OSEE
THE PROPHECY OF OSEE.
OSEE
1
CHAPTER I.
By marrying a harlot, and by the names of his
children, the prophet sets forth the crimes of Israel
1
The *word of the Lord, that came to Osee, the son of Beeri, in the days of
Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda, and in the days of
Jeroboam, the son of Joas, king of Israel.
2
The beginning of the Lord's speaking by Osse: and the Lord said to Osee: Go,
take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications: for
the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord.
3
So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived, and
bore him a son.
4
And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezrahel: for yet a little while, and I
will visit the blood of Jezrahel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to
cease the kingdom of the house of Israel
5
And in that day I will break in pieces the bow of Israel
in the valley of Jezrahel
6
And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to him: Call her
name, Without mercy: for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel
7
And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them by the Lord,
their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by
horses, nor by horsemen.
8
And she weaned her that was called Without mercy. And she conceived, and bore a son.
9
And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I
will not be yours.
10
And the number of the children of Israel
11
And the children of Juda, and the children of Israel
____________________
*
1: A.M. 3179, A.C. 825.
10: Rom. ix. 26.
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OSEE
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CHAPTER II.
1
Say ye to your brethren: You are my people: and to your sister: Thou hast
obtained mercy.
2
Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not
her husband. Let her put away her
fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.
3
Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will
make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass
through, and will kill her with drought.
4
And I will not have mercy on her children: for they are the children of
fornications.
5
For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered
with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and
my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.
6
Wherefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up
with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.
7
And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she
shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return
to my first husband: because it was better with me then than now.
8
And she did not know that I gave her corn and wine, and oil, and multiplied her
silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.
9
Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its
season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her
disgrace.
10
And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall
deliver her out of my hand:
11
And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her
sabbaths, and all her festival times.
12
And I will destroy her vines, and her fig-trees, of which she said: These are
my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her as a forest, and
the beasts of the field shall devour her.
13
And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and
decked herself out with her ear-rings, and with her jewels, and went after her
lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.
14
Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and
I will speak to her heart.
15
And I will give her vine-dressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor
for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her
youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt
16
And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord: That she shall call me: My
husband, and she shall call me no more Baali.
17
And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no
more remember their name.
18
And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field,
and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I
will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make
them sleep secure.
19
And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in
justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.
20
And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
21
And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear
the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.
22
And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall
hear Jezrahel.
23
And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was
without mercy.
24
*And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they
shall say: Thou art my God.
____________________
*
24: Rom. ix. 25.; 1 Pet. ii. 10.
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OSEE
3
CHAPTER III.
The prophet is again commanded to love an adulteress;
to signify God's love to the synagogue.
The wretched state of the Jews for a along time, till at last they shall
be converted.
1
And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, and love a woman, beloved of her friend,
and an adulteress: as the Lord loveth the children of Israel
2
And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley,
and for half a core of barley.
3
And I said to her: Thou shalt wait for me many days: thou shalt not play the
harlot, and thou shalt be no man's, and I also will wait for thee.
4
For the children of Israel
5
*And after this the children of Israel
____________________
*
5: Ezec. xxxiv. 23.
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OSEE
4
CHAPTER IV.
God's judgment against the sins of Israel
1
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel
2
Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and
blood hath touched blood.
3
Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth in it shall
languish with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air: yea, the
fishes of the sea also shall be gathered together.
4
But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are
as they that contradict the priest.
5
And thou shalt fall to-day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee: in the
night I have made thy mother to be silent.
6
My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because thou hast
rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of
priesthood to me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will
forget thy children.
7
According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me: I will
change their glory into shame.
8
They shall eat the sins of my people, and shall lift up their souls to their
iniquity.
9
*And there shall be like people like priest: and I will visit their ways upon
them, and I will repay them their devices.
10
And they shall eat and shall not be filled: they have committed fornication,
and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not observing his
law.
11
Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness, take away the understanding.
12
My people have consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them:
for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed
fornication against their God.
13
They offered sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burnt incense upon
the hills: under the oak, and the poplar, and the turpentine-tree, because the
shadow thereof was good: therefore shall your daughters commit fornication, and
your spouses shall be adulteresses.
14
I will not visit upon your daughters, when they shall commit fornication, and
upon your spouses when they shall commit adultery: because themselves conversed
with harlots, and offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and the people that
doth not understand shall be beaten.
15
If thou play the harlot, O Israel, at least let not Juda offend: and go ye not
into Galgal, and come not up into Bethaven, and do not swear: The Lord liveth.
16
For Israel
17
Ephraim is a partaker with idols, let him alone.
18
Their banquet is separated, they have gone astray by fornication: they that
should have protected them have loved to bring shame upon them.
19
The wind hath bound them up in its wings, and they shall be confounded because
of their sacrifices.
____________________
*
9: Isai. xxiv. 2.
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OSEE
5
CHAPTER V.
God's threats against the priests, the people, and
princes of Israel, for their idolatry.
1
Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel, and give ear, O
house of the king: for there is a judgment against you, because you have been a
snare to them whom you should have watched over, and a net spread upon Thabor.
2
And you have turned aside victims into the depth: and I am the teacher
of them all.
3 I
know Ephraim, and Israel is
not hid from me: for now Ephraim hath committed fornication, Israel
4
They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the spirit of
fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.
5
And the pride of Israel
shall answer in his face: and Israel
6
With their flocks and with their herds, they shall go to seek the Lord, and
shall not find him: he is withdrawn from them.
7
They have transgressed against the Lord: for they have begotten children that
are strangers: now shall a month devour them with their portions.
8
Blow ye the cornet in Gabaa, the trumpet in Rama: howl ye in Bethaven, behind
thy back, O Benjamin.
9
Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel
10
The princes of Juda are become as they that take up the bound: I will pour out
my wrath upon them like water.
11
Ephraim is under oppression, and broken in judgment: because he began to
go after filthiness.
12
And I will be like a moth to Ephraim: and like rottenness to the house
of Juda.
13
And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Juda his band: and Ephraim went to the
Assyrian, and sent to the avenging king: and he shall not be able to heal you, neither
shall he be able to take off the band from you.
14
For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's whelp to the house
of Juda: I, I will catch, and go: I will take away, and there is none that can
rescue.
15
I will go and return to my place: until you are consumed, and seek my face.
====================
OSEE
6
CHAPTER VI.
Affliction shall be a means to bring many to Christ: a
complaint of the untowardness of the Jews.
God loves mercy more than sacrifice.
1
In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the
Lord.
2
For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us.
3
*He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we
shall live in his sight. We shall know,
and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning
light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.
4
What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy
is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.
5
For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets: I have slain them by
the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.
6
*For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than
holocausts.
7
But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt
treacherously against me.
8
Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.
9
And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests, who
murder in the way those that pass out Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.
10
I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel ,
the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel
11
And thou also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back the
captivity of my people.
____________________
*
3: 1 Cor. xv. 4.
6: 1 Kings xv. 22.; Eccle. iv. 17.; Mat. ix. 13.
and xii. 17.
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OSEE
7
CHAPTER VII.
The manifold sins of Israel
1
When I would have healed Israel ,
the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria
2
And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness:
their own devices now have beset them about, they have been done before my
face.
3
They have made the king glad with their wickedness: and the princes with their
lies.
4
They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a
little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened.
5
The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched out
his hand with scorners.
6
Because they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid snares for
them: he slept all the night baking them, in the morning he himself was heated
as a flaming fire.
7
They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges: all their
kings have fallen: there is none amongst them that calleth unto me.
8
Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as bread baked
under the ashes, that is not turned.
9
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not: yea, grey hairs also
are spread about upon him, and he is ignorant of it.
10
And the pride of Israel
11
And Ephraim is become as a dove that is decoyed, not having a heart: they
called upon Egypt
12
And when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them: I will bring them down
as the fowl of the air, I will strike them as their congregation hath heard.
13
Woe to them, for they have departed from me: they shall be wasted, because they
have transgressed against me: and I redeemed them: and they have spoken lies
against me.
14
And they have not cried to me with their heart, but they howled in their beds:
they have thought upon wheat and wine, they are departed from me.
15
And I have chastised them, and strengthened their arms: and they have imagined
evil against me.
16
They returned, that they might be without yoke: they became like a deceitful
bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongue. This is their derision in the land of Egypt
====================
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CHAPTER VIII.
The Israelites are threatened with destruction for
their impiety and idolatry.
1
Let there be a trumpet in thy throat, like an eagle upon the house of the Lord:
because they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law.
2
They shall call upon me: O my God, we, Israel
3 Israel
4
They have reigned, but not by me: they have been princes, and I knew not: of
their silver, and their gold they have made idols to themselves, that they
might perish.
5
Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled against them. How long will they be incapable of being
cleansed?
6 For
itself also is the invention of Israel :
a workman made it, and it is no god: for the calf of Samaria
7
For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind: there is no standing stalk in
it, the bud shall yield no meal: and if it should yield, strangers shall eat
it.
8 Israel
9
For they are gone up to Assyria , a wild ass
alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.
10
But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them
together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the
princes.
11
Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become to him unto
sin.
12
I shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted as foreign.
13
They shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it, and the
Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their iniquity, and will visit
their sins: they shall return to Egypt
14
And Israel
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CHAPTER IX.
The distress and captivity of Israel
1
Rejoice not, O Israel: rejoice not as the nations do: for thou hast
committed fornication against thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every
corn-floor.
2
The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the wine shall deceive
them.
3
They shall not dwell in the Lord's land: Ephraim is returned to Egypt
4
They shall not offer wine to the Lord, neither shall they please him: their
sacrifices shall be like the bread of mourners: all that shall eat it shall be
defiled: for their bread is life for their soul, it shall not enter into the
house of the Lord.
5
What will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord?
6
For behold they are gone, because of destruction: Egypt
shall gather them together, Memphis
7
The days of visitation are come, the days of repaying are come: know ye, O
Israel, that the prophet was foolish, the spiritual man was mad, for the
multitude of thy iniquity, and the multitude of thy madness.
8
The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: the prophet is become a snare
of ruin upon all his ways, madness is in the house of his God.
9
*They have sinned deeply, as in the days of Gabaa: he will remember their
iniquity, and will visit their sin.
10
I found Israel
11
As for Ephraim, their glory hath flown away, like a bird from the birth, and
from the womb, and from the conception.
12
And though they should bring up their children, I will make them without
children among men: yea, and woe to them, when I shall depart from them.
13
Ephraim, as I saw, was a Tyre
14
Give them, O Lord. What wilt thou give
them? Give them a womb without children,
and dry breasts.
15
*All their wickedness is in Galgal, for there I hated them: for the wickedness
of their devices I will cast them forth out of my house: I will love them no
more, all their princes are revolters.
16
Ephraim is struck, their root is dried up, they shall yield no fruit. And if they should have issue, I will slay
the best beloved fruit of their womb.
17
My God will cast them away, because they hearkened not to him: and they shall
be wanderers among the nations.
____________________
*
9: Judges xix. 25.
15: 1 Kings viii. 5.
====================
OSEE
10
CHAPTER X.
After many benefits, great affliction shall fall upon
the ten tribes, for their ingratitude to God.
1 Israel
2
Their heart is divided, now they shall perish: he shall break down their idols,
he shall destroy their altars.
3
For now they shall say: We have no king: because we fear not the Lord: and what
shall a king do to us?
4
You speak words of an unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and
judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.
5
The inhabitants of Samaria
6
For itself also is carried into Assyria, a present to the avenging king: shame
shall fall upon Ephraim, and Israel
7 Samaria
8
And the high places of the idol, the sin of Israel
9
*From the days of Gabaa, Israel
10
According to my desire I will chastise them: and the nations shall be gathered
together against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.
11
Ephraim is a heifer taught to love, to tread out corn, but I passed over upon
the beauty of her neck: I will ride upon Ephraim, Juda shall plough, Jacob
shall break the furrows for himself.
12
*Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy, break up your
fallow ground: but the time to seek the Lord is, when he shall come that shall
teach you justice.
13
You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the
fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the multitude of thy
strong ones.
14
A tumult shall arise among thy people: and all thy fortresses shall be
destroyed, as *Salmana was destroyed by the house of him that judged Baal in
the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon her children.
15
So hath Bethel
____________________
*
8: Isai. ii. 19.; Luke xxiii. 30.; Apoc. vi. 16.
9: Judges xx. 1.
12: Jer. iv. 3.
14: Judges viii. 12.
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OSEE
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CHAPTER XI.
God proceeds in threatening Israel
1
As the morning passeth, so hath the king of Israel Israel
was a child, and *I loved him: and I called my son out of Egypt
2
As they called them, they went away from before their face: they offered
victims to Baalim, and sacrificed to idols.
3
And I was like a foster-father to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms: and they
knew not that I healed them.
4 I
will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love: and I will be to
them as one that taketh off the yoke on their jaws: and I put his meat to him,
that he might eat.
5
He shall not return into the land
of Egypt
6
The sword hath begun in his cities, and it shall consume his chosen men, and
shall devour their heads.
7
And my people shall long for my return: but a yoke shall be put upon them
together, which shall not be taken off.
8
How shall I deal with thee, O Ephraim, shall I protect thee, O Israel? *how
shall I make thee as Adama, shall I set thee as Seboim? my heart is turned
within me, my repentance is stirred up.
9 I
will not execute the fierceness of my wrath: I will not return to destroy
Ephraim: because I am God, and not man: the holy one in the midst of thee, and
I will not enter into the city.
10
They shall walk after the Lord, he shall roar as a lion: because he shall roar,
and the children of the sea shall fear.
11
And they shall fly away like a bird out of Egypt
12
Ephraim hath compassed me about with denials, and the house of Israel
____________________
*
1: Mat. ii. 15.
8: Gen. xix. 24.
====================
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CHAPTER XII.
1
Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all the day
long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a covenant with the
Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt
2
Therefore there is a judgment of the Lord with Juda, and a visitation for
Jacob; he will render to him according to his ways, and according to his
devices.
3
*In the womb he supplanted his brother: and by his strength he had success with
an angel.
4
And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made
supplication to him: he found him in Bethel
5
Even the Lord the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.
6
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God
always.
7 He
is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved
oppression.
8
And Ephraim said: But yet I am become rich, I have found me an idol: all my
labours shall not find me the iniquity that I have committed.
9
And I that am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt
10
And I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and I have
used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
11
If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal offering sacrifices with
bullocks: for their altars also are as heaps in the furrows of the field.
12
*Jacob fled into the country of Syria ,
and Israel
13
*But the Lord, by a prophet, brought Israel
out of Egypt
14
Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath with his bitterness, and his blood shall come
upon him, and his Lord will render his reproach unto him.
____________________
*
3: Gen. xxv. 25. and xxxii. 24.
