Voices and influences
John Gill
The self-taught Baptist Hebraist who pastored one London congregation for fifty-one years and wrote a comment on every verse in the Bible.
Summary
This site quotes John Gill 5,991 times across 66 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived 1697 to 1771.
- Quoted here most in Psalms: 639 of 5,991.
John Gill
- Lived
- 1697 to 1771
- Tradition
- Reformed Baptist
5 of 5,991 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because John Gill died in 1771 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.
A bruised reed shall he not break,.... Various are the thoughts of interpreters, about what is meant by this, and by the smoking flax shall he not quench.
Undated in the archive this site cites.
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Some think the Scribes and Pharisees are designed, whose power Christ could easily crush, and their wrath and fury restrain, but would not, till the time of his vengeance was come. Others that the publicans and sinners are intended, of whose conversion and salvation there were more hope than of the Scribes and Pharisees; and which Christ greatly sought after, and therefore cherished and encouraged them in his ministry and conversation.
Matthew 12:20 A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory. BSB
And Cain talked with Abel,.... Or "said", or "spoke unto" him (l); either what the Lord God said to him in the foregoing verses, as Aben Ezra; or he spoke to him in a kind and friendly manner, and thereby got him to take a…
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walk in the field with him.
Genesis 4:8 Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. BSB
And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord,.... This, as Ben Gersom observes, is distinguished from a burnt offering; for though it was to be perfect, and without blemish, yet not obliged to be a male as that, Lev 3:
Undated in the archive this site cites.
Leviticus 22:21 When a man presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without blemish or defect to be acceptable. BSB
So David and Abishai came to the people by night,.... Josephus (l) wrongly says, that he took with him both Abishai and Ahimelech; he chose to have but one, for the greater secrecy.
Undated in the archive this site cites.
1 Samuel 26:7 That night David and Abishai came to the troops, and Saul was lying there asleep in the inner circle of the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the troops were lying around him. BSB
Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam,.... Calamities, destruction, and ruin: and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall; not leave a dog of his, or rather a male, see 1Sa 25:22.
Undated in the archive this site cites.
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and him that is shut up and left in Israel; in garrisons or in prisons, in cities or in fields, or in whatsoever situation or circumstances they may be.
1 Kings 14:10 Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone! BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes John Gill 5,991 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
John Gill was born at Kettering in Northamptonshire on November 23, 1697, the son of a wool merchant who served as a deacon in the dissenting congregation there. Because the family were Nonconformists, the local grammar school effectively closed to him around the age of eleven. So he taught himself. What he taught himself was languages. He worked through Latin and Greek on his own, then Hebrew — and then kept going, into the Targums, the Talmud, and the medieval rabbis. Almost no English Christian of his century read Jewish sources as widely as Gill did, and he read them in the original. He was baptized in 1716, began preaching, and in 1719 was called to a small Particular Baptist congregation at Horsleydown in Southwark, south London. He stayed fifty-one years, until his death. That pulpit had a long life ahead of it: the congregation later moved and eventually became the church that called Charles Spurgeon a century afterward, and Spurgeon spoke of Gill as one of his predecessors. The work he is remembered for is the commentary. Gill wrote an exposition of the entire Bible, verse by verse, book by book — the New Testament first, in three volumes (1746–1748), then the Old Testament in six (1748–1763). It was the first complete verse-by-verse commentary on the whole Bible written by a Baptist, and it is thick with rabbinic material nobody else was bringing to English readers. He also wrote The Cause of God and Truth (1735–1738), a four-part defense of Calvinist doctrine against the Arminian arguments of Daniel Whitby, and late in life A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity (1767–1770), the first full systematic theology produced by an English Baptist. The University of Aberdeen gave him a doctorate in divinity in 1748; he remarked that he had neither asked for it nor deserved it. His theology was high Calvinism, and he pressed it further than most. Gill held to eternal justification and was reluctant to make a free offer of Christ to all who heard him — a position later called hyper-Calvinism, and one that Andrew Fuller and then Spurgeon worked hard to undo among the Baptists. Historians still argue about exactly how far he went. Robert Hall's jab has followed the commentary ever since: it was, he said, a continent of mud. But the mud kept getting reprinted. Augustus Toplady defended him fiercely. Spurgeon kept him on the shelf and praised his learning in Commenting and Commentaries, while rejecting outright his restraint about inviting sinners to come. He preached his last sermon in 1771 and died at Camberwell on October 14 of that year, aged seventy-three. Fifty-one years in one pulpit, a comment on every verse in the Bible, and a body of theology his own denomination has been arguing with ever since. Sources: John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments and A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity; John Rippon, A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late Rev. John Gill, D.D.; C. H. Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries; Timothy George and David Dockery, eds., Baptist Theologians.
5,991 quotations across 66 books
Where this voice is quoted
Now Solomon son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and highly exalted him.
“And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom,.... Well settled and established on the throne of his father, after the death of some persons, from whom he might expect trouble, see 1Ki 2:46.”
And Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon because it was the location of God’s Tent of Meeting, which Moses the servant of the LORD…
“So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon,.... They agreed to his motion, and went with him thither, see 1Ki 3:4.”
