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.
The rest of the quotation
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
The LORD is mindful of us; He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron;
“The Lord hath been mindful of us,.... The Targum is, "the Word of the Lord hath remembered us for good.''”
He will bless those who fear the LORD— small and great alike.
“He will bless them that fear the Lord,.... They shall want no good thing now, and have much goodness laid up for them to be enjoyed hereafter; the sun of righteousness rises upon them, and a book of remembrance is written on their account; the…”
May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.
“The Lord shall increase you more and more,.... The Word of the Lord, as the Targum, shall do it; in a temporal sense, with a numerous posterity, with riches, wealth, and honour; and in a spiritual sense, with an addition of spiritual blessings; with renewed…”
May you be blessed by the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
“You are blessed of the Lord,.... The Arabic version reads it, "we are blessed"; with temporal and with spiritual blessings; being the beloved of the Lord, chosen of him; whose sins are pardoned, whose persons are justified by the righteousness of Christ; who are put…”
It is not the dead who praise the LORD, nor any who descend into silence.
“The dead praise not the Lord,.... Not the dead in sin; such as the makers of idols, and those that trust in them, who are like unto them; men must be made spiritually alive, ere they can show forth the praises of God: nor the…”
The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
“The sorrows of death compassed me,.... Christ, of whom David was a type, was a man of sorrows all his days; and in the garden he was surrounded with sorrow; exceeding sorrowful even unto death, in a view of the sins of his people imputed…”
Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, deliver my soul!”
“Then called I upon the name of the Lord,.... Upon the Lord himself in prayer for speedy deliverance; or "in the name of the Lord" (h), in the name of the Messiah, the only Mediator between God and man; "saying", as follows, and which word…”
The LORD preserves the simplehearted; I was helpless, and He saved me.
“The Lord preserveth the simple,.... Such as have but a small degree of understanding, either in things natural or spiritual, in comparison of others; babes, as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render it, so in the Talmud (i); see Mat 11:”
I believed, therefore I said, “I am greatly afflicted.”
“I believed, therefore have I spoken,.... Here the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, begin a new psalm, but without any foundation in the original; nor is it countenanced by the Targum; and is manifestly against the connection with the preceding verses.”
I will offer to You a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.
“I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving,.... For deliverance from afflictions and death; for loosing his bonds, in every sense; for all mercies, temporal and spiritual; see Rom 6:17; Such sacrifices are according to the will of God; are well pleasing to him…”
I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people,
“I will pay my vows unto the Lord,.... See Gill on Psa 116:14. And the Targum here, as there, paraphrases the latter clause, now in the presence of all his people, thus; "I will then declare his signs (or wonders) to all his people;'' the…”
in the courts of the LORD’s house, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
“In the courts of the Lord's house,.... This is added by way of explanation of Psa 116:18, what he meant by "the presence of all his people"; the assembly of the saints met together in the house of the Lord, at the door of the…”
Let the house of Aaron say, “His loving devotion endures forever.”
“Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever. The priests and Levites that blessed the people, and taught them the knowledge of divine things; but not these literally, at least not only these, since the priesthood of Aaron is changed…”
Let those who fear the LORD say, “His loving devotion endures forever.”
“Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever. Not the proselytes to the Jewish religion only, but all that feared the Lord among all people, as Aben Ezra observes; such as fear the Lord and his goodness, and have…”
In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free.
“I called upon the Lord in distress,.... Or "out of that strait" (q); when David was encompassed by Saul and his men, or when at the court of Achish, or when his own people talked of stoning him.”
The LORD is on my side; He is my helper. Therefore I will look in triumph on those who hate me.
“The Lord taketh my part with them that help me,.... With the four hundred men that were with David, and stood by him in his troubles, 1Sa 22:2; see Psa 54:4; and with those who ministered unto Christ as man, Luk 8:”
It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.
“It is better to trust in the Lord,.... The Targum is, "in the Word of the Lord.'' This is repeated for the sake of what follows: than to put confidence in princes; who have greater ability to help, and whose honour should engage them to…”
All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
“All nations compassed me about,.... Not all the nations of the world, but all the neighbouring nations about Judea; as the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Amalekites, and Syrians; and these not all at one time, but sometimes one, and sometimes another, whom David fought with and…”
They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
“They compassed me about like bees,.... In great numbers (w); as a swarm of bees, which, being irritated and provoked, will fly upon persons in a body, and with great fury; to which the Amorites and the Assyrian army were compared, Deu 1:44.”
I was pushed so hard I was falling, but the LORD helped me.
“Thou hast thrust sore at me, that I might fall,.... Or "pushing, thou hast pushed me (a), that I might fall": an apostrophe to some particular enemy, as Saul was to David; who thrust sore at him to take away his life, by casting a…”
Shouts of joy and salvation resound in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!
“The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous,.... In all the dwellings of good men, throughout the land of Israel, was heard nothing but the voice of joy, on account of David's accession to the throne; the deliverance of him…”
The right hand of the LORD is exalted! The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!”
“The right hand of the Lord is exalted,.... Lifted up, very eminent and conspicuous, easily to be observed in the instances before given, and become great and glorious in power; see Exo 15:6.”
I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done.
“I shall not die, but live,.... Not that he should never die, David knew he should; but that his present afflictions would not issue in death; or he should not die by the hands of his enemies, he sometimes feared he should; but now believed…”
The LORD disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.
“The Lord hath chastened me sore,.... Or, "in chastening hath chastened me" (d). David was exercised with many afflictions; and though these were sore ones to the flesh, yet they were only the chastenings of a Father, and were all in love and for his…”
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter and give thanks to the LORD.
“Open to me the gates of righteousness,.... The doors of the sanctuary or tabernacle, so called, because none but righteous persons might enter in at them, or who were clean in a ceremonial sense; and because sacrifices of righteousness were here offered.”