12: Gen. xxviii. 5.
13: Exod. xiv. 21. and 22.
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13
CHAPTER XIII.
The judgments of God upon Israel
1
When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel
2
And now they have sinned more and more: and they have made to themselves a
molten thing of their silver, as the likeness of idols, the whole is the work
of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves.
3
Therefore they shall be as a morning aloud, and as the early dew that passeth
away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the
smoke out of the chimney.
4
*But I am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt
5 I
knew thee in the desert, in the land of the wilderness.
6
According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they
lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me.
7
And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians.
8 I
will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the
inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there as a lion, the beast
of the field shall tear them.
9
Destruction is thy own, O Israel: thy help is only in me.
10
Where is thy king? now especially let him save thee in all thy cities: and thy
judges, of whom thou saidst: *Give me kings and princes.
11
I will give thee a king in my wrath, and will take him away in my
indignation.
12
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hidden.
13
The sorrows of a woman in labour snail come upon him, he is an unwise son: for
now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.
14
I will deliver them out of the hand of death.
I will redeem them from death: *O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I
will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes,
15
Because he shall make a separation between brothers: *the Lord will bring a
burning wind that shall rise from the desert: and it shall dry up his springs,
and shall make his fountain desolate, and he shall carry off the treasure of
every desirable vessel.
____________________
*
4: Isai. xliii. 11.
10: 1 Kings viii. 5.
14: 1 Cor. xv. 54.; Heb. ii. 14.
15: Ezec. xix. 12.
====================
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14
CHAPTER XIV.
1
Let Samaria
2
Return, O Israel, to the Lord, thy God: for thou hast fallen down by thy
iniquity.
3
Take with you words, and return to the Lord, and say to him: Take away all
iniquity, and receive the good: and we will render the calves of our lips.
4 Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more: The works of our hands are our gods: for thou
wilt have mercy on the fatherless that is in thee.
5 I
will heal their breaches, I will love them freely: for my wrath is turned away
from them.
6 I
will be as the dew, Israel
7
His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive-tree: and his
smell as that of Libanus.
8
They shall be converted, that sit under his shadow: they shall live upon wheat,
and they shall blossom as a vine: his memorial shall be as the wine of Libanus.
9
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will hear him, and I will make him flourish
like a green fir-tree: from me is thy fruit found.
10
Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know
these things? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in
them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.
====================
====================
JOEL
THE PROPHECY OF JOEL.
JOEL
1
CHAPTER I.
The prophet describes the judgments that shall fall
upon the people, and invites them to fasting and prayer.
1
The *word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Phatuel.
2
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: did this
ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3
Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
4
That which the palmer-worm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and that which the
locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which the bruchus hath left,
the mildew hath destroyed.
5
Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take delight in
drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.
6
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number: his teeth are
like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek-teeth as of a lion's whelp.
7
He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my fig-tree: he
hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
8
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9
Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the
Lord's ministers, have mourned:
10
The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is wasted, the
wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.
11
The husbandmen are ashamed, the vine-dressers have howled for the wheat, and
for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.
12
The vineyard is confounded, and the fig-tree hath languished: the
pomegranate-tree, and the palm-tree, and the apple-tree, and all the trees of
the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the children of men.
13
Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altars: go
in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because sacrifice and libation is
cut off from the house of your God.
14
*Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly, gather together the ancients, all the
inhabitants of the land into the house of your God: and cry ye to the Lord:
15
Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at hand, and it shall
come like destruction from the mighty.
16
Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from the house of
our God?
17
The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed, the store-houses
are broken down: because the corn is confounded.
18
Why did the beast groan, why did the herds of cattle low? because there is no
pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are perished.
19
To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the beautiful places of
the wilderness: and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the country.
20
Yea, and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a garden bed that
thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are dried up, and fire hath
devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness.
____________________
*
1: A.M. circiter 3204, A.C. 800.
14: Infra ii. 15.
====================
JOEL
2
CHAPTER II.
The prophet foretells the terrible day of the Lord:
exhorts sinners to a sincere conversion: and comforts God's people with
promises of future blessings under Christ.
1
Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain, let all the
inhabitants of the land tremble: because the day of the Lord cometh, because it
is nigh at hand.
2 A
day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds: a numerous
and strong people as the morning spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath
not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it even to the years of
generation and generation.
3
Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the
land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate
wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.
4 The
appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they shall run like
horsemen.
5
They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains, like the
noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, as a strong people prepared to
battle.
6
At their presence the people shall be in grievous pains: all faces shall be
made like a kettle.
7
They shall run like valiant men: like men of war they shall scale the wall: the
men shall march every one on his way, and they shall not turn aside from their
ranks.
8
No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk every one in his path:
yea, and they shall fall through the windows, and shall take no harm.
9
They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb
up the houses, they shall come in at the windows, as a thief.
10
At their presence the earth hath trembled, the heavens are moved: *the sun and
moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.
11
And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his army: for his armies
are exceedingly great, for they are strong, and execute his word: *for the day
of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?
12
Now, therefore, saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in
fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.
13
And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God:
*for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to
repent of the evil.
14
*Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him,
sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God?
15
Blow the trumpet in Sion, *sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly,
16
Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather
together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom
go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bride-chamber.
17
Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord's ministers, shall weep,
and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to
reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where
is their God?
18
The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people.
19
And the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold I will send you corn, and
wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no more make you a
reproach among the nations.
20
And I will remove far off from you the northern enemy: and I will drive
him into a land unpassable, and desert, with his face towards the east sea, and
his hinder part towards the utmost sea: and his stench shall ascend, and his
rottenness shall go up, because he hath done proudly.
21
Fear not, O land, be glad, and rejoice: for the Lord hath done great things.
22
Fear not, ye beasts of the fields: for the beautiful places of the wilderness
are sprung, for the tree hath brought forth its fruit, the fig-tree, and the
vine have yielded their strength.
23
And you, O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful in the Lord your God: because
he hath given you a teacher of justice, and he will make the early and the
latter rain to come down to you as in the beginning.
24
And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow with
wine, and oil.
25
And I will restore to you the years which the locust, and the bruchus, and the
mildew, and the palmer-worm have eaten; my great host which I sent upon you.
26
And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled: and you shall praise the name
of the Lord your God, who hath done wonders with you, and my people shall not
be confounded for ever.
27
And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel
28
And it shall come to pass after this, *that I will pour out my spirit upon all
flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall
dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
29
Moreover, upon my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour forth my spirit.
30
And I will shew wonders in heaven; and in earth, blood, and fire, and vapour of
smoke.
31
*The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the
great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come.
32
And it shall come to pass, *that every one that shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved: for in Mount Sion , and in Jerusalem
____________________
*
10: Is. xiii. 10.; Ezec. xxxii. 7.; Infra iii.
15.; Mat. xxiv. 29.; Mark xiii. 24.; Lu. xxi. 25.
11: Jer. xxx. 7.; Amos v. 18.; Soph. i. 15.
13: Ps. lxxxv. 5.; John iv. 2.
14: John iii. 9.
15: Supra i. 14.
28: Isai. xliv. 3.; Acts ii. 17.
31: Supra ii. 10.; Mat. xxiv. 29.; Luke xxi. 25.;
Acts ii. 10.
32: Rom. x. 13.
====================
JOEL
3
CHAPTER III.
The Lord shall judge all nations in the valley of Josaphat
1
For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the
captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem
2 I
will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat :
and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel
3
And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews,
and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink.
4
But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon
5
For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable, and most
beautiful things you have carried into your temples.
6
And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem
7
Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I
will return your recompense upon your own heads.
8
And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of
Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord
hath spoken it.
9
Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them
come, let all the men of war come up.
10
Cut your plough-shares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.
11
Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves
together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.
12
Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat
13
*Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the
press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.
14
Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of destruction.
15
*The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.
16
*And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem :
and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of
his people, and the strength of the children of Israel
17
And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy
mountain: and Jerusalem
18
And it shall come to pass in that day, *that the mountains shall drop down
sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through
all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the
Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.
19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom
20
And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem
21
And I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed: and the Lord will
dwell in Sion.
____________________
*
13: Apoc. xiv. 15.
15: Supra ii. 10. and 31.
16: Jer. xxv. 30.; Amos i. 2.
18: Amos ix. 13.
====================
====================
AMOS
THE PROPHECY OF AMOS.
AMOS
1
CHAPTER I.
The prophet threatens Damascus ,
Gaza , Tyre ,
Edom
1
The *words of Amos, who was among herdsmen of Thecua: which he saw concerning
Israel in the days of Ozias, king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son
of Joas, king of Israel, **two years ***before the earthquake.
2
And he said: *The Lord will roar from Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem : and the beautiful places of the shepherds have
mourned, and the top of Carmel
3
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus
4
And I will send a fire into the house of Azael, and it shall devour the houses
of Benadad.
5
And I will break the bar of Damascus: and I will cut off the inhabitants from
the plain of the idol, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of
pleasure: and the people of Syria
shall be carried away to Cyrene
6
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza ,
and for four, I will not convert it, because they have carried away a perfect
captivity to shut them up in Edom
7
And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza
8
And I will cut off the inhabitant from Azotus, and him that holdeth the sceptre
from Ascalon: and I will turn my hand against Accaron, and the rest of the
Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.
9
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre ,
and for four, I will not convert it: because they have shut up an entire
captivity in Edom
10
And I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre
11
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Edom
12
I will send a fire into Theman: and it shall devour the houses of Bosra.
13
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four, I
will not convert him: because he hath ript up the women with child, of Galaad,
to enlarge his border.
14
And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabba: and it shall devour the houses
thereof with shouting in the day of battle, and with a whirlwind in the day of
trouble.
15
And Melchom shall go into captivity, both he, and his princes together, saith
the Lord.
____________________
*
1: A.M. circiter 3224, A.C. 780. --- ** Zach.
xiv. 5. --- *** A.M. 3216, A.C. 788.
2: Jer. xxv. 30.; Joel iii. 16.
====================
AMOS
2
CHAPTER II.
The judgments with which God threatens Moab , Juda, and Israel
1
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Moab ,
and for four, I will not convert him: because he hath burnt the bones of the
king of Edom
2
And I will send a fire into Moab ,
and it shall devour the houses of Carioth: and Moab
3
And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all his
princes with him, saith the Lord.
4
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Juda, and for four, I will not convert
him: because he hath cast away the law of the Lord, and hath not kept his
commandments: for their idols have caused them to err, after which their
fathers have walked.
5
And I will send a fire into Juda, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem
6
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Israel
7
They bruise the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and turn aside
the way of the humble: and the son and his father have gone to the same young
woman, to profane my holy name.
8
And they sat down upon garments laid to pledge by every altar: and drank the
wine of the condemned in the house of their God.
9
*Yet I cast out the Amorrhite before their face: whose height was like the
height of cedars, and who was strong as an oak: and I destroyed his fruit from
above, and his roots beneath.
10
*It is I that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and I led you forty
years through the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorrhite.
11 And
I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for
Nazarites. Is it not so, O ye children
of Israel
12
And you will present wine to the Nazarites: and command the prophets, saying:
Prophesy not.
13
Behold, I will screek under you, as a wain screeketh that is laden with hay.
14
And flight shall perish from the swift, and the valiant shall not possess his
strength, neither shall the strong save his life.
15
And he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not
escape, neither shall the rider of the horse save his life.
16
And the stout of heart among the valiant shall flee away naked in that day,
saith the Lord.
____________________
*
9: Num. xxi. 24.; Deut. ii. 24.
10: Exod. xiv. 22.; Deut. viii. 24.
====================
AMOS
3
CHAPTER III.
The evils that shall fall upon Israel
1
Hear the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O ye children of Israel : concerning the whole family that I
brought up out of the land
of Egypt
2
You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit
upon you all your iniquities.
3
Shall two walk together except they be agreed?
4
Will a lion roar in the forest, if he have no prey? will the lion's whelp cry
out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
5
Will the bird fall into the snare upon the earth, if there be no fowler? Shall the snare be taken up from the earth,
before it hath taken somewhat?
6
Shall the trumpet sound in a city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord
hath not done?
7
For the Lord God doth nothing without revealing his secret to his servants, the
prophets.
8
The lion shall roar, who will not fear?
The Lord God hath spoken, who shall not prophesy?
9
Publish it in the houses of Azotus, and in the houses of the land of Egypt ,
and say: Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria
10
And they have not known to do the right thing, saith the Lord, storing up
iniquity, and robberies in their houses.
11
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: The land shall be in tribulation, and shall
be compassed about: and thy strength shall be taken away from thee, and thy houses
shall be spoiled.
12
Thus saith the Lord: As if a shepherd should get out of the lion's mouth two
legs, or the tip of the ear: so shall the children of Israel be taken out that
dwell in Samaria, in a piece of a bed, and in the couch of Damascus.
13
Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord, the God of hosts:
14
That in the day when I shall begin to visit the transgressions of Israel , I will visit upon him, and upon the
altars of Bethel
15
And I will strike the winter-house with the summer-house: and the houses of
ivory shall perish, and many houses shall be destroyed, saith the Lord.
====================
AMOS
4
CHAPTER IV.
The Israelites are reproved for their oppressing the
poor, for their idolatry, and their incorrigibleness.
1
Hear this word, ye fat kine that are in the mountains of Samaria
2
The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days shall come upon you,
when they shall lift you up on pikes, and what shall remain of you in boiling
pots.
3
And you shall go out at the breaches, one over-against the other, and you shall
be cast forth into Armon, saith the Lord.
4
Come ye to Bethel
5
And offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven: and call free offerings, and
proclaim it: for so you would do, O children of Israel
6
Whereupon I also have given you dulness of teeth in all your cities, and want
of bread in all your places: yet you have not returned to me, saith the Lord.
7 I
also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the
harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon
another city: one piece was rained upon: and the piece whereupon I rained not,
withered.
8
And two and three cities went to one city to drink water, and were not filled:
yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.
9
*I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew, the palmer-worm hath eaten
up your many gardens, and your vineyards: your olive-groves, and fig-groves:
yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.
10
I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt
11
I destroyed some of you, *as God destroyed Sodom
12
Therefore I will do these things to thee, O Israel: and after I shall have done
these things to thee, be prepared to meet thy God, O Israel.
13
For behold, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth
his word to man, he that maketh the morning mist, and walketh upon the high
places of the earth; the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name.
____________________
*
9: Aggeus ii. 18.
11: Gen. xix. 24.
====================
AMOS
5
CHAPTER V.
A lamentation for Israel
1
Hear ye this word, which I take up concerning you for a lamentation. The house of Israel
2
The virgin of Israel
3
For thus saith the Lord God: The city, out of which came forth a thousand,
there shall be left in it a hundred: and out of which there came a hundred,
there shall be left in it ten, in the house of Israel.
