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The narrative refuses naturalistic explanation; it is supernatural or nothing.
Locusts in ancient Near Eastern agriculture were catastrophic—entire harvests obliterated, years of labor reduced to desolation.
The Heavenly Physician addresses those who neglect His healing: those depending upon their own moral virtue, those trusting in religious duties alone, and those resting in correct doctrine without transformation.
The kiss signifies multiple progressive meanings in Scripture.
How easily the Word of Elohim slips from sight when unestimated!
Not merely a designation, but a manifestation of the Eternal Deity itself.
The righteous man's happiness operates through the law of attraction and repulsion: he repels evil (verse 1) and is drawn to meditate upon God's Word (verse 2).
The people of God must render habitual, profound homage to truth.
He did not boast of superhuman courage; rather, he embodied a paradox: while his body wasted with grief and his strength drained away, an inward light of faith continued to burn in his heart.
yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Psalm 119:103).
The guilt of forsaking God rests upon a fundamental truth: man is bound by the law of his nature to obey the Almighty Being who made him an intelligent and immortal creature.
For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.—The reign of Christ establishes this world as His battlefield now; when this conflict ends, His reign concludes also. "He shall reign till," and no longer. Who are...
The prophet employs striking, elevated language to convey God's gracious thoughts toward His erring but repentant people.
Joseph Exell's 1887 *Biblical Illustrator* frames this eschatological promise through three movements.
First, God's favour is the one thing needful.
First, he prays as a learner, confessing his need: "Make me to understand the way of thy precepts." He does not presume knowledge but applies to the Fountain of all wisdom—Elohim himself—requesting understanding of God's statutes.
But by what standard shall we measure ourselves?
Keil and Delitzsch note that moths destroy garments (Isaiah 51:8; Psalm 39:12), while worms corrupt both wood and flesh—figures of insidious decay working without announcement.
Are speech and purpose truly allied, or do they drift apart like summer brooks in drought?
First, good actions performed for wrong motives corrupt their value.
The winepress figure denotes supreme contempt—the Mighty Conqueror compares His victory over enemies to the crushing of grapes beneath His feet.
The distinction between "lively" and "living" reveals Scripture's nature: where *lively* denotes mere animation, *living* (*zōē*) signifies life as an operative principle—comprehensive, generative, self-perpetuating.
The original word *El* — meaning 'the Mighty One' — establishes God's supreme power and authority.
The apostle deliberately substitutes "is known of Him" for "knows Him"—a rhetorical choice that elevates God's initiative above human capability.