a Bear that is bereaved of her whelps and will rent the caul of their heart and there will I devour them like a Lion the wild beast shall tear them 9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me it thine help 10 I will be thy King where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities and thy Iudges of whom thou saidst Give me a King and Princes 11 I gave thee a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up his sin is hid 13 The sorrowes of a travelling woman shall come upon him he is an unwise son for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children 14 I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction repentance shall be hid from mine eies 15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren an East-wind shall come the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wildernesse and his spring shall become dry and his fountain shall be dried up he shall spoile the treasures of all pleasant vessels 16 Samaria shal become desolate for she hath rebelled against her God they shall fall by the sword their infants shall be dashed in pieces and their women with child shall be ript up CHAP. XIII 1. THe time was also when if Ephraim stood up to speak a kind of fear and reverence seazed upon all those of the ten Tribes This height of Honour was he come to in Israel But the times of that respect are past and for the sinne which he hath committed in his calves and Baals he must look for nothing but death and destruction 2. For now this sinne hath more and more increased amongst them and not content with their calves in Dan and Bethel they have made themselves other molten images of their silver after their own phansie all of those idols the work of craftsmen And they spare not to say to them They among us that offer men too in sacrifice shall also perform their homage to the calves 3. Therefore they shall not hold out long in this wickednesse For I will make them leave the place which they have so abused and suddenly vanish like the morning-cloudes and the early dew that is soon gone and the chaffe that is hurried away with the whirlwind out of the floor and the smoak out of the chimney that quickly leaves that place and knows it no more 4. And justly will this fall upon thee ô Israel For I am thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt Therefore thou shouldst have acknowledged no other God besides me who only can save and deliver thee out of all thy troubles and am the onely Preserver of mankind 5. I vouchsafed to take notice and care of thee in the vast wildernesse a dry and barren place where thou couldst otherwise have been supplied with no provisions 6. I fed them there like sheep in variety of severall pastures and when they were fully satisfied and fatted with good fare their hearts were puffed up with pride that is it that made them so soon forget me that fed them 7. Therefore I will be no longer as a Shepherd to feed them so fat but rather as a Lion and a Leopard to watch and walk about and observe how I may destroy them in the way which they are to passe 8. I will meet them in that rage which you see in a bear when she is robbed of her whelps and tear in pieces their very heart-strings I will set the Assyrian like a Lion or some such wild beast to devour some and distract others into so many divisions that they shall not be able in one body again to make any resistance 9. And for this thy low and miserable estate thou mayst thank thy self O Israel that wouldst not thank me for thy succour in all thy necessities it depending wholly upon mee 10. For what is become of thy King that should all this while provide for thy safety in all thy Cities where is he And what is become of thy Iudges and Rulers that should defend thee Of whom thou saidst once Give us a King to rule over us and Princes to judge us and go before us and fight our battles Didst thou not long for them a little too soon 11. Wherfore there was a time and may be again when I give thee a King in mine anger as in Saul and Jeroboam and I take thy King away in my wrath as in the good Josiah ann in Hosheah of whom there was some good hope 12. This misery will fall especially upon the ten tribes For I will not forget the sins of Ephraim I bound them up together in a bundle and laid them up in a safe corner to be again brought out and revenged as I see cause 13. When the sad time of revenge drawes near and the pangs come suddenly upon him as upon a woman in travaile it will appear that he is like a silly babe that knowes not how to make way for his Mother's and his own delivery Else would he seek to me and not stay so long for succour when he is as near the being rescued as one that is come to the time of birth 14. For I can set them at liberty in the greatest distresse from the very power of death and the grave And so I will do when I see my time and for all those that I will deliver Where will then be thy sting O Death O Grave where will then be thy victory But now since they will not seek me I will look upon no wayes how to comfort me and appease my wrath but in their destruction 15. And when Ephraim is become like his name fruitfull and populous among his brethren then a strong and terrible East-wind the