The cruelty of the princes. Chap. ill, iv. The church's glory, peace, Mc. 6 Prophefy ye not, fay they to them that and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophesy: they thall not prophefy to them, prophets thereor divine for money. yet will that they thall not take thaine. they lean upon the LORD, and fay, is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 10 thou that art named the houfe of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD traitened? are thefe his doings? do not my words do good to him that walkern uprightly? 8 Even of late my people is riten up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pafs by fecurely as men averfe from war. 9 The wonen of my people have ye caft out from their pleafant houfes; from their chil dren have ye taken away my glory for ever. 10 Arife ye, and depart; for this is not your reit: because it is polluted, it thall defroy you, even with a fore deftruction. Is It a man walking in the fpirit and falfehood do lie, faying, I will prophefy unto thee of wine and of itrong drink; he thall even be the prophet of this people. 12 I will furely auemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will furely gather the remnant of If rael; I will put them together as the theep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midft of their fold: they thall make great noife by reafon of the multitude of men. 13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up and have paffed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pafs before them, and the LORD on the head of them. CHA P. III. 1 The cruelty of the princes. 5 The falfebond of the prophets. 8 their ill grounded fecurity. 12 Therefore fhali Zion for your fake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the houfe as the high places of the forest. IV. CHAP. 1 The glory, 3 peace, 8 kingdom, 11 and victory of the church. BThat the mound.n of the houfe of the LORD thall be citablished in the top of the mountains, and it thall be exalted above the hills; and people thall flow unto it. UT in the iad days it shall come to pafs, 2 And many nations fhall come, and fay, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacoo; and ne will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law thall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerufalem. 3 And he thall judge among many people, and rebuke trong nations ata; of; and they fhall beat their fwords into plowihares, and their pears into pruning hooks: nation fhall not lift up a sword again. nation, neither thall they learn war any more. 4 But they thall fit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them atraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hotts hath spoken it. 5 For all people will walk every one in AND faid, Hear, I pray you, O heads of the name of his god, and we will walk in Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Ifrael; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them; and their defh from off their bones; 3 Who alfo eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the cal dron. 4 Then fhall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. 5 Thus faith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him : 6 Therefore night ball be unto you, that ye shall not have a vifion; and it thall be dark unto you, that ye fhall not divine; and the fun thall go down over the prophets, and the day thall be dark over them. 7 Then fhall the feers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they fhall all cover their lips; for there is no anfwer of God. 8 But truly I am full of power by the fpirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his tranfgreffion, and to Ifrael his fin, 9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the houfe of Jacob, and princes of the houfe of Ifrael, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerufalem with iniquity. II The heads thereof judge for reward, the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. 6 In that day, faith the LORD, Will I af femble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; 7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was catt far off a frong nation: and the LORD thall reign over thean in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. 8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the ftrong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee fhail it come, even the first dominion; the. kingdom fhall come to the daughter of Jeru falem. 9 Now why doft thou cry out alond! is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor pe rished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. 10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail : for now halt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be de. livered: there the LORD thall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. 11 Now alfo many nations are gathered against thee, that fay, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. 12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he thall gather them as the theaves into the floor. 13 Arife and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brafs: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will confecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their fubftance Chriff's birth, kingdom, &c. MICAH. God's contraverig. fubftance unto the LORD of the whole for the LORD hath a controverfy with his peoearth. ple, and he will plead with Ifrael. CHAP. V. 1 The birth of Chrift: 4 his kingdom: 8 his conquest. Now gather thyfelf in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid fiege against us: they thall fmite the judge of Ifrael with a rod upon the cheek. 2 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratali, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Ifrael; whofe goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that the which travaileth nath brought forth then the remnant of his brethren thall return unto the children of Ifrael. 4 And he thall stand and feed in the ftrength of the LORD, in the majeity of the name of the LORD his God, and they shall abide: for now thall he be great unto the ends of the earth. 