wide open unto thine enemies, the fire shall devoure thy barres.
Draw thee waters for the siege: fortifie thy strong holdes, goe into
clay, and tread the morter: make strong the bricke-kill. There
shall the fire devoure thee: the sword shall cut thee off: it shall
eate thee up like the cankerworme: make thy selfe many as the
cankerworme, make thy selfe many as the locusts. Thou hast
multiplied thy merchants above the starres of heaven; the canker-
worme spoileth and flieth away. The crowned are as the locusts,
and thy captains as the great grashoppers which campe in the
hedges in the cold day: but when the Sunne ariseth, they flee
away, and their place is not knowen where they are. Thy
shepheards slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in
the dust thy people is scattered upon the mountaines, and no
man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise: thy
wound is grievous: all that heare the bruit of thee, shall
clap the hands over thee; for upon whom hath not
thy wickednesse passed continually?

CHAPTER

III

HABAKKUK

CHAPTER I

HE burden which Habakkuk the Prophet did Unto Habaksee. O LORD, howe long shall I crie, and thou kuk complaining of wilt not heare! even cry out unto thee of the iniquitie violence, and thou wilt not save? Why doest of the land, thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the Lawe is slacked, and iudgement doeth never goe foorth: for the wicked doeth compasse about the righteous: therfore wrong iudgement proceedeth.

Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marveil- is shewed the ously: for I wil worke a worke in your daies, which yee will not fearefull vengeance by the beleeve, though it be tolde you. For loe, I raise up the Caldeans, Caldeans. that bitter and hastie nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadfull: their iudgement and

CHAPTER

I

Hee complaineth,

that vengeance should be executed by them

who are farre worse.

Unto Habakkuk, waiting

fo

is shewed that

he must waite by faith.

The judgement upon the Caldean

their dignity shal proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter then the leopards, and are more fierce then the evening wolves and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from farre, they shall flie as the Eagle that hasteth to eate. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the East winde, and they shall gather the captivitie as the sand. And they shal scoffe at the Kings, and the Princes shall bee a scorne unto them: they shall deride every strong holde, for they shall heape dust and take it. Then shall his minde change, and he shall passe over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his God.

Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy one? we shall not die: O LORD, thou hast ordained them for iudgement, and O mightie God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes then to beholde evill, and canst not looke on iniquitie: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deale treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then hee? and makest men as the fishes of the Sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them. They take up all of them with the angle: they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragge; therefore they reioyce and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burne incense unto their drag: because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore emptie their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

CHAPTER II

WILL stand upon my watch, and set mee upon the towre, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answere when I am reproved. And the LORD answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plaine upon tables, that he may runne that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tary, wait for it, because it will surely come, it wil not tary. Behold, his soule which is lifted up, is not upright in him; but the iust shall live by his faith.

Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and for unsatiable is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: shal not all these take up a parable against him, and a tanting proverbe against him, and say; Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his : how long?

nesse,

II

and to him that ladeth himselfe with thicke clay. Shall they not CHAPTER rise up suddenly that shall bite thee? and awake, that shall vexe thee? and thou shalt be for booties unto them? Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shal spoile thee: because of mens blood, and for the violence of the land, of the citie, and of all that dwell therein.

Woe to him that coveteth an evill covetousnesse to his house, for covetousthat he may set his nest on high, that hee may be delivered from nesse, the power of evill. Thou hast consulted shame to thy house, by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soule. For the stone shall crie out of the wall, and the beame out of the timber shall answere it.

Woe to him that buildeth a towne with blood, and stablisheth for crueltie, a citie by iniquitie. Behold, is it not of the LORD of hostes, that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shal wearie themselves for very vanitie? For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the Sea.

Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drinke: that puttest for drunkenthy bottell to him, and makest him drunken also; that thou nesse, mayest looke on their nakednesse. Thou art filled with shame for glory drinke thou also, and let thy foreskin bee uncovered: the cup of the LORDS right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shamefull spewing shalbe on thy glory. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee: and the spoile of beasts, which made them afraide, because of mens blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of al that dwel therin.

What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath and for graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker idolatrie. of his worke, trusteth therin, to make dumbe idoles. Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake: to the dumbe stone, Arise, it shall teach: behold, it is layed over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the middest of it. But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keepe silence before him.

CHAPTER III

A PRAYER of Habakkuk the prophet upon Sigionoth.

LORD, I have heard thy speach, and was afraide:
O LORD, revive thy worke in the midst of the yeeres,
In the midst of the yeeres make knowen;

In wrath remember mercy.

God came from Teman,

And the holy one from mount Paran. Selah.

Habakkuk in his prayer, trembleth at

Gods Maiestie.

CHAPTER

III

His glory covered the heavens
And the earth was full of his praise.
And his brightnesse was as the light:
He had hornes comming out of his hand,
And there was the hiding of his
Before him went the pestilence,

power:

And burning coales went forth at his feete.
He stood and measured the earth:

Hee beheld and drove asunder the nations,

And the everlasting mountaines were scattered,
The perpetuall hilles did bowe:

His wayes are everlasting.

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction:

And the curtaines of the land of Midian did tremble.

Was the LORD displeased against the rivers?

Was thine anger against the rivers?

Was thy wrath against the Sea,

That thou didst ride upon thine horses,

And thy charets of salvation?

Thy bow was made quite naked

According to the oathes of the tribes, even thy word. Selah.

Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.

The mountaines sawe thee, and they trembled:

The overflowing of the water passed by:

The deepe uttered his voyce,

And lift up his hands on high.

The Sunne and Moone stood still in their habitation:

At the light of thine arrowes they went,

And at the shining of thy glittering speare.

Thou didst march through the land in indignation,

Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.

Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people,

Even for salvation with thine Anointed,

Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked,

By discovering the foundation unto the necke. Selah.

Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages:

They came out as a whirle-winde to scatter me:

Their reioycing was as to devoure the poore secretly.

Thou didst walke through the Sea with thine horses,

Through the heape of great waters.

When I heard, my belly trembled:
My lips quivered at the voice:

Rottennesse entred into my bones, and I trembled in my selfe, CHAPTER
That I might rest in the day of trouble:

When hee commeth up unto the people, he wil invade them

with his troupes.

Although the fig tree shall not blossome,

Neither shall fruite bee in the vines:

III

The confidence

of his faith.

The labour of the Olive shall faile,
And the fields shal yeeld no meat,

The flocke shall be cut off from the folde,

And there shalbe no heard in the stalles:
Yet I will reioyce in the LORD:

I will ioy in the God of my salvation.

The LORD God is my strength,

And he will make my feet like hindes feet,

And he will make me to walke upon mine high places.
To the chiefe singer on my stringed instruments.

ZEPHANIAH

CHAPTER I

HE worde of the LORD which came unto Zepha- Gods severe niah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, iudgement the sonne of Amariah, the sonne of Hizkiah, for divers against Iudah in the dayes of Iosiah, the sonne of Amon sinnes. king of Iudah. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast: I will consume the foules of the heaven and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Iudah, and upon all the inhabitants of Ierusalem, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests: and them that worship the hoste of heaven upon the house tops, and them that worship, and that sweare by the LORD, and that sweare by Malcham: and them that are turned backe from the LORD, and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for