Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.

Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.

It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for Him.

Men cannot expect to do ill and fare well, but to find that done to them which they did to others.

As if men did not die fast enough, they are ingenious at finding out ways to destroy one another.

Let no man go beyond or defraud his brother, for, though it be hidden from man, it will be found that God is the avenger of all such.

When our heads are fullest of care, and our hands of business, yet we must not forget our religion, nor suffer ourselves to be indisposed for acts of devotion.

If we have, through grace, an interest in Him who is the Fountain, we may rejoice in him when the streams of temporal mercies are dried up.

It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for him:

There may be idols in the heart, where there are none in the sanctuary.

When men drive God's word from them he justly permits their delusions, and answers them according to the multitude of their idols.

such is the corruption of nature that the bad are much more likely to debauch the good than the good to reform the bad.

When the sins of a people reach up to heaven, the wrath of God will reach down to the earth.

All those who rejoice in the success of the church's enemies will share with them in their downfall; and those who have most indulged themselves in pride and pleasure are the least able to bear calamities; their sorrows will be as excessive as their pleasure and jollity were before.

Note, It is common for those that are indulgent to their own sin to be severe against the sins of others.

Christ's disciples were no orators, till the Spirit made them such.

Even when God is coming towards his people in ways of mercy, he sometimes takes such methods as that they may think themselves but ill treated.

Man's extremity is God's opportunity of helping and saving.

The word of God directs us in our work and way, and a dark place indeed the world would be without it. The commandment is a lamp kept burning with the oil of the Spirit, as a light to direct us in the choice of our way, and the steps we take in that way.

Note, The devil, though he is an enemy to all saints, is a conquered enemy. The Captain of our salvation has defeated and disarmed him; we have nothing to do but to pursue the victory.

When we begin to fret and be uneasy, we ought to consider that God hears all our murmurings, though silent, and only the murmurings of the heart.

That even under the gospel of peace and reconciliation by Christ (of which the intercession of Moses was typical) the moral law should continue to bind believers.

for those that would be kept from any sin must be careful to avoid all temptations to it, and every thing that looks towards it or leads to it.

Though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet not from the command of it,

Events are not determined by the wheel of fortune, which is blind, but by the wheels of Providence, which are full of eyes

Outward losses drive good people to their prayers, but bad people to their curses.

Thus have they committed two great evils, in which they persist, and from which they hate to be reformed; they take away from God's word, and add to his worship.

The wits or wills of men, their inventions or their injunctions, cannot make that to be sin which the law of God has not made to be so.

That creature which we idolize God justly removes from us, or embitters to us.