Instability

How Nave’s arranged it

• General scriptures concerningGenesis 49:3Genesis 49:4Exodus 8:15Exodus 8:32Exodus 9:34Exodus 10:8–11Exodus 10:16–20Exodus 14:5Exodus 32:8–10Exodus 19:8Exodus 24:3Exodus 24:7Judges 2:171 Kings 18:21Psalms 106:12Psalms 106:13Proverbs 24:21Proverbs 24:22Proverbs 27:8Jeremiah 2:36
• See Backsliding
• See Hypocrisy
• See Indecision
• INSTANCES OF
• ReubenGenesis 49:4
• Saul, in his feelings toward David1 Samuel 18:19
• David, in yielding to lust2 Samuel 11:2–9
• Solomon, in yielding to his idolatrous wives1 Kings 11:1–8
• Ephraim and JudahHosea 6:4
• Lot's wifeLuke 17:32
• Some disciples of JesusJohn 6:66

The passages, in Bible order (50)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 49:3

   Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 49:32 voices

   “Reuben thou art my first-born - Jacob here puts upon him the ornaments of the birth-right, that he and all his brethren might see what he had forfeited and in that might see the evil of his sin. As the first-born he was his father's joy, being the beginning of his strength.

   “(Chapter 49, verse 3) Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the first of my sons, tough in bearing and tough in insolence and injury, like water that does not boil. You went up on your father's bed, then you defiled it when you went up. In Hebrew it is written: Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength, and the first in power among my sons. Greater in carrying, and greater in strength. You are poured out like water, do not exceed. For you have ascended the bed of your father and defiled the couch in his ascent.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 49:3→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Genesis 49:4

   Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 49:42 voices

   “Jacob charges him particularly with the sin for which he was disgraced, thou wentest up to thy father's bed - It was forty years ago that he had been guilty of this sin, yet now it is remembered against him. Reuben's sin left an indelible mark of infamy upon his family; a wound not to be healed without a scar.

   “Pouring out like the waters - This is an obscure sentence because unfinished. It evidently relates to the defilement of his father’s couch; and the word פחז pachaz, here translated pouring out, and in our Version unstable, has a bad meaning in other places of the Scripture, being applied to dissolute, debauched, and licentious conduct.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 49:4→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Exodus 8:15

   When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, however, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 8:151 voice

   “Till the heart is renewed by the grace of God, the impressions made by the force of affliction do not abide; the convictions wear off, and the promises that were extorted are forgotten. Till the disposition of the air is changed, what thaws in the sun will freeze again in the shade. God's patience is shamefully abused by impenitent sinners.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 8:15→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Exodus 8:32

   But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time as well, and he would not let the people go.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 8:321 voice

   “Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also - See Exo 8:15. This hardening was the mere effect of his self-determining obstinacy. He preferred his gain to the will and command of Jehovah, and God made his obstinacy the means of showing forth his own power and providence in a supereminent degree.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 8:32→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Exodus 9:34

   When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart—he and his officials.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 9:342 voices

   “He sinned yet more, and hardened his heart - These were merely acts of his own; “for who can deny,” says Mr. Psalmanazar, “that what God did on Pharaoh was much more proper to soften than to harden his heart; especially when it is observable that it was not till after seeing each miracle, and after the ceasing of each plague, that his heart is said to have been hardened?

   “The prayer of Moses opened and shut heaven, like Elias's ( Jam. v. 17, 18 ), and such is the power of God's two witnesses ( Rev. xi. 6 ); yet neither Moses nor Elias, nor those two witnesses, could subdue the hard hearts of men. Pharaoh was frightened into a compliance by the judgment, but, when it was over, his convictions vanished, and his fair promises were forgotten.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 9:34→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Exodus 10:8–11

   So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the LORD your God,” he said. “But who exactly will be going?”

   ›Commentary on Exodus 10:8–111 voice

   “Who are they that shall go? - Though the Egyptians, about fourscore years before, wished to destroy the Hebrews, yet they found them now so profitable to the state that they were unwilling to part with them.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 10:8–11→

   Verse page →Original language →

7. Exodus 10:16–20

   Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.

