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
Then they brought the goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, who laid their hands on them.
“And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation,.... Which were to make atonement for the sins of both: and they laid their hands on them; signifying thereby that they were vicarious sacrifices to be offered up…”
The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.
“And the Levites stood with the instruments of David,.... Which were invented, directed, and ordered to be used by him, and are the same as in the preceding verse: and the priests with the trumpets; which were made by the direction of Moses, according to…”
The whole assembly was worshiping, the singers were singing, and the trumpeters were playing. All this continued until the burnt offering was completed.
“And all the congregation worshipped,.... Bowed their heads as a token of divine adoration: and the singers sang; both with vocal and instrumental music, who were the Levites: and the trumpeters sounded; their silver trumpets; these were the priests: and all this continued until the…”
The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD.
“And the number of the burnt offerings which the congregation brought were seventy bullocks, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord.”
And the consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep.
“And the consecrated things,.... Which were devoted for peace offerings, of which the owners had a part: were six hundred oxen, and three thousand sheep; which was a much lesser number than what were offered upon occasion in the times of David and Solomon, the…”
Do not be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that He made them an object of horror, as you…
“And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers,....”
They proceeded to remove the altars in Jerusalem and to take away the incense altars and throw them into the Kidron Valley.
“And they arose,.... Before they slew and ate the passover: and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem; which Ahaz had set up in every corner of Jerusalem, to offer sacrifices upon, 2Ch 28:24.”
And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
“And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah,.... Heard his prayer, and accepted of it, and granted what he desired: and healed his people; that is, forgave their sins, as Kimchi interprets it; forgiveness being expressed by healing, for which he refers to Psa 41:4 to which…”
The whole assembly agreed to observe seven more days, so they observed seven days with joy.
“And the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days,.... They consulted among themselves, and with the king and his nobles about it, who all agreed to it: and they kept other seven days with gladness; not altogether in the same manner they had…”
So there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for nothing like this had happened there since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel.
“So there was great joy in Jerusalem,.... Not merely carnal, expressed in eating and drinking, and making merry with one another, but spiritual, on account of the restoration of temple service, and the feasts of the Lord: for since the time of Solomon the son…”
In the third month they began building up the heaps, and they finished in the seventh month.
“In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps..... The month Sivan, as the Targum, in which month was the feast of Pentecost, called the feast of the harvest, Exo 23:16, for then barley harvest was ended, and wheat harvest began…”
Kore son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the East Gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings given to God, distributing the contributions to the LORD and the…
“And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the porter towards the east,.... At the east gate of the temple; see 1Ch 26:17.”
and to the priests enrolled according to their families in the genealogy, as well as to the Levites twenty years of age or older, according to their duties and divisions.
“Both to the genealogy of the priests by the house of their fathers,.... As to the priests registered according to their families from the age before observed, a portion was given: so to the Levites: from twenty years old and upward, in their charges, by…”
So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the LORD his God.
“And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah,.... Settled the courses of the priests and Levites, and made a provision for them and their families: and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord his God: or did that which was truly…”
Later, as Sennacherib king of Assyria and all his forces besieged Lachish, he sent his servants to Jerusalem with a message for King Hezekiah of Judah and all the people…
“After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem,.... Who are mentioned by name, 2Ki 18:17 this was after Hezekiah had given him a large quantity of silver and gold to depart, and he did depart from him, 2Ki 18:14 but he…”
Then the Assyrians called out loudly in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them in order to capture the city.
“Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews' speech unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall,....”
So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hands of King Sennacherib of Assyria and all the others, and He gave them rest on every side.
“Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria,....”
Then Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart—he and the people of Jerusalem—so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.
“Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,....”
He made cities for himself, and he acquired herds of sheep and cattle in abundance, for God gave him very great wealth.
“Moreover, he provided him cities,.... Where he had the above storehouses and stalls, and convenient dwellings for those that looked after them, and were over his cattle, small and great, as follows; the Vulgate Latin version reads six cities in some copies (b): and possessions…”
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.
“Manasseh was twelve years old,.... From hence to the end of 2Ch 33:9 the same things are recorded, almost word for word, as in 2Ki 21:1, see the notes there. See Gill on 2Ki 21:1.”
And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.
“And when he was in affliction,.... In prison; however, in fetters; according to the Targum, the Chaldeans made an instrument of brass with holes in it, and put him in it, and fire about it, something like the brasen bull of Perillus; and the above…”
Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.
“Nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still in the high places,.... Not in those that were built for idols, at least did not sacrifice to them; for it follows: yet unto the Lord their God only; the Targum is,"to the name of the Word of the…”
Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars. So he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
“And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars,.... On which they sacrificed, in detestation of their idolatry, and to deter from it; and this he did according to the prophecy of him, above three hundred and fifty years before: and cleansed Judah…”
Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
“Then the king sent and gathered,.... From hence, to the end of 2Ch 34:32, the same account is given of the reading of the law to the people, and of the covenant the king and they made to serve the Lord, as in 2Ki 23:1.”
And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the Israelites, and he required everyone in Israel to serve the LORD their God.
“And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel,.... All their idols, as related in 2Ki 23:4, &c.”