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
He placed garrisons throughout Edom, and all the Edomites were subject to David. So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went.
“And he put garrisons in Edom,.... To keep the inhabitants in subjection to him; as their forts and strong holds came into his hands, he placed companies of soldiers in them for the said purpose; or governors, as the Targum, men of his own nation…”
So the king asked, “Is there anyone left of Saul’s family to whom I can show the kindness of God?”
“And the king said, is there not yet any of the house of Saul; that is, remaining or living: that I may show the kindness of God unto him?”
“Where is he?” replied the king. And Ziba said, “Indeed, he is in Lo-debar at the house of Machir son of Ammiel.”
“And the king said unto him, where is he?.... In what part of the land, city, or town, does he dwell?”
On hearing this, David sent Joab and the entire army of mighty men.
“And when David heard of it,.... Of the preparation made by the Ammonites to fight with him: he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men: he sent out Joab his general, and an army under his command, consisting of men of strength…”
When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they too fled before Abishai, and they entered the city.
“And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled,.... In whom they put great confidence: then they fled also before Abishai; without engaging at all with him, as it seems: and entered into the city; out of which they came, either Rabbah…”
When the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they regrouped.
“And when the Syrians saw that they were smitten before Israel,.... Considered it in their minds, and conversed with one another about it, and fearing what would be the consequence of it: they gathered themselves together; not only the forces got together again, that fled…”
Hadadezer sent messengers to bring more Arameans from beyond the Euphrates, and they came to Helam with Shobach the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.
“And Hadarezer sent,.... The same with Hadadezer, 2Sa 8:3, who was at the head of this confederacy, and to whom the rest of the kings of Syria were servants, 2Sa 10:19, and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the river; the river Phrat or…”
When this was reported to David, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, and went to Helam. Then the Arameans arrayed themselves against David and fought against him.
“And when it was told David,.... What preparations the Syrians were making to fight him, and where they were: he gathered all Israel together; all the fighting men in the country: and passed over Jordan, and came to Helam: which, according to Bunting (b), was…”
At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.
“And David sent to Joab,.... Who was with the army besieging Rabbah, which, according to Bunting (k), was sixty four miles from Jerusalem: saying, send me Uriah the Hittite; the scheme David had contrived in his mind was to get Uriah home to his wife…”
When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing with the war.
“And when Uriah was come unto him,.... To David, to whom he came first, before he went to his own house, desirous of knowing what was the special business of the king with him: David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people…”
So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he saw the strongest enemy soldiers.
“And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city,.... Where lay its greatest strength, and where it was best defended; or besieged it, as the Targum: that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were; who would not easily…”
The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle,
“The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. In which the wealth of men lay in those times and countries; these in the parable signify David's wives and concubines, which were many; he had six wives in Hebron, and he took more wives and…”
but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children.
“But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb,.... Uriah had but one wife, who was much younger than he, called a lamb, an ewe lamb, a little one.”
Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house,.... During his life, and as appeared in the slaughter of his sons Ammon and Absalom before his death, and of Adonijah quickly after, and in his posterity through their wars with the children of Israel…”
Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. So she gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon.
“And David comforted Bathsheba his wife,.... Which is the first time she is so called, Uriah being dead, and David having married her; which though at first displeasing to the Lord, because the circumstances attending it, was afterwards confirmed by him.”
Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,
“But Amnon had a friend,.... Though in the issue his friendship proved his ruin: whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother; so that they were own cousins, the same with Shammah, 1Sa 16:9, and Jonadab was a very subtle man; a very…”
Then David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare a meal for him.”
“Then David sent home to Tamar,.... Who perhaps was not in the king's palace, but at her brother Absalom's house, 2Sa 13:20, saying, go now to thy brother Amnon's house; who also had a separate house and equipage, being the king's son, and his eldest…”
But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.
“Howbeit, he would not hearken unto her voice,.... His lust was so inflamed and enraged, that he could not attend to any arguments, though ever so forcible, that were offered to him: but being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her; whether she…”
Instead, he called to his attendant and said, “Throw this woman out and bolt the door behind her!”
“Then he called his servants that ministered unto him,.... His domestic servants that waited on him: and said, put now this woman out from me; she not willing to depart at once, he ordered her to be put out immediately by force; using her and…”
So Amnon’s attendant threw her out and bolted the door behind her. Now Tamar was wearing a robe of many colors, because this is what the king’s virgin daughters wore.
“And she had a garment of divers colours upon her,.... Of embroidered work, which made her the more observable, and her shame the more manifest. Whether this was interwoven with threads of various colours, or embroidered with figures of flowers, animals, &c.”
And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying bitterly.
“And Tamar put ashes on her head,.... In token of sorrow and distress; see Jos 7:6, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her; signifying that her virginity was rent from her in a forcible manner, or that she was ravished: and…”
When King David heard all this, he was furious.
“But when King David heard of all these things,.... Of Amnon's ravishing Tamar, and turning her out of doors in that inhuman manner he did, and of her distress upon it: he was very wroth; with Amnon; but we read not of any reproof he…”
And he went to the king and said, “Your servant has just hired shearers. Will the king and his servants please come with me?”
“And Absalom came to the king,.... At Jerusalem, to invite him in person: and said, behold now, thy servant hath sheepshearers; persons employed in shearing his sheep: and this being a time of entertainment and joy: let the king, I beseech thee, and his servants…”
So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had ordered. Then all the other sons of the king got up, and each one fled on his mule.
“And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded,.... They smote him, and killed him, when he gave the word: then all the king's sons arose; from the feast, imagining they were all designed to be slain: and every man gat him…”
So now, my lord the king, do not take to heart the report that all the sons of the king are dead. Only Amnon is dead.”
“Now therefore let not my lord the king take the thing to his heart,.... Neither suppose it, nor be troubled for it: to think that all the king's sons are dead: which was not to be thought, nor could any good reason be given for…”