swift and pernicious army of the Assyrian shall come upon him from the deserts of Syria whence the most boisterous winds arise and dry up the springs and fountains that have hitherto refreshed him And that wind or fierce army shall blow away or make spoile of all the rich treasures and severall kind of things which he hath heaped up in storè and wherein he hath placed his delight 16. Samaria their Metropolis must needs be guilty of some great offence that hath thus bitterly provoked her God to anger Therefore shall many of them fall by the sword Their Infants shall be dashed in pieces and their women with child shall be ripped up CHAP. XIV 1 O Isral return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity 2 Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips 3 Ashur shall not save us we will not
his secrets and for the daughter to rise up as a witnesse against her mother and the daughter in law against the mother in law And a mans enemies are they of his own house as usually as any other 7. But be the world never so bad I that speak all this against these wretched times will still look up unto God in my hearty prayers for patience and perseverance in doing good and a happy deliverance in due time from the perils of a disordered state I will constantly wait for the God of my salvation And I doubt not but my God will hear me 8. After this Prophetical discourse of my own in the foresight and contemplation of the miseries and disorders that shall happen in the reign of Manasses you shall now hear my own Country the Iewish nation her self bemoaning of her great affliction under Zedekiah and the Babylonish Captivity and somewhat too of their return out of captivity under Nehemiah and Ezra For thus she bespeaks the Country of the Chaldeans first Do not triumph over me O thou mine enemie When I am fallen into a low estate I shall rise again and when I sit in the darknesse of a sad affliction there shall the Lord be as a light and comfort unto me 9. I will patiently bear the heavy punishment laid upon me in the fierce indignation of the Lord because I drew it upon my self by those sins which I committed against him This will I do till he please to take notice of my cause to plead for me and to revenge the injuries which I have received from the Babylonians As in his justice I know he will do in his good time And he will bring me out of this sad and gloomy time of affliction into the chearful lustre and glorie of my former prosperity And in that light I shall once again be able to see the goodnesse of the Lord. 10. And my enemie the whole nation of the Chaldeans shall see it as well as I when she shall be ready to hide her self for shame as impudent as she was in the time of my captivity to say unto me Where is now the Lord thy God what is now become of that help which you expected from him Mine eies shall see her then with comfort when she will be ashamed to look upon me And when I am raised out of my low estate then shall she be cast down and trampled under feet by the victorious Persians and made no more account of then the mire in the streets 11. The time will then come for repairing of thy breaches and rebuilding of thy walls O Jerusalem And at that time the proud commands of the Babylonian shall be out of date instead of sending abroad his high edicts to other nations he shall have one above him the conquering Persians that shall over-master and command him 12. About those daies men shall begin to stock again unto thee O Jerusalem Some from Assyria and the strongest Cities there Shortly after thou maiest discover them from all parts coming towards thee Some from the strongest forts beyond Euphrates towards that river and so towards thee And in like manner from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain shall they come to thee 17. For the countries from whence they shall thus come to thee shall fall to ruine and desolation for the sinful inhabitants thereof which shall have that fruit of their wicked works and so many of them for very need be forced to repair unto thee 14. So be it O Lord for their chastisement and for our return and recovery of our former estate Feed thine own people again as their careful Shepherd go before them with thy Shepherds hook as the peculiar flock of thine heritage They that have lodged long like as in a barren and solitary place in a wood let them now come to feed again in as pleasant places as those of Mount Carmel and in as rich pastures as those of Basan and Gilead as in the daies of old 14. And say to thy people O Lord I will show thee again as wonderful things in mercy as I did heretofore when I brought thee out of the land of Egypt And I will show as great a punishment upon thine enemies as I then did upon the Egyptians 16. So let the nations all about be confounded at all the might and power of the Jews Let them lay their hands on their mouths in silent admiration and their ears be made deaf with the noise and fame of thy wondrous acts 17. Like men amazed at them so let them fall down with fear and astonishment and lick the dust like a serpent Let them be forced to creep out of their secret holes and refuges where they had hid themselves like wormes out of the earth And in the