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About forty weeks hence, according to the ordinary time of conception and birth, thou shalt bear a son.

IV. 23 Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath.

On solemn days, I know it is our manner to resort unto the prophet of God, for the worship of our God, and our own instruction; but now, since it is neither new moon nor sabbath, that might occasion thy journey to the man of God, what business is it that calls thee to him?

IV. 26 And she answered, It is well.

Trouble not thyself with this question: I shall give an account of it to thy master; in the mean time, rest thou contented.

V. 18 In this thing pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.

I do solemnly protest unto thee, that I will do no worship to any God, save to the true God of Israel only; and I could well wish, that I never might have occasion to come into any of the temples of those idol gods; but, in this, I shall desire to be dispensed with, that, when, upon the necessity of my place and service, I must wait upon the king, into the temple of his Rimmon, and my master (leaning on my arm) shall bow to his false god; I may then (after public notice given of my free intentions) not out of any respect of devotion to the idol, but out of my due service to my master, bow down under my master in the house of Rimmon, which, however in itself it may be construed as a gesture of adoration to the idol, yet, when the world shall be thoroughly possessed of my hatred of this idolatry, and my unfeigned purpose to reserve myself wholly for the true God, it shall perhaps avoid that offence, which otherwise might be taken at this, not religious, but civil gesture: in this I beseech thee pray to God, that he will not impute sin unto me; as one, that would fain be serviceable,' and not idolatrous.

V. 19 And he said unto him, Go in peace.

And he said unto him; God speed thee well; Go, and do that which may best stand with the peace of a good conscience; for me, I give thee neither warrant, nor dispensation.

V. 26 Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot, &c?

Couldst thou vainly hope to elude a prophet? Had not I notice from God of all the way that thou wentest, and of all thy carriage towards Naaman, &c?

VI. 17 LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. O Lord, do thou so illuminate and enable the eyes of this my servant, that they may discern this spiritual aid, that thou hast provided for our succour and rescue.

VI. 33 And he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what should I wait for the LORD any longer?

And when the prophet advised him to wait still patiently upon God, he answered desperately: Do ye not see to what height of misery we are come, that mothers are forced to eat their own children? It is the hand of God, that hath brought us to this extre mity worse we cannot be to what purpose is it, to expect any favour from that hand, that hath thus plagued us? If ever God would have delivered us, he would have done it, ere we had come to this hopeless condition.

VIII. 10 Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die.

Go, say unto him, The disease is not in itself deadly; but such as thou mayest well, in course of nature, recover: but withal, I must tell thee, that the Lord hath shewed me, that he shall die by another means; and shall not rise from the bed of his sickness.

VIII. 13 But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?

Why doth my Lord speak so foul, and bloody things of me? He must be extremely savage and cruel, that should do such violences. For me, I do not find in myself any such brutish and tyrannous disposition.

IX. 11 Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication. What business hast thou with this cracked-brain, frantic fellow ? What can a man of this robe have to do with thee? And he said; The habit shews you the man's profession; that he is a prophet: and his profession intimates his errand.

IX. 22 What peace, so long as the whoredoms and witchcrafts of thy mother Jezebel are so many?

What possibility is there of holding good terms with thee, while the abominable idolatries and superstition of thy mother Jezebel, both remain, and are maintained and countenanced by thee.

X. 28 Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of the land.

Thus Jehu destroyed all the idols of Baal, and rooted out all the false gods from Israel.

X. 29 Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from them, the golden calves that were in Dan, and that were in Bethel.

But that part of idolatry, which consisted in the false worship of the true God, brought in by Jeroboam in those golden calves of Dan and Bethel, Jehu did not at all oppose; but countenanced and practised it rather.

XI. 5 This is the thing which ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house; &c.

Whereas the Levites, being distributed into four and twenty courses, are appointed to keep their changes, every sabbath, to the number of about sixteen hundred, in every succession now ye shall so marshal yourselves, that, while the new course enters the former shall yet continue for this turn undischarged; and those, that come in to succeed, shall divide themselves into three parts, whereof one shall keep the watch of the king's house, &c.

XIII. 19 Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.

Upon my command from God, thou shouldest have smitten, till I had staid thy hand; which if thou hadst done, thy obedience had been rewarded with frequent victories; now, thou shalt overcome, but according to the proportion of thine obedience, diligence, and faith in that word which thou hast received.

