CHAPTER Gods purpose goe downe to the stones of the pit, as a carkeis troden under feete. Thou shalt not be ioyned with them in buriall, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slaine thy people: the seede of evill doers shall never be renowmed. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquitie of their fathers, that they doe not rise nor possesse the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, sayth the LORD of hostes, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and sonne and nephew, sayth the LORD. I will also make it a possession for the Bitterne, and pooles of water and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction, sayth the LORD of hostes. The LORD of hostes hath sworne, saying; Surely as I have against Assyria. thought, so shall it come to passe; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will breake the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountaines tread him under foote: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose, that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hostes hath purposed, and who shall disanull it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turne it backe? In the yeere that king Ahaz died, was this burden. Palestina is threatned. The lamentable state of Moab. Reioyce not thou whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpents roote shall come foorth a cockatrice, and his fruite shall be a fierie flying serpent. And the first borne of the poore shall feed, and the needy shall lie downe in safetie: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howle, O gate, crie, O citie, thou whole Palestina art dissolved, for there shal come from the North a smoke, and none shall bee alone in his appointed times. What shall one then answere the messengers of the nation? that the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poore of his people shall trust in it. T CHAPTER XV HE burden of Moab: because in the night Ar of Moab is laide waste and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laide waste, and brought to silence: hee is gone up to Baijth, and to Dibon, the high places, to weepe: Moab shall howle over Nebo, and over Medeba, on all their heads shalbe baldnesse, and every beard cut off. In their streetes they shall girde themselves with sackecloth on the toppes of their houses, and in their streetes every one shall howle, weeping abundantly. And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shalbe heard even unto Iahaz: therefore the armed souldiers of Moab shall crie out, his life shall be grievous unto him. My heart shall cry out for Moab, his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three yeeres olde for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they goe it up for in the way of Horonaim, they shall raise up a crie of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grasse faileth, there is no greene thing. Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laide up, shall they cary away to the brooke of the willowes. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab : the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-Elim. For the waters of Dimon shalbe full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lyons upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land. CHAPTER XV CHAPTER XVI S obedience END ye the lambe to the ruler of the land from Sela to the Moab is exwildernesse, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. For horted to yeeld it shalbe that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest: so to Christs the daughters of Moab shalbe at the fordes of Arnon. Take kingdome. counsell, execute Iudgement, make thy shadow as the night in the middest of the nooneday, hide the outcastes, bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwel with thee, Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressours are consumed out of the land. And in mercy shall the throne be established, and hee shal sit upon it in trueth, in the tabernacle of David, iudging and seeking iudgement, and hasting righteousnesse. threatned We have heard of the pride of Moab (hee is very proud) even of Moab is his hautines, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be for her pride. so. Therefore shall Moab howle for Moab, every one shal howle: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall yee mourne, surely they are stricken. For the fieldes of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah, the lords of the heathen have broken downe the principall plants thereof, they are come even unto lazer, they wandred through the wildernesse, her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea. Therefore I wil bewaile with the weeping of Iazer, the Vine of The Prophet Sibmah; I wil water thee with my teares, O Heshbon, and bewaileth her. Elealeh for the shouting for thy Summer fruits, and for thy harvest, is fallen. And gladnesse is taken away, and ioy out of the plentifull field, and in the Vineyards there shalbe no singing, CHAPTER The judgement of Moab. Syria and Israel are threatned A remnant shall forsake idolatrie. The rest shalbe plagued for their impietie. neither shal there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage-shouting to cease. Wherefore my bowels shal sound like an harpe for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh. And it shal come to passe, when it is seene that Moab is weary on the high place, that hee shall come to his Sanctuary to pray: but hee shall not prevaile. This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time. But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three yeeres, as the yeeres of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shalbe contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble. T CHAPTER XVII THE burden of Damascus : Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a citie, and it shalbe a ruinous heape. The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall bee for flockes, which shall lye downe, and none shall make them afraid. The fortresse also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdome from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall bee as the glorie of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hostes. And in that day it shall come to passe, that the glory of Iacob shall bee made thinne, and the fatnesse of his flesh shall waxe leane. And it shall be as when the harvest-man gathereth the corne, and reapeth the eares with his arme; and it shalbe as he that gathereth eares in the valley of Rephaim. (Yet gleaning-grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an Olive tree, two or three berries in the toppe of the uppermost bough: foure or five in the out-most fruitfull branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel. At that day shall a man looke to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy one of Israel. And hee shall not looke to the altars, the worke of his handes, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves or the images.) In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left, because of the children of Israel: and there shalbe desolation. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not beene mindfull of the rocke of thy strength: therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips. In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seede to flourish but the harvest shall be a heape in the day of griefe, and of desperate sorrow. Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise, like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a CHAPTER rushing, like the rushing of mighty waters. The nations shall rush The woe of like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, Israels enemies. and they shall flee farre off, and shalbe chased as the chaffe of the mountaines before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlewind. And behold at evening tide trouble, and before the morning he is not: this is the portion of them that spoile us, and the lot of them that robbe us. CHAPTER XVIII OE to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond God in care of WE the rivers of Ethiopia: that sendeth ambassadours by his people will destroy the the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, Ethiopians. saying; Goe yee swift messengers to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto, a nation meted out and troden downe; whose land the rivers have spoiled. All yee inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see yee, when hee lifteth up an ensigne on the mountaines; and when he bloweth a trumpet, heare yee. For so the LORD sayd unto me; I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a cleare heate upon herbes, and like a cloud of dew in the heate of harvest. For afore the harvest when the bud is perfect, and the sowre grape is ripening in the flowre; hee shall both cut off the sprigges with pruning hookes, and take away and cut downe the branches. They shalbe left together unto the foules of the mountaines, and to the beasts of the earth: and the foules shall summer upon them, and all the beastes of the earth shall winter upon them. grow unto the In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of An accesse hostes, of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible thereby shall from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and troden Church. under foote, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hostes, the mount Zion. TH CHAPTER XIX HE burden of Egypt: Behold, the LORD rideth upon a The confusion swift cloude, and shall come into Egypt, and the idoles of of Egypt. Egypt shalbe moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his XIX CHAPTER brother, and every one against his neighbour; citie against citie, and kingdome against kingdome. And the spirit of Egypt shall faile in the midst thereof, and I will destroy the counsell thereof: and they shall seeke to the idoles, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruell Lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lorde, the LORD of hostes. And the waters shall faile from the sea, and the river shalbe wasted, and dried up. And they shall turne the rivers farre away, and the brookes of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flagges shall wither. The paper reeds by the brookes, by the mouth of the brookes, and every thing sowen by the brooks shal wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishers also shall mourne, and all they that cast angle into the brookes shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover they that worke in fine flaxe, and they that weave net-works shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluces and ponds for fish. The folishnesse Surely the princes of Zoan are fooles, the counsell of the wise of their Princes. counsellers of Pharaoh is become brutish: How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the sonne of the wise, the sonne of ancient kings? Where are they? Where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know, what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fooles, the princes of Noph are deceived, they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to erre in every worke thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Neither shall there be any worke for Egypt, which the head or taile, branch or rush may doe. In that day shall Egypt bee like unto women: and it shall be afraid and feare, because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it. And the land of Iudah shall bee a terrour unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof, shal be afraid in himselfe, because of the counsell of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it. The calling of In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speake the language of Canaan, and sweare to the LORD of hostes: one shalbe called the citie of destruction. In that day shall there be an Altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD. And it shall be for a signe, and for a witnesse unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they |