complishment of these things which our prophesies have foretold let them learn to fear the Lord our God and stand in awe of thee O Lord. 18. Who among the gods is like unto thee that pardonest iniquity and removest the punishment thereof upon our repentance and passest by many of the transgressions of the poor remnant of thy people as one that is unwilling to take notice of them if they may be amended For He is not so implacable as to continue in his anger for ever though our sins extort a punishment His delight is rather in mercy and loving kindnesse 19. Therefore will he have mercy upon us again He will trample all our offences under his feet as things he would see no more and cast them into the bottom of the sea as things that he will not care for hereafter nor make any more account of 20 So Lord wilt thou perform the truth of thy promises to Iacob and thy tender mercies to Abraham and what thou hast confirmed by oath to our forefathers from the daies of old A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF NAHUM CHAP. I. 1 THe burden of Nineveh The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite 2 God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies 3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked the Lord hath his way in the whirl-wind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet 4 He rebuketh the sea and maketh it drie and drieth up all the rivers Bashan languisheth and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languisheth 5 The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein 6 Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger his furie is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him 7 The Lord is good a strong bold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in
added in speculation of that To shadow the time of his coming before which the general Peace and plenty of all things shall seem to usher in the great Peace-maker I may speak to the cattel such as we heard awhile ago crying out for want of food and tell them that our happinesse in the near approach of the Messias shall not begin without some comfort to the very beasts of the field For The Pastures of the wildernesse shall put on the face of joy and the colour which they delight in And the trees if they show not the same colour shall show such plenty and variety of fruit as shall best expresse them to be in a flourishing estate Among them the Fig-tree and the vine that we most enquire after shall show the choicest fruit in their kind that we could expect from them 23. And while the earth and trees and dum Creatures partake of so much refreshment much more shall our hearts be enlarged with spiritual joy and comfort Therefore do you Citizens of Jerusalem and inhabitants of Judaea or you rather that make up the true Israel of God and members of the holy Church whereof Ierusalem is a type Do you studie how to expresse the solace and content that must needs follow upon the coming of the Messiah the true Doctor and Teacher of Righteousnesse which under the same name shall bring you the best rain and showers from Heaven in the preaching of his holy word both the first rain that helps up the first hopes of fruit and the latter rain which shall in due time secure us of a happy harvest in the higher and more spiritual sense of the successe of the Gospel 24. Such a happy harvest under the Messias his Kingdom will fill all places with plenty of spiritual food The richest flower of the best wheat the most and best liquor from the choicest Vine and Olive will be but poor emblemes and figures of it 25. This plenty will obliterate the memory of your former greatest famine or what other misery happened to the body from those mighty armies of hungry locusts the Grassehoppers Cankerworms Caterpillers and Palmerworms that I sent among you This plenty will be abundant recompense for those times of want and distresse 26. For if you will bring souls hungry and thirsty and longing to be refreshed with the best cordials and the true manna the food of life that came down from Heaven It is to be had without money You may freely eat and be fully satisfied and have cause enough to return all possible praise and thanksgiving to the Lord your God for those wonderful unspeakable mercies which may further oblige you to a confident and constant devoting of your selves to his service without any more revolting or forsaking of him as if you were ashamed of your profession 27. To which end you shall see enough to make you know that I am in the midst of Israel and I am the Lord your God and no other beside me whether we understand it of our Saviours corporal presence and dwelling here as God and Man or of his invisible assistance and government of his Church Therefore I might well say that you shall be sufficiently obliged to his service and to such a trust and confidence and joy in Him as shall make you triumph in your holy Calling rather then any way be ashamed of it 28. After these times of your enjoying the happy sight of the Messias I will also send down my holy Spirit in a visible form and bestow his Spiritual Graces in such abundance upon all sorts of men though they are but flesh and blood that some even illeterate