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
I have given you every place where the sole of your foot will tread, just as I promised to Moses.
“Every place that the sole of your feet shall tread upon,.... That is, in the land of Canaan: that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses: See Gill on Deu 11:24; though the Jews extend this to all without the land subdued…”
Be strong and courageous, for you shall give these people the inheritance of the land that I swore to their fathers I would give them.
“Be strong, and of good courage,.... The same exhortation Moses gave him, Deu 31:7; and is afterwards repeated in this chapter, as being of great moment and importance, as it is in the general of an army to show greatness and strength of mind, valour…”
Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof
“And before they were laid down,.... Under the stalks of the flax; or rather, since they are said to be hid in them, before they were fallen asleep, so Kimchi and Abarbinel: she came up unto them upon the roof; to acquaint them how things…”
Early the next morning Joshua got up and left Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.
“And Joshua rose early in the morning,.... The morning after the spies had returned and made their report; which, as Kimchi rightly observes, was the ninth of Nisan; for on the morrow, which was the tenth, the people passed over Jordan, see Jos 3:”
Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.
“Now therefore take ye twelve men,.... For what end and purpose is not mentioned.”
The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground…
“And the priests that bare the ark of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan,.... Which for its breadth Mr.”
to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’
“That this may be a sign among you,.... A commemorative one: that when your children ask their fathers in time to come; or "tomorrow" (g) and so in all time, or any time hereafter: saying, what mean you by these stones?”
About 40,000 troops armed for battle crossed over before the LORD into the plains of Jericho.
“About forty thousand prepared for war,.... Accoutred with proper armour to defend themselves, and their brethren, and annoy their enemies: this is to be understood of such a number of the above mentioned tribes; otherwise the number of all Israel that went over Jordan, even…”
“Command the priests who carry the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.”
“Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony,.... In all places before, in this history, the ark is called the ark of the covenant, here the ark of the testimony, which signifies the same thing, the law; which was both the covenant between…”
On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.
“And the people came up out of Jordan,.... The channel of it, to the shore: on the tenth day of the first month; the month Nisan or Abib, which from the time of Israel's coming out of Egypt was appointed the first month of the…”
So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said, “Take up the ark of the covenant and have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark…
“And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests,.... Not the Levites and Kohathites, whose business it was in common to bear the ark, but upon this occasion the priests; not all of them, but as many as were sufficient for the purpose: and said…”
And he told the people, “Advance and march around the city, with the armed troops going ahead of the ark of the LORD.”
“And he said unto the people, pass on, and compass the city,.... The women and children, the young men under twenty years of age, the unarmed part of the camp, as distinguished from the armed men: and let him that is armed pass on before…”
And the seven priests carrying seven rams’ horns kept marching ahead of the ark of the LORD and blowing the horns.
“And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord,.... See Gill on Jos 6:4, went on continually; or, "going they went" (b): kept on going, making no stop at all, until they had compassed the city: and blew with…”
Then on the seventh day, they got up at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same manner.
“And it came to pass on the seventh day,.... Which Jarchi says was the Sabbath day, and which is a common notion of the Jews (c); but whether it was or not, it is certain that one of these seven days must be a sabbath…”
At the edge of the sword they devoted to destruction everything in the city—man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.
“And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city,.... All the inhabitants of it, by the direction of Joshua, and according to the order of the Lord, Deu 7:1; being guilty of capital crimes, which deserved death, as idolatry, incest, &c.”
So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers, and all who belonged to her.
“And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab,.... Not only went into the city, but into Rahab's house, which they knew again by the scarlet thread hung out at the window of it.”
But the LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! Why have you fallen on your face?
“And the Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up,.... From the ground where he lay prostrate, with his face to it: this he said, not as refusing his supplication to him, but rather as encouraging and strengthening him; though chiefly he said this in order…”
So Joshua arose early the next morning and had Israel come forward tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was selected.
“So Joshua rose up early in the morning,.... Which showed his readiness and diligence to obey the command of God; and as there was much work to do, it required that he should rise early: and brought Israel by their tribes: before the Lord, at…”
He had the clans of Judah come forward, and the clan of the Zerahites was selected.
“And he brought the family of Judah,.... That is, the tribe of Judah, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, (z); or rather, the several families in that tribe, even the heads of them: and he took the family of the Zarhites: which descended from…”
And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves.
“And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst to Jericho and her king,.... Burn the one and slay the other: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves; which they were not allowed…”
Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.
“And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them,.... Or smitten, as some of them might be in the pursuit: and fled by the way of the wilderness; not a barren desert, but, according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, a place…”
When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and struck down the men…
“And when Joshua,.... Or "for Joshua" (z): and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city; which they knew by the smoke, as follows: and that the smoke of the city ascended; in large columns, which sufficiently indicated that the whole city was…”
A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.
“And so it was, that all that fell that day,.... Partly in the city, and partly in the field, both by the ambush and the army: both of men and women: were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai; so that the city was…”
Joshua did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction all who lived in Ai.
“For Joshua drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out his spear,.... But continued it, and that stretched out: until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai; just as the hand of Moses was held up, and kept held up until Amalek…”
just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites.
“As Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses,....”