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neither can ye be able to carry away that store of glorious and rich furniture, wherewith that city aboundeth.

II. 10. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

Now is that great city empty, and void, and utterly despoiled: the hearts of the Ninevites melt with grief; their knees knock together with fear; they lay their hands on their loins, as if those were pained, in the vehement gesture of their lamentation; and the faces of them all are deformed with passion and astonishment.

II. 11. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?

Where now is the place, that was the feared dwelling of the lion-like Assyrians? What is become of the place, where the old lion, even the tyrants of Assyria walked, and where his princes made themselves so secure that nothing could affright them?

II. 12. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.

These Assyrian tyrants did not only take that prey from other nations, which might suffice themselves; but they purveyed for their children, for their followers, for their wives; and filled their storehouses with abundance of the rich booties of the world.

II. 13. And the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. There shall be no more regard had to thine ambassadors, nor to those commanding officers of thine which lately held the world in awe.

III. 1. Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not.

Woe to the bloody city of Nineveh! &c. thou canst not make an end of fraud and rapine.

III. 2. The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, &c.

Vengeance is near thee: I do already hear the noise of the Babylonian whips, in the hands of the charioteers, driving them furiously against thee, &c.

III. 4. Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

Because of the multitudes of those spiritual fornications, whereinto, like some fair and tempting harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, thou hast drawn other nations; having so besotted them, that thou hast made them the slaves of thy lust.

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 ye will not believe, though it be told you.

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?

Ï. 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. 1. 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

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