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…
Undated in the archive this site cites.
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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
“Go in peace,” said Elisha. But after Naaman had traveled a short distance,
“And he said unto him,.... That is, the prophet said to Naaman: go in peace: in peace of mind; be assured that God has pardoned this and all other transgressions: so he departed from him a little way; about a mile, as the Targum, and…”
So Gehazi pursued Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?”
“So Gehazi followed after Naaman,.... As fast as he could: and when Naaman saw him running after him; which he might observe, looking back, or be informed of by some of his servants: he lighted down from the chariot to meet him; in honour to…”
But Elisha questioned him, “Did not my spirit go with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you?
“And he said unto him, went not mine heart with thee?.... Did my heart or knowledge go from me, that what thou hast done should be hid from me?”
Then the man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Be careful passing by this place, for the Arameans are going down there.”
“And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel,.... That is, Elisha sent to him: saying: beware that thou pass not such a place: not go to it, but avoid it, and pass another way: for thither the Syrians are come down: are…”
So the king said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send men to capture him.” On receiving the report, “Elisha is in Dothan,”
“And he said, go, and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him,.... But how could he expect to take him, who could give the king of Israel such intelligence of his designs against him, that he might escape his snares?”
So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’
“So we boiled my son, and did eat him,.... Thus what was predicted, by way of threatening, began to be accomplished, Deu 28:53; see Gill on Deu 28:53, and of which there were other instances of a like kind at the siege of Jerusalem, both…”
It happened just as the man of God had told the king: “About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel…
“And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying,.... As in 2Ki 7:1, and what he said to the king there, and to the lord, in 2Ki 7:2, are repeated in this and the next verse, that it…”
So Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him a gift of forty camel loads of every good thing from Damascus.
“So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him,.... As was usual when a prophet or seer was consulted, see 1Sa 9:7.”
Yet for the sake of His servant David, the LORD was unwilling to destroy Judah, since He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
“Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake,.... Not for his merits, but for the mercy he assured him of: as he promised him to give to him always a light, and to his children; or a kingdom, as the Targum…”
In the days of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against the hand of Judah and appointed their own king.
“In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah,.... Who had been tributary to Judah ever since the times of David, for the space of one hundred and fifty years: and made a king over themselves; for though they are said to have…”
As for the rest of the acts of Jehoram, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
“And the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”
And Jehoram rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. And his son Ahaziah reigned in his place.
“And Joram slept with his fathers,.... Died as they did: and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; but not in the sepulchres of the kings, and without any funeral pomp, and without any mourning and lamentation for him, he being not…”
In the twelfth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab over Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.
“In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. He is called Jehoahaz, and said to be the youngest son of Jehoram, 2Ch 21:17.”
And Ahaziah walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for he was a son-in-law…
“And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab,....”
Then Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.
“And he went with Joram the son of Ahab,.... His mother's brother, and so his uncle: to the war against Hazael king of Syria in Ramothgilead; which he went to recover out of the hands of the king of Syria, as his father Ahab had…”
So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram.
“From Ramoth, having taken it, and left his army there: to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah; the same with Ramothgilead: when he fought against Hazael king of Syria; for Benhadad being dead, he was now…”
Now Elisha the prophet summoned one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, “Tuck your cloak under your belt, take this flask of oil, and go to…
“And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets,.... Who the Jews generally say (k) was Jonah the son of Amittai: and said, gird up thy loins; his loose and long garments about his loins, for quicker dispatch in travelling: and take…”
So Jehu got up and went into the house, where the young prophet poured the oil on his head and declared, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel…
“And he arose, and went into the house,.... Into the inner chamber in it: and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, even…”
Then Jehu got into his chariot and went to Jezreel, because Joram was laid up there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him.
“So Jehu rode in a chariot,.... In great pomp and majesty as a king: and went to Jezreel: set forward on a march thither with his captains, and part of his army at least, from Ramothgilead; which, according to Bunting (n), was twenty four miles…”
Joram turned around and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!”
“And Joram turned his hand, and fled,.... Taking hold of the horses' reins with it to turn them, or by the motion of it directing the charioteer to turn them back towards Jezreel, whither he fled: and said to Ahaziah, there is treachery, O Ahaziah…”
Then his servants carried him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his fathers in his tomb in the City of David.
“And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem,.... With the leave of Jehu, because he was the grandson of Jehoshaphat, a sincere worshipper of God, 2Ch 22:9, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David; see 1Ki…”
And as Jehu entered the gate, she asked, “Have you come in peace, O Zimri, murderer of your master?”
“And as Jehu entered in at the gate,.... Either of the city of Jezreel, or of the king's palace: she said, had Zimri peace, who slew his master?”
But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.
“And they went to bury her,.... The servants of Jehu, according to his orders and instructions: but they found no more of her than the scull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands; the flesh, and even all the rest of her bones…”
And when the letter arrived, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered all seventy of them.
“And it came to pass, when the letter came to them,.... They did not in the least hesitate, but immediately complied with the contents of it: that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons; which was the whole number of them: and put…”
Then Jehu set out toward Samaria. At Beth-eked of the Shepherds,
“To make a clear riddance there of all that belonged to Ahab, as at Jezreel, and abolish idolatry there: and as he was at the shearing house in the way; or, "the house of the binding of the shepherds", who, in shearing their sheep, bind…”