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
one young bull, one ram, and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering;
“One young bullock,.... Of three years old, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem: one ram; of two years old, as the same Targums: one lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering; of which see Lev 1:3.”
one male goat for a sin offering;
“One kid of the goats for a sin offering. Though these offerings of the princes were by way of thanksgiving, and to express their joy and gladness at the erection of the tabernacle, its altars, and the service thereof; yet as this might not be…”
Each silver platter weighed a hundred and thirty shekels, and each silver bowl seventy shekels.
“Each charger of silver weighing an hundred and thirty shekels, each bowl seventy,.... See Gill on Num 7:13, all the silver vessels weighed two thousand and four hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; which amounted to 1,139 ounces and four drachms (k), which…”
The twelve gold dishes filled with incense weighed ten shekels each, according to the sanctuary shekel. The total weight of the gold dishes was a hundred and twenty shekels.
“The golden spoons were twelve, full of incense,.... Which points at the use those spoons or cups were of, namely, to carry incense in them, such as were used on the day of atonement (l): weighing ten shekels apiece, after the shekel of the sanctuary…”
Then the LORD said to Moses,
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Whether immediately after the offerings of the princes, or at another time, is not certain; Aben Ezra thinks it was in the night God spake unto him, because then the lamps were lighted and burning: saying; as follows.”
You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons and then present them before the LORD as a wave offering.
“And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons,.... After atonement was made for them, as Aben Ezra observes; then they were presented to Aaron and his sons, to whom they were given to he their ministers, and assistants to them: and…”
“The Israelites are to observe the Passover at its appointed time.
“Let the children of Israel also keep the passover,.... Though this ordinance was enjoined the people of Israel, and observed by them at the time of their coming out of Egypt, and had been since repeated, Lev 23:5; yet without a fresh precept, or an…”
Sometimes the cloud remained over the tabernacle for only a few days, and they would camp at the LORD’s command and set out at the LORD’s command.
“And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle,.... Or "days of number", which were so few that they might be easily numbered: the Targum of Jonathan interprets them of the seven days of the week, as if the sense…”
“I will not go,” Hobab replied. “Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people.”
“And he said unto him, I will not go,.... Which was a very peremptory answer, he seemed determined, and at a point about it for the present, though it is, probable he afterwards changed his mind, like the young man in the parable, Mat 21:29…”
So they set out on a three-day journey from the mountain of the LORD, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD traveling ahead of them for those three…
“And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days' journey,...., From Mount Sinai, so called, because the Lord descended upon it, and gave the law from it; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,"from the mount on which the glory of the Lord…”
Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed…
“And when the people complained,.... Or "were as complainers" (p); not merely like to such, but were truly and really complainers, the כ, "caph", here being not a note of similitude, but of truth and reality, as in Hos 5:10.”
Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.
“And the manna was as coriander seed,.... Not in colour, for that is black or darkish, whereas the manna was white, as is generally observed; of which See Gill on Exo 16:31; however it might be like the coriander, because of its form and figure…”
Now a wind sent by the LORD came up, drove in quail from the sea, and brought them near the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground…
“And there went forth a wind from the Lord,.... Both an east wind and a south wind, according to Psa 78:26; either first one wind, and then another; one to bring the quails, or whatever are meant, to a certain point, and then the other…”
From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth, where they remained for some time.
“And the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth,.... After having stayed there a month or more, as is gathered from Num 11:20, and abode at Hazeroth; at least seven days, as appears from Num 12:15; which, according to Bunting (g), was eight miles from Kibrothhattaavah…”
So at the consent of the LORD, Moses sent them out from the Wilderness of Paran. All the men were leaders of the Israelites,
“And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord,.... By his power, permission, and leave, as Jarchi, that there might be no delay through his means: sent them from the wilderness of Paran; from Rithmah or Kadeshbarnea, which seem to be one and the same place…”
After forty days the men returned from spying out the land,
“And they returned from searching the land after forty days. The Targum of Jonathan adds, on the eighth day of the month Ab, which answers to part of July and part of August; so that this must be towards the latter end of July: some…”
Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
“Doubtless ye shall not come into the land,.... The land of Canaan; or "if ye shall come" (a); that is, I swear ye shall not, so the Targum of Jonathan: concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein; not them personally, but the people…”
Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
“And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years,.... Or "feed" (b), as shepherds, who go from place to place, and seek fresh pasture for their sheep; it being the custom of a shepherd, as Aben Ezra observes, not to stand or rest in…”
Then the LORD said to Moses,
“The Lord spake unto Moses,.... After the murmurings of the Israelites by reason of the spies, Num 14:2; and their being threatened with a consumption of them in the wilderness on that account, Num 14:12; and their defeat at Hormah, Num 14:45, and lest their…”
then the one presenting his offering to the LORD shall also present a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter hin of…
“Then shall he that offereth his offering unto the Lord,.... Be it of either kind before mentioned: bring a meat offering of a tenth deal of flour, mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil; this was made of the tenth part of…”
With the burnt offering or sacrifice of each lamb, you are to prepare a quarter hin of wine as a drink offering.
“And the fourth part of an hin of wine,.... The same measure with the oil, and this was wine of the grapes, as the Targum of Jonathan; other sorts of wine might not be used for the purpose mentioned: for a drink offering shalt thou…”
With a ram you are to prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of olive oil,
“Or for a ram,.... Whether for a burnt offering or a peace offering; or rather and for a ram (g), as many versions: thou shalt prepare for a meat offering two tenth deals of flour mingled with the third part of an hin of oil…”
Also present half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It is an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
“And thou shalt bring for a drink offering half an hin of wine,.... The same quantity as of oil, and a little more: for an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord: this, according to Jarchi, refers only to the meat…”
This is to be done for each bull, ram, lamb, or goat.
“Thus shall it be done for one bullock,.... Such a quantity of flour and oil for the meat offering, and such a quantity of wine for the drink offering as before expressed; making no difference between one young or old: or for a ram: which…”
Then the whole congregation of Israel and the foreigners residing among them will be forgiven, since it happened to all the people unintentionally.
“And it shall be forgiven all the congregation of the children of Israel,.... Which is repeated for the certainty of it, and for the sake of what follows: and the stranger that sojourneth among them; the proselyte of righteousness; so the blessing of pardon, through…”