persons men and women of your own nation shall show the power of a divine prophetick spirit to the speedy and successeful propagation of the gospel To which in the fuller progresse there shall not a little be added by that which in dreams and visions shall be revealed not onely to some of the elder but to some also of the younger sort 29. And as no sex or nation so neither any rank or order of men bond or free masters or servants shall be excluded from this high priviledge of partaking of the gifts of the Holy Ghost 30. Not long after this prosperous beginning and divulging of the gospel many prodigious signs will appear as presages and forerunners of the fearful destruction of Ierusalem the sad punishment of their rebellion and unbelief wonders in heaven and earth beside the effusion of much blood in the slaughter of many men in several places and the flames of fire and pillars of smoak that will appear in the burning and destroying of many Towns 31. Upon which there will follow such a dark and dismal aspect and alteration of the glorious light above as will plainly fore-speak a sad and bloody confusion and alteration in the Jewish state that under the Romans exceeding and compleating that under the Chaldeans of the great and terrible day of the Lords coming in judgement against this sinful nation 32. Yet in all this misery as the severity of God will be seen in the destruction of obstinate sinners so his mercy and succour will not be excluded from any that call upon Him with an obedient faith Sion and Ierusalem shall not then want such a means of deliverance And that mercy shall be continued for ever to the remnant of the Iews that will obey the voice of their Messias in the Gospel the voice of their Lord God that shall call them to repentance CHAP. III. 1. FOr behold in those dayes and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Iudah and Ierusalem 2 I will also gather all nations and will bring them down into the vally of Ieboshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land 3 And they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for an harlot and sold a girle for wine that they might drink 4 Yea and what have ye to do with me O Tyre and Zidon and all the coasts of Palestine will ye render me a recompense and if ye recompense me swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head 5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your Temples my goodly pleasant things 6 The children also of Iudah and the children of Ierusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians that ye might remove them farre from their border 7 Behold I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them and wil return your recompense upon your own head 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Iudah and they shall sell them to the Sabeans to a people far off for the Lord hath spoken it 9 Proclaim ye this among the gentiles prepare war make up the mighty
highest and stateliest persons as stout as they are will he trample under his feet and lay even with the lowest earth 4. At his angry voice the mountainous Cities shall melt under him like wax before the fire and the lower villages in the vale shall part asunder and leave their former glory and station with as much speed and violence as waters will run down in the steepest places and leave no markes of any abode in that place from whence they come 5 And all this for the transgressions of Iacob and the sins of the house of Israel Now what caused the transgressions of Iacob but the ill example of Samaria and what occasioned the idolatry of the high places of Iudah but the ill copy that was set them by Ierusalem 6. But Samaria that first began the sin shall feel the first smart of the punishment And I will make Samaria like a heap of rubbish in the field or of withered plants in a vineyard So far shall she be from having the face and show of a Citie when I have caused the stones to be cast down out of her high buildings into the lowest holes and bottomes and discovered the very foundations of that fabrick wherein she gloried so much 7. Then shall all their graven images be beaten to peices and the rich ornaments that were bestowed upon their idoll-temples shall be consumed with fire and the idols themselves will I lay desolate For at the best those fair donaries were but the rewards and bribes of their spirituall adultery with idols and to no other end shall they come then to what such wages of adultery and idolatry do best deserve to be brought 8. Thus said the Lord. But I their sad Prophet cannot but interpret my inward sorrow by my bitter lamentations and divesting my self of my best and upper garments and in that little better than naked posture mourning like the prodigious melancholy beasts in the desert and howling like the young owles that have no other tone and thence have their name as fit to expresse it 9. All which I am brought to because this Land is so desperately wounded that there is no hope of her cure no not in Judah the best part of her For which cause he that hath already given such a blow to Israel is marching toward my selected people even to the very gates of Ierusalem 10. Yet let not these sad things be published in Gath