4
For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel
5
But seek not Bethel , and go not into Galgal,
neither shall you pass over to Bersabee: for Galgal shall go into captivity,
and Bethel
6
Seek ye the Lord, and live: lest the house of Joseph be burnt with fire, and it
shall devour, and there shall be none to quench Bethel
7
You that turn judgment into wormwood, and forsake justice in the land.
8 Seek
him that maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and that turneth darkness into
morning, and that changeth day into night: *that calleth the waters of the sea,
and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.
9
He that with a smile bringeth destruction upon the strong, and waste upon the
mighty.
10
They have hated him that rebuketh in the gate: and have abhorred him that
speaketh perfectly.
11
Therefore, because you robbed the poor, and took the choice prey from him: *you
shall build houses with square stone, and shall not dwell in them: you shall
plant most delightful vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.
12
Because I know your manifold crimes, and your grievous sine: enemies of the
just, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in the gate.
13
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time, for it is an evil time.
14
Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be with you, as you have said.
15
*Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the
Lord, the God of hosts, may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.
16
Therefore, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the sovereign Lord: In every
street there shall be wailing: and in all places that are without, they
shall say: Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such
as are skilful in lamentation to lament.
17
And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pass through in the
midst of thee, saith the Lord.
18
*Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the
day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.
19
As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or
enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent
should bite him.
20
Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no
brightness in it?
21
*I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour
of your assemblies.
22 And
if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither
will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.
23
Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of
thy harp.
24
But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.
25
*Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O
house of Israel
26
But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the
star of your god, which you made to yourselves.
27
And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus
____________________
*
8: Infra ix. 6.
11: Soph. i. 13.
15: Ps. xcvi. 10.; Rom. xii. 9.
18: Jer. xxx. 7.; Joel ii. 11.; Soph. i. 15.
21: Isai. i. 11.; Jer. vi. 20.; Mal. i. 12.
25: Acts vii. 42.
====================
AMOS
6
CHAPTER VI.
The desolation of Israel
1
Woe *to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have confidence in the mountain of Samaria :
ye great men, heads of the people, that go in with state into the house of Israel
2
Pass ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence into Emath the great: and
go down into Geth, of the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these:
if their border be larger than your border.
3
You that are separated unto the evil day: and that approach to the throne of
iniquity.
4
You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on your couches: that eat the
lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd.
5
You that sing to the sound of the psaltery: they have thought themselves to
have instruments of music like David.
6
That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments: and
they are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph.
7
Wherefore, now they shall go captive at the head of them that go into
captivity: and the faction of the luxurious ones shall be taken away.
8
*The Lord God hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord, the God of hosts: I
detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the
city, with the inhabitants thereof.
9
And if there remain ten men in one house, they also shall die.
10
And a man's kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, that he may carry
the bones out of the house: and he shall say to him that is in the inner rooms
of the house: Is there yet any with thee?
11
And he shall answer: There is an end.
And he shall any to him: Hold thy peace, and mention not the name of the
Lord.
12
For behold, the Lord hath commanded, and he will strike the greater house with
breaches, and the lesser house with clefts.
13
Can horses run upon the rocks, or can any one plough with buffles, for you have
turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood?
14
You that rejoice in a thing of naught: you that say: Have we not taken unto us
horns by our own strength?
15
But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel
____________________
*
1: Luke vi. 24.
8: Jer. li. 14.
====================
AMOS
7
CHAPTER VII.
The prophet sees, in three visions, evils coming upon Israel : he is accused of treason by the false
priest of Bethel
1
These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold, the locust was formed in
the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain; and lo, it was the
latter rain after the king's mowing.
2
And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the
land, I said: O Lord God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who shall raise up
Jacob, for he is very little?
3
The Lord had pity upon this: It shall not be, said the Lord.
4
These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold, the Lord called for judgment
unto fire, and it devoured the great deep, and eat up a part at the same time.
5
And I said: O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee, who shall raise up Jacob, for he
is a little one?
6
The Lord had pity upon this: Yea, this also shall not be, said the Lord God.
7
These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold, the Lord was standing
upon a plastered wall, and in his hand a mason's trowel.
8
And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Amos?
And I said: A mason's trowel. And
the Lord said: Behold, I will lay down the trowel in the midst of my people, Israel
9
And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down, and the sanctuaries of Israel
10
And Amasias, the priest of Bethel , sent to
Jeroboam, king of Israel ,
saying: Amos hath rebelled against thee in the midst of the house of Israel
11
For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel
12
And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Juda
13
But prophesy not again any more in Bethel
14
And Amos answered, and said to Amasias: I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of
a prophet: but I am a herdsman, plucking wild figs.
15
And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go,
prophesy to my people Israel
16
And now, hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest: Thou shalt not prophesy
against Israel
17
Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall play the harlot in the city, and
thy sons, and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be
measured by a line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel
====================
AMOS
8
CHAPTER VIII.
Under the figure of a hook, which bringeth down the
fruit, the approaching desolation of Israel
1
These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.
2
And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And
I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And
the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people, Israel
3
And the hinges of the temple shall screek in that day, saith the Lord God: many
shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.
4
Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,
5
Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the
sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and
increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances.
6
That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and
may sell the refuse of the corn.
7
The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget all
their works.
8
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein:
and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt
9
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall
go down at mid-day, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:
10
*And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into
lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and
baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son,
and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.
11
Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the
land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of
the Lord.
12
And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall
go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13
In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.
14
They that swear by the sin of Samaria
____________________
*
10: Tobias ii. 6.; 1 Mac. i. 41.
====================
AMOS
9
CHAPTER IX.
The certainty of the desolation of Israel
1 I
saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said: Strike the hinges, and let
the lintels be shook: for there is covetousness in the head of them all, and I
will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall be no flight for them:
they shall flee, and he that shall flee of them shall not be delivered.
2
*Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand bring them out: and
though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.
3
And though they be hid in the top of Carmel
4
And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the
sword, and it shall kill them. *And I
will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
5
And the Lord, the God of hosts, is he who toucheth the earth, and it
shall melt: and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up as a
river, and shall run down as the river
of Egypt
6
He that buildeth his ascension in heaven, and hath founded his bundle upon the
earth: *who calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face
of the earth, the Lord is his name.
7
Are not you as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel Israel
out of the land of Egypt : *and the Palestines out of Cappadocia, and the
Syrians out of Cyrene
8
Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will
destroy it from the face of the earth: but yet I will not utterly destroy the
house of Jacob, saith the Lord.
9
For behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel
10
All the sinners of my people shall fall by the sword: who say: The evils shall
not approach, and shall not come upon us.
11
In that day *I will raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen: and I
will close up the breaches of the walls thereof, and repair what was fallen:
and I will rebuild it as in the days of old.
12
That they may possess the remnant of Edom
13
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the
reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed: and *the mountains
shall drop sweetness, and every hill shall be tilled.
14
And I will bring back the captivity of my people, Israel
____________________
*
2: Ps. cxxxviii. 8.
4: Jer. xliv. 11.
6: Supra v. 8.
7: Deut. ii. 25.; Jer. xlvii. 4.
11: Acts xv. 16.
13: Joel iii. 18.
====================
====================
ABDIAS
THE PROPHECY OF ABDIAS.
ABDIAS
1
CHAPTER I.
The destruction of Edom ,
for their pride: and the wrongs they did to Jacob: the salvation and victory of
Israel
1
The *vision of Abdias. Thus saith the
Lord God to Edom
2
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art exceedingly
contemptible.
3
The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, who dwellest in the clefts of the
rocks, and settest up thy throne on high: who sayest in thy heart: Who shall
bring me down to the ground?
4
Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the
stars: thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.
5
If thieves had gone into thee, if robbers by night, how wouldst thou have held
thy peace? would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape-gatherers
had come into thee, would they not have left thee at the least a cluster?
6
How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his hidden things?
7
They have sent thee out even to the border: all the men of thy confederacy have
deceived thee: the men of thy peace have prevailed against thee: they that eat
with thee, shall lay snares under thee: there is no wisdom in him.
8
*Shall not I in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise out of Edom, and
understanding out of the mount of Esau?
9
And thy valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man may be cut off from
the mount of Esau.
10
*For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy brother Jacob, confusion
shall cover thee, and thou shalt perish for ever.
11
In the day when thou stoodest against him, when strangers carried away his army
captive, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem:
thou also wast as one of them.
12
But thou shalt not look on in the day of thy brother, in the day of his leaving
his country: and thou shalt not rejoice over the children of Juda, in the day
of their destruction: and thou shalt not magnify thy mouth in the day of
distress.
13
Neither shalt thou enter into the gate of my people, in the day of their ruin:
neither shalt thou also look on in his evils, in the day of his calamity: and
thou shalt not be sent out against his army, in the day of his desolation.
14
Neither shalt thou stand in the cross-ways to kill them that flee: and thou
shalt not shut up them that remain of him in the day of tribulation.
15
For the day of the Lord is at hand upon all nations: as thou hast done, so
shall it be done to thee: he will turn thy reward upon thy own head.
16
For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so all nations shall drink
continually: and they shall drink, and sup up, and they shall be as though they
were not.
17
And in Mount Sion shall be salvation, and it shall be holy: and the house of
Jacob shall possess those that possessed them.
18
And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and
the house of Esau stubble: and they shall be kindled in them, and shall devour
them: and there shall be no remains of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath
spoken it.
19
And they that are toward the south, shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they
that are in the plains, the Philistines: and they shall possess the country of
Ephraim, and the country of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Galaad.
20
And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, all the places of the
Chanaanites, even to Sarepta: and the captivity of Jerusalem, that is in
Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south.
21
And saviours shall come up into Mount Sion to judge the mount of Esau: and the
kingdom shall be for the Lord.
____________________
*
1: A.M. circiter 3224, A.C. 780. --- ** Jerem.
xlix. 14.
8: Isai. xxix. 14.; 1 Cor. i. 19.
10: Gen. xxvii. 42.
====================
====================
JONAS
THE PROPHECY OF JONAS.
JONAS
1
CHAPTER I.
Jonas being sent to preach in Ninive, fleeth away by sea:
a tempest riseth: of which he being found, by lot, to be the cause, is cast
into the sea, which thereupon is calmed.
1
Now *the word of the Lord came to Jonas, the son of Amathi, saying:
2
Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city, and preach in it: for the wickedness
thereof is come up before me.
3
And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went
down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof,
and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord.
4
But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea: and a great tempest was raised in
the sea, and the ship was in danger to be broken.
5
And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried to their god: and they cast
forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them: and
Jones went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep.
6
And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him: Why art thou fast asleep? rise
up, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think of us, that we may not
perish.
7
And they said every one to his fellow: Come, and let us cast lots, that we may
know why this evil is upon us. And they
cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonas.
8
And they said to him: Tell us for what cause this evil is upon us, what is thy
business? of what country art thou? and whither goest thou? or of what people
art thou?
9
And he said to them: I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who
made both the sea and the dry land.
10
And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him: Why hast thou done this?
(for the men knew that he fled from the face of the Lord: because he had told
them.)
11
And they said to him: What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us?
for the sea flowed and swelled.
12
And he said to them: Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be
calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
13
And the men rowed hard to return to land, but they were not able: because the
sea tossed and swelled upon them.
14
And they cried to the Lord, and said: We beseech thee, O Lord, let us not
perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O
Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
15
And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging.
16
And the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and sacrificed victims to the Lord,
and made vows.
____________________
*
1: A.M. circiter 3197, A.C. 807.
====================
JONAS
2
CHAPTER II.
Jonas is swallowed up by a great fish; he prayeth with
confidence in God: and the fish casteth him out on the dry land.
1
Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas: *and Jonas was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2
And Jonas prayed to the Lord, his God, out of the belly of the fish.
3
And he said: *I cried out of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me: I
cried out of the belly of hell, and thou hast heard my voice.
4
And thou hast cast me forth into the deep, in the heart of the sea, and a flood
hath compassed me: all thy billows, and thy waves have passed over me.
5
And I said: I am cast away out of the sight of thy eyes: but yet I shall see
thy holy temple again.
6
*The waters compassed me about even to the soul: the deep hath closed me round
about, the sea hath covered my head.
7 I
went down to the lowest parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut
me up for ever: and thou wilt bring up my life from corruption, O Lord, my God.
8
When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer
may come to thee, unto thy holy temple.
9
They that are vain observe vanities, forsake their own mercy.
10
But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee: I will pay whatsoever I
have vowed for my salvation to the Lord.
11
And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land.
____________________
*
1: Mat. xii. 40. and xvi. 4.; Luke xi. 30.; 1
Cor. xv. 4.
3: Ps. cxix. 1.
6: Ps. lxviii. 1.
====================
JONAS
3
CHAPTER III.
Jonas is sent again to preach in Ninive. Upon their fasting and repentance, God
recalleth the sentence by which they were to be destroyed.
1
And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying:
2
Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I
bid thee.
3
And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now
Ninive was a great city of three days' journey.
4
And Jonas began to enter into the city one day's journey: and he cried, and
said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed.
5
*And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on
sackcloth from the greatest to the least.
6
And the word came to the king of Ninive: and he rose up out of his throne, and
cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive, from the mouth of
the king, and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen, nor
sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water.
8
And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all
their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the
iniquity that is in their hands.
9
*Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce
anger, and we shall not perish?
10
And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had
mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and
he did it not.
____________________
*
5: Mat. xii. 41.; Luke xi. 32.
9: Jer. xviii. 11.; Joel ii. 14.
====================
JONAS
4
CHAPTER IV.
Jonas, repining to see that his prophecy is not
fulfilled, is reproved by the type of the ivy.
1
And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry:
2
And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, is not this what I
said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into
Tharsis: *for I know that thou art a gracious and merciful God, patient, and of
much compassion, and easy to forgive evil.
3
And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me: for it is better for me
to die than to live.
4
And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry?
5
Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city: and
he made himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might
see what would befal the city.
6
And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be
a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was fatigued): and Jonas was
exceeding glad of the ivy.
7
But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day: and it
struck the ivy and it withered.
8
And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the
sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired
for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to
live.
9
And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry, for
the ivy? And he said: I am angry with
reason even unto death.
10
And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou hast not
laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night
perished.
11
And shall not I spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are more than a
hundred and twenty thousand persons, that know not how to distinguish between
their right hand and their left, and many beasts?
____________________
*
2: Ps. lxxxv. 5.; Joel ii. 13.
====================
====================
MICHEAS
THE PROPHECY OF MICHEAS.
MICHEAS
1
CHAPTER I.
Samaria, for her sins, shall be destroyed by the
Assyrians: they shall also invade Juda and Jerusalem.
