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
And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.
“And they shall know that I am the Lord,.... As in Eze 6:7; and that I have not said in vain; either within himself, in his own purposes and decrees; so the Targum, "I have not in vain decreed in my word;'' or by the…”
I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah.
“So will I stretch out mine hand upon them,.... Not unto them, in a way of mercy; but upon, or against them, in a way of judgment.”
“O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
“Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel,.... The inhabitants of it; not the ten tribes, who were already carried captive; but the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and those that were with them, who dwelt in…”
I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you.
“And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity,.... Though the punishment will be heavy, and the lamentation will be great; see Eze 5:11; but I will recompense thy ways upon thee; the evil of punishment for the evil of sin, the…”
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming!
“Thus saith the Lord God,.... Here should be a stop, a colon, requiring attention to what follows, it being something awful and terrible: an evil, an only evil, behold, it cometh; meaning the destruction of the city and temple; which, though but one, was such…”
Every hand will go limp, and every knee will turn to water.
“All hands shall be feeble,.... No strength in them, to lay hold on weapons of war to defend themselves, or fight the enemy; no heart nor courage in them, to go forth and meet him; and even afraid to lift up their voice in mourning…”
Anguish is coming! They will seek peace, but find none.
“Destruction cometh,.... Upon the temple, city, nation, and people; the king of Babylon, the destroyer of the Gentiles, and now of the Jews, being on his way, Jer 4:7; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none; that is, the Jews will seek…”
In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the…
“And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month,....”
Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.
“And he brought me to the door of the court,.... Of the inner court, the court of the priests and Levites. Dr.”
Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”
“He said also unto me, turn thee yet again,.... Towards the north, as before; See Gill on Eze 8:6; and thou shall see greater abominations that they do; or: "the great abominations"; for so the words may be strictly rendered; nor does it appear that…”
Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.
“Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was towards the north,....”
“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”
“Then said he unto me, hast thou seen this, O son of man?.... This shocking piece of idolatry, women weeping for Tammuz: turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these; or, "great abominations besides these" (f).”
Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them.
“Therefore will I also deal in fury,.... Being provoked by such abominable idolatries, and such horrid insolence, and most contemptuous treatment: mine eye shall not spare: neither will I have pity: see Eze 5:11; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice…”
And I saw six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a weapon of slaughter in his hand.
“And, behold, six men,.... Either angels the form of men; or the generals of Nebuchadnezzar's army, as Kimchi interprets it; whose names are, Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, Jer 39:3; these six executioners of God's vengeance are, in the Talmud (n), called "wrath, anger…”
Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple.
“And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was,.... That is, the glorious God of Israel; or the glorious Shechinah, and divine Majesty, which dwelt between the cherubim over the mercy seat in the most holy place…”
And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone!
“And, to the others he said in mine hearing,.... To the other six men that had the slaughter weapons in their hands: go ye after him through the city; that is, after the man clothed with linen; for he was sent out first to take…”
Slaughter the old men, the young men and maidens, the women and children; but do not go near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.”
“Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women,.... All, of them objects of compassion, because of their age and sex; and yet none to be spared; and which orders were exactly obeyed; see 2Ch 36:17; but come not near any man…”
But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”
“And as for me also,.... As they have not spared the poor and the needy, the widow and the fatherless, but have perverted their judgment, and shed innocent blood: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompence their way…”
Each had four faces and four wings, with what looked like human hands under their wings.
“Every one had four faces apiece,.... Every one of the four living creatures, or cherubim, had four faces; which were the face of a man, of a lion, of an ox, and of an eagle, Eze 1:10; and everyone four wings: the Septuagint version reads…”
You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you, declares the Lord GOD.
“Ye have feared the sword,.... Of the Chaldeans; and therefore they sent to the Egyptians for help.”
I will bring you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and I will execute judgments against you.
“And I will bring you out of the midst thereof,.... Jerusalem, the cauldron, as they said it was, and where they thought they should be safe; this is repeated, to express the certainty of it, and to excite their attention to it, and remove their…”
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,.... In answer to his prayer. The Targum calls it, "the word of prophecy from the Lord;'' this was by way of comfort to the captives in Babylon, as the former was by way of threatening…”
“Son of man, your brothers—your relatives, your fellow exiles, and the whole house of Israel—are those of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, ‘They are far away from the…
“Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred,.... Or, "of thy redemption" (l); to whom the right of redemption of his lands and possessions belonged, as it did to those that were next akin.”
Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
“Then did the cherubim lift up their wings,.... In order to remove, as in Eze 10:19; and the wheels beside them; which were lifted up also along with the cherubim: and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above; both cherubim and…”
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“The word of the Lord came unto me, saying. The word of prophecy, as the Targum; the vision of the cherubim being over, this, very likely, immediately followed upon the former; though the exact time of the prophecy cannot be fixed, because the date is…”