through those hard rocks? so impossible is it, that ye Israelites should continue to prosper, while ye remain thus sinful; for ye have corrupted judgment and justice, and made it hateful, and deadly to the innocent:

VI. 13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

Ye, which rejoice in your own strength, which is vain and nothing worth; and say, in the pride of your heart, Have we not made ourselves strong and impregnable by our wit and power?

VI. 14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD, the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness.

But, behold, I will raise up against you, O house of Israel, a mighty nation, even that of Assyria; and they shall plague you, even from the one end of your country to the other; from Hamath, which is in the borders of the north, to Sihor the river of the wilderness, to the south.

VII. 1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings,

Thus hath the Lord God shewed me the judgment, which he is about to bring upon the land; even that extreme famine, which he shall cause, through the abundance of locusts and other noisome worms, which he will send upon the earth: early therefore in the shooting up of the grass, after the first mowing thereof for the king's use, which is wont to be sooner than the common mathe, he formed store of those hurtful vermin, and sent them upon the land.

VII. 2 Then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.

Then I, seeing the proceedings of this famine, said, O Lord God, forgive us I beseech thee: if thou go on thus to plague us, who shall be left alive, to continue the name and generation of thy people? For even now, as it is, the number of thy people is but small.

VII. 3 The LORD repented for this: it shall not be, saith the LORD.

The Lord thereupon ceased from this plague; and, did, as it were, say, No; it shall not proceed; Israel shall not be quite wasted.

VII. 4 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.

The Lord God foreshewed me the judgment that he meant to bring upon Israel, by the sword of Tigleth Pileser, king of Assyria; represented by a fire, which should devour up the deep, and did eat up a part; signifying, that the fury and force of this king of Asshur should utterly swallow up the kingdom of Syria first, and afterwards that part of Israel which is beyond Jordan.

VII. 8 Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.

As I have built up Israel by line and level, so will I also now make an exquisite destruction of it, and will lay it level with the ground; and I will not any more pardon and pass by their wickednesses.

VII. 10 Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.

Amos hath conspired against thee in Beth-el, where is the greatest confluence of thy subjects. The words of his prophecy are intolerable; for he dishearteneth the people, and works in them a mean and dishonourable opinion of thy government, and despair of their own safety.

VII. 12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy

there:

And Amaziah said to Amos, What makest thou here, O thou prophet, out of thine own country: go thy ways home: take this friendly and private counsel from me; retire home closely to thy own country of Judah, and there maintain thyself, and there bestow thy pains and admonitions:

VII. 13 But prophesy not again any more at Beth-el : for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.

But venture not any more to vent thy prophecies in Beth-el; for thou knowest the condition of this place: it is both the king's sanctuary, for his devotion; and the king's court, for state: meddle not any more with prophesying here, lest thou provoke the king's anger against thee."

VII. 14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:

I was no prophet by my breeding and institution: I never was trained up to any such vocation; but was by my profession a herdman, and spent my time amongst my cattle; and, in that solitary life, contented myself with such wild diet, as the sycamores did

afford me:

VII. 15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. And even then, when I little thought of any such matter, it pleased the Lord to take me from that homely employment, and enjoined me this task of prophesying.

VII. 16 And drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Do not let fall the menaces of judgment upon the chosen people of God.

VII. 17 Therefore thus saith the LORD &c. Thou shalt die in a polluted land.

Because thou hast forbidden me to prophesy, thus saith the Lord, &c. Thou shalt die in the land of Assyria, which is polluted by detestable idolatries,

VIII. 2 And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the

any more.

LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, I have heretofore gathered and plucked off some of thy fruits, that is thy people; but now I come to thee, with a basket, to gather all that grows upon Israel; and will so make an end of this gathering, that there shall be no more of this kind left for hereafter.

VIII. 3 And the songs of the temples shall be howlings in the day, saith the Lord GOD.

Instead of the songs and music of the temples of Beth-el, and other high places, there shall be nothing but howlings and shriekings of those that are slain.

