I usually use Matthew Henry's, though I am interested in Jerome's and whether there are even older ones in the church.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc, 2003.
From age 8 until high school graduation, I volunteered in a church library. The entire bottom shelf against the far wall was all the volumes of Matthew Henry's Commentary. They held mythic status in my imagination for the sheer size of the collection and the labor of their author.
Months before Mom's unexpected passing, I was visiting to retrieve my old copy of the Screwtape Letters and noticed she had Matthew Henry's Commentary. I asked her how they fit it all in one volume, and she just gave me the book. Thanks, Mom. I always wanted this, and your book is still being used and appreciated and shared with others.
Vocabulary
- encomium: a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly
- fain: pleased or willing under the circumstances; with pleasure; gladly; To desire earnestly; long for.
- hector: to behave in an arrogant or intimidating way : to play the bully : swagger. transitive verb. : to intimidate or harass by bluster or personal pressure. "Men think the way to be feared is to hector and threaten, which makes them feared by fools only, but despised by the wise and good; whereas the way to be both feared and loved, feared by those to whom we would wish to be a terror and loved by those to whom we would wish to be a delight, is to behave ourselves wisely."
- invidious: (of an action or situation) likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others. "she'd put herself in an invidious position" OR (of a comparison or distinction) unfairly discriminating; unjust. "It may be, he that composed the song only used a poetic liberty, and intended not any invidious comparison between Saul and David."
- lasciviousness: reflecting or producing sexual desire or behavior, especially that is considered indecent or obscene
- obsequious: obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree. "Jonathan knew not but that some of the servants might be either so obsequious to Saul or so envious at David as to put the orders in execution which Saul had given."
- timorous: showing or suffering from nervousness, fear, or a lack of confidence