, nor man, for all the neighboring nations have become her enemies. See Lam 1:2.”
People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You have caused it.
“They have heard ... - Or, “They heard that I sigh,” that I have “no comforter.” Thou wilt bring the day ... - literally, thou hast brought “the day thou hast proclaimed, and they shall be like unto me.””
In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy.
“Since the horn is the symbol of power, the cutting off of every horn means the depriving Israel of all power of resistance. The drawing back of God’s right hand signifies the withdrawal of that special Providence which used to protect the chosen people.”
Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars.
“Her gates are sunk into the ground - So completely destroyed, that one might suppose they had been swallowed up in an abyss.”
My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint…
“Troubled - See the margin reference note. Liver - As the heart was regarded by the Jews as the seat of the intellect, so the liver (or bowels) was supposed to be the seat of the emotions.”
Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.
“In - (or at) the beginning of the watches “At the beginning of each night-watch” means all the night through. The Hebrews divided the night into three watches.”
He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
“Made old - Or, wasted: his strength slowly wasted as he pined away in sorrow. He hath broken my bones - This clause completes the representation of the sufferer’s physical agonies. Here the idea is that of acute pain.”
Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
“Shout - i. e. call for help. Shutteth out - Or, “shutteth in.” God has so closed up the avenues to the place in which he is immured, that his voice can find no egress.”
He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
“Inclosed - Or, hedged Lam 3:7. Hath, made crooked - Or, “hath” turned aside. A solid wall being built across the main road, Jeremiah turns aside into by-ways, but finds them turned aside, so that they lead him back after long wandering to the place…”
He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
“Having dwelt upon the difficulties which hemmed in his path, he now shows that there are dangers attending upon escape.”
Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
“This I recall - Rather, “This will I bring back to my heart, therefore will I hope.” Knowing that God hears the prayer of the contrite, he begins again to hope.”
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
“The Lord is my portion - “My portion is Yahweh,” see Num 18:20; Psa 16:5 ff. Therefore will I hope in him - A more full expression of the confidence present in the prophet’s mind in Lam 3:21, but based now upon God’s faithfulness in…”
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
“In these three verses, each beginning in the Hebrew with the word good, we have first the fundamental idea that Yahweh Himself is good, and if good to all, then especially is He so to those who being in adversity can yet wait in confidence…”
Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
“Why then does a loving God, who disapproves of suffering when inflicted by man upon man, Himself send sorrow and misery? “Because of sins.” Lam 3:37 Literally, “Who is this that spake and it was done, though אדני 'ădonāy commanded it not?””
You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
“In verses 43-66, far from pardoning, God is still actively punishing His people. Rather, “Thou hast covered” Thyself “with wrath and pursued (Lam 1:3 note) us.” The covering (here and in Lam 3:44) is that of clothing and enwrapping.”
Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
“The deep sympathy of the prophet, which pours itself forth in abundant tears over the distress of his people. Lam 3:51 Or, “Mine eye” causeth pain to my soul, i. e.”