and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

I drew them unto me, by the strong persuasions of reason, and with bonds of love: and I did to them, as a kind husbandman to his well-respected team; I took off the yoke from them, and I laid meat unto them; I withdrew their burdens, and refreshed them with mercies.

XI. 5. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.

He shall not go any more into the land of Egypt, to seek aid; but the Assyrian shall surprise him, and be his king, because they refused to return to me.

XI. 7. And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt him.

My people Israel are bent to backsliding from me: although my prophets called unto them, and persuaded them to turn unto the Most High; yet they would not obey, nor be won to exalt and glorify their God.

XI. 8. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

O Ephraim, how shall I carry myself towards thee? If I should regard thee according to thy demerits, I should give thee up, O Israel, to my fearfullest judgments; but how can I endure to deal thus with thee? how can I make thee a sad spectacle of my wrath, like those five cities of Sodom, which were consumed with fire from heaven? Surely it goes against my heart, to think thus to proceed with thee: I cannot but revoke that dreadful sentence, which I was ready to pass against thee:

XI. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

For I am a gracious and immutable God; and not a man, subject either to passion or change: I, that am the Holy One of Israel, am yet still in the midst of thee, by my favour, and thy (howsoever impured) worship; and I will not turn to thee, in the extremity of my wrath, to consume thee.

XI. 10. They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.

Those of my Church, whom I shall choose from both Jews and Gentiles, shall walk holily and obediently, in the ways of God: he shall send forth the strong and mighty voice of his Gospel, and shall call all his elect ones; and when he shall

powerfully speak unto their hearts, his children shall awfully submit themselves to him, even from the utmost ends of the world.

XI. 11. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.

They shall come with an awful reverence unto God, and shall hasten their address unto him; upon the wings of their holy desire, out of all lands, even out of Egypt and Assyria, and all those parts where they have been most distressed; and I will establish them in my Church, saith the Lord.

XI. 12. Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

In the mean time, Ephraim makes a profession of my name, but false and counterfeit; and the house of Israel serves me, but in hypocrisy; as being full of idolatry and infection: but Judah, as yet, had not swerved from God, but continued faithful, as the true children of those holy Patriarchs.

XII. 1. Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

Ephraim pleaseth himself with following vain and idle hopes: he daily adds to his own disappointment and desolation: they project how to make themselves strong by their leagues with the Assyrians; and they send of their most precious presents, to insinuate with the Egyptians.

XII. 2. The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

Neither is Judah altogether free: God hath just quarrels against this better part of the posterity of Jacob, and will proceed against them according to their doings.

XII. 7. He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand.

Israel is a crafty, deceitful merchant: he makes use of false balances, and loves to oppress his brethren.

XII. 8. And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

And Ephraim said, Yet I am become exceeding rich: I have prospered wonderously in the increase of my substance; and yet, I have so carried the matter, that, in all my labours and contracts, no man can accuse me of iniquity, or say, Herein thou hast sinned.

XII. 9. And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of

Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feasts.

And I, that am the Lord thy God, and have so approved myself ever since I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, do yet offer, in my longsuffering, to continue thy peaceable habitation, and to give thee opportunity of celebrating thy Feast of Tabernacles, as thou wert wont.

XII. 10. I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.

I have also sent my prophets unto thee, and have by them declared my will and purposes towards thee, and have given them visions and revelations concerning thee, and have used all clear and familiar means of thine instruction by them.

XII. 11. Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

Do ye think there was more iniquity in the Gileadites, that are already carried away captive, than in you? Surely the rest of Israel is in the same case: they all lie open to the same judgment: they sacrifice to their idols, in Gilgal also; yea, their altars are as frequent every where, as the clods are in the furrows of the fields.

XII. 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

I have not deserved this at their hands: I have been always graciously ready to preserve them: I protected Jacob, when he fled into the country of Syria; where Israel your father served Laban for a wife, and for a wife kept the sheep of that hard father-in-law.

XII. 14. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.

Notwithstanding all the mercies of God, both late and ancient, Ephraim provoked him to anger, most grievously; therefore shall God lay upon him the punishment of his own sin; and that reproach, which his wickedness hath cast upon God, will God justly return upon Ephraim.

XIII. 1. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

Ephraim was once very awful to the rest of his fellows, so as while he spoke, the other tribes were ready to tremble; but when he once fell to his idolatry, in worshipping Baal, he lost his reputation, and no reckoning was made of him.

XIII. 2. They say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

They say to them, Let those, that would sacrifice to God,

do honour to those calves of Dan and Beth-el, in which God is worshipped.

: XIII. 5. I did know thee in the wilderness.

I did not only bring thee out of the land of Egypt, but I bestowed many favours upon thee in the wilderness.

XIII. 6. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted.

According to the height of their feed, so was their pamperedness and pride: they were no sooner filled, than their heart was exalted.

XIII. 9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

O Israel, I have not been wanting to thee in my favours and blessings thou canst not tax me of any defect of mercy; but thou wouldest not hearken to me, but wouldest needs procure thine own destruction: so as thy misery, and undoing, is thine own; all the hope, and remainder, of thy help and salvation, is in and from me.

XIII. 10. I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

I will be thy king: in vain hast thou trusted to any other; thou hast found it to thy sorrow: Where is there any other in all thy cities, that can deliver thee? Where are those judges of thine, those great rulers, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? What were they? What were they? What are they able to do for thee?

XIII. 11. I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

Thou seest how I gave thee thy first king, Saul, in mine anger; and now take away thy last king, Hoshea, in my wrath. XIII. 12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is

hid.

Let no man be offended, that I took not a sudden revenge on Ephraim: I have bundled up all his sins together, and trussed up his iniquities, for a meet day of punishment.

XIII. 13. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

His calamities shall come upon him, as the pains of childbirth upon a woman: it is his fault and his misery, that he sticks so long in the birth: were Ephraim wise, he would make his peace with God; that he might, by his mercy, be delivered fully from those miserable straits wherein he is.

XIII. 14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Let them repent, and I will deliver them from all their distresses; yea, even from death itself, and from the power of the grave: O death, I will vanquish and consume thee; O grave, I will destroy thee for ever, and will never repent me of that victory.

XIII. 15. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountains shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

But now, as the case stands with Ephraim, though he be fruitful among his brethren, yet I will fetch the Assyrian upon him; who, like an east wind from the wilderness, shall blast him, and utterly dash all his hopes, and carry away all his treasures, &c.

XIV. 2. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

Go unto him with humble submission, and turn to the Lord, and say, O God, forgive all our iniquity, and receive us to mercy so will we offer up unto thee the sacrifices of our thanksgivings.

XIV. 3. Asshur shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

We will no more trust to the king of Assyria, to save us: we will no more trust to our own munition and warlike preparation, neither will we any more make idols of the works of our own hands; for now we find and profess, that thou only art that God, in whom the fatherless and distressed can and shall find redress and mercy.

XIV. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

I will be comfortable and refreshing unto Israel, even as the dew is to the mown grass: so as he shall grow up in beauty, as the lily; and in strength and height, as the cedar in Lebanon.

XIV. 7. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

They, that dwell under the shadow of my Church, shall there find comfort and rest: they shall grow up fruitfully, as the corn in a well tilled field; and sprout forth, as the most generous vine; to the great joy and contentment of themselves and others.

XIV. 8. I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.