1
The word *of the Lord that came to Micheas, the Morasthite, in the days of
Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda: which he saw concerning Samaria
and Jerusalem.
2
*Hear, all ye people: and let the earth give ear, and all that is therein: and
let the Lord God be a witness to you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3
*For behold the Lord will come forth out of his place: and he will come down,
and will tread upon the high places of the earth.
4
And the mountains shall be melted under him: and the valleys shall be cleft, as
wax before the fire, and as waters that run down a steep place.
5 For
the wickedness of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of
Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob?
is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Juda? are they not
Jerusalem?
6
And I will make Samaria as a heap of stones in the field when a vineyard is
planted: and I will bring down the stones thereof into the valley, and will lay
her foundations bare.
7
And all her graven things shall be cut in pieces, and all her wages shall be
burnt with fire, and I will bring to destruction all her idols: for they were
gathered together of the hire of a harlot, and unto the hire of a harlot they
shall return.
8
Therefore will I lament, and howl: I will go stript and naked: I will make a
wailing like the dragons, and a mourning like the ostriches.
9 Because
her wound is desperate, because it is come even to Juda, it hath touched the
gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
10
Declare ye it not in Geth, weep ye not with tears: in the house of Dust
sprinkle yourselves with dust.
11
And pass away, O thou that dwellest in the Beautiful place, covered with thy
shame: she went not forth that dwelleth in the confines: the House adjoining
shall receive mourning from you, which stood by herself.
12
For she is become weak unto good that dwelleth in bitterness: for evil is come
down from the Lord into the gate of Jerusalem.
13
A tumult of chariots hath astonished the inhabitants of Lachis: it is the
beginning of sin to the daughter of Sion, for in thee were found the crimes of
Israel.
14
Therefore shall she send messengers to the inheritance of Geth: the houses of
lying to deceive the kings of Israel.
15
Yet will I bring an heir to thee that dwellest in Maresa: even to Odollam shall
the glory of Israel come.
16
Make thee bald, and be polled for thy delicate children: enlarge thy baldness
as the eagle: for they are carried into captivity from thee.
____________________
*
1: A.M. circiter 3246, A.C. 758.
2: Deut. xxxii. 1.; Isai. i. 2.
3: Isai. xxvi. 21.
====================
MICHEAS
2
CHAPTER II.
The Israelites, by their crying injustices, provoke
God to punish them. He shall at last
restore Jacob.
1
Wo to you that devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in your beds:
in the morning light they execute it, because their hand is against God.
2
And they have coveted fields, and taken them by violence, and houses they have
forcibly taken away: and oppressed a man and his house, a man and his
inheritance.
3
Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I devise an evil against this family:
from which you shall not withdraw your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily,
for this is a very evil time.
4
In that day a parable shall be taken up upon you, and a song shall be sung with
melody by them that say: We are laid waste and spoiled: the portion of my
people is changed: how shall he depart from me, whereas he is returning that
will divide our land?
5
Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the cord of a lot in the
assembly of the Lord.
6
Speak ye not, saying: It shall not drop upon these, confusion shall not take them.
7
The house of Jacob saith: Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened, or are these
his thoughts? Are not my words good to
him that walketh uprightly?
8
But my people, on the contrary, are risen up as an enemy: you have taken away
the cloak off from the coat: and them that passed harmless you have turned to
war.
9
You have cast out the women of my people from their houses, in which they took
delight: you have taken my praise for ever from their children.
10
Arise ye, and depart, for there is no rest here for you. For that uncleanness of the land, it
shall be corrupted with a grievous corruption.
11
Would God I were not a man that hath the spirit, and that I rather spoke a lie:
I will let drop to thee of wine, and of drunkenness: and it shall be this
people upon whom it shall drop.
12
I will assemble and gather together all of thee, O Jacob: I will bring together
the remnant of Israel, I will put them together as a flock in the fold, as the
sheep in the midst of the sheepcotes, they shall make a tumult by reason of the
multitude of men.
13
For he shall go up that shall open the way before them: they shall divide, and
pass through the gate, and shall come in by it: and their king shall pass
before them, and the Lord at the head of them.
====================
MICHEAS
3
CHAPTER III.
For the sins of the rich oppressing the poor, of false
prophets flattering for lucre, and of judges perverting justice, Jerusalem and
the temple shall be destoryed.
1
And I said: Hear, O ye princes of Jacob, and ye chiefs of the house of Israel:
Is it not your part to know judgment,
2
You that hate good, and love evil: that violently pluck off their skins from
them, and their flesh from their bones?
3
Who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have flayed their skin from off
them: and have broken, and chopped their bones as for the kettle, and as flesh
in the midst of the pot.
4
Then shall they cry to the Lord, and he will not hear them: and he will hide
his face from them at that time, as they have behaved wickedly in their
devices.
5
Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err: that bite
with their teeth, and preach peace: and if a man give not something into their
mouth, they prepare war against him.
6
Therefore night shall be to you instead of vision, and darkness to you instead
of divination: and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall
be darkened over them.
7
And they shall be confounded that see visions, and the diviners shall be
confounded: and they shall all cover their faces, because there is no answer of
God.
8
But yet I am filled with the strength of the spirit of the Lord, with judgment
and power: to declare unto Jacob his wickedness, and to Israel his sin.
9
Hear this, ye princes of the house of Jacob, and ye judges of the house of Israel:
you that abhor judgment, and pervert all that is right.
10
You that build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11
*Her princes have judged for bribes: and her priests have taught for hire, and
her prophets divined for money: and they leaned upon the Lord, saying: Is not
the Lord in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.
12
Therefore, because of you, *Sion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem
shall be as a heap of stones, and the mountain of the temple as the high places
of the forests.
____________________
*
11: Ezec. xxii. 27.; Soph. iii. 3.
12: Jeremias xxvi. 18.
====================
MICHEAS
4
CHAPTER IV.
The glory of the Church of Christ, by the conversion
of the Gentiles. The Jews shall be
carried captives to Babylon, and be delivered again.
1
And *it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the house of
the Lord shall be prepared in the top of mountains, and high above the hills:
and people shall flow to it.
2
And many nations shall come in haste, and say: Come, let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach
us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth out
of Sion, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem.
3
And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off: and
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into spades:
nation shall not take sword against nation: neither shall they learn war any
more.
4
And every man shall sit under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and there shall
be none to make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken.
5
For all people will walk every one in the name of his god: but we will walk in
the name of the Lord, our God, for ever and ever.
6
In that day, saith the Lord, I will gather up her that halteth: and her that I
had cast out, I will gather up: and her whom I had afflicted.
7
*And I will make her that halted, a remnant: and her that hath been afflicted,
a mighty nation: **and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Sion, from this
time now and for ever.
8
And thou, O cloudy tower of the flock, of the daughter of Sion, unto thee shall
it come: yea, the first power shall come, the kingdom to the daughter of
Jerusalem.
9
Now, why art thou drawn together with grief?
Hast thou no king in thee, or is thy counsellor perished, because sorrow
hath taken thee as a woman in labour?
10
Be in pain and labour, O daughter of Sion, as a woman that bringeth forth: for
now shalt thou go out of the city, and shalt dwell in the country, and shalt
come even to Babylon, there thou shalt be delivered: there the Lord will redeem
thee out of the hand of thy enemies.
11
And now many nations are gathered together against thee, and they say: Let her
be stoned: and let our eye look upon Sion.
12
But they have not known the thoughts of the Lord, and have not understood his
counsel: because he hath gathered them together as the hay of the floor.
13
Arise, and tread, O daughter of Sion: for I will make thy horn iron, and thy
hoofs I will make brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples, and shalt
immolate the spoils of them to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of the
whole earth.
____________________
*
1: Isaias ii. 2.
7: Soph. iii. 19. --- ** Dan. vii. 14.; Luke i.
32.
====================
MICHEAS
5
CHAPTER V.
The birth of Christ in Bethlehem: his reign and
spiritual conquests.
1
Now shalt thou be laid waste, O daughter of the robber: they have laid siege
against us, with a rod shall they strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.
2 *And
thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda: out
of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel: and his
going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.
3 Therefore
will he give them up even till the time wherein she that travaileth shall bring
forth: and the remnant of his brethren shall be converted to the children of
Israel.
4
And he shall stand, and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the height of the name
of the Lord, his God: and they shall be converted, for now shall he be
magnified even to the ends of the earth.
5
And this man shall be our peace, when the Assyrian shall come
into our land, and when he shall set his foot in our houses: and we shall raise
against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
6
And they shall feed the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nemrod
with the spears thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he
shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our borders.
7
And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, as a dew from
the Lord, and as drops upon the grass, which waiteth not for man, nor tarrieth
for the children of men.
8
And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many
peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forests, and as a young lion among
the docks of sheep: who, when he shall go through, and tread down, and take,
there is none to deliver.
9
Thy hand shall be lifted up over thy enemies, and all thy enemies shall be cut
off.
10
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will take away
thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots.
11
And I will destroy the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strong
holds, and I will take away sorceries out of thy hand, and there shall be no
divinations in thee.
12
And I will destroy thy graven things, and thy statues out of the midst of thee:
and thou shalt no more adore the works of thy hands.
13
And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: and will crush thy
cities.
14
And I will execute vengeance in wrath, and in indignation, among all the
nations that have not given ear.
____________________
*
2: Mat. ii. 6.; John vii. 42.
====================
MICHEAS
6
CHAPTER VI.
God expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude
and sins: for which they shall be punished.
1
Hear ye what the Lord saith: Arise, contend thou in judgment against the
mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
2
Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of
the earth: for the Lord will enter into judgment with his people, and he will
plead against Israel.
3
*O my people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I molested thee? answer
thou me.
4
For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee out of the
house of slaves: and I sent before thy face Moses, and Aaron, and Mary?
5
*O my people, remember, I pray thee, what Balach, the king of Moab, purposed:
and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him, from Setim to Galgal, that thou
mightest know the justices of the Lord.
6
What shall I offer to the Lord that is worthy? wherewith shall I kneel before
the high God? shall I offer holocausts unto him, and calves of a year old?
7
May the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat
he-goats? shall I give my first-born for my wickedness, the fruit of my body
for the sin of my soul?
8 I
will shew thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee:
*Verily, to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk solicitous with thy
God.
9
The voice of the Lord crieth to the city, and salvation shall be to them that
fear thy name: hear, O ye tribes, and who shall approve it?
10
As yet there is a fire in the house of the wicked, the treasures of iniquity,
and a scant measure full of wrath.
11
Shall I justify wicked balances, and the deceitful weights of the bag?
12
By which her rich men were filled with iniquity, and the inhabitants thereof
have spoken lies, and their tongue was deceitful in their mouth.
13
And I therefore began to strike thee with desolation for thy sins.
14
Thou shalt eat, but shalt not be filled: and thy humiliation shall be in
the midst of thee: and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not save: and those whom
thou shalt save, I will give up to the sword.
15
*Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap: thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not
be anointed with the oil: and the new wine, but shalt not drink the wine.
16
For thou hast kept the statutes of Amri, and all the works of the house of
Achab: and thou hast walked according to their wills, that I should make thee a
desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing, and you shall bear the
reproach of my people.
____________________
*
3: Jerem. ii. 5.
5: Num. xxii. 23.
8: Zach. vii. 9.; Mat. xxiii. 23.; Deut. vi. 2.
and xxvi. 16.
15: Deut. xxviii. 38.; Aggeus i. 6.
====================
MICHEAS
7
CHAPTER VII.
The prophet laments, that notwithstanding all his
preaching, the generality are still corrupt in their manners: therefore their
desolation is at hand: but they shall be restored again and prosper; and all
mankind shall be redeemed by Christ.
1
Wo is me, for I am become as one that gleaneth in autumn the grapes of the
vintage: there is no cluster to eat, my soul desired the first-ripe figs.
2
The holy man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men:
they all lie in wait for blood, every one hunteth his brother to death.
3
The evil of their hands they call good: the prince requireth, and the judge is
for giving: and the great man hath uttered the desire of his soul, and they
have troubled it.
4
He that is best among them, is as a brier: and he that is righteous, as the
thorn of the hedge. The day of thy
inspection, thy visitation cometh: now shall be their destruction.
5
Believe not a friend, and trust not in a prince: keep the doors of thy mouth
from her that sleepeth in thy bosom.
6
*For the son dishonoureth the father, and the daughter riseth up against her
mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: **and a man's enemies
are they of his own household.
7
But I will look towards the Lord, I will wait for God, my Saviour: my God will
hear me.
8
Rejoice not, thou my enemy, over me, because I am fallen: I shall arise, when I
sit in darkness, the Lord is my light.
9 I
will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him: until he
judge my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth into the
light, I shall behold his justice.
10
And my enemy shall behold, and she shall be covered with shame, who saith to
me: Where is the Lord thy God? my eyes shall look down upon her: now shall she
be trodden under foot as the mire of the streets.
11
The day shall come, that thy walls may be built up: in that day shall
the law be far removed.
12
In that day they shall come even from Assyria to thee, and to the fortified
cities: and from the fortified cities even to the river, and from sea to sea,
and from mountain to mountain.
13
And the land shall be made desolate, because of the inhabitants thereof, and
for the fruit of their devices.
14
Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy inheritance, them that dwell
alone in the forest, in the midst of Carmel: they shall feed in Basan and
Galaad, according to the days of old.
15
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, I will shew him
wonders.
16
The nations shall see, and shall be confounded at all their strength: they
shall put the hand upon the mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
17
They shall lick the dust like serpents, as the creeping things of the earth,
they shall be disturbed in their houses: they shall dread the Lord, our God,
and shall fear thee.
18
*Who is a God like to thee, who takest away iniquity, and passest by the sin of
the remnant of thy inheritance? he will send his fury in no more, because he
delighteth in mercy.
19
He will turn again, and have mercy on us: he will put away our iniquities: and
he will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea.
20
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, the mercy to Abraham: which thou hast
sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
____________________
*
6: Mat. x. 21. --- ** Mat. x. 36.
18: Jer. x. 6.; Acts x. 43.
====================
====================
NAHUM
THE PROPHECY OF NAHUM.
NAHUM
1
CHAPTER I.
The majesty of God, his goodness to his people, and
severity to his enemies.
1
The *burden of Ninive. The book of the
vision of Nahum, the Elcesite.
2
The Lord is a jealous God, and a revenger: the Lord is a revenger, and hath wrath:
the Lord taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he is angry with his enemies.
3
The Lord is patient, and great in power, and will not cleanse and acquit the
guilty. The Lord's ways are in
a tempest, and a whirlwind, and clouds are the dust of his feet.
4
He rebuketh the sea, and drieth it up: and bringeth all the rivers to be a
desert. Basan languisheth and Carmel:
and the flower of Libanus fadeth away.
