Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	fear_v	lord_n	remembrance_n	1,962	5	9.9520	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55226	A commentary on the prophecy of Malachi, by Edward Pocock D.D. Canon of Christ-Church, and Regius Professor of the Hebrew tongue, in the University of Oxford	Pococke, Edward, 1604-1691.	1677 (1677)	Wing P2661A; ESTC R216989	236,012	119

place be understood the thing is known and manifest and therefore both Munster and the Tigurin Latin Version instead of what ours render neither shall your Vine cast her fruit before the time in the Field c. translate it neither shall he i. e. the devourer make your Vine barren or unfruitful to you in the Field and to that doth that Exposition of Abarbinel which we have seen seem to encline The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teshaccel is of that form as that it signifies sometimes to cause to make abortive to deprive of and the like in an active sense as Deut. XXXII 25 The sword c. shall destroy or bereave and Ezek XIV 15 If I cause noisom beasts to pass through the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Veshiccelattah and they spoil it or bereave it And in the same sense Hos. IX 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shiccaltim I will bereave them to omit other examples And sometimes again in an absolute sense viz. to be abortive to be deprived of or cast fruit before it be perfect as Gen. XXXI 31 Thy Ewes and thy she-Goats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lo shiccelu have not cast their young or been abortive and Job XXI 10 Their Cow calveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velo teshaccel and casteth not her Calf Those therefore mentioned take the Verb in the former signification ours and most others both Jewish and Christian Expositors in the latter to which we the more incline because otherwise here will be a change of the Gender in the Verb speaking of the same thing for that in the word destroy is masculine but here is feminine so that they seem one to agree with the first Noun Locust which is of the masculine Gender and the other with Vine in the feminine however such change of Genders may be admitted and seeing though the Locusts destroy not the Vines yet there may be other means as Blasts or Blights and hurtfull Winds and like causes whether from within or without which may make them loose or cast their fruit before it comes to maturity even after a great shew and likelyhood of plenty from hurt by all such causes whether from such devouring creatures or any other means God here promiseth to secure them upon their turning to him and to give them both the encrease of the Earth and fruit of the Vine and so all necessary things in such plenty and perfection that all Nations seeing Gods great goodness shewed unto them shall call them blessed For ye saith he shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erets chephets a delightsome Land or Land of delight or desire worthy to be desired saith the Vulgar i. e. as some will a Land that men would desire to live in So R. Tanchum a Land to be desired and chosen for its pleasantness and excellency to the same sense that it is said which is the glory of all Lands Ezek. XX. 6 15. Others with Abarbinel understand it a Land of desire or well pleasing to God i. e. such as he takes delight in and shews extraordinary respect and favour to both to the People and the Land as Aben Ezra as he saith elsewhere of Zion that she should be called Hephzibah Isa. LXII 4 i. e. my delight is in her because saith he the Lord delighteth in thee and the comparing that place with this seems to make for this Exposition and it will be well illustrated by what is said Deut. XI 12 a Land which the Lord thy God careth for or seeketh the eyes of the Lord thy God are alwaies upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year viz. to give it its rain in due season the first rain to make it spring up and the latter rain to bring it to perfection and so to preserve the fruits of the Earth that they might gather in their corn and their wine and their oyl v. 14. which is the same care and the same blessing that is here promised This Exposition the Syriack follows rendring it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar'o detzebyoni A Land of my delight good will or pleasure i. e. to which I bear good will or have good liking to The Chalde likewise taketh it in rendring And all Nations shall praise you because you dwell in the Land of the House of my Majestatick presence and do therein my pleasure He suggests therein a double meaning or respect to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chephets as first that they or their Land should be called a Land of delight or good will because God delighted to dwell in it and secondly because the Inhabitants thereof did the good pleasure of God and delighted to do his will and therefore he delighted in them and to do good to them as appeared by his extraordinary blessings poured out upon them more then on other People which they should all acknowledge and call them blessed for it so saith the Lord of Hosts of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth who hath power and command of all and therefore so shall it certainly be as he saith 13 ¶ Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord yet ye say What have we spoken so much against thee 14 Ye have said It is vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts 15 And now we call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered 16 ¶ Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord. These words may be coupled with the former as if they were a complaint of the Jews stubbornness that though God had reproved them for their sins such as have been expressed and by some judgements warned them of his displeasure for them and likewise had invited them to repentance and promised upon their repentance to remove those judgements and turn the curse with which he had cursed them into a blessing yet this was so far from working in them repentance that they grew more and more insolent and instead of acknowledging their faults and ill deserts proceeded in speaking against him and his justice as if he inflicted on them worse then they deserved not accepting of any service from them and mean while seemed to favor those that were notoriously wicked and tempted him and despised him and so set at nought what by the Prophets was spoken to them for their good Wherefore he proceeds farther to reprove them and mind them of the ill consequents of such their ill behavior which shall be occasion of more heavy judgements and final destruction as between this and the end of the Chapter he shews Or we need not

