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
Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).
“Nevertheless, David took the strong hold of Zion,.... A fortress without the city, and separate from it, and which was very strong; and the taking it might facilitate the taking of the city, which yet as appears by what follows, was very difficult to do…”
And David became greater and greater, for the LORD God of Hosts was with him.
“And David went on, and grew great,.... In honour and wealth, in fame and reputation, in subduing his enemies, obtaining conquests over them, and enlarging his dominions: and the Lord God of hosts, of armies above and below: was with him: to whom all his…”
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David.
“And Hiram king of Tyre,.... This was father of that Hiram that lived in the times of Solomon, whose name was Abibalus before he took the name of Hiram, which became a common name of the kings of Tyre; his former name may be seen…”
After he had arrived from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.
“And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron,....”
These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
“And these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem,.... The names of his sons, for his daughters are not mentioned, and these seem to be such only that were born of his wives, see 1Ch 3:9, Shammua, and Shobab, and…”
Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
“And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet. Seven more by some other wife or wives; nine are mentioned in 1Ch 3:6; there being in that account two Eliphalets, and another called Nogah; which two, one of the Eliphalets, and Nogah, might die without sons, as Kimchi…”
Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.
“The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. Or "of the giants", as Jos 15:8; which lay to the west of Jerusalem; of which; see Gill on Jos 15:8; the Philistines spreading themselves in it, shows that they were very numerous.”
Once again the Philistines came up and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.
“And the Philistines came up yet again,.... And, as Josephus says (z), with an army three times larger than the former: and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim; in the same place where they were before, 2Sa 5:20. (z) Antiqu. l. 7. c. 4.”
As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because this will mean that the LORD has marched out before you…
“And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees,....”
When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen had stumbled.
“And when they came to Nachon's threshingfloor,.... Who is called Chidon, 1Ch 13:9; he seems to have had two names; or it was a place that had two names, as say the Jews (h); according to a tradition of theirs (i), Chidon is the name…”
When David had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of Hosts.
“And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,.... Or these were performed according to his order: he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts; not as a priest, but as a prince, as…”
And Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
“Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child until the day of her death. The children she brought up for Adriel were not her own, but adopted ones, or Adriel's by another woman, 2Sa 21:8; however, she had none after this time, whatever she…”
After the king had settled into his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him,
“And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house,.... Which Hiram's servants had built for him, having no occasion to go out to war: and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies; both at home and abroad…”
he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”
“That the king said unto Nathan the prophet,.... This is the first time this prophet is made mention of, but often afterwards, yet who he was, and from whence he came, is not known; he appears to be a man of great piety and prudence…”
But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying,
“And it came to pass that night,.... The same night following the day in which David and Nathan had had the above conversation, that neither of them might continue long in their error and mistake, and especially lest David, in his great zeal and warm…”
For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt until this day, but I have moved about with a tent…
“Whereas I have not dwelt in any house,.... Fixed, stated, habitation: since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day; a space of five or six hundred years, though he might before: but have walked in…”
I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the…
“I will be his father, and he shall be my son,.... That is, I will be as kind unto him, and careful of him, as a father of a son; or he shall be, and appear to be my son, by adopting grace, as no…”
So Nathan relayed to David all the words of this entire vision.
“According to all these words, and according to all this vision,.... All the words of this prophecy, just as they were delivered to Nathan, were exactly expressed by him; he did not vary from them in the least, but with the greatest faithfulness related them…”
Then King David went in, sat before the LORD, and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?
“Then went King David in,.... Into the tabernacle where the ark was, which he had prepared for it, 2Sa 6:17, and sat before the Lord; before the ark, the symbol of his presence, and prayed, and gave thanks, as follows: from whence it appears that…”
And who is like Your people Israel—the one nation on earth whom God went out to redeem as a people for Himself and to make a name for Himself?
“And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel,.... For the knowledge and worship of the true God among them, for laws and or given them, and for blessings of goodness bestowed upon them: whom God went to redeem for…”
For You have established Your people Israel as Your very own forever, and You, O LORD, have become their God.
“For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever,.... So long as they were obedient to him, and observed his laws and statutes, and abode by his worship and ordinances, otherwise he would write a "loammi" on…”
And now, O Lord GOD, You are God! Your words are true, and You have promised this goodness to Your servant.
“And now, O Lord God, thou art that God,.... Who is the Lord of hosts, and the God of Israel, that has promised and is able to perform, and is faithful to his promise: and thy words be true; are truly, punctually, and faithfully performed…”
Then he placed garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to David and brought him tribute. So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went.
“Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus,.... Which was Coele-Syria, and lay between Libanus and Antilibanus, the chief city of which was Damascus; which Curtius (q) calls Damascus of Syria, being the head of it, Isa 7:8; in the principal places of which he…”
And David took the gold shields that belonged to the officers of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.
“And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer,.... That were found with them, which they had in their hands; these must be supposed to be with the principal officers of his army; or golden chains, as Aquila, or golden…”
and King David dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold he had dedicated from all the nations he had subdued—
“Which also King David did dedicate unto the Lord,.... He devoted it to sacred uses, particularly to the building of the house of the Lord, as he also had the gold and the brass he took from Hadadezer: together with the silver and the gold…”