5 And this nan fhall be the peace, when the Affyrian thall come into our land; and when he thall tread in our palaces, then fhall we raife against him feven thepherds, and eight principal men. 6 And they fhall wafte the land of Affyria with the fword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus thall he deliver us from the Affyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. 7. And the remnant of Jacob fhal! be in the midit of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the fhowers upon the grafs, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the fons of men. 8 And the remnant of Jacob fhail be among the Gentiles in the midft of many people as a lion among the beasts of the foreit, as a young lion among the flocks of theep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. 9 Thine hand fhall be lifted up upon thine adverfaries, and all thine enemies thall be cut off. To And it fhall come to pafs in that day, faith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horfes out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots : II And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds. 12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more foothfayers:. 13 Thy graven images alfo will I cut off, and thy ftanding images out of the midit of thee; and thou shalt no more worthip the work of thine hands. 14 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midft of thee: fo will I deffroy thy cities. 15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, fuch as they have not heard. CHAP. VI. God's controverfy for unkinduefs, 6 for ignorance, 10 for injuftice, 16 and for idolatry. H FAR ye now what the LORD faith; Arife, contend thou before the mountains, and Jet the hills hear thy voice. 2 Hear ye, Omountains, the LORD's controverly, and ye ftrong foundations of the earth: 30 my people, what have I done unto thee! and wherein have I wearied thee? testify againit me, 4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of fervants; and I fent before thee Mofes, Aaron, and Miriam. 5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab confulted, and what Balaam the fon of Beer anfwered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD. 6 Wherewith fhall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the High God+ fhall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleafed with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? thall I give my firitborn for my tranf greifion, the fruit of my body for the fia of my foul? 8 He hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God! 9 The LORD's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom thall fee thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. To Are there yet the treafures of wick.. edness in the houfe of the wicked, and the feant measure that is abominable? 11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights! 12 For the rich men thereof are full of vio. lence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13 Therefore alfo will I make thee fick in fmiting thee, in making thee defolate because of thy fins. 14 Thou shalt eat, but not be fatisfied; and thy cafting down all be in the midit of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but fhalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will 1 give up to the fword. 15 Thou shalt fow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and fweet wine, but fhalt not drink wine. all the works of the houfe of Ahab, and ye 16 For the itatutes of Omri are kept, and walk in their counfels; that I fhould make thee a defolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hifing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. CHA P. VII. The church, complaining of her small number, 3 and the general corruption, 5 putteth her confidence in God. WOE is me! for I am as when they have gathered the fummer frufts, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluiter to eat my foul defired the firil-ripe fruit. 2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with`a net. 3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince aketh, and the judge afketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth The majefly of God's Chap. 1, II. goodness to his people. uttereth his mischievous defire: fo they wrap from fea to fea, and from mountain to moun. it up. 4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is harper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy vifitation cometh; now fhall be their perplexity. Truit ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bofom. 6 For the fon dishonoureth the rather, the daughter rifeth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house. 7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my falvation. my God will hear me 8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I thall arife; when I fit in darknefs, the LORD fhall be a light unto me. 91 will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have finned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and thall behold his righteoufnefs. 10 Then he that is mine enemy fhall fee it, and thame thall cover her which faid unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes fhall behold her: now thall the be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 11 In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day thall the decree be far removed. 12 In that day also he thall come even to thee from Affyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortrefs even to the river, and CHAP. I. tain. 13 Notwithstanding the land fhall be defolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. 14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell folitarily in the wood, in the miaft of Carmel: let them feed in Bathan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I fhew unto him marvellous things. 