Solomon offered sacrifices there before the LORD on the bronze altar in the Tent of Meeting, where he offered a thousand burnt offerings.
“And Solomon went up thither,.... To the high place at Gibeon: to the brasen altar before the lord; where he used to be, and accept the sacrifices of his people, though the ark, the symbol of his presence, was not there: which was at the…”
So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place in Gibeon before the Tent of Meeting, and he reigned over Israel.
“Then Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon,.... Or rather without the supplement, the words may be read as in the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions: Solomon came from the high places; having sacrificed there, so Vatablus; ל being…”
Then Hiram king of Tyre wrote a letter in reply to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves His people, He has set you over them as king.”
“Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon,.... In which letter he told him he had considered the contents of his, and would grant him all that he desired, see 1Ki 5:8.”
He is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father is a man of Tyre.
“The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan,.... Here follows an account of the descent of the artificer, and of his skill in working; of what seeming disagreement there may be in this account, with that in 1Ki 7:14; see Gill on 1Ki…”
We will cut logs from Lebanon, as many as you need, and we will float them to you as rafts by sea down to Joppa.
“And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shall need,.... Both cedar and fir, 1Ki 5:8, and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; a port in the Mediterranean sea, the same that Jonah went down…”
Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.
“And he set threescore and ten thousand of them,.... Which is repeated from 2Ch 2:2, to show how the above number of strangers were disposed of; 70,000 of them bearers of burdens, 80,000 of them hewers of wood, and 3,600 overseers of the workmen, in…”
When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
“Now when Solomon had made an end of praying,.... The prayer recorded in the preceding chapter: the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; which was the token God gave of his acceptance of them, of which there had…”
Solomon rebuilt the cities Hiram had given him and settled Israelites there.
“That the cities which Huram had restored to Solomon,.... Which Solomon first gave to him, but he not liking them, returned them to him, 1Ki 9:12, Solomon built them; or rebuilt them, being very much out of repair, which might be one reason of Huram's…”
He built Tadmor in the wilderness, in addition to all the store cities that he had built in Hamath.
“And built Tadmor in the wilderness,.... Of which See Gill on 1Ki 9:18. and all the storehouses which he built in Hamath; a country in Syria, which he made himself master of, and where he laid up store of provision and ammunition to keep it…”
He rebuilt Upper and Lower Beth-horon as fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars,
“Also he built Bethhoron the upper, and Bethhoron the nether,.... Only mention is made of the latter in 1Ki 9:17, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars; fortified cities in the tribe of Ephraim.”
At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD he had built in front of the portico.
“Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord,.... Meaning not barely at the time he rebuilt the above cities, for it was his constant practice: on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch; the brasen altar, which was at the…”
He observed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of…
“Even after a certain rate every day, according to the commandment of Moses,.... The daily sacrifice, morning and evening, Exo 29:38, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons; when there were additional sacrifices, Num 28:9, &c.”
Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out, from the day the foundation was laid for the house of the LORD until it was finished.
“Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished,....”
He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,
“He built even Bethlehem,.... The place of our Lord's birth, about six miles from Jerusalem: and Etam; another city in the tribe of Judah; see 1Ch 4:32, there was a rock of this name, Jdg 15:8 and a fountain from whence waters were conveyed into…”
Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,
“And Gath,.... Which cannot be that Gath which was one of the principalities of the Philistines, but a city in the tribe of Judah; though of it we nowhere else read; unless this is the same with Moreshethgath, Mic 1:14, which is probable, since it…”
Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,
“And Adoraim,.... Called by Josephus (d) Adora, which he mentions along with Mareshah, or Marissa: and Lachish: a royal city in the time of the Canaanites, and which fell to the lot of Judah, Jos 12:11, and Azekah; a city situated in the plain of…”
Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.
“And Zorah,.... The same with Zoreah, Jos 15:33, and Aijalon; there was a city of the tribe of Dan of this name, in the valley of which the moon stood still in the times of Joshua, Jos 10:12, but whether the same with this, and…”
And Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.
“And Rehoboam took him Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David, to wife,.... Of which son of David we nowhere else read; perhaps he might be the son of one of his concubines, or he might have two names: and Abihail the daughter…”
She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.
“Which bare him children,.... Or, "and she bore him" (d); for it is said only of one of them, the other perhaps died without children; this may refer to the last mentioned, Abihail, whose children were Jeush, and Shamariah, and Zaham; who perhaps all died…”
Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines.
“And Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines, &c. Who is called Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel, 2Ch 13:2, for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines; led thereunto by the example of his father Solomon, contrary to…”
In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem
“And it came to pass in the fifth year of Rehoboam,.... In the fourth year, the apostasy of him and his people began; and, in the year following, what is next related happened, as a punishment of it: Shishak king of Egypt came up against…”
He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
“And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah,.... Which Rehoboam had lately built, and placed his sons in them, 2Ch 11:5, these he took without any opposition: and came to Jerusalem; there being no army to oppose him; and so Sesostris took many…”
So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.”
“Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves,.... Both by words acknowledging their sins, and the justice of God, and by deeds, perhaps putting on sackcloth, as was usual on such occasions, and betaking themselves to fasting and prayer: and they said, the…”