there and others both here and there give it For here he would have the words rendred as continued with the former and part of what those blasphemers before mentioned said viz. that then they that feared the Lord were destroyed from another signification that the same root hath and is used in as in other places according to him and some others So in II Chron. XXII 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vattedabber and she destroyed all the Seed Royal and from it is the Noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deber which signifies the plague or such destructive sickness so that according to him the sense is that when the presumptuous sinners that work wickedness are set up and though they tempt God by exposing themselves to the greatest dangers are yet delivered then at that very time they that fear the Lord perish are cut off and destroyed one together with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 el to being here the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Im with or are by evil accidents intangling them made destructive and causes of perdition one to another as if the hand of God were upon them to confound and destroy them Thus far he would have the words of those that spake against Gods Justice to reach and then the following words the Lord hearkned c. to be an answer from the Prophet to them as if he should say to them Know and consider that to all this that you say God hearkneth and heareth it and that both the righteousness of the righteous and the wickedness of the wicked are as manifest before him as if all were written in a book of remembrance that it might remain many daies till the time of due recompence and reward c. And the same way of Exposition with him doth Arias Montanus follow and gives it as his own conjecture or opinion probably having seen Abarbinel else he would scarce have fallen in so fully with him here as he doth in many other places without mentioning him in Expositions singular to them and this he commends as most agreeable to the words but I see no reason to be of his opinion but choose rather to follow that interpretation which our Translation with the most both of Jews and Christians gives not making these first words a part of those stout words which the wicked spake against God but a declaration of the behaviour of those that feared God and the following of the good consequence thereon So R. D. Kimchi perspicuously expounds them and the following The former words were the saying of those who did not understand the waies of the Lord and his Judgements and when those that feared the Lord heard those words from those men who denyed the Providence of God over these things below they spake one with another and multiplyed or often repeated those words and argued the matter till they found by their understanding that all his waies are judgement that he is a God of truth and without iniquity And the Lord hearkned i. e. God blessed for ever attended to their words and gave them their reward for this And a book of remembrance was written before him a proverbial expression according to the language of men among whom Kings write a book of memorials for there is no forgetfulness with God according to what is said blot me out of thy Book Exod. XXXII 32 and every one that shall be found written in the book Dan. XII 2 These words of his we have set down at large because they give exactly that notion concerning the distinction of the words from the former and the signification of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nidbaru which our Translators choose to follow And it is that wherein most both Jewish and Christian Expositors do well agree as likewise in what is meant by what he saith and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a book of remembrance was written viz. that the Lord took due notice of what was said both by bad and good say some which though it be true that he doth so yet here more particularly it seems to be referred to the good and kept it in perpetual remembrance in the register of his memory if we may so speak as certainly as if it were written in a book according to the custome of men who note down in writing or cause to be registred such things as they would not forget but be sure to call to mind and shew that they took due notice of as meet occasion and opportunity should serve to reward those that had done them any service or deserved well or whom they had a mind to do good to Of Gods book and things being written in it there is we know often mention in the Scriptures besides those places which Kimchi recites both in the Old and New Testament and every where is much alike to be understood viz. that the things spoken of are as surely known and had in remembrance with him as if they were written down before him And so where the books are said to be opened it is the making manifest his knowledge of those things by his passing sentence on men accordingly for good or bad see Dan. VII 10 and Revel XX. 12 and Isa. LXV 6 The book of remembrance is here said to be written for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name viz. to give them assurance that their faithfulness to him however he did not presently reward them openly for it yet was duly taken notice of by him and in due time he would make it known by his distinguishing them from the wicked and his great care of them to preserve them from those heavy judgements and that destruction which should seize on the others as will appear in the following words But before we pass to them we may take notice of what is by some observed concerning the signification or force of that word which is rendred and that thought upon his Name viz. that it imports not a bare thinking of but a due esteem and awful regard of so as with all care to avoid all things that may tend to the dishonor of it constantly to endeavor so to walk as beseems such who profess to know God and to serve him as alwaies in his presence and with respect to him and fear of him Those saith Kimchi are meant who alwaies think of or meditate in the waies of the Lord and the knowledge of his God-head for his Name is himself and he himself is his Name Aben Ezra understands it of the wise in heart who know the secret or the mystery of the glorious awfull Name He seems to allude to what is said Psal. XXV 14 the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him R. Tanchum saith that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Choshebe rendred that thought on imports or includes honoring and magnifying according to the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chashub for one in dignity and high