XIV. 9 The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trod downe the thistle, &c.

Thou, the king of Judah, who art but as a thistle, sentest to me, the king of Israel, who am a cedar of Lebanon, to give thee aid, and join in an offensive war with thee, against the king of Edom: now, if some lawless rovers on my part, which are as the wild beasts of that forest, have trodden down thy thistle, and made a spoil of thy country, why shouldest thou take it so highly, as to undertake a war hereupon with me?

XVI. 18 And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD.

And that covered place of shelter, near to the house of God, which was used for the shade and ease, both of the officers of the temple and of the people, on the occasions of their concourse upon the sabbath days; and the close walk or cloister, which the king had made from his house to the temple; he defaced.

XVII. 9 And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city

They set up their altars, and sacrificed to God in all high places, which themselves, contrary to God's command, had erected, in all the parts of the kingdom, from one side of the borders to the other: no part was free, whether more solitary or more frequented.

XVII. 33 They feared the LORD, and served their own gods. They made a formal profession of serving the Lord, and yet continued the worship of their own false gods.

XVIII. 4 He brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses hud

made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

He brake in pieces the brazen serpent, that Moses had long since made, and erected in the wilderness as a type of that Christ, by whom his people are healed of the venomous stings of their sins; which holy monument, being reserved to this day, was grossly abused by the superstitious Israelites, who burnt incense to it, as a God: this Hezekiah pulled down and defaced; terming it, by way of indignation, as it was, a Piece of Brass.

XIX. 3 The children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

It is with us, as with a woman in travail, which hath not strength to bring forth her birth; extreme calamity hath seized upon us, of which we have no power to deliver ourselves.

XIX. 7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return.

I will, with a blast of wind, send him away; for I will raise a rumour of Tirhakah coming up against his land, which shall fetch him off from you.

XIX. 29 Ye shall eat this year, &c. See Isaiah xxxvii. 30.

XX. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall.

For the greater privacy of his meditation, he turned his face from the view of his attendants towards the wall.

XX. 9 Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees? &c.

Shall the shadow in one moment skip over ten degrees, so as the day shall be so much shorter than ordinary?

XX. 11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow back ten degrees, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

And Isaiah prayed earnestly unto the Lord; and he recalled the motion of the sun ten degrees back, from the point, where it was; so as the day, which in ordinary course consisted of twelve hours, was now protracted to two and twenty: and that this retrograde motion might be sensibly discerned, he caused it to be apparently scen, and noted in the famous dial of Jerusalem, which was called by the name of Ahaz.

XX. 19 And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?

God hath dealt graciously with me herein; for I had well deserved a speedy judgment upon myself, in my own person, but lo, the mercy of God hath not proceeded thus against me, but hath, notwithstanding my offence, promised peace, and stability of his wonted grace to me, all my life,

XXI. 3 And worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. As one, that affected to be an universal idolater, he worshipped all the spirits that rule in the air, and all the stars that are fixed in heaven.

XXI. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab.

I will take the same course with Jerusalem, that I have taken with Samaria; and with the wicked house of Ahab, which I have utterly rooted out from before me.

XXII. 8 I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.

I have found the very original record of the book of the Law, which was left by Moses, and reserved in the Holy of Holics by the command of God.

XXII. 14 Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college.

Now she dwelt at Jerusalem, in the college which is set apart for the use and inhabitation of the prophets; as being, notwithstanding her sex, of great eminence in that profession.

The Books of the CHRONICLES, consisting partly of ge nealogies, and partly of the same histories repeated, have afforded no use of this Paraphrase.

EZRA.

II. 62 But they were not found: therefore were they, as pol luted, put from the priesthood.

Because their genealogy could not be found and approved, they were held in the rank of ordinary Israelites, men not sanctified for the holy office of priesthood; and therefore were accordingly put

from their ministration.

II. 63 And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.

And the governor or deputy (who was Sheshbazzar) said unto them, by the motion and information of the Jews, that they should not be admitted to eat of those holy things (whose use was peculiar to the sacred tribe) until there should be a decision made of this question by a priest of God, who, by the oracle of the breastplate, should give sentence and determination hereof from God himself.

IV. 4 The people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah. The people of the land disheartened and discouraged the people of Judah, from this holy enterprise of building the temple of God. IV. 10 Whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over. Whom the great and noble Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, brought

over. See verse 2.

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