ech. xi, 13. f Is. ix. 13. ch. v. 3. 29, &c. h ver. 5. * Heb. We have dominion A.C. 629. ble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. 29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord. 30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received Matt . xxiii. no correction : your own sword hath & devoured your pro phets, like a destroying lion. 31 O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, * We are lords ; we will come no more unto thee? 32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. 33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. 34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of +Heb.digging. the poor innocents : I have not found it by + secret search, but upon all these. 35 Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, , because thou sayest, I have not sinned. 36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. 37 Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them. JEREMIAH III, VER, 1-6. 1 God's great mercy in Judah's vile whoredom. her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou 2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where edness. hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a 'whore's fore- 4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, 5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will be keep it to A.C. 620. the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. ter. 624. 8 9 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God. 9 And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin ; and they returned to Jerusalem. 10 And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house ; 11 Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and * to floor the + or, to raf. houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. 12 And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari ; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the song of the Kohathites, to set it forward ; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick. 13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters. 14 And when they brought out the money that was 15 And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, Heb. by the 16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought 17 And they have gathered together the money that "Heb. poured was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it m 2 Kings xxii. 8, &c. of 1 Heb. to the hand of out, or, mell. 12. ments. the A.C. 624. into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the work men. 18 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hil kiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read * Heb. in it. * it before the king. 19 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. 20 And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the + Or, Achbor, son of Shaphan, and † Abdon the son of Micah, and Sha2 Kings xxii. phan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, say- 21 Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that 22 And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son Or, Harhas. of Tikvath, the son of #Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe ; Heb. gøre (now she dwelt in Jerusalem || in the college :) and they spake School, or, in to her to that effect. 23 | And she answered them, Thus saith the LORD God part. of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me, 25 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned in- 26 And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the LORD, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; 27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the 28 Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again. LORD. 29 ( *Then the king sent and gathered together all the A.C. 624. elders of Judah and Jerusalem. n 2 Kings 30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, xxii. 1, &c. and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, * great Heb. from and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the meat even to book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD. 31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. 32 And he caused all that were + present in Jerusalem + Heb. found. SECTION IV. Josiah's Reformation, ZEPHANIAH I. God's severe judgment against Judah for divers sins. of Judah S 58 We learn from Zephaniah i. 1. that he began to prophesy in the reign of Josiah. As he begins his predictions against the “remnant of Baal, and the danie of the Chemarims ;" against them that worshipped the host of heaven, and swore by Malcham, or Baal ; he probably addressed those idolatrous priests who were not yet extirpated by the religious zeal of Josiah; compare Zeph. i. 4,5–9. with 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 64-12. He foretold also the destruction of Nineveh; and from these considerations he may be supposed to have prophesied before the last reformation made by Josiah : and, as he preceded Jeremiah, that he entered on his office towards the commencement of the reign of that monarch. These two prophets resemble each other so much in the parts where they treat of the idolatries and wickedness of the Jews, that it has been supposed that Zephaniah was the abbreviator of Jeremiah, or that Jeremiah was the pupil of the former: Zepbaniah apparently prophesied before Jeremiah, and the latter seems to speak of those abuses as partially removed, which the former describes as existing in the most flagitious extent. (Compare Zephan. i. 4, 5. 9. with Jerem. ii. 5. 20. 32.) The word Chemarim is translated idolatrous priests, (2 Kings xxii. 5.) They were called Chemarim because clothed in black garments, which was the customary dress of these priests. Zephaniah in these books appears to have aided Josiah in his attempt to bring the people back to the worship * Heb. By taking away I + Heb. the face of the land. Or, idols. 4, 5. A.C. 624. 2 * I will utterly consume all things from off + the land, saith the LORD. 3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the will make an fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the #stumblingblocks with the wicked ; and I will cut off man 4 I will stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all Fulfilled, the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and $ I will cut off the rem2 Kings xxiii. nant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chema rims with the priests; 5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the Lonto the housetops ; and them that worship and that swear || by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; 6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him. 7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the LORD God : for the day of the LORD is at hand : for the Lord hath preHeb sancti- pared a sacrifice, he hath *bid his guests. 8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's . 10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the 11 Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off. 12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are 1. Heb er een I settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil. fied, or, pre- ened. of the true God. The first chapter denounces vengeance against Judah, and |