5
The mountains tremble at him, and the hills are made desolate: and the earth
hath quaked at his presence, and the world, and all that dwell therein.
6
Who can stand before the face of his indignation? and who shall resist in the
fierceness of his anger? his indignation is poured out like fire: and the rocks
are melted by him.
7
The Lord is good, and giveth strength in the day of trouble: and knoweth them
that hope in him.*
8
But with a flood that passeth by, he will make an utter end of the place
thereof: and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
9
What do ye devise against the Lord? he will make an utter end: there shall not
rise a double affliction.
10
For as thorns embrace one another: so while they are feasting and drinking
together, they shall be consumed as stubble that is fully dry.
11
Out of thee shall come forth one that imagineth evil against the Lord,
contriving treachery in his mind.
12
Thus saith the Lord: Though they were perfect: and many of them so, yet thus
shall they be cut off, and he shall pass: I have afflicted thee, and I will
afflict thee no more.
13
And now I will break in pieces his rod with which he struck thy back, and I
will burst thy bonds asunder.
14
And the Lord will give a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name
shall be sown: I will destroy the graven and molten thing out of the house of
thy God, I will make it thy grave, for thou art disgraced.
15
*Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that
preacheth peace: O Juda, keep thy festivals, and pay thy vows: for Belial shall
no more pass through thee again, he is utterly cut off.
____________________
*
1: A.M. about 3264, A.C. 740.
7: 2 Tim. i. 9.
15: Isai. lii. 7.; Rom. x. 15.
====================
NAHUM
2
CHAPTER II.
God sends his armies against Ninive to destory it.
1
He is come up that shall destroy before thy face, that shall keep the siege:
watch the way, fortify thy loins, strengthen thy power exceedingly.
2
For the Lord hath rendered the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: because
the spoilers have laid them waste, and have marred their branches.
3
The shield of his mighty men is like fire, the men of the army are clad in
scarlet, the reins of the chariot are flaming in the day of his preparation,
and the drivers are stupified.
4
They are in confusion in the ways, the chariots jostle one against another in
the streets: their looks are like torches, like lightning running to and fro.
5
He will muster up his valiant men, they shall stumble in their march: they
shall quickly get upon the walls thereof: and a covering shall be prepared.
6
The gates of the rivers are opened, and the temple is thrown down to the
ground.
7
And the soldier is led away captive: and her bond-women were led away mourning
as doves, murmuring in their hearts.
8
And as for Ninive, her waters are like a great pool, but the men flee
away. They cry: Stand, stand, but
there is none that will return back.
9
Take ye the spoil of the silver, take the spoil of the gold: for there is no
end of the riches of all the precious furniture.
10
She is destroyed, and rent, and torn: the heart melteth, and the knees fail,
and all the loins lose their strength: and the faces of them all are as
the blackness of a kettle.
11
Where is now the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young
lions, to which the lion went, to enter in thither, the young lion, and there
was none to make them afraid?
12
The lion caught enough for his whelps, and killed for his lionesses: and he
filled his holes with prey, and his den with rapine.
13
Behold I come against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn thy
chariots even to smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will
cut off thy prey out of the land, and the voice of thy messengers shall be
heard no more.*
____________________
*
13: Micheas vii. 11.
====================
NAHUM
3
CHAPTER III.
The miserable destruction of Ninive.
1
Wo *to thee, O city of blood, all full of lies and violence: rapine shall not
depart from thee.
2
The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the
neighing horse, and of the running chariot, and of the horsemen coming up:
3
And of the shining sword, and of the glittering spear, and of a multitude
slain, and of a grievous destruction: and there is no end of carcasses, and
they shall fall down on their dead bodies.
4
Because of the multitude of the fornications of the harlot that was beautiful
and agreeable, and that made use of witchcraft, that sold nations through her
fornications, and families through her witchcrafts.
5
Behold I come against thee, saith the Lord of hosts: *and I will
discover thy shame to thy face, and will shew thy nakedness to the nations, and
thy shame to kingdoms.
6
And I will cast abominations upon thee, and will disgrace thee, and will make
an example of thee.
7
And it shall come to pass that every one that shall see thee, shall flee from
thee, and shall say: Ninive is laid waste: who shall bemoan thee? whence shall
I seek a comforter for thee?
8
Art thou better than the populous Alexandria, that dwelleth among the rivers?
waters are round about it: the sea is its riches: the waters are its walls.
9
Ethiopia and Egypt were the strength thereof, and there is no end:
Africa and the Libyans were thy helpers.
10
Yet she also was removed and carried into captivity: her young children were
dashed in pieces at the top of every street, and they cast lots upon her
nobles, and all her great men were bound in fetters.
11
Therefore thou also shalt be made drunk, and shalt be despised: and thou shalt
seek help from the enemy.
12
All thy strong holds shall be like fig-trees with their green figs: if they be
shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.
13
Behold thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land
shall be set wide open to thy enemies, the fire shall devour thy bars.
14
Draw thee water for the siege, build up thy bulwarks: go into the clay, and
tread, work it and make brick.
15
There shall the fire devour thee: thou shalt perish by the sword, it shall
devour thee like the bruchus: assemble together like the bruchus, make thyself
many like the locust.
16
Thou hast multiplied thy merchandises above the stars of heaven: the bruchus
hath spread himself and flown away.
17
Thy guards are like the locusts: and thy little ones like the locusts of
locusts which swarm on the hedges in the day of cold: the sun arose, and they
flew away, and their place was not known where they were.
18
Thy shepherds have slumbered, O king of Assyria, thy princes shall be buried:
thy people are hid in the mountains, and there is none to gather them together.
19
Thy destruction is not hidden, thy wound is grievous: all that have heard the
fame of thee, have clapped their hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy
wickedness passed continually?
____________________
*
1: Ezech. xxiv. 9.; Habac. ii. 12.
5: Isai. xlvii. 3.
====================
====================
HABACUC
THE PROPHECY OF HABACUC.
HABACUC
1
CHAPTER I.
The prophet complains of the wickedness of the people;
God reveals to him the vengeance he is going to take of them by the Chaldeans.
1
The burden *that Habacuc, the prophet, saw.
2
How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? shall I cry out to thee,
suffering violence, and thou wilt not save?
3
Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice
before me? and there is a judgment, but opposition is more powerful.
4
Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment cometh not to the end:
because the wicked prevaileth against the just, therefore wrong judgment goeth
forth.
5
*Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is
done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told.
6
For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching
upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not
their own.
7
They are dreadful and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their
burden proceed.
8
Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves: and
their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar,
they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.
9
They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they
shall gather together captives as the sand.
10
And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his
laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a
mount, and shall take it.
11
Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his
strength of his god.
12
Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord, my God, my holy one, and we shall not
die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for
judgment: and made him strong for correction.
13
Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust
things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more
just than himself?
14
And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things
that have no ruler.
15
He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in his drag, and gathered
them into his net: for this he will be glad and rejoice.
16
Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he will sacrifice to his net:
because through them his portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.
17
For this cause, therefore, he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually
to slay the nations.
____________________
*
1: A.M. circiter 3404, A.C. 600.
5: Acts xiii. 34.
====================
HABACUC
2
CHAPTER II.
The prophet is admonished to wait with faith. The enemies of God's people shall assuredly
be punished.
1 I
will stand upon my watch, and fix my foot upon the tower: and I will watch, to
see what will be said to me, and what I may answer to him that reproveth me.
2
And the Lord answered me, and said: Write the vision, and make it plain upon
tables: that he that readeth it may run over it.
3
For as yet the vision is far off, and it shall appear at the end, and shall not
lie: if it make any delay, wait for it: for it shall surely come, and it shall
not be slack.
4
Behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul shall not be right in himself: *but
the just shall live in his faith.
5
And as wine deceiveth him that drinketh it: so shall the proud man be,
and he shall not be honoured: who hath enlarged his desire like hell: and is
himself like death, and he is never satisfied: but will gather together unto
him all nations, and heap together unto him all people.
6
Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a dark speech concerning
him: and it shall be said: Wo to him that heapeth together that which is not
his own? how long also doth he load himself with thick clay?
7
Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee: and they be stirred up
that shall tear thee, and thou shalt be a spoil to them?
8
Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all that shall be left of the people
shall spoil thee: because of men's blood, and for the iniquity of the land, of
the city, and of all that dwell therein.
9
Wo to him that gathereth together an evil covetousness to his house, that his
nest may be on high, and thinketh he may be delivered out of the hand of evil.
10
Thou hast devised confusion to thy house, thou hast cut off many people, and
thy soul hath sinned.
11
For the stone shall cry out of the wall: and the timber that is between the
joints of the building, shall answer.
12
*Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood, and prepareth a city by iniquity.
13
Are not these things from the Lord of hosts? for the people shall labour in a
great fire: and the nations in vain, and they shall faint.
14
For the earth shall be filled, that men may know the glory of the Lord, as
waters covering the sea.
15
Wo to him that giveth drink to his friend, and presenteth his gall, and maketh
him drunk, that he may behold his nakedness.
16
Thou art filled with shame instead of glory: drink thou also, and fall fast
asleep: the cup of the right hand of the Lord shall compass thee, and shameful
vomiting shall be on thy glory.
17
For the iniquity of Libanus shall cover thee, and the ravaging of beasts shall
terrify them, because of the blood of men, and the iniquity of the land, and of
the city, and of all that dwell therein.
18
What doth the graven thing avail, because the maker thereof hath graven it, a
molten, and a false image? because the forger thereof hath trusted in a thing
of his own forging, to make dumb idols.
19
Wo to him that saith to wood: Awake: to the dumb stone: Arise: can it
teach? Behold, it is laid over with
gold, and silver, and there is no spirit in the bowels thereof.
20
*But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
____________________
*
4: John iii. 36.; Rom. i. 17.; Gal. iii. 11.;
Heb. x. 38.
12: Ezec. xxiv. 9.; Nahum iii. 1.
20: Ps. x. 5.
====================
HABACUC
3
CHAPTER III.
1 A
PRAYER OF HABACUC, THE PROPHET, FOR IGNORANCES.
2 O
Lord, I have heard thy hearing, and was afraid.
O
Lord, thy work, in the midst of the years bring it to life:
In
the midst of the years thou shalt make it known: when thou art angry, thou wilt
remember mercy.
3
God will come from the south, and the holy one from Mount Pharan:
His
glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise.
4
His brightness shall be as the light: horns are in his hands:
There
is his strength hid: 5 Death shall go before his face.
And
the devil shall go forth before his feet.
6
He stood and measured the earth.
He
beheld, and melted the nations: and the ancient mountains were crushed to
pieces.
The
hills of the world were bowed down by the journies of his eternity.
7 I
saw the tents of Ethiopia for their iniquity, the curtains of the land
of Madian shall be troubled.
8
Wast thou angry, O Lord, with the rivers? or was thy wrath upon the rivers? or
thy indignation in the sea?
Who
wilt ride upon thy horses: and thy chariots are salvation.
9
Thou wilt surely take up thy bow: according to the oaths which thou hast
spoken to the tribes.
Thou
wilt divide the rivers of the earth.
10
The mountains saw thee, and were grieved: the great body of waters passed away.
The
deep put forth its voice: the deep lifted up its hands.
11
The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation, in the light of thy
arrows, they shall go in the brightness of thy glittering spear.
12
In thy anger thou wilt tread the earth under foot: in thy wrath thou wilt
astonish the nations.
13
Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people: for salvation with thy
Christ.
Thou
struckest the head of the house of the wicked: thou hast laid bare his
foundation even to the neck.
14
Thou hast cursed his sceptres, the head of his warriors, them that came out as
a whirlwind to scatter me.
Their
joy was like that of him that devoureth the poor man in secret.
15
Thou madest a way in the sea for thy horses, in the mud of many waters.
16
I have heard, and my bowels were troubled: my lips trembled at the voice.
Let
rottenness enter into my bones, and swarm under me.
That
I may rest in the day of tribulation: that I may go up to our people that are
girded.
17
For the fig-tree shall not blossom: and there shall be no spring in the
vines. The labour of the olive-tree
shall fail: and the fields shall yield no food: the flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.
18
But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God, my Jesus.
19
The Lord God is my strength: and he will make my feet like the feet of harts:
and he the conqueror will lead me upon my high places singing psalms.
====================
====================
SOPHONIAS
THE PROPHECY OF SOPHONIAS.
SOPHONIAS
1
CHAPTER I.
For divers enormous sins, the kingdom of Juda is
threatened with severe judgment.
1
The word *of the Lord that came to Sophonias, the son of Chusi, the son of
Godolias, the son of Amarias, the son of Ezechias, in the days of Josias, the
son of Amon, king of Juda.
2
Gathering, I will gather together all things from off the face of the land,
saith the Lord:
3 I
will gather man, and beast, I will gather the birds of the air, and the fishes
of the sea: and the ungodly shall meet with ruin: and I will destroy men from
off the face of the land, saith the Lord.
4
And I will stretch out my hand upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: and I will destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal, and the
names of the wardens of the temples, with the priests:
5
And them that worship the host of heaven upon the tops of houses, and them that
adore, and swear by the Lord, and swear by Melchom.
6
And them that turn away from following after the Lord, and that have not sought
the Lord, nor searched after him.
7
Be silent before the face of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is near, for
the Lord hath prepared a victim, he hath sanctified his guests.
8
And it shall come to pass in the day of the victim of the Lord, that I will
visit upon the princes, and upon the king's sons, and upon all such as are
clothed with strange apparel:
9
And I will visit in that day upon every one that entereth arrogantly over the
threshold: them that fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and
deceit.
10
And there shall be in that day, saith the Lord, the noise of a cry from the
fish-gate, and a howling from the Second, and a great destruction from the
hills.
11
Howl, ye inhabitants of the Morter. All
the people of Chanaan is hush, all are cut off that were wrapped up in silver.
12
And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with
lamps, and will visit upon the men that are settled on their lees: that say in
their hearts: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.
13
And their strength shall become a booty, and their houses as a desert: *and
they shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them: and they shall plant
vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.
14
The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and exceeding swift: the voice of
the day of the Lord is bitter, the mighty man shall there meet with tribulation.
15
*That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of
calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and
whirlwinds,
16
A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high
bulwarks.
17
And I will distress men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have
sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as earth, and
their bodies as dung.
18
*Neither shall their silver, and their gold be able to deliver them in the day
of the wrath of the Lord: **all the land shall be devoured by the fire of his
jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy destruction of all them that dwell in
the land.
____________________
*
1: A.M. about 3404, A.C. 600.
13: Amos v. 11.
15: Jer. xxx. 7.; Joel ii. 11.; Amos v. 18.
18: Ezec. vii. 19. --- ** Infra iii. 8.
