V

CHAPTER and thou shalt have no more Southsayers. Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee: and thou shalt no more worship the worke of thine hands. And I will plucke up thy groves out of the middest of thee: so will I destroy thy cities. And I will execute vengeance in anger, and furie upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

Gods controversie for unkindnesse,

for ignorance,

for iniustice,

H

CHAPTER VI

EARE yee now what the LORD saith, Arise, contend thou before the mountaines, and let the hilles heare thy voice. Heare yee, O mountaines, the LORDS controversie, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversie with his people, and he will pleade with Israel. O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? testifie against me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants, and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the sonne of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that yee may know the righteousnesse of the LORD.

Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow my selfe before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a yeere olde? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rammes, or with tenne thousands of rivers of oyle? shall I give my first borne for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule? Hee hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doeth the LORD require of thee, but to do iustly, and to love mercy, and to walke humbly with thy God? The LORDS voice cryeth unto the citie, and the man of wisedome shall see thy Name: heare ye the rodde, and who hath appointed it.

Are there yet the treasures of wickednesse in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable. Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitfull weights? For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitfull in their mouth. Therefore also will I make thee sicke in smiting thee, in making thee desolate, because of thy sinnes. Thou shalt eate, but not be satisfied, and thy casting downe shall be in the midst of thee, and thou shalt take holde, but shalt not deliver and that which thou deliverest, will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reape: thou shalt

tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oile; and CHAPTER sweet wine, but shalt not drinke wine.

For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the workes of the and for house of Ahab, and ye walke in their counsels, that I should idolatry. make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore yee shall beare the reproch of my people.

W

CHAPTER VII

VI

of her small

OE is mee, for I am as when they have gathered the The Church summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage : complaining there is no cluster to eate: my soule desired the first number, ripe fruit. The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in waite for blood: they hunt every man his brother with a net.

That they may doe evill with both hands earnestly, the prince and the generall asketh, and the iudge asketh for a reward: and the great man, corruption, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up. The best

of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper then a thorne hedge: the day of thy watchmen, and thy visitation commeth; now shall be their perplexitie.

Trust yee not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide : putteth her confidence, keepe the doores of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosome. not in man For the sonne dishonoureth the father: the daughter riseth up but in God. against her mother: the daughter in law against her mother in law; a mans enemies are the men of his owne house. Therefore

I will looke unto the LORD: I will waite for the God of my salvation: my God will heare me.

enemies.

Reioyce not against mee, O mine enemie: When I fall, I shall She triumpheth arise; when I sit in darknes, the LORD shall be a light unto me. over her I will beare the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, untill he plead my cause, and execute iudgement for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousnesse. Then she that is mine enemie shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto mee; Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she bee troden downe, as the myre of the streets. In the day that thy walles are to be built, in that day shall the decree bee farre removed. In that day also he shal come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortresse even to the river, and from Sea to Sea, and from mountaine to mountaine; notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruite of their doings.

CHAPTER
VII

God comfort-
eth her by
promises,

by confusion of the enemies,

and by his mercies.

Feede thy people with thy rod, the flocke of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel : let them feede in Bashan and Gilead, as in the dayes of old. According to the dayes of thy comming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him mervailous things.

The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth: their eares shall be deafe. They shall licke the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like wormes of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall feare because of thee. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquitie, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? hee retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He wil turne againe, he will have compassion upon us: he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sinnes into the depths of the Sea. Thou wilt performe the trueth to Iacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworne unto our fathers from the dayes of old.

NAHUM

CHAPTER I

HE burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. God is ielous, and the LORD revengeth: the LORD revengeth, and is furious, the LORD wil take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 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 whirlewind, and in the storme, and the clouds are the dust of his feete. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it drie, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the floure of Lebanon languisheth. The mountaines quake at him, and the hilles melt, and the earth is burnt at his presence, yea the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger? his furie is powred out like fire, and the rocks are throwen downe

I

by him. The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble, CHAPTER and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter ende of the place thereof, and darkenesse shall pursue his enemies. What doe ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter ende: affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while they be folden together as thornes, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully drie. There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evill against the LORD: a wicked counseller. Thus saith the LORD, Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut downe, when he shall passe through: though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I breake his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. And the LORD hath given a commandement concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sowen: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image, and the molten image, I wil make thy grave, for thou art vile. Behold upon the mountaines the feete of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace. O Iudah keepe thy solemne feasts, performe thy vowes: for the wicked shall no more passe through thee, he is utterly cut off.

HR

CHAPTER II

and victorious

E that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep The fearefull the munition, watch the way: make thy loines strong: armies of God, fortifie thy power mightily. For the LORD hath turned against away the excellencie of Iacob, as the excellencie of Israel: for the Nineveh. emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. The shield of his mightie men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the charets shall bee with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the firre trees shall bee terribly shaken. The charets shall rage in the streets, they shall iustle one against another in the broad wayes: they shall seeme like torches, they shall runne like the lightnings. Hee shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walke: they shall make haste to the wal thereof, and the defence shall bee prepared. The gates of the rivers shall bee opened, and the palace shall bee dissolved. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall leade her as with the voyce of doves, tabring upon their breasts. But Nineveh is of olde like a poole of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand shall they cry: but none shal looke backe. Take ye the spoyle of silver, take the spoile of golde for there is none end of the store, and glory out of all the 4: TT

329

CHAPTER pleasant furniture. Shee is emptie, and voide, and waste, and the

II

The miserable

ruine of Nineveh.

heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much paine is in all loynes, and the faces of them all gather blacknesse. Where is the dwelling of the Lions, and the feeding place of the yong Lions? where the Lion, even the olde Lion walked, and the Lions whelpe, and none made them afraid. The Lion did teare in pieces enough for his whelpes, and strangled for his Lionesses, and filled his holes with pray, and his dens with ravine. Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burne her charets in the smoke, and the sword shall devoure thy yong Lions, and I wil cut off thy pray from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

W°

CHAPTER III

OE to the bloody City, it is all full of lyes and robberie, the pray departeth not. The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheeles, and of the praunsing horses, and of the iumping charets. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword, and the glittering speare, and there is a multitude of slaine, and a great number of carkeises: and there is none ende of their corpses: they stumble upon their corpses, because of the multitude of the whoredomes of the wel-favoured harlot, the mistresse of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredomes, and families through her witchcrafts. Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hostes, and I will discover thy skirtes upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakednesse, and the kingdomes thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing stocke. And it shall come to passe, that all they that looke upon thee, shall flee from thee, and say; Nineveh is layde waste, who will bemoane her? whence shall I seeke comforters for thee? Art thou better then populous No, that was scituate among the rivers that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinit, Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she caried away, she went into captivitie: her yong children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streetes: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chaines. Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt bee hid, thou also shalt seeke strength because of the enemie. All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if they bee shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Beholde, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set