16 The nations fhall fee and be oorfounded at all their might: they thall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 17 They shall lick the duft like a ferpent, they half move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they thall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee. 18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and paffeth by the tranf greition of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have com. pattion upon us; he will fubdue our iniquities; and thou wilt caft all their fins into the depths of the fea. 20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou haft fworn unto our fathers from the days of old. INAH U M. The majefly of God in goodness to his people 2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adverfaries, and he referveth wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is flow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD bath his way in the whirlwind and in the form, and the clouds are the duft of his fect. 4 He rebuketh the fea, and maketh it dry, and drie .h up all the rivers: Bathan languitheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. 5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his prefence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. 6 Who can ftand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. 7 The LORD is good, a trong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that truit in him. 8 But with an over-running flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness fhall purfue his enemies. 9 What do ye imagine against the LORD! he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rife up the second time. 10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as itubble fully dry. There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor. 12 Thus faith the LORD; Though they be quiet, and likewife many, yet thus all they be cut down, when he fhall pafs through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. 13 For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burft thy bonds in funder. 14 And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be fown out of the houfe of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile. 15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publifh. eth peace! O Judah, keep thy folemn tearts, perform thy vows: for the wicked fhall no more pass through thee; he is u thee; he is utterly cut off. The fearful and victorious armies of God again? Nineveh. HE that dafheth in pieces is come up be. fore thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins ftrong, fortify thy power mightily. 2 For the LORD hath turned away the excellency The miserable NA HUM. cellency of jacob, as the excellency of Ifrael: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. 3 The field of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in fcarlet: the chariots fall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees thall be terribly shaken. 4 The chariots fhall rage in the streets, they fhall juttle one against another in the broad ways they thall feem like torches, they thall run ke the lightnings. 5 He fhall recount his worthies: they shall ftumble in their walk; they thall make hatte to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared. 6 The gates of the rivers fhall be opened, and the palace thall be diffolved. 7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, the fhall be brought up, and her maids thall lead ber as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. 8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of wa. ter: yet they hail flee away. Stand, ftand, all they cry; but none shall look back. 9 Take ye the spoil of filver, take the fpoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleafant furniture. 10 She is empty, and void, and wafte: and the heart melteth, and the knees fmite toge. ther, and much pain is in all ioins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. 11 Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old ion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid? 12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and itrangled for his lionelles, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. 13 Behold, I am against thee, faith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the fmoke, and the fword fhall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy meffengers thall no more be heard. CHA P. III. The miferable ruin of Nineveh. ruin of Ninewed. 5 Behold, I am against thee, faith th LORD of hosts; and I will difcover thy fkirts upon thy face, and I will fhew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy thame. 6 And I will caft abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will fet thee as a gazing-stock. 7 And it fhall come to país, that all they that look upon thee shall nice from thee, and fay, Nineveh is laid wafe: who will bemoan her? whence thall I feek comforters for thee? 8 Art thou better than populous No, that was fituate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whofe rampart was the fea, and her wall was from the fea? 9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite Put and Lubim were thy helpers. 10 Yet was the carried away, the went into captivity: her young children alfo were dathed in pieces at the top of all the ftreets: and they cant lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were hound in chains. 11 Thou alfo fhalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou alfo fhalt seek strength because of the enemy. 12 All thy ftrong holds all be like fig trees with the firit-ripe figs: if they be thaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the cater. 13 Behold, thy people in the midit of thee are women: the gate of thy land thall be fet wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars. 14 Draw thee waters for the fiege, fortify thy strong holds: goin to clay, and tread the mortar, make itrong the brick-kiln. 15 There thall the fire devour thee; the fword fhall cut thee off, it thall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyfelt many as the cankerworm, make thyfelf many as the lo cufts. 16 Thou haft multiplied thy merchants a bove the ftars of heaven: the cankerworm WOE to the bloody city! it is all full oflies fpoileth, and flieth away. and robberies; the prey departeth not; 2 The noife of a whip, and the noife or the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horfes, and of the jumping chariots. 3 The horfeman litteth up both the bright Iword and the glittering fpear: and there is a multitude of flain, and a great number of carcaffes; and there is none end of their corpfes; they tumble upon their corpfes: 4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mitrefs of witchcrafts, that felleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. 