require or they also who take this day to include all the time between Christs coming in the flesh till his last coming at the day of Judgement Yet the learned Grotius thinks that the words literally and as without any thing of figure in them understood may be looked on as made good at that time inasmuch as after the destruction of Jerusalem wherein so many were consumed by fire such of the Christians as did after come thither did really tread on their ashes And so some of the ancient Jews who understood this day of the last day of Judgement have found out a device to tell us how this shall then also be literally made good viz. in that the bodies of the wicked ordinary sinners at least after they have been tormented in Hell flames for twelve months shall then be consumed to ashes and the wind shall scatter them under the soles of the feet of the righteous according to what is here said A pretty invention for such as will believe it on their authority But I do not see that the soberer among them do otherwise they would probably have made more use of it in their Expositions of this place Abarbinel indeed makes mention of it but tells us that the simple meaning in these words is to shew That if we see the way of the wicked to prosper and the righteous to go mournfully behold that is it which happeneth in this dark World but when the Lord of Hosts shall arise a Sun and shield in his divine day and shall judge all living he shall give to every one according to his waies and according to the fruit of his doings Neither R. Salomo nor Aben Ezra nor David Kimchi mention it at all the last of these thus expounding the words He saith that now the wicked bear rule over you but in that time ye shall trample them under the soles of your feet What he saith ashes is a proverbial or comparative expression because he had before said that the day that should come should burn them up It appears then that he did not think that ashes here ought literally to be meant but to denote the vileness and contemptibleness of their condition Neither find we any mention of it in R. Tanchum who though he differ from what we follow in that he looks on the things spoken as not yet fulfilled but to come yet affords us words which we may well make use of in our way which though he put at the end of the Chapter yet may here conveniently be put as having respect to what hath been said already more then to what follows and they thus sound Consider saith he the great wisdome in the expression of the Prophetical revelation however it be to be understood that whereas there is for the righteous a reward in this World and in the World to come and for the wicked on the contrary punishment in this World and in the World to come these passages of Scripture are fitted to both intentions at once according to an outward or literal sense and an inward meaning As to the outward meaning it expresseth what shall be in the daies of Messiah to wit that punishment shall then encompass the wicked and they shall be consumed together and be burnt up as he saith Behold the day cometh burning as an oven but as for the righteous of Israel the light of divine Providence shall arise upon them and they shall be healed by the manifestation of truths from that grief which they sustained by reason of their being hidden from them and that is it which he saith And there shall arise to you that fear my Name the Sun of righteousness and healing in his wings c. But as to the inward meaning it signifies as to those that feared the Lord and thought on his Name viz. which sincerely did so after their knowledge of him and walking in his waies that there should be to them an everlasting duration in his presence which is that writing down of their righteousness in a book of remembrance before him and they should be a peculiar to him among mankind which is what he saith And they shall be to me saith the Lord of Hosts in the day which I shall make or when I shall do this a peculiar c. But as for the wicked to them shall the day come burning as an oven which is the punishment of the World to come accordingly as our wise men have declared as likewise what is said and the day that cometh shall burn them up And by day he expresseth both happiness and misery for two different meanings or reasons 1. happiness in regard of the light which is found in the day after the darkness of the night like that clearness of apprehension that shall accrue to the perfected soul after its separation from grose matter i. e. the matter of the body then misery by reason of extreme heat that is found in the day proportionable to the grievousness of that condition and the extremity of the pain thereof as he likewise compares it to fire saying burning like an oven And because the wicked shall be burnt with that fire whereas the degree of the righteous shall be exalted he compareth them also to ashes under their feet saying and ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet and he explains his comparing happiness to light in what he saith And there shall arise to you that fear my Name the Sun of righteousness c. And that is an intellectual light which shall accrue by the right disposition of the Soul and the rectification of the deeds by the clearness of the shining of which the Soul shall find rest and be healed from the pains of the distraction of the senses and their disturbance or strugling or contrary motions that is it which he saith with healing in his wings And to like purpose saith Isaiah c. LVIII 8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward We beg of the Lord therefore that he will assist us for attaining to those inward or hidden promises by hastning the outward or visible ones that our knowledge and worship of him may be sincere and that may occasion to us an encrease of appropinquation to his Majesty or bring us nearer to him and that may be made good to us which he saith Isaiah XXXV 3 4. strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees say to them that are of a fearfull heart Be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance c. These are his words which if opportunity serve we shall at the end of these Notes set down in his own language I thought convenient to give them at length though perhaps not all to our present purpose because though he be out in the