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
Concerning Edom, this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed?
“Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts,.... Or, "unto Edom" (i), thus saith the Lord; or, "against Edom" (k); all which is true, as observed on Jer 49:1; meaning the Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, who was called Edom.”
The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit.
“Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart,.... Some render it, "thine idol" (o); see 1Ki 15:13; which, being terrible to them, they thought it might be so to others, and protect them.”
“Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.
“Also Edom shall be a desolation,.... Not only Bozrah, its principal city, before spoken of, but the whole country of Idumea should be laid waste; its fortified cities destroyed; its riches plundered; and its inhabitants slain with the sword; or carried captive: everyone that goeth…”
As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.
“As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah,.... Which was so sudden and general, that nothing was left, or any spared; so should it be with Edom: and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord; the cities that were in the plain, Admah and Zeboim…”
How is the city of praise not forsaken, the town that brings Me joy?
“How is the city of praise not left,.... The city of Damascus, famous for its antiquity, its wealth and riches, strength and power; and with the Heathens for its devotion and superstition.”
“I will set fire to the walls of Damascus; it will consume the fortresses of Ben-hadad.”
“And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,.... Signifying either that, a breach being made there the destruction of the city should begin, and be carried on until it was completed; or it may be understood literally, that first the houses built…”
Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated, this is what the LORD says: “Rise up, advance against Kedar, and destroy the people of the…
“Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor,.... A new prophecy concerning the Arabians; for Kedar was a son of Ishmael, Gen 25:13; whose posterity inhabited Arabia Petraea.”
“Hazor will become a haunt for jackals, a desolation forever. No one will dwell there; no man will abide there.”
“And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever,.... The city of Hazor, as well as the kingdoms of it; the royal city, where their king and principal men dwelt; even this should be no more inhabited by men, but by…”
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Behold, I will shatter Elam’s bow, the mainstay of their might.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I will break the bow of Elam,.... The inhabitants of this country were famous for their skill in archery; See Gill on Isa 22:6; this the Lord threatens to break, so that it, should be useless, and of no…”
I will bring the four winds against Elam from the four corners of the heavens, and I will scatter them to all these winds.
“And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,.... The Targum interprets it the four kingdoms; see Dan 7:”
I will set My throne in Elam, and destroy its king and officials,” declares the LORD.
“And I will set my throne in Elam,.... Either when Alexander subdued it, or Cyrus, or rather Nebuchadnezzar, whose palace probably was, as it is certain his successors was, in Shushan in Elam, as before observed from Dan 8:”
For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land a desolation. No one will live in it; both man and beast will flee.”
“For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her,.... The Medes and Persians, which under Cyrus were one nation; and which not only lay north of Judea, where this prophecy came, but of Babylon, against which they were to come; and might…”
Chaldea will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD.
“And Chaldea shall be a spoil,.... The land of the Chaldeans, as the Targum, should become a spoil to the enemy, and be plundered of all its riches and treasures; not only Babylon principally, but the whole country it was the metropolis of: all that…”
“Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,
“Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage,.... This is addressed to the Chaldeans who destroyed Jerusalem and the land of Judea, once the heritage of the Lord; when they rejoiced at the destruction of God's people, and insulted them…”
Because of the wrath of the LORD, she will not be inhabited; she will become completely desolate.
“Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited,.... That is, Babylon; which the Targum expresses, "because thou, Babylon, hast provoked the Lord;'' by their idolatry, luxury, ill usage of his people, and profanation of the vessels of the sanctuary; therefore it…”
Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down.
“Shout against her round about,.... As soldiers do when they make an assault upon a place, to encourage one another, and dismay the besieged; just as the Israelites did when they surrounded Jericho: she hath given her hand; submitted to the conqueror, and sued for…”
Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time.
“Cut off the sower from in Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest,.... Both sower and reaper: the walls of Babylon took in a large compass of land, where there were corn fields; and which, as Curtius (s) observes, would…”
I will return Israel to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
“And I will bring Israel again to his habitation,.... Or "fold" (u), or place of pasturage; for the metaphor of sheep is still continued.”
Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares the LORD.
“Go up against the land of Merathaim,.... Thought to be the country of the Mardi, which lay part of it in Assyria, and part of it in Armenia; expressed in the dual number, because one part of it lay on one side the Tigris, and…”
“The noise of battle is in the land—the noise of great destruction.
“A sound of battle is in the land,.... In the land of the Chaldeans, as it is expressed in the Septuagint and Arabic versions; the noise of warriors, the clashing of arms, and sound of trumpets, both of the enemy entered into the land, and…”
How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!
“How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken!.... The Targum is, "how is the king cut down and broken that moved the whole earth!''”
The LORD has opened His armory and brought out His weapons of wrath, for this is the work of the Lord GOD of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
“The Lord hath opened his armoury,.... Alluding to the manner of kings, who have some particular edifice built for an armoury; see Son 4:4; wherein are provided and laid up all sorts of armour, small and great, which are fetched out from thence, in time…”
Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape.
“Call together the archers against Babylon,.... The Medes and Persians, who were well skilled in archery, especially the Elamites; see Isa 22:6; hence Horace (d) makes mention of "Medi pharetra"; and Cyrus in Xenophon (e) says, that he had under his command sixty thousand men…”
Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD.
“Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets,.... Or "surely" (f); it is the form of an oath, according to Jarchi Cyrus, when he took Babylon, ordered proclamation to be made that the inhabitants should keep within doors; and that whoever were found in…”
The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.”
“And the most proud shall stumble and fall,.... Or "pride", as before; "the man of pride", who is so proud that he may be called pride itself.”