or any other town of the Philistims our enemies Let not our teares be seen of them that will laugh the more at our miseries But thou Ephraim that bearest the name of fruitfulnesse or rather I will call thee Ophrah from dust and ashes that are signes of sorrow and barrennesse spare not thy sorrowes for thy self within thy own houses Wallow thy self in dust and ashes in contemplation of the sad day wherein all thy houses shall be beaten into dust 11. And you of Samaria so pleasantly seated that the name of Samaria may be turned into Shaphir you shall passe along from thence into a land of desolation and captivity having your fair City laid bare and naked to your utter shame and confusion while thy Sister that dwels in Sion will not stir a foot from her quiet Hill to come towards you and releive you But k keeping her own station and not troubling her self any further she will for fashion sake take the hint of her mourning from thee O Bethel that mayestâ— now rather be called Beth-etsel i. a place of schism and separation 12. But though Jerusalem be yet so senselesse of misery yet she that dwels in Ramoth of Judaea for which you may say by transposition of the letters that dwells in Maroth i. in a place destined to sorrow and bitternesse she shall much bewaile the losse of her good people ere long For mischief and divine vengeance shall come down at last not to them onely of the severall Ramoths and eminent seates in Judaea but to the very gates of Jerusalem too that is pirked up higher than all the rest 13. And thou inhabitant of Lachish shalt bind the chariot to the swift dromedaries that chariot that must convey Sennacheribs servants to Jerusalem to demand no lesse than the rendring up of the Citie into his hands because Lachish gave the first and chief occasion of the sinne of idolatry to the daughter of Sion Such great faults of the ten tribes of Israel being first found in thee 14. Therefore also have I somewhat to say to Moreshah-Gath and Aczib the two neighbour townes of Lachish Thou O Lachish shalt be fain to send presents and bribe the Assyrians well to show favour to Moreshath-Gath And the houshoulders of Achzib shall be put to another shift whereby to help themselves i. by proving themselves false dissemblers and lyars as their name imports and betraying that trust that was reposed in them by the Kings of Israel 15. And now I will say somewhat alluding to the name of Moreshah as I did to that of Achzib Moreshah in the derivation of the word referrs to an heir And I have an heir in store for thee O inhabitant of Moreshah It shall be the Assyrian that shall hereafter possesse what is yet thine I will bring him to thee my self And this Assyrian whom you made so much of once as if he had been the glory of Israel shall quickly enlarge himself and come as farre as Odullam after he hath got the safe possession of Moreshah 16. Therefore O thou poor and miserable Judaea that hearest these sad prophesies against the greatest Townes and Cities fall to those ceremonies now that are the best expressions of their sorrow and heavinesse Take away thy dainty haire and make thy self as good as bald in signe of grief for the slaughter of thy delicate children wherein thou hast placed thy delight And yet enlarge thy baldnesse like that of the Eagle in token of greater sorrow for those thy Children that are led into captivity and so have a heavier sentence passed upon them then there was upon them that were taken away by death from the sense of any further calamitie CHAP. II. 1 WO to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hand 2 And they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppresse a man and his house even a man and his heritage 3 Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold against this family do I devise an evil from which ye shall not remove your necks neither shall ye go haughtily for this time is evil 4 In that day shall one take up a parable against you and lament with a doleful lamentation and say We be utterly spoiled he hath changed the portion of my people how hath he removed it from me turning away he hath divided our
house by cutting off many people and hast sinned against thy soul. 11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it 12 Wo to him that buildeth a town with bloud and stablisheth a city by iniquity 13 Behold it is not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea 15 Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink that puttest the bottle to him and makest him drunken also that thou mayest look on their nakednesse 16 Thou art filled with shame for glory drink thou also and let thy foreskin be uncovered the cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee and shamefull spewing shall be on thy glory 17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee and the spoil of beasts which made them afraid because of mens bloud and for the violence of the land of the City and of all that dwell therein 18 What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it the molten image and a teacher of lies that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make him dumb idols 19 Wo unto him that saith to the wood Awake to the dumb stone Arise it shall