====================
SOPHONIAS
2
CHAPTER II.
An exhortation to repentance. The judgment of the Philistines, of the
Moabites, and the Ammonites; of the Ethiopians, and the Assyrians.
1
Assemble yourselves together, be gathered together, O nation not worthy to be
loved:
2
Before the decree bring forth the day as dust passing away, before the fierce
anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's indignation come
upon you.
3
Seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, you that have wrought his judgment:
seek the just, seek the meek: if by any means you may be hid in the day of the
Lord's indignation.
4
For Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall be a desert, they shall cast out
Azotus at noon-day, and Accaron shall be rooted up.
5
Wo to you that inhabit the sea coast, O nation of reprobates: the word of the
Lord upon you, O Chanaan, the land of the Philistines, and I will destroy thee,
so that there shall not be an inhabitant.
6
And the sea coast shall be the resting-place of shepherds, and folds for
cattle:
7
And it shall be the portion of him that shall remain of the house of Juda,
there they shall feed: in the houses of Ascalon they shall rest in the evening:
because the Lord their God will visit them, and bring back their captivity.
8 I
have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon,
with which they reproached my people, and have magnified themselves upon their
borders.
9
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall be
as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha, the dryness of thorns, and
heaps of salt, and a desert even for ever: the remnant of my people shall make
a spoil of them, and the residue of my nation shall possess them.
10
This shall befall them for their pride: because they have blasphemed, and have
been magnified against the people of the Lord of hosts.
11
The Lord shall be terrible upon them, and shall consume all the gods of the
earth: and they shall adore him every man from his own place, all the islands
of the Gentiles.
12
You Ethiopians also shall be slain with my sword.
13
And he will stretch out his hand upon the north, and will destroy Assyria: and
he will make the beautiful city a wilderness, and as a place not
passable, and as a desert.
14
*And flocks shall lie down in the midst thereof, all the beasts of the nations:
and the bittern, and the urchin shall lodge in the threshold thereof: the voice
of the singing bird in the window, the raven on the upper post, for I
will consume her strength.
15
This is the glorious city that dwelt in security: that said in her heart: I am,
and there is none beside me: how is she become a desert, a place for beasts to
lie down in? every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.
____________________
*
14: Isai. xxxiv. 11.
====================
SOPHONIAS
3
CHAPTER III.
A wo to Jerusalem for her sins. A prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles,
and of the poor of Israel. God shall be
with them. The Jews shall be converted
at last.
1
Woe to the provoking and redeemed city, the dove.
2
She hath not hearkened to the voice, neither hath she received discipline: she
hath not trusted in the Lord, she drew not near to her God.
3
*Her princes are in the midst of her as roaring lions: her judges are
evening wolves, they left nothing for the morning.
4
Her prophets are senseless, men without faith: her priests have polluted
the sanctuary, they have acted unjustly against the law.
5
The just Lord is in the midst thereof, he will not do iniquity: in the
morning, in the morning he will bring his judgment to light, and it shall not
be hid: but the wicked man hath not known shame.
6 I
have destroyed the nations, and their towers are beaten down: I have made their
ways desert, so that there is none that passeth by: their cities are desolate,
there is not a man remaining, nor any inhabitant.
7 I
said: Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive correction: and her dwelling
shall not perish, for all things wherein I have visited her: but they rose
early, and corrupted all their thoughts.
8
Wherefore expect me, saith the Lord, in the day of my resurrection that is to
come, for my judgment is to assemble the Gentiles, and to gather the
kingdoms: and to pour upon them my indignation, all my fierce anger: *for with
the fire of my jealousy shall all the earth be devoured.
9
Because then I will restore to the people a chosen lip, that all may call upon
the name of the Lord, and may serve him with one shoulder.
10
From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, shall my suppliants, the children of my
dispersed people, bring me an offering.
11
In that day thou shalt not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast
transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee thy
proud boasters, and thou shalt no more be lifted up because of my holy
mountain.
12
And I will leave in the midst of thee a poor and needy people: and they shall
hope in the name of the Lord.
13
The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, nor shall a
deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed, and shall lie
down, and there shall be none to make them afraid.
14
Give praise, O daughter of Sion: shout, O Israel: be glad, and rejoice with all
thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
15
The Lord hath taken away thy judgment, he hath turned away thy enemies: the
king of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee, thou shalt fear evil no
more.
16
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not: to Sion, Let not thy hands
be weakened.
17
The Lord, thy God, in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save: he will
rejoice over thee with gladness, he will be silent in his love, he will be
joyful over thee in praise.
18
The triflers that were departed from the law, I will gather together, because
they were of thee: that thou mayest no more suffer reproach for them.
19
Behold, I will cut off all that have afflicted thee at that time: and I will
save her that halteth, and will gather her that was cast out: and I will get
them praise, and a name, in all the land where they had been put to confusion.
20
At that time, when I will bring you: and at the time that I will gather you:
for I will give you a name, and praise among all the people of the earth, when
I shall have brought back your captivity, before your eyes, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
3: Ezec. xxii. 27.; Micheas iii. 11.
8: Supra i. 18.
====================
====================
AGGEUS
THE PROPHECY OF AGGEUS.
AGGEUS
1
CHAPTER I.
The people are reproved for neglecting to build the
temple. They are encouraged to set about
the work.
1
In the second year of Darius, *the king, in the sixth month, in the first day
of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus, the prophet, to
Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, governor of Juda, and to Jesus, the son of
Josedec, the high priest, saying:
2
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: This people saith: The time is not yet
come for building the house of the Lord.
3
And the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus, the prophet, saying:
4
Is it time for you to dwell in ceiled houses, and this house lie desolate?
5
And now thus saith the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts to consider your ways.
6
*You have sowed much, and brought in little: you have eaten, but have not had
enough: you have drunk, but have not been filled with drink: you have clothed
yourselves, but have not been warmed: and he that hath earned wages, put them
into a bag with holes.
7
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways:
8 Go
up to the mountain, bring timber, and build the house: and it shall be
acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, saith the Lord.
9
You have looked for more, and behold it became less, and you brought it home,
and I blowed it away: why, saith the Lord of hosts? because my house is
desolate, and you make haste every man to his own house.
10
Therefore, the heavens over you were stayed from giving dew, and the earth was
hindered from yielding her fruits:
11
And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the
corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon all that the ground
bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon beasts, and upon all the labour of the
hands.
12
Then Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, and Jesus, the son of Josedec, the high
priest, and all the remnant of the people hearkened to the voice of the Lord,
their God, and to the words of Aggeus, the prophet, as the Lord, their God,
sent him to them: and the people feared before the Lord.
13
And Aggeus, the messenger of the Lord, as one of the messengers of the
Lord, spoke, saying to the people: I am with you, saith the Lord.
14
And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel governor
of Juda, and the spirit of Jesus, the son of Josedec, the high priest, and the
spirit of all the rest of the people: and they went in, and did the work in the
house of the Lord of hosts, their God.
____________________
*
1: 1 Esd. v. 1.; A.M. 3485, A.C. 519.
6: Deut. xxviii. 38.; Micheas vi. 15.
====================
AGGEUS
2
CHAPTER II.
Christ, by his coming, shall make the latter temple
more glorious than the former. The
blessing of God shall reward their labour in building. God's promise to Zorobabel.
1
In *the four and twentieth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second
year of Darius, the king, they began.
2 And
in the seventh month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus, the
prophet, saying:
3
Speak to Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, the governor of Juda, and to Jesus,
the son of Josedec, the high priest, and to the rest of the people, saying:
4
Who is left among you, that saw this house in its first glory? and how do you
see it now? is it not in comparison to that as nothing in your eyes?
5
Yet now take courage, O Zorobabel, saith the Lord, and take courage, O Jesus,
the son of Josedec, the high priest, and take courage, all ye people of the
land, saith the Lord of hosts: and perform (for I am with you, saith the Lord
of hosts)
6
The word that I covenanted with you: when you came out of the land of Egypt:
and my spirit shall be in the midst of you: fear not.
7
For thus saith the Lord of hosts: *Yet one little while, and I will move the
heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.
8
And I will move all nations: and the desired of all nations shall come:
and I will fill this house with glory: saith the Lord of hosts.
9
The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.
10
Great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first, saith the
Lord of hosts: and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.
11
In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius,
the king, the word of the Lord came to Aggeus, the prophet, saying:
12
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests the law, saying:
13
If a man carry sanctified flesh in the skirt of his garment, and touch with his
skirt, bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat: shall it be
sanctified? And the priests answered,
and said: No.
14
And Aggeus said: If one that is unclean by occasion of a soul touch any of all
these things, shall it be defiled: and the priests answered, and said: It shall
be defiled.
15
And Aggeus answered, and said: So is this people, and so is this
nation before my face, saith the Lord, and so is all the work of their
hands: and all that they have offered there, shall be defiled.
16
And now consider in your hearts, from this day and upward, before there was a
stone laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord.
17
When you went to a heap of twenty bushels, and they became ten: and you went
into the press, to press out fifty vessels, and they became twenty.
18
*I struck you with a blasting wind, and all the works of your hand with the
mildew and with hail, yet there was none among you that returned to me, saith
the Lord.
19
Set your hearts from this day, and henceforward, from the four and twentieth
day of the ninth month: from the day that the foundations of the temple of the
Lord were laid, and lay it up in your hearts.
20
Is the seed as yet sprung up? or hath the vine, and the fig-tree, and the
pomegranate, and the olive-tree as yet flourished? from this day I will bless you.
21
And the word of the Lord came a second time to Aggeus, in the four and
twentieth day of the month, saying:
22
Speak to Zorobabel, the governor of Juda, saying: I will move both heaven and
earth.
23
And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and will destroy the strength of
the kingdom of the Gentiles: and I will overthrow the chariot, and him that
rideth therein: and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by
the sword of his brother.
24
In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, I will take thee, *O Zorobabel, the son
of Salathiel, my servant, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet, for I
have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 3845, A.C. 519.
7: Heb. xii. 26.
18: Amos iv. 9.
24: Eccli. xlix. 13.
====================
====================
ZACHARIAS
THE PROPHECY OF ZACHARIAS.
ZACHARIAS
1
CHAPTER I.
The prophet exhorts the people to return to God, and
declares his visions by which he puts them in hopes of better times.
1
In *the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius, the word of the Lord
came to Zacharias, the son of Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet, saying:
2
The Lord hath been exceeding angry with your fathers.
3
And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: *Turn ye to me, saith
the Lord of hosts: and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts.
4
Be not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets have cried, saying: Thus
saith the Lord of hosts: Turn ye from your evil ways, and from your wicked
thoughts; but they did not give ear, neither did they hearken to me, saith the
Lord.
5
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, shall they live always?
6
But yet my words, and my ordinances, which I gave in charge to my servants, the
prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned, and said:
As the Lord of hosts thought to do to us, according to our ways, and according
to our devices, so he hath done to us.
7
In the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is called Sabath, in
the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, the son of
Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet, saying:
8 I
saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the
myrtle-trees, that were in the bottom: and behind him were horses, red,
speckled, and white.
9
And I said: What are these, my lord? And
the angel that spoke in me, said to me: I will shew thee what these are:
10
And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees answered, and said: These are
they, whom the Lord hath sent to walk through the earth.
11
And they answered the angel of the Lord, that stood among the myrtle-trees, and
said: We have walked through the earth, and behold all the earth is inhabited,
and is at rest.
12
And the angel of the Lord answered, and said: O Lord of hosts, how long wilt
thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Juda, with which thou
hast been angry? this is now the seventieth year.
13
And the Lord answered the angel, that spoke in me, good words, comfortable
words.
14
And the angel, that spoke in me, said to me: Cry thou, saying: Thus saith the
Lord of hosts: *I am zealous for Jerusalem, and Sion, with a great zeal.
15
And I am angry with a great anger with the wealthy nations: for I was angry a
little, but they helped forward the evil.
16
Therefore, thus saith the Lord: I will return to Jerusalem in mercies: my house
shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and the building line shall be
stretched forth upon Jerusalem.
17
Cry yet, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: My cities shall yet flow with
good things: and the Lord will yet comfort Sion, and he will yet choose
Jerusalem.
18
And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold four horns.
19
And I said to the angel that spoke to me: What are these? and he said to me:
These are the horns that have scattered Juda, and Israel, and Jerusalem.
20
And the Lord shewed me four smiths.
21
And I said, What come these to do? and he spoke, saying: These are the horns
which have scattered Juda every man apart, and none of them lifted up his head:
and these are come to fray them, to cast down the horns of the nations, that
have lifted up the horn upon the land of Juda to scatter it.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 3485, A.C. 519.
3: Isai. xxi. 12. and xxxi. 6. and xlv. 22.;
Jer. iii. 12.; Ezec. xviii. 30. and xx. 7. and xxxiii. 11.; Osee xiv. 2.; Joel
ii. 12.; Malach. iii. 7.
14: Infra viii. 2.
====================
ZACHARIAS
2
CHAPTER II.
Under the name of Jerusalem, he prophesieth the
progress of the Church of Christ, by the conversion of some Jews, and many
Gentiles.
1
And I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold a man, with a measuring line in
his hand.
2
And I said: Whither goest thou? and he said to me: To measure Jerusalem, and to
see how great is the breadth thereof, and how great the length thereof.
3
And behold the angel that spoke in me went forth, and another angel went out to
meet him.
4
And he said to him: Run, speak to this young man, saying: Jerusalem shall be
inhabited without walls, by reason of the multitude of men, and of the beasts,
in the midst thereof.
5
And I will be to it, saith the Lord, a wall of fire round about: and I will be
in glory in the midst thereof.
6
O, O flee ye out of the land of the north, saith the Lord, for I have scattered
you into the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord.
7 O
Sion, flee thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon:
8
For thus saith the Lord of hosts: After the glory he hath sent me to the
nations that have robbed you: for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of
my eye:
9
For behold, I lift up my hand upon them, and they shall be a prey to those that
served them: and you shall know that the Lord of hosts sent me.
10
Sing praise, and rejoice, O daughter of Sion: for behold, I come, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee: saith the Lord.
11
And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall be my
people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee: and thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts hath sent me to thee.
12
And the Lord shall possess Juda, his portion in the sanctified land: and he
shall yet choose Jerusalem.
13
Let all flesh be silent at the presence of the Lord: for he is risen up out of
his holy habitation.
====================
ZACHARIAS
3
CHAPTER III.
In a vision satan appeareth, accusing the high
priest. He is cleansed from his
sins. Christ is promised, and great
fruit from his passion.
1
And the Lord shewed me Jesus, the high priest, standing before the angel of the
Lord: and satan stood on his right hand, to be his adversary.
