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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Hebrews 11:37 - 11:37
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They were stoned; by the same faith were several of the prophets and believing worthies of old carried through cruel deaths, the just punishment of malefactors, but the wicked tortures of these innocent saints, some being stoned to death, as Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, 2Ch_24:21, and others, Mat_21:35 23:37 Luk_13:34.
The were sawn asunder; as Isaiah was, which is a known tradition among the Hebrews, a punishment common among the bordering nations of them, 2Sa_12:31 Amo_1:3, and exercised on these innocents, to which Christ himself alludeth, Mat_24:51.
Were tempted: whether epeirasyhsan should not be epurasyhsan, is much doubted, temptation being no manner of death; and the Spirit had instanced in it before, Heb_11:35. It may therefore be a slip of the transcriber, and that burning was the cruel death that should fill this place among the rest, a common punishment with them, Jer_29:22 /Apc /APC 2Ma 7:5. Or, it may note a death with several trials of racks and torments gradually inflicted, with a design to tempt them by their pains to renounce their religion.
Were slain with the sword; others were killed by the sword, either by beheading, or cutting in pieces, Mar_6:16,17; a kind of death foretold to be attending the martyrs of Jesus Christ, Rev_20:4. All these sorts of death were most unjustly and cruelly inflicted on them by their persecutors, and as patiently received and cheerfully undergone by them.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins: as faith carried these believers through variety of deaths, so it managed others comfortably under their banishments and lingering sufferings, which were in proportion as cruel as death itself; they circuited up and down to preserve themselves from their destroyers, either voluntarily returning themselves into desolate places to keep a good conscience, or were unjustly and violently banished and forced away from their own habitations, to live as vagabonds, clothed only with goatskins and sheepskins, the common apparel of the prophets, as of Elijah, 2Ki_1:8 Zec_13:4, which they wore as they came from the beasts’ backs, without dressing. Being destitute, afflicted, tormented; wandering in this forlorn state, stripped of money and necessaries of life, and not supplied by others in their poverty, 1Ki_17:4, grievously pressed within, pained without, and afflicted beyond what can be sensed by any but in the like states, and evilly entreated by all; many miseries attending them by their pursuers, hardship in travels, and all sorts of evils, which multiplied their griefs: through all this faith carried them comfortably, and kept God with them.