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
You have delivered me from the strife of the people; You have made me the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.
“Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people,.... In 2Sa 22:44, it is read "my people", meaning the people of Israel; either Saul and his men, who contended with David, and sought his life; or rather the tribes of Israel, who, after Saul's…”
Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their strongholds.
“The strangers shall fade away,.... Like the leaves of trees in autumn, when they fall and perish; to which hypocrites and nominal professors are compared, Jud 1:12; and be afraid out of their close places; their towers and fortified places, or the rocks and mountains…”
The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple.
“The law of the Lord is perfect,.... By which is meant, not the law of Moses, or the ten commandments, but the "doctrine" of the Lord; as the word תורה, "torah", signifies, even the whole word of God, as in Isa 8:”
The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
“The statutes of the Lord are right,.... The word of God may be called "statutes", or "visitations" (d) because that God will visit, in a way of resentment, such persons as despise its authority, do not act according to it, or add unto it, or…”
May He remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. Selah
“Remember all thy offerings,.... The spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise which Christ, as the great High Priest, offers up for his people; or which they offer by him, and are acceptable to God through him, by virtue of the incense of his mediation; or…”
May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
“Grant thee according to thine own heart,.... Which is to see his seed, the travail of his soul, and to have the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand; to have all his people called, preserved, and glorified; and fulfil all thy counsel; whatever…”
Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.
“Now know I that the Lord saveth his Anointed,.... Not David, though he was the anointed of the God of Jacob, and was anointed with material oil to be king of Israel by Samuel, at the express order of God himself; but David is not…”
You have granted his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
“Thou hast given him his heart's desire,.... Which the church had prayed for in Psa 20:4; whatever Christ's heart desired, or his lips requested, has been given him; and hast not withholden the request of his lips.”
For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.
“Therefore shall thou make them turn their back,.... Or flee and run away to private places, to hide themselves from the wrath of God and of the Lamb, though to no purpose; or "make them turn behind thy back": God will turn his back upon…”
They cried out to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disappointed.
“They cried unto thee, and were delivered,.... As the Israelites did in Egyptian bondage, and as they in later times did when in distress; see Exo 2:23; &c.”
They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
“They part my garments among them,.... Such as died the death of the cross were crucified naked (h), and their clothes were the perquisites of the executioners; there were four soldiers concerned in the crucifixion of Christ, and these parted his garments into four parts…”
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
“The Lord is my shepherd,.... This is to be understood not of Jehovah the Father, and of his feeding the people of Israel in the wilderness, as the Targum paraphrases it, though the character of a shepherd is sometimes given to him, Psa 77:20; but…”
The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein.
“The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof,.... The whole universe, all the terraqueous globe, both land and water, and the circumambient air, and all that is therein; the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, all…”
For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
“For he hath founded it upon the seas,.... Or "with" them, as some interpret (e) the particle על; he hath founded the earth and seas together, and both upon nothing; and yet are stable and firm; or "by the seas" (f), near unto them, at…”
Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
“Who is this King of glory?.... Which question is put by the church, or particular believers; not through ignorance, as the daughters of Jerusalem, Son 5:9; or the Pharisees, when Christ made his public entrance into Jerusalem, Mat 21:10; much less in pride and haughtiness…”
Who is He, this King of Glory? The LORD of Hosts— He is the King of Glory. Selah
“Who is this King of glory?.... This is repeated, because of the preceding words, and in order to have a further account of his glorious Person, as follows: the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory; he who is the Lord of sabaoth…”
Consider my enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with vicious hatred.
“Consider mine enemies,.... Or "look" (m) upon them; but with another kind of look; so as he looked through the pillar of fire upon the Egyptians, and troubled them, Exo 14:24; with a look of wrath and vengeance.”
Guard my soul and deliver me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in You.
“O keep my soul,.... Or "life" (n), which was in danger, his enemies seeking for it; wherefore he applies to God that gave it, and who had hitherto held him in it, to preserve it.”
I hate the mob of evildoers, and refuse to sit with the wicked.
“I have hated the congregation of evildoers,.... That do harm to the persons, characters, or properties of men; and who meet together in bodies, to consult and form schemes to do mischief, and have their assemblies to encourage each other in it; these, their works…”
in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes.
“In whose hands is mischief,.... Every abominable wickedness; as idolatry, adultery, murder, &c. the word signifies and is sometimes used for mischief conceived in the mind, artificially devised and contrived there; here mischief committed, the hand being the instrument of action, and intends whatever is…”
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
“He maketh them also to skip like a calf,.... That is, the cedars, the branches being broken off, or they torn up by the roots, and tossed about by the wind; which motion is compared to that of a calf that leaps and skips about…”
The voice of the LORD strikes with flames of fire.
“The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. Or "cutteth with flames of fire" (e); that is, the thunder breaks through the clouds with flames of fire, or lightning, as that is sometimes called, Psa 105:32; and with which it cleaves asunder trees…”
The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”
“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve,.... Which being timorous creatures, the bringing forth of their young, which is naturally very painful and difficult, is lessened and facilitated by thunder; they being either so frightened with it that they feel not their…”
“What gain is there in my bloodshed, in my descent to the Pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?
“What profit is there in my blood?.... Should that be shed, and he die by the hands of his enemies, through divine permission: death is not profitable to a man's self by way of merit; it does not atone for sin, satisfy justice, and merit…”
Be strong and courageous, all you who hope in the LORD.
“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart,.... See Gill on Psa 27:14; by this instance of God's wonderful kindness to the psalmist, he would have the saints take heart, and be of good cheer, even in the greatest distresses, since their case…”