   Verse page →Original language →

8. Exodus 14:5

   When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”

   ›Commentary on Exodus 14:51 voice

   “The people fled - This was a natural inference from the change of direction, which indicated a determination to escape from Egypt. Up to the time when that information reached Pharaoh both he and his people understood that the Israelites would return after keeping a festival in the district adjoining Etham. From Etham the intelligence would be forwarded by the commander of the garrison to Rameses in less than a day, and the cavalry, a highly-disciplined force, would be ready for immediate departure.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 14:5→

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Exodus 19:8

   And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.” So Moses brought their words back to the LORD.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 19:82 voices

   “And all the people answered, etc. - The people, having such gracious advantages laid before them, most cheerfully consented to take God for their portion; as he had graciously promised to take them for his people. Thus a covenant was made, the parties being mutually bound to each other. Moses returned the words - When the people had on their part consented to the covenant, Moses appears to have gone immediately up to the mountain and related to God the success of his mission; for he was now on the mount, as appears from Exo 19:14.

   “Thus Christ, the Mediator between us and God, as a prophet reveals God's will to us, his precepts and promises, and then as a priest offers up to God our spiritual sacrifices, not only of prayer and praise, but of devout affections and pious resolutions, the work of his own Spirit in us. Thus he is that blessed days-man who lays his hand upon us both.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 19:8→

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Exodus 24:3

    When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do.”

    ›Commentary on Exodus 24:31 voice

    “Moses - told the people all the words of the Lord - That is, the ten commandments, and the various laws and ordinances mentioned from the beginning of the 20th to the end of the 23d chapter.

    Everything gathered on Exodus 24:3→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Exodus 24:7

    Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

    ›Commentary on Exodus 24:71 voice

    “The book of the covenant - See Exo 20:22 note. The people had to repeat their assent to the book of the covenant before the blood was thrown upon them. Compare 2Ki 23:2, 2Ki 23:21; 2Ch 34:30.

    Everything gathered on Exodus 24:7→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Exodus 32:8–10

    How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Judges 2:17

    Israel, however, did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commandments; they did not do as their fathers had done.

    ›Commentary on Judges 2:172 voices

    “An attentive consideration of them, therefore, is of the greatest importance to a right understanding of the strange and varying phases of Israelitish history, from the death of Joshua till the establishment of the monarchy. served Baalim--The plural is used to include all the gods of the country.

    “Went a whoring after other gods - Idolatry, or the worship of strange gods, is frequently termed adultery, fornication, and whoredom, in the sacred writings. As many of their idolatrous practices were accompanied with impure rites, the term was not only metaphorically but literally proper.

    Everything gathered on Judges 2:17→

    Verse page →Original language →

14. 1 Samuel 18:19

    So when it was time to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.

    ›Commentary on 1 Samuel 18:191 voice

    “This was as great an affront as he could possibly put upon him, and touched him both in his honour and in his love. He therefore thought David's resentment of it would break out in some indecency or other, in word or deed, which might give him an advantage against him to take him off by the course of law.

    Everything gathered on 1 Samuel 18:19→

    Verse page →Original language →

15. 2 Samuel 11:2–9

    One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

    ›Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:2–92 voices

    “Arose from off his bed - Where he had lain, and slept for some time. And the bed of sloth often proves the bed of lust. Washing herself - In a bath, which was in her garden.

    “In an evening-tide - David arose - He had been reposing on the roof of his house, to enjoy the breeze, as the noonday was too hot for the performance of business. This is still a constant custom on the flat-roofed houses in the East. He saw a woman washing herself - How could any woman of delicacy expose herself where she could be so fully and openly viewed? Did she not know that she was at least in view of the king’s terrace? Was there no design in all this? Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri.

    Everything gathered on 2 Samuel 11:2–9→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. 1 Kings 11:1–8

    King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

    ›Commentary on 1 Kings 11:1–82 voices

    “In the previous chapters the Scripture related the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh and did not rebuke him because she was the one wife only who did not secretly practice the religion of her homeland and was no reason of offense for …

    “In noticing successively Solomon’s excessive accumulation of silver and gold 1Ki 10:14-25, his multiplication of horses 1Ki 10:26-29, and his multiplication of wives, the writer has in mind the warning of Moses against these three forms of princely ostentation, all alike forbidden to an Israelite monarch (marginal reference). Zidonians - i. e., Phoenician women. A tradition states that Solomon married a daughter of Hiram, king of Tyre.

    Everything gathered on 1 Kings 11:1–8→

    Verse page →Original language →