6 not overstepping the rights of and wronging his brother in the matter, because the Lord [is] the avenger of all these things, even as we also told you before, and have fully testified.
not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath; for it is written, Vengeance [belongs] to me, *I* will recompense, saith the Lord.
[Let] marriage [be held] every way in honour, and the bed [be] undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers will God judge.
Take ye heed every one of his friend, and confide not in any brother; for every brother only supplanteth, and every friend goeth about with slander.
[if] ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt;
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Let it suffice you, princes of Israel! Put away violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice; take off your exactions from my people, saith the Lord Jehovah. Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, so that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be according to the homer. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. This is the heave-offering which ye shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah out of a homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah out of a homer of barley; and the set portion of oil, by the bath of oil, the tenth part of a bath out of a cor, [which is] a homer of ten baths, for ten baths are a homer;
saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat? making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances for deceit: that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat.
Woe to her that is rebellious and corrupted, to the oppressing city!
The righteous Jehovah is in the midst of her: he doeth no wrong. Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light; it faileth not: but the unrighteous knoweth no shame.
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hired servant in [his] wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger [from his right], and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.
Thou knowest the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour thy father and mother.
But I will shew you whom ye shall fear: Fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell; yea, I say to you, Fear *him*.
for it is God's minister to thee for good. But if thou practisest evil, fear; for it bears not the sword in vain; for it is God's minister, an avenger for wrath to him that does evil.
Already indeed then it is altogether a fault in you that ye have suits between yourselves. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong? why are ye not rather defrauded? But *ye* do wrong, and defraud, and this [your] brethren. Do ye not know that unrighteous [persons] shall not inherit [the] kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who make women of themselves, nor who abuse themselves with men,
This I say therefore, and testify in [the] Lord, that ye should no longer walk as [the rest of] the nations walk in [the] vanity of their mind,
Let no one deceive you with vain words, for on account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
But *ye* have despised the poor [man]. Do not the rich oppress you, and [do not] *they* drag you before [the] tribunals?
Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of [the] Lord of sabaoth.
Thou shalt not desire thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not desire thy neighbour's wife, nor his bondman, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's.
Ye shall not steal, and ye shall not deal falsely, and ye shall not lie one to another.
And if ye sell ought unto your neighbour, or buy of your neighbour's hand, ye shall not overreach one another.
And ye shall not oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am Jehovah your God.
Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thy house divers ephahs, a great and a small. A perfect and just weight shalt thou have; a perfect and just ephah shalt thou have; that thy days may be prolonged in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee. For every one that doeth such things, every one that doeth unrighteousness, is an abomination to Jehovah thy God.
Vengeance is mine, and recompense, For the time when their foot shall slip. For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Here I am: testify against me before Jehovah, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I injured? or of whose hand have I received any ransom and blinded mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it to you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, and thou hast not injured us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand.
If I have despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me, What then should I do when ùGod riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?
O ùGod of vengeances, Jehovah, ùGod of vengeances, shine forth;
A false balance is an abomination to Jehovah; but a just weight is his delight.
The just balance and scales are Jehovah's; all the weights of the bag are his work.
Divers weights are an abomination unto Jehovah; and a false balance is not good.
Rob not the poor, because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; for Jehovah will plead their cause, and despoil the soul of those that despoil them.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for a higher than the high is watching, and there are higher than they.
thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth presents, and hunteth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, and the cause of the widow cometh not unto them. Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah! I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.
none calleth for justice, none pleadeth in truthfulness. They trust in vanity, and speak falsehood; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch serpents' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
In this chapter the apostle gives earnest exhortations to abound in holiness, with a caution against uncleanness, enforced with several arguments (v. 1-8). He then mentions the great duties of brotherly love, and quietness with industry in our callings (v. 9-12). And concludes with comforting those who mourned for their relations and friends that died in the Lord (v. 13-18).
1Th 4:1-8
Here we have,
1Th 4:9-12
In these words the apostle mentions the great duties,
1Th 4:13-18
In these words the apostle comforts the Thessalonians who mourned for the death of their relations and friends that died in the Lord. His design is to dissuade them from excessive grief, or inordinate sorrow, on that account. All grief for the death of friends is far from being unlawful; we may weep at least for ourselves if we do not weep for them, weep for own loss, though it may be their fain. Yet we must not be immoderate in our sorrows, because,