2
And the Lord said to satan: The Lord rebuke thee, O datan: and the Lord, that
chose Jerusalem, rebuke thee: Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
3
And Jesus was clothed with filthy garments: and he stood before the face of the
angel.
4
Who answered, and said to them that stood before him, saying: Take away the
filthy garments from him. And he said to
him: Behold, I have taken away thy iniquity, and have clothed thee with a
change of garments.
5
And he said: Put a clean mitre upon his head: and they put a clean mitre upon
his head, and clothed him with garments: and the angel of the Lord stood.
6
And the angel of the Lord protested to Jesus, saying:
7
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my charge,
thou also shalt judge my house, and shalt keep my courts, and I will give thee
some of them that are now present here to walk with thee.
8
Hear, O Jesus, thou high priest, thou and thy friends that dwell before thee,
for they are portending men: for behold, *I will bring my servant, the
Orient.
9
For behold the stone that I have laid before Jesus: upon one stone there are
seven eyes: behold, I will grave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts:
and I will take away the iniquity of that land in one day.
10
In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, every man shall call his friend under the
vine, and under the fig-tree.
____________________
*
8: Luke i. 78.
====================
ZACHARIAS
4
CHAPTER IV.
The vision of the golden candlestick and seven lamps,
and of the two olive-trees. Zorobabel
shall finish the building of the temple.
1
And the angel that spoke in me came again: and he waked me, as a man that is
wakened out of his sleep.
2
And he said to me: What seest thou? And
I said: I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, and its lamp upon
the top of it: and the seven lights thereof upon it: and seven funnels for the
lights that were upon the top thereof.
3
And two olive-trees over it: one upon the right side of the lamp, and the other
upon the left side thereof.
4
And I answered, and said to the angel that spoke in me, saying: What are these
things, my lord?
5
And the angel that spoke in me answered, and said to me: Knowest thou not what
these things are? And I said: No, my
lord.
6
And he answered, and spoke to me, saying: This is the word of the Lord to
Zorobabel, saying: Not with an army, nor by might, but by my spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts.
7
Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zorobabel? thou shalt become a plain:
and he shall bring out the chief stone, and shall give equal grace to the grace
thereof.
8
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
9
The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundations of this house, and his hands
shall finish it: and you shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me to you.
10
For who hath despised little days? and they shall rejoice, and shall see the
tin plummet in the hand of Zorobabel.
These are the seven eyes of the Lord, that run to and fro through the
whole earth.
11
And I answered, and said to him: What are these two olive-trees upon the right
side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof?
12
And I answered again, and said to him: What are the two olive-branches, that
are by the two golden beaks, in which are the funnels of gold?
13
And he spoke to me, saying: Knowest thou not what these are? And I said: No, my lord.
14
And he said: These are two sons of oil, who stand before the Lord of the whole
earth.
====================
ZACHARIAS
5
CHAPTER V.
The vision of the flying volume, and of the woman in
the vessel.
1
And I turned, and lifted up my eyes: and I saw, and behold a volume flying.
2
And he said to me: What seest thou? And
I said: I see a volume flying: the length thereof is twenty cubits, and
the breadth thereof ten cubits.
3
And he said to me: This is the curse, that goeth forth over the face of the
earth: for every thief shall be judged, as is there written: and every one that
sweareth, in like manner shall be judged by it.
4 I
will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts: and it shall come to the house of
the thief, and to the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it
shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber
thereof, and the stones thereof.
5
And the angel went forth that spoke in me: and he said to me: Lift up thy eyes,
and see what this is, that goeth forth.
6
And I said: What is it? And he said:
This is a vessel going forth. And he
said: This is their eye in all the earth.
7
And behold, a talent of lead was carried, and behold, a woman sitting in the
midst of the vessel.
8
And he said: This is wickedness. And he
cast her into the midst of the vessel, and cast the weight of lead upon the mouth
thereof.
9
And I lifted up my eyes, and looked: and behold, there came out two women, and
wind was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite: and they
lifted up the vessel between the earth and the heaven.
10
And I said to the angel that spoke in me: Whither do these carry the vessel?
11
And he said to me: That a house may be built for it in the land of Sennaar, and
that it may be established, and set there upon its own basis.
====================
ZACHARIAS
6
CHAPTER VI.
The vision of four chariots. Crowns are ordered for Jesus, the high
priest, as a type of Christ.
1
And I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold four chariots came out
from the midst of two mountains: and the mountains were mountains of brass.
2
In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses,
3
And in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot grisled
horses, and strong ones.
4
And I answered, and said to the angel that spoke in me: What are these, my
lord?
5 And
the angel answered, and said to me: These are the four winds of the heaven,
which go forth to stand before the Lord of all the earth.
6
That, in which were the black horses, went forth into the land of the north,
and the white went forth after them: and the grisled went forth to the land of
the south.
7
And they that were most strong, went out, and sought to go, and to run to and
fro through all the earth. And he said:
Go, walk throughout the earth: and they walked throughout the earth.
8
And he called me, and spoke to me, saying: Behold, they that go forth into the
land of the north, have quieted my spirit in the land of the north.
9
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
10
Take of them of the captivity, of Holdai, and of Tobias, and of Idaias; thou
shalt come in that day, and shalt go into the house of Josias, the son of
Sophonias, who came out of Babylon.
11
And thou shalt take gold and silver: and shalt make crowns, and thou shalt set
them on the head of Jesus, the son of Josedec, the high priest.
12
And thou shalt speak to him, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: *Behold
a man, Orient is his name: and under him shall he spring up, and shall
build a temple to the Lord.
13
Yea, he shall build a temple to the Lord: and he shall bear the glory, and
shall sit, and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
14
And the crowns shall be to Helem, and Tobias, and Idaias, and to Hem, the son
of Sophonias, a memorial in the temple of the Lord.
15
And they that are far off, shall come, and shall build in the temple of the
Lord: and you shall know that the Lord of hosts sent me to you. But this shall come to pass, if hearing, you
will hear the voice of the Lord, your God.
____________________
*
12: Luke i. 78.
====================
ZACHARIAS
7
CHAPTER VII.
The people inquire concerning fasting: they are
admonished to fast from sin.
1
And *it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the
Lord came to Zacharias, in the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Casleu.
2
When Sarasar, and Rogommelech, and the men that were with him, sent to the
house of God, to entreat the face of the Lord:
3
To speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets,
saying: Must I weep in the fifth month, or must I sanctify myself, as I have
now done for many years?
4
And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
5
Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: *When you
fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years,
did you keep a fast unto me?
6
And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for
yourselves?
7
Are not these the words which the Lord spoke by the hand of the former
prophets, when Jerusalem as yet was inhabited, and was wealthy, both itself and
the cities round about it, and there were inhabitants towards the south, and in
the plain:
8
And the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, saying:
9
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: *Judge ye true judgment, and shew ye
mercy, and compassion, every man to his brother.
10
*And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the stranger, and the poor:
and let not a man devise evil in his heart against his brother.
11
But they would not hearken, and they turned away the shoulder to depart: and
they stopped their ears, not to hear.
12
And they made their heart as the adamant stone, lest they should hear the law,
and the words which the Lord of hosts sent in his spirit by the hand of the
former prophets: so a great indignation came from the Lord of hosts.
13
And it came to pass that as he spoke, and they heard not: so shall they cry,
and I will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.
14
And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which they knew not: and the land
was left desolate behind them, so that no man passed through or returned: and
they changed the delightful land into a wilderness.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 3487.
5: Isai. lviii. 5.
9: Mich vi. 8.; Matt. xxiii. 23.
10: Exod. xxii. 22.; Isai. i. 23.; Jer. v. 28.
====================
ZACHARIAS
8
CHAPTER VIII.
Joyful promises to Jerusalem: fully verified in the
Church of Christ.
1
And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
2
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I have been jealous for Sion with a great
jealousy, and with a great indignation have I been jealous for her.
3
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am returned to Sion, and I will dwell in the
midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, and the
Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the sanctified mountain.
4
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women dwell in
the streets of Jerusalem: and every man, with his staff in his hand, through
multitude of days.
5
And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the
streets thereof.
6
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If it seem hard in the eyes of the remnant of
this people in those days, shall it be hard in my eyes? saith the Lord of
hosts.
7
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the land of
the east, and from the land of the going down of the sun.
8
And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they
shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and in justice.
9
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strengthened, you that hear in
these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, in the day that the house
of the Lord of hosts was founded, that the temple might be built.
10
For before those days there was no hire for men, neither was there hire for
beasts, neither was there peace to him that came in, nor to him that went out,
because of the tribulation: and I let all men go every one against his
neighbour.
11
But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people according to the former
days, saith the Lord of hosts.
12
But there shall be the seed of peace: the vine shall yield her fruit, and the
earth shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew: and I will
cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
13
And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the Gentiles, O house
of Juda and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing;
fear not, let your hands be strengthened.
14
For thus saith the Lord of hosts: As I purposed to afflict you, when your
fathers had provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord,
15
And I had no mercy: so turning again, I have thought in these days to do good
to the house of Juda, and Jerusalem: fear not.
16
These then are the things, which you shall do: *Speak ye truth every one to his
neighbour; judge ye truth and judgment of peace in your gates.
17
And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his friend; and love
not a false oath; for all these are the things that I hate, saith the Lord.
18
And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
19
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the
fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the
house of Juda joy and gladness, and great solemnities; only love ye truth and
peace.
20
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Until people come and dwell in many cities,
21
And the inhabitants go one to another, saying: Let us go, and entreat the face
of the Lord, and let us seek the Lord of hosts: I also will go.
22
And many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts, in
Jerusalem, and to entreat the face of the Lord.
23
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: In those days, wherein ten men of all languages
of the Gentiles shall take hold, and shall hold fast the shirt of one that is a
Jew, saying: We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.
____________________
*
16: Eph. iv. 25.
====================
ZACHARIAS
9
CHAPTER IX.
God will defend his Church, and bring over even her
enemies to the faith. The meek coming of
Christ, to bring peace, to deliver the captives by his blood, and to give us
all good things.
1
The burden of the word of the Lord, in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus the
rest thereof; for the eye of man, and of all the tribes of Israel, is the
Lord's.
2
Emath also, in the borders thereof, and Tyre, and Sidon; for they have taken to
themselves to be exceeding wise.
3
And Tyre hath built herself a strong hold, and heaped together silver as earth,
and gold as the mire of the streets.
4
Behold, the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea,
and she shall be devoured with fire.
5
Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very sorrowful: and
Accaron, because her hope is confounded: and the king shall perish from Gaza,
and Ascalon shall not be inhabited.
6
And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride of the
Philistines.
7
And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from
between his teeth; and even he shall be left to our God, and he shall be as a
governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite.
8
And I will encompass my house with them that serve me in war, going and
returning, and the oppressor shall no more pass through them; for now I have
seen with my eyes.
9
*Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold
thy king will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding
upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.
10
And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem,
and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles,
and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of
the earth.
11
Thou also, by the blood of thy testament, hast sent forth thy prisoners out of
the pit, wherein is no water.
12
Return to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope, I will render thee double, as
I declare to-day.
13
Because I have bent Juda for me as a bow, I have filled Ephraim; and I will
raise up thy sons, O Sion, above thy sons, O Greece, and I will make thee as
the sword of the mighty.
14
And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his dart shall go forth as
lightning; and the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and go in the whirlwind of
the south.
15
The Lord of hosts will protect them: and they shall devour, and subdue with the
stones of the sling: and drinking they shall be inebriated as it were with
wine, and they shall be filled as bowls, and as the horns of the altar.
16
And the Lord, their God, will save them in that day, as the flock of his
people: for holy stones shall be lifted up over his land.
17
For what is the good thing of him, and what is his beautiful thing, but the
corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?
____________________
*
9: Isai. lxii. 11.; Mat. xxi. 5.
====================
ZACHARIAS
10
CHAPTER X.
God is to be sought to, and not idols. The victories of his Church, which shall
arise originally from the Jewish nation.
1
Ask ye of the Lord rain in the latter season, and the Lord will make snows, and
will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
2
For the idols have spoken what was unprofitable, and the diviners have seen a lie,
and the dreamers have spoken vanity; they comforted in vain; therefore they
were led away as a flock: they shall be afflicted, because they have no
shepherd.
3
My wrath is kindled against the shepherds, and I will visit upon the
buck-goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Juda,
and hath made them as the horse of his glory in the battle.
4
Out of him shall come forth the corner, out of him the pin, out of him the bow
of battle, out of him every exactor together.
5
And they shall be as mighty men, treading under foot the mire of the ways in
battle; and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them; and the riders of
horses shall be confounded.
6
And I will strengthen the house of Juda, and save the house of Joseph: and I
will bring them back again, because I will have mercy on them: and they shall
be as they were when I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God, and
will hear them.
7
And they shall be as the valiant men of Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice
as through wine; and their children shall see, and shall rejoice, and their
heart shall be joyful in the Lord.
8 I
will whistle for them, and I will gather them together, because I have redeemed
them: and I will multiply them as they were multiplied before.
9
And I will sow them among peoples: and from afar they shall remember me: and
they shall live with their children, and shall return.
10
And I will bring them back out of the land of Egypt, and will gather them from
among the Assyrians; and will bring them to the land of Galaad, and Libanus,
and place shall not be found for them.
11
And he shall pass over the strait of the sea, and shall strike the waves in the
sea, and all the depths of the river shall be confounded, *and the pride of
Assyria shall be humbled, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart.
12
I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk in his name, saith the
Lord.
____________________
*
11: Apoc. xvi. 12.; Isai. xi. 15.
====================
ZACHARIAS
11
CHAPTER XI.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. God's dealings with the Jews, and their
reprobation.
1
Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let fire devour thy cedars.
2
Howl, thou fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen, for the mighty are laid waste:
howl, ye oaks of Basan, because the fenced forest is cut down.
3
The voice of the howling of the shepherds, because their glory is laid waste:
the voice of the roaring of the lions, because the pride of the Jordan is
spoiled.
4
Thus saith the Lord, my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter,
5
Which they that possessed, slew, and repented not, and they sold them, saying:
Blessed be the Lord, we are become rich: and their shepherds spared them not.
6
And I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: behold, I
will deliver the men, every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of
his king: and they shall destroy the land, and I will not deliver it out of
their hand.
7
And I will feed the flock of slaughter for this, O ye poor of the flock. And I took unto me two rods, one I called
Beauty, and the other I called a Cord: and I fed the flock.
8
And I cut off three shepherds in one month, and my soul was straitened in their
regard: for their soul also varied in my regard.
9
And I said: I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die: and that which
is cut off, let it be cut off: and let the rest devour every one the flesh of
his neighbour.
10
And I took my rod that was called Beauty, and I cut it asunder to make void my
covenant, which I had made with all people.
