III. 5. And I will discover, &c. See Ezekiel xvi. verse 37. III. 8. Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

Art thou better than the famous and populous city Alexandria, in Egypt, which is situated upon the river Nilus, and had the waters to environ it, and is defenced with that great and sea-like lake of Mareotis?

III. 9. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.

O Alexandria, beside thine own strength, Ethiopia and Egypt were thy sure stay: thine assistants were without number: all the Africans, and, above all, the Libyans, were thy helpers.

III. 11. Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid.

Even so thou also, O Nineveh, shalt drink deep of the cup of God's vengeance: thou, that wast once renowned over the world, shalt be glad to be wrapped up in obscurity and forgetfulness.

III. 13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women. Thy people in the midst of thee are faint hearted as women. III. 14. Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brickkiln.

Go to then, furnish thyself with provision for a siege; fill thy cisterns with water; fortify thy strong holds; make ready store of bricks, to repair thy battered walls:

III. 15. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up, like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.

But, all this shall avail thee nothing; notwithstanding all thy preparation, the fire and the sword shall devour thee; it shall eat thee up, as the cankerworm doth the green leaf: were thy troops as many as there are caterpillars upon the boughs, this number shall do thee no good for thy defence. III. 16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away.

Neither art thou any better for those multitudes of merchants, that pertain unto thee; as thou hast many, like the stars in the heaven for number: for they, like to those cankerworms, when they have spoiled what they may in their deceitful trade, fly away from thee, and leave thee destitute. So also verse 17.

III. 17. Thy crowned are as the locust, &c.

Thy rulers also are like unto locusts, &c.

III. 18. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust.

Thy princes, O king of Assyria, shall be dull and dead

hearted; and they, together with thy nobles, shall be laid in the dust, mangled and slain.

III. 19. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

There is no hope of healing this deadly wound, which thou shalt receive from the Chaldees: no; rather all nations round about shall applaud thy ruin, and clap their hands for joy of thy destruction; for whom hast not thou provoked by thy wickedness continually?

HABAKKUK.

I. 3. Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.

It is but a vexation to me, O Lord, to see that iniquity, which I cannot reform: I see every where cruelty and oppression before me; and, when I reprove them, there are those, that raise up strife and contention against me.

I. 4. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous ; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

Hereupon it comes to pass, that the law is not pressed home, and judgment is neither denounced nor executed: for the righteous are in the power and mercy of the wicked; so as it cannot be, but that wrong judgment must needs proceed against the just and innocent.

I. 5. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which will not believe, though it be told you.

ye

But, to take away the ground of all this complaint, behold, O ye degenerated people of the Jews, and look upon those heathen whom ye hate and contemn; and wonder at that, which I will bring to pass by their hands against you, even a work, which, to your incredulity and self-confidence, will seem incredible.

I. 7. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of

themselves.

They shall have the law in their own hands; and they shall carve themselves, of your punishment, and their own advancement, at their pleasure.

I. 9. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

They shall come purposely to waste and spoil: their very looks shall blast all before them like an east wind; and they

shall carry away a number of captives, as the sand of the sea for multitude.

I. 10. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them.

They shall make a mock at those kings and princes, that will offer to resist them.

I. 11. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his God.

Then shall their king Nebuchadnezzar alter his determination of prosecuting his foreign invasions; and, returning home to Babylon, shall be puffed up with these his victories, and shall foolishly impute them to his god Bel.

I. 12. Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment: and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

But, that I may turn my thoughts and my speech to thee, O Lord my God, mine Holy One, I hope thou hast not designed us to utter extirpation: thou hast ordained these Chaldees, most justly, for our punishment; and set them on work for our correction, not for our destruction.

I. 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, &c. Wherefore shouldest thou give way to the wicked Chaldees, to devour thy people that are more righteous than they?

1. 14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no rule over them?

Wherefore shouldest thou put men into the same condition with the fishes of the sea, amongst whom the greater devours the less, without all regard of any thing but power; or, into the same case with creeping things, which, having no ruler, have therefore no protection or safety from mutual violence?

I. 15. They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

Even as such fishes, doth Nebuchadnezzar take thy people of Judah: he takes them up with the angle; and, lest that dispatch should not be speedy enough, he catcheth them in his net, and gathers them in his drag, to cast them out into captivity; and rejoiceth and triumpheth in this his advantage.

I. 16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

And, hereupon, he and his Babylonians sacrifice to this net of their policy, and burn incense to the drag of their power;

because they have, by them, increased their dignity and dominion.

I. 17. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Wilt thou therefore, O Lord, still suffer them to empty their net for a new draught? Wilt thou not restrain them, from making spoil of the nations round about continually?

II. 1. I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Since God hath appointed me to be a watchman for his people, I will perform the charge committed unto me: I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and carefully view, and listen what his pleasure is to do with them, and to reveal unto me; that I may give a good account of this my station and message, when I shall be challenged for it.

II. 2. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Write thou this thing, that I do now declare unto thee, in great text letters; and fix the writing publicly, upon many posts; and let it be so legible, that he who runs may read it as he passes.

II. 3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie.

For this vision is not to be presently fulfilled, but hath a time set and determined, wherein it shall be accomplished; at the expiring whereof, it shall be apparently verified to the world.

II. 4. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

In any case, give thou full belief to this word of the Lord; for, behold, that man, which withdraweth his soul from trusting unto God, and will be raising to himself projects of his own, as he is unsound and faithless to God, so is he accordingly displeasing to him: but the just and upright man will depend upon the promises of God, and speed thereafter; for his faith in God shall both uphold his life here, and crown it with glory hereafter.

II. 5. Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

Know, therefore, that this proud Babylonian, under whom thy nation shall suffer, shall at last be met with, in his own kind: he is now transported, and, as it were, intoxicated with his ambition, as with wine; which carries him from home, to

the invasion of other countries; and makes him as insatiable as hell itself, and as death, which can never be satisfied; whereupon he gathers unto him all the kingdoms round about, and heaps up crowns and sceptres to himself, over all the regions of the earth:

11. 6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!

But, when his turn comes, shall not all these nations, whom he hath subdued, seeing his overthrow and utter ruin, insult upon him; and take up a taunting proverb against him, and say, What is now become of the man, that raked up those kingdoms whereto he had no right? How long hath he enjoyed these ill-gotten crowns? Where now is he, that ladeth himself with extent of earth, and with the unprofitable weight of this base earthly trash?

II. 7. Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?

Shall not the Medes and Persians rise up suddenly against thee, and set upon thee, and spoil thee; and thou shalt be for booties unto them?

II. 9. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

Woe be to thee, O insolent Babylonian, that, out of a covetous and ambitious desire, scrapest together the wealth of the world; that thou mayest make thy nest on high in this Babylon, and that thou mayest be freed from all the fear or power of an enemy!

II. 10. Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.

Thou vainly devisest thus to advance thy house; but thou shalt find this to be the way to bring shame and ruin upon it: even in this bloody violence which thou hast used, in the cutting off many people, thou hast brought confusion upon thy house, and hast sinned against thy soul.

II. 11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

For, if men should hold their peace, the very stones out of the wall, which thou hast raised by this cruelty, shall cry out against thee; and the beam out of the timber-work shall second this clamour, against thine injustice and violence.

II. 12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!

Woe to him, that buildeth and enlargeth his city Babylon, with those bloody spoils and rapines of other innocent nations.