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 hearker. 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 are they able to do for thee?

XIII, 11. I gare 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: 0 death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from

:

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 uind 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 ressels.

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 merey: so will we offer up unto thee the sacrifices of our thanksgivings.

XIV. 3. Asshur shall not sare 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 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 rerire 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.

grow as

I shall be to thee as a tall and shady fir tree; and, whatsoever fruit thou yieldest, it shall be of my giving: thou shalt be beholden to me for it.

JOEL.

I. 4. That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.

The famine, wherewith I have plagued Israel, is very grievous; which I have caused through the strange increase of noisome worms in the land, all which have as it were agreed to waste all the fruits of the earth : for that, which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath consumed ; and if the locust hath left any thing, the cankerworm shall devour it, &c. every one of these shall come after other, in a succession of spoil; and all of them shall destroy the fruits of the land.

I. 5. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine ; for it is cut off from your mouth.

Even ye drunkards, which are wont to be most insensible of judgments, shall now have reason to howl and mourn; because the hope of your new wine is utterly cut off, even when it was ready to fall into your mouths: your vintage is forestalled by these consuming vermin, in the very height of your present expectation.

I. 6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion.

For there are infinite troops of noisome vermin come upon my land, strong and numberless, which shall so devour the fruit thereof, as if they had the teeth of lions.

I. 7. The branches thereof are made white.

The branches thereof appear white, by reason that the bark is eaten off from the boughs.

I. 8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

O distressed Judea, do thou mourn and lament for this plague of famine, as a virgin, girded with sackcloth, mourneth for the death of her betrothed husband.

I. 9. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the Lord's ministers,

mourn.

The earth yieldeth not so much, as wherewith to make a meat offering or drink offering unto the Lord ; the corn, and wine, and oil is so utterly consumed: so as the priests, the Lord's ministers, have just cause to mourn. So also verses 10, 11, 12, 13.

I. 15. Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Alas, wretched men that we are, we do already endure much misery from the afflicting hand of God! but yet more is coming: Oh, woe to us! how shall we be able to abide the extremity of those his plagues, which are at hand ?

I. 19. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

O Lord, to thee will I cry, who only art able to redress this woeful estate of ours: for the scorching drought hath devoured all the herbage of the wilderness, and the fiery beams have burnt

up

all the trees of the field. So also verse 20.

II. 1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain : let all the inhabitants of the land tremble : for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Oye Priests and Levites of the Lord, call ye the people together in Zion: give warning to all the inhabitants of Judea, of that sad and fearful day of revenge, which the Lord denounceth against them; for it is nigh at hand ;

II. 2. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spreadeth upon the mountains : a great people and a strong; there hath been never the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

A day of heaviness and sorrow, a day of utter discomfort, such a one, as is quite overspread with horror and darkness, like a gloomy morning which hides the light of the sun from all beholders : for a world of noisome creatures, in strong and mighty bands, is come upon your land to devour it; such as the like hath never been, never shall be in succeeding generations.

II. 3. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall

escape them.

In the forepart of their troops, they devour all before them, like a fire; and, behind them, all looks as if the flames had burnt it up: where they have not yet been, the land looks richly, and plentifully, and pleasantly, like to the garden of Eden; but where they have passed, it looks like a desolate wilderness, all is consumed, nothing can escape them.

II. 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen so shall they run.

Their appearance shall be terrible to the people, like to the appearance of horses, armed for the wars; and they shall hastily overrun the land, as if they were horsemen that ran in their full speed.

II. 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap.

The noise, which they shall make in their swarms and motions, shall be like to the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains.

II. 7. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks.

There shall be no place free from their assault and annoyance: they shall creep up the walls of the cities, as valiant men are wont to scale them in a siege; they shall march on in those ways, which God hath appointed them, as if they were men trained to the wars.

So also verse 9. II. 8. And when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

They shall be such enemies, as the sword cannot be able to destroy; and such, as if they do fall upon the sword, yet their lightness shall deliver them from hurt.

II. 10. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble : the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining :

They shall come upon you in such number, as shall amaze and attright the world; and shall, by their infinite and thick swarms, obscure the Vory light of the sun, and moon, and stars.

II. 11. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

And the Lord shall, as the great General of those his forces, encourage and stir them up to this their execution; whereto they shall be enabled by him, both in their number, and power to perform it.

II. 13. And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God.

Do not rest in an outward ceremony of sorrow, viz. in the rending of your garments, but see that ye humble your hearts and souls before God.

II. 14. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offiering unto the LORD

God? Who knoweth whether your humiliation may not yet prevai! with him, and cause him to retract and take off his judgments, and, instead, thereof, to bestow a blessing of plenty upon us ; so as there may be both matter and occasion of the sacrifices of our thanksgiving unto the Lord ?