11
And it was made void in that day: and so the poor of the flock that keep for
me, understood that it is the word of the Lord.
12
And I said to them: If it be good in your eyes, bring hither my wages: and if
not, be quiet. *And they weighed for my
wages thirty pieces of silver.
13
And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was
prized at by them. And I took the thirty
pieces of silver; and I cast them into the house of the Lord, to the statuary.
14
And I cut off my second rod that was called a Cord, that I might break the
brotherhood between Juda and Israel.
15
And the Lord said to me: Take to thee yet the instruments of a foolish
shepherd.
16
For behold I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit what is
forsaken, nor seek what is scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor nourish that
which standeth, and he shall eat the flesh of the fat ones, and break their
hoofs.
17
O shepherd, and idol, that forsaketh the flock: the sword upon his arm and upon
his right eye: his arm shall quite wither away, and his right eye shall be
utterly darkened.
____________________
*
12: Mat. xxvii. 9.
====================
ZACHARIAS
12
CHAPTER XII.
God shall protect his Church against her
persecutors. The mourning of Jerusalem.
1
The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel.
Thus saith the Lord, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the
foundations of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man in him:
2
Behold I will make Jerusalem a lintel of surfeiting to all the people round
about: and Juda also shall be in the siege against Jerusalem.
3
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome
stone to all people; all that shall lift it up shall be rent and torn; and all
the kingdoms of the earth shall be gathered together against her.
4
In that day, saith the Lord, I will strike every horse with astonishment, and
his rider with madness: and I will open my eyes upon the house of Juda, and
will strike every horse of the nations with blindness.
5
And the governors of Juda shall say in their heart: Let the inhabitants of
Jerusalem be strengthened for me in the Lord of hosts, their God.
6
In that day I will make the governors of Juda like a furnace of fire amongst
wood, and as a firebrand amongst hay: and they shall devour all the people
round about, to the right hand and to the left: and Jerusalem shall be
inhabited again in her own place in Jerusalem.
7
And the Lord shall save the tabernacles of Juda, as in the beginning: that the
house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not boast and
magnify themselves against Juda.
8
In that day shall the Lord protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that
hath offended among them in that day shall be as David: and the house of David,
as that of God, as an angel of the Lord in their sight.
9
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the
nations that come against Jerusalem.
10
And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers; *and they shall look upon me,
whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an
only son, and they shall grieve over him, as the manner is to grieve for the
death of the first-born.
11
In that day there shall be a great lamentation in Jerusalem, *like the
lamentation of Adadremmon, in the plain of Mageddon.
12
And the land shall mourn: families and families apart: the families of the
house of David apart, and their women apart:
13
The families of the house of Nathan apart, and their women apart: the families
of the house of Levi apart, and their women apart: the families of Semei apart,
and their women apart.
14
All the rest of the families, families and families apart, and their women
apart.
____________________
*
10: John xix. 37.
11: 2 Par. xxxv. 22.
====================
ZACHARIAS
13
CHAPTER XIII.
The fountain of Christ. Idols and false prophets shall be
extripated. Christ shall suffer: his
people shall be tried by fire.
1
In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem: for the washing of the sinner, and of the unclean
woman.
2
*And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will
destroy the names of idols out of the earth, and they shall be remembered no
more: and I will take away the false prophets, and the unclean spirit out of
the earth.
3
And it shall come to pass, that when any man shall prophesy any more, his
father and his mother that brought him into the world, shall say to him: Thou
shalt not live: because thou best spoken a lie in the name of the Lord. And his father, and his mother, his parents,
shall thrust him through, when he shall prophesy.
4
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be confounded,
every one by his own vision, when he shall prophesy, neither shall they be clad
with a garment of sackcloth, to deceive:
5
But he shall say: I am no prophet, I am a husbandman: for Adam is my example
from my youth.
6
And they shall say to him: What are these wounds in the midst of thy
hands? And he shall say: With these I
was wounded in the house of them that loved me.
7
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that cleaveth to me,
saith the Lord of hosts: strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered:
and I will turn my hand to the little ones.
8
And there shall be in all the earth, saith the Lord, two parts in it shall be
scattered, and shall perish: but the third part shall be left therein.
9
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as
silver is refined: and I will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear
them. I will say: Thou art my people:
and they shall say: The Lord is my God.
____________________
*
2: Ezec. xxx. 13.
====================
ZACHARIAS
14
CHAPTER XIV.
After the persecutions of the Church, shall follow
great prosperity. Persecutors shall be
punished: so shall all that will not serve God in his Church.
1
Behold the days of the Lord shall come, and thy spoils shall be divided in the
midst of thee.
2
And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be
taken, and the houses shall be rifled, and the women shall be defiled: and half
of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the rest of the people shall not
be taken away out of the city.
3
Then the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those nations, as when he
fought in the day of battle.
4
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is
over-against Jerusalem toward the east: and the mount of Olives shall be
divided in the midst thereof to the east, and to the west with a very great
opening, and half of the mountain shall be separated to the north, and half
thereof to the south.
5
And you shall flee to the valley of those mountains, for the valley of the
mountains shall be joined even to the next, and you shall flee *as you fled
from the face of the earthquake in the days of Ozias, king of Juda: and the
Lord, my God, shall come, and all the saints with him.
6
And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall be no light, but cold
and frost.
7
And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night: and
in the time of the evening there shall be light:
8
And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from
Jerusalem: half of them to the east sea, and half of them to the last sea: they
shall be in summer and in winter.
9
And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one
Lord, and his name shall be one.
10
And all the land shall return even to the desert, from the hill to Remmon, to
the south of Jerusalem: and she shall be exalted, and shall dwell in her own
place, from the gate of Benjamin even to the place of the former gate, and even
to the gate of the corners; and from the tower of Hananeel even to the king's
wine-presses.
11
And people shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more an anathema: but
Jerusalem shall sit secure.
12
And this shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord shall strike all nations that
have fought against Jerusalem: the flesh of every one shall consume away while
they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13
In that day there shall be a great tumult from the Lord among them: and a man
shall take the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall be clasped upon his
neighbour's hand.
14
And even Juda shall fight against Jerusalem: and the riches of all nations
round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and garments in great
abundance.
15
And the destruction of the horse, and of the mule, and of the camel, and of the
ass, and of all the beasts, that shall be in those tents, shall be like this
destruction.
16
And all they that shall be left of all nations that came against Jerusalem,
shall go up from year to year, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, and to
keep the feast of tabernacles.
17
And it shall come to pass, that he that shall not go up of the families of the
land to Jerusalem, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, there shall be no rain
upon them.
18
And if the family of Egypt go not up, nor come: neither shall it be upon them,
but there shall be destruction, wherewith the Lord will strike all nations that
will not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
19
This shall be the sin of Egypt, and this the sin of all nations, that will not
go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20
In that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the
Lord: and the caldrons in the house of the Lord shall be as the phials before
the altar.
21
And every caldron in Jerusalem and Juda shall be sanctified to the Lord of
hosts: and all that sacrifice, shall come, and take of them, and shall seeth in
them: and the merchant shall be no more in the house of the Lord of hosts in
that day.
____________________
*
5: Amos i. 1.
====================
====================
MALACHIAS
THE PROPHECY OF MALACHIAS.
MALACHIAS
1
CHAPTER I.
God reproaches the Jews with their ingratitude: and
the priests for not offering pure sacrifices.
He will accept of the sacrifice that shall be offered in every place
among the Gentiles.
1
The *burden of the word of the Lord to Israel, by the hand of Malachias.
2 I
have loved you, saith the Lord: and you have said: Wherein hast thou loved
us? Was not Esau brother to Jacob, saith
the Lord, and *I have loved Jacob,
3
But have hated Esau? and I have made his mountains a wilderness, and given his
inheritance to the dragons of the desert.
4
But if Edom shall say: We are destroyed, but we will return and build up what
hath been destroyed: thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall build up, and I
will throw down: and they shall be called the borders of wickedness, and the
people with whom the Lord is angry for ever.
5
And your eyes shall see, and you shall say: The Lord be magnified upon the
border of Israel.
6
The son honoureth the father, and the servant his master: if then I be a
father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear: saith the
Lord of hosts?
7
To you, O priests, that despise my name, and have said: Wherein have we
despised thy name? You offer polluted
bread upon my altar, and you say: Wherein have we polluted thee: In that you
say: The table of the Lord is contemptible.
8 If
you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame
and the sick, is it not evil: offer it to thy prince, if he will be pleased
with it, or if he will regard thy face, saith the Lord of hosts.
9
And now beseech ye the face of God, that he may have mercy on you (for by your
hand hath this been done) if by any means he will receive your faces, saith the
Lord of hosts.
10
Who is there among you, that will shut the doors, and will kindle the fire on
my altar gratis? I have no pleasure in
you, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will not receive a gift of your hand.
11
*For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among
the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my
name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord
of hosts.
12
And you have profaned it in that you say: The table of the Lord is defiled: and
that which is laid thereupon is contemptible, with the fire that devoureth it.
13
And you have said: Behold of our labour, and you puffed it away, saith
the Lord of hosts, and you brought in of rapine the lame, and the sick, and
brought in an offering: shall I accept it at your hands, saith the Lord?
14
Cursed is the deceitful man, that hath in his flock a male, and making a vow,
offereth in sacrifice that which is feeble to the Lord: for I am a great King,
saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the Gentiles.
____________________
*
1: A.M. circiter 3604, A.C. 400.
2: Rom. ix. 13.
11: Ps. cxii. 3.
====================
MALACHIAS
2
CHAPTER II.
The priests are sharply reproved for neglecting their
covenants. The evil of marrying with
idolaters; and too easily putting away their wives.
1
And now, O ye priests, this commandment is to you.
2
*If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my
name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you, and will curse
your blessings; yea, I will curse them: because you have not laid it to heart.
3
Behold, I will cast the shoulder to you, and will scatter upon your face the
dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it.
4
And you shall know that I sent you this commandment, that my covenant might be
with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.
5
My covenant was with him of life and peace: and I gave him fear: and he feared
me, and he was afraid before my name.
6
The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he
walked with me in peace, and in equity, and turned many away from iniquity.
7
For the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at
his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts.
8
But you have departed out of the way, and have caused many to stumble at the
law: you have made void the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.
9
Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all people, as you
have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the law.
10
*Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why then doth every
one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our fathers?
11
Juda hath transgressed, and abomination hath been committed in Israel, and in
Jerusalem: for Juda hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and
hath married the daughter of a strange god.
12
The Lord will cut off the man that hath done this, both the master and the
scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering to
the Lord of hosts.
13
And this again have you done, you have covered the altar of the Lord with
tears, with weeping, and bellowing, so that I have no more a regard to
sacrifice, neither do I accept any atonement at your hands.
14
And you have said: For what cause?
Because the Lord hath been witness between thee, and the wife of thy
youth, whom thou hast despised: yet she was thy partner, and the wife of thy
covenant.
15
Did not one make her, and she is the residue of his spirit? And what doth one seek, but the seed of
God? Keep then your spirit, and despise
not the wife of thy youth.
16
When thou shalt hate her, put her away, saith the Lord, the God of Israel: but
iniquity shall cover his garment, saith the Lord of hosts; keep your spirit,
and despise not.
17
You have wearied the Lord with your words: and you said: Wherein have we
wearied him? In that you say: Every one
that doth evil, is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him: or
surely where is the God of judgment?
____________________
*
2: Lev. xxvi. 14.; Deut. xxviii. 15.
10: Mat. xxiii. 9.; Eph. iv. 6.
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MALACHIAS
3
CHAPTER III.
Christ shall come to his temple, and purify the
priesthood. They that continue in their
evil ways shall be punished: but true penitents shall receive a blessing.
1
Behold, *I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord whom you seek, and the
angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple. Behold, he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts:
2
And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? and who shall stand to
see him? for he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller's herb:
3
And he shall sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he shall purify the
sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold, and as silver, and they shall
offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice.
4
And the sacrifice of Juda, and of Jerusalem, shall please the Lord, as in the
days of old, and in the ancient years.
5
And I will come to you in judgment, and will be a speedy witness against
sorcerers, and adulterers, and false swearers, and them that oppress the
hireling in his wages, the widows, and the fatherless: and oppress the
stranger, and have not feared me, saith the Lord of hosts.
6
For I am the Lord, and I change not: and you the sons of Jacob are not
consumed.
7
For from the days of your fathers you have departed from my ordinances, and
have not kept them: *Return to me, and I will return to you, saith the
Lord of hosts. And you have said:
Wherein shall we return?
8
Shall a man afflict God, for you afflict me?
And you have said: Wherein do we afflict thee? In tithes and in first-fruits.
9
And you are cursed with want, and you afflict me, even the whole nation of you.
10
Bring all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in my house,
and try me in this, saith the Lord: if I open not unto you the flood-gates of
heaven, and pour you out a blessing even to abundance.
11
And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, and he shall not spoil the fruit
of your land: neither shall the vine in the field be barren, saith the Lord of
hosts.
12
And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightful land,
saith the Lord of hosts.
13
*Your words have been unsufferable to me, saith the Lord.
14
And you have said: What have we spoken against thee? You have said: He laboureth in vain that
serveth God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that
we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts?
15
Wherefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are
built up, and they have tempted God, and are preserved.
16
Then they that feared the Lord spoke every one with his neighbour: and the Lord
gave ear, and heard it: and a book of remembrance was written before him for
them that fear the Lord, and think on his name.
17
And they shall be my special possession, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day
that I do judgment: and I will spare them as a man spareth his son that
serveth him.
18
And you shall return, and shall see the difference between the just and the
wicked; and between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.
____________________
*
1: Mat. xi. 10.; Mark i. 2.; Luke i. 17. and
vii. 27.
7: Zach. i. 3.
13: John xxi. 14.
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MALACHIAS
4
CHAPTER IV.
The judgment of the wicked, and reward of the just. An exhortation to observe the law. Elias shall come for the conversion of the
Jews.
1
For behold the day shall come, kindled as a furnace: and all the proud, and all
that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall set them on
fire, saith the Lord of hosts, it shall not leave them root, nor branch.
2
*But unto you that fear my name, the sun of justice shall arise, and health in
his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd.
3
And you shall tread down the wicked, when they shall be ashes under the sole of
your feet in the day, that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
4
*Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb, for all
Israel, the precepts, and judgments.
5
*Behold, I will send you Elias, the prophet, before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord.
6
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of
the children to their fathers: lest I come, and strike the earth with anathema.
____________________
*
2: Luke i. 78.
4: Exod. xx.; Deut. v. and vi.
5: Mat. xvii. 10.; Mark ix. 10.; Luke i. 17.
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