teach behold it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all in the midst of it 18 But the Lord is in his holy temple let all the earth keep silence before him The Sum of the second CHAPTER The Prophets Quaeries in the former Chapter were followed so eagerly in the behalf of his Countrey-men that St. Hierome and some others are almost angry with him and think he may well take the name of Chabakkuk from his touching so near and wrastling so boldly with almighty God Not onely in his prayer for them like another Iacob in his third Chapter but in the first Chapter too like a close Disputant in his pressing so hard upon God himself and his Divine Providence and disposall of humane afflictions But whatsoever was the true occasion of the name it seems that his open and patheticall delivery of his Questions did put them upon that conjecture and so upon the point that those learned men were as much troubled at his expression as himself was at the apprehension of that strange course of divine Justice Now this second Chapter resolves the holy Prophet as it may do us in that scruple and showes him the progresse of God's divine Iustice overtaking the bloody profane sacrilegious Chaldeans in the height of their securitie and falling the more heavily upon them for their abusing the power that was put into their hands when they were permitted to be the scourges of men that were better than themselves Which may read a Lecture to any who contribute too much to the malignity of such wicked dayes This may advise them while they have time of Repentance seriously to examine themselves and their own cause This being a Truth that is evidenced by this passage of holy Scripture and this example in the Jewes and Chaldees That God may be so angry with the sins of his own People or so willing to have their Pietie and Vertue made known to the world that it may produce some effects that are little expected So that either for the severe punishment of some to whom it is likely he means to show the more mercy in a greater and more terrible day Or for the Fatherly correction of others that by outward calamities he will hasten to a better amendment of life Or for the exacter tryall of the Faith Obedience Patience and Perseverance of others for whom he intends a weightier Crown of Glory in everlasting Mansions For these and the like respects it may please God to give way to the doing of many things which may well seem strange and wonderfull in the eies of men And while such things are in agitation He may let them see many cruell and malicious designes seconded with as prosperous successes as the evill hearts of the Actors could wish We found it true in the former Chapter of the Chaldeans and may elsewhere of others that were inabled to say that God goes in and out with their Forces that He fights for them in the head of their Armies and crownes their Actions with Triumphs and Victories over far more innocent and religious undertakers than they are All this being no more than the Prophet implies here and God himself speakes in effect by the mouth of his holy Prophets And yet this second Chapter may inform them that all this is not enough to secure the vain confidence of the Enemies of the Church and excuse the idle boasting of strange and fortunate attempts Which may end in as sad a Catastrophe as that of the Chaldeans did after all their pride and effusion of much blood as now we shall hear The Paraphrastical EXPLICATION of the second CHAPTER 1. AFter these sad and scrupulous Quaeries and Objections which presented themselves unto me I could do no other then as a Prophet a Watchman a Seer of Israel betake my self to my watch-tower and with all Reverence and Patience expect what the Divine Oracle would discover unto me and make me able to return as the best solution of those doubts and Interrogatories of my former Discourse 2. And such did the solution prove to be that others have as much reason to observe it as I have Therefore was I commanded by God himself so clearly to deliver and explain the Vision which I shall now relate that it might be given down to Posterity as a thing written in Tables of some durable substance and in fair Capitall letters so that he that runs might read it and see in it as in a little Map a draught of those waies of Gods divine Wisedome and Justice in the ordering and disposing of things below far beyond the reach of our weak judgement and apprehension 3. And beyond the little compasse of our time too For it lookes further than our short and euill dayes Yet as they that live to see it accomplished will account the hardest part of it to be slipped over as in a dream so we that by the eie of faith can look forward and fix our thoughts upon that end which will prove the end of our misery and the end of our Enemies prosperity may see it posting on as all our Times do with such speed as if it were carried upon the wings of the wind For all which speed nothing that is foretold of it will fail or come short of the truth Therefore let no seeming delay take off our expectation and hope in Gods promises which will certainly come at last and cannot come slowly to a heart that is ready and prepared for it and wants not that solace wherewith it