VIII. 5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit ?

Saying, When shall we have done with these solemn feasts, wherein we are not allowed to buy and sell? Would to God, these new moons and sabbaths were once past, that we might sell our corn at a high rate; making the measure of the wheat small, and the weights, wherein the silver is weighed, great and heavy; and falsifying the balances by deceit.

VIII. 6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; and sell the refuse of the wheat?

That we may cause the poor to sell themselves to our servitude, for a little silver, as being not able to sustain themselves; and that we may buy the needy for a pair of shoes, even for the basest necessaries: yea, and that, by this means, we may put off, at an unreasonable rate, the very refuse and offal of the wheat.

VIII. 8 And it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

And the judgment of God shall rise up, and overflow the land, as a flood; and the whole country shall be overspread and drowned therewith, as the plains are wont to be by the inundations of the river Nilus.

VIII. 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Gon, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.

Your sorrow shall be so extreme in that day, and that day shall be to you so black and gloomy, as if the sun were gone down at noonday, and as if darkness had covered the earth in the clearest day.

VIII. 10 And I will make it as the mourning of an only son. Such a mourning will I cause amongst you, as when a mother mourns for her only son.

VIII. 11 Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.

Not a famine of material bread, &c. but a spiritual famine of the word of God, which is only able to feed and save your souls.

VIII. 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the

north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

And they shall wander from the sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the north across unto the east, to seek the word of the Lord at the mouth of his prophets, and shall not find it.

VIII. 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy God, O Dan, liceth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Those idolatrous Israelites, that swear by the molten images of Samaria, and say, As the God, which is worshipped in Dan, and the author of the religion of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall into utter perdition, and never rise again.

IX. 1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword.

In my vision I saw the Lord, having left the temple, to stand upon the altar without: and he commanded his angel, saying, Smite thou the lintel of the door of the temple, so vehemently, that the posts thereof may shake; in signification of that main stroke, which I will give the rulers of Israel: for I will cut them. in the head, or principal men, every one of them; and as for the posts, which are the inferiors, I will slay them with the sword of

the Assyrian.

IX. 2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take

them.

Neither shall they ever be able, by any power or policy, to escape my judgments: though they should dig into hell, there shall my hand find them.

IX. 3 Thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.

There will I command my leviathan to swallow them up.

IX. 5 And it shall rise up wholly like a flood; &c. See chapter viii, verse 8.

IX. 6 It is he that buildeth the stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, &c.

It is he, that hath built and preserved the several contignations of his orbs in the heavens; and hath made provision of those infinite armies of his creatures, to execute his revenges upon earth: it is he, that, by his command, lets loose the waters of the sea.

IX. 7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O chil dren of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

Is there any reason in you, O ye children of Israel, why I should respect you more than the very Ethiopians? Why should I make

any difference, betwixt you and very Philistines? If you say, I brought up Israel out of Egypt; so also did I bring the Philistines out of Caphtor; and the Syrians from Cyrene, where they were captived.

IX. 9. Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

Yet shall not the least grain escape, unsifted, by falling to the earth, without agitation: every Israelite shall be tossed up and down, and dispersed in this captivity; no one shall be free.

IX. 11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.

In that day will I raise up my Evangelical Church, which is the tabernacle of the true and glorious Son of David, the Messiah of the World; even upon the ruins of the Jewish Church: which I will repair, and so make up the breaches thereof, as that, both Jews and Gentiles, shall make up one Church; which shail be made as spiritually complete, as ever the temple was materially of old:

IX. 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

That the bounds thereof may be extended over all the earth, even to the remotest heathen, which shall then be called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this.

IX. 13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

Behold, I will continue such plentiful increase of my blessings under the Gospel, that one shall overtake another, in a perpetual succession as it is in a rich and fruitful soil, that the harvest is no sooner in, than the plough is put into the ground for another crop ;. and the vintage is no sooner done, than the seed is sown for a new harvest; thus shall it be with my Church, where one blessing endeth, another shall begin then even the driest and barrenest hearts, shall yield excellent fruits of grace, in very great abundance.

IX. 15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.

I will settle my Church upon earth, never to be rooted out by the violence of men; never to be prevailed against by the gates of hell; saith the Lord God.

OBADIAH.

1 We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.