17 Thy crowned are as the locufts, and thy captains as the great grafshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the fun arifeth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. 18 Thy thepherds lumber, O king of Af fyria: thy nobles thall dwell in the duff: thy people is fcattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. 19 There is no healing of thy breife; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee thall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness paffed con. tinually? ¶ HABA K K UK. CHAP. I. Unto Habakkuk, complaining of the iniquity of the land, 5 is fhewed the fearful vengeance by the Chaldeans. THE burden which Habakkuk the prophet did fee. lence, and thou wilt not fave! 3 Why doft thou thew me iniquity, and caufe me to behold grievance? for fpoiling and violence are before me: and there are tha! raife up strife and contention. 4 Therefore the law is flacked, and 2 O LORD, how long fhall I cry, and thou judgment doth never go forth: for the wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of vio- wicked doth compafs about the righte The judgment Chap. li, iil. mus; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. 5¶ Behold ye among the heathen, and re. gard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. 6 For, lo, 1 raife up the Chaldeans, that bitter and ha.ty nation, which thall march through the breadth of the land, to poffefs the dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity fhall proceed of themselves. 8 Their horfes alfo are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves and their horfemen thall fpread themselves, and their horfemen thall come from far; they fhalt fly as the eagle that hafteth to eat. 9 They thall come all for violence: their faces thall fup up as the eat wind, and they thall gather the captivity as the fand. Jo And they hall fcoff at the kings, and the princes fhall be a fcorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they thall heap duft and take it. Then fhall his mind change, and he fhall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god. 12¶rt thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we fhall not die. O LORD, thou hart ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou haft eftablished them for correction. 13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canft not look on iniquity: wherefore looket thou upon them that deal treacheroufly, and holdeft thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he t 14 And makeft men as the fishes of the fea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them! 15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them In their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16 Therefore they facrifice unto their net, and burn incenfe unto their drag, becaufe hy them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. 17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare contínually to flay the nations? CHAP. II. ■ Unto Habakkuk, waiting for an answer, 2 is fbewed that he must wait by faith. 5 The judgment upon the Chaldeans. I will and upon my watch, and let me upon the tower, and will watch to fee what he will fay unto me, and what I fhall answer when I am reproved. 2 And the LORD answered me, and faid, Write the vifion, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vifior is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it thall fpeak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will furely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold his foul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just hall live by his faith. 5 Yea alfo, because he tranfgreffeth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his defire as hell, and ir as death, and cannot be satisfied, but ga of the Chaldeans. thereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: 6 Shall not all thefe take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and fay, Woe to him that increafeth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! 7 Shail they not rife up fuddenly that fhall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them! 8 Becaufe thou haft fpoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people thall fpoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 9 Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetoufnefs to his houfe, that he may fet his net on high that he may be delivered from the power of evil! 10 Thou hatt confulted fhame to thy houfe by cutting off many people, and hatt finned against thy foul. 11 For the tone fhall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber fhall answer it. 12 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and ftablisheth a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people fhall labour in the very fire, and the people thall weary themselves for very vanity? 14 For the earth fhall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the fea. 15 Woe unto him that giveth his neigh bour drink, that putteft thy bottle to him, and makeft him drunken alfo, that thou mayeft look on their nakedness! 16 Thou art filled with fhame for glory: drink thou alfo, and let thy foretkin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD's right hand fhall be turned unto thee, and fhameful fpewing ball be on thy glory. 17 For the violence of Lebanon fhall cover thee, and the fpoil of beats, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, 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 mol ten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trufteth therein, to make dumb idols! 19 Woe unto him that faith to the wood, Awake: to the dumb ftone, Arife, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and filver, and there is no breath at all in the midit of it. 20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep filence before him. CHA P. III. 1 Habakkuk, in his prayer, trembleth at God's majey: 17 the confidence of his faith. A Prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. 20 LORD, I have heard thy fpeech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, and the holy one from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praife. 4 And his brightness was as the light; he had |