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for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land.

16 For Israel hath gone astray like a wanton heifer: now will the Lord feed them, as a lamb in a spacious place.

17 Ephraim is a partaker with idols; let

2 Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed: and him alone. blood hath touched blood.

18 Their banquet is separated; they 3 Therefore shall the land mourn: and have gone astray by fornication; they that every one that dwelleth in it shall languish should have protected them, have loved to with the beasts of the field, and with the bring shame upon them.

fowls of the air: yea the fishes of the sea 19 The wind hath bound them up in its also shall be gathered together. wings: and they shall be confounded because of their sacrifices.

4 But yet let not any man judge:* and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest.

5 And thou shalt fall to day; and the pro

CHAP. V.

God's threats against the priests, the people, and princes of Israel, for their idolatry. EAR ye this, O priests; and hearken,

phet also shall fall with thee: In the night Hye house of Israel; and give ear, 0

I have made thy mother to be silent.

6 My people have been silent, because house of the king: for there is a judgment they had no knowledge: because thou hast against you, because you have been a snare rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that to them whom you should have watched thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to over, and a net spread upon Thabor. me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

7 According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.

2 And you have turned aside victims into the depth: and I am the teacher of them all. 3 I know Ephraim; and Israel is not hid from me: for now Ephraim hath committed fornication, Israel is defiled.

8 They shall eat the sins of my people; 4 They will not set their thoughts to reand shall lift up their souls to their iniquity. turn to their God: for the spirit of fornica9 And there shall be like people like tion is in the midst of them, and they have priest and I will visit their ways upon not known the Lord.

them; and I will repay them their devices. 5 And the pride of Israel shall answer in 10 And they shall eat, and shall not be his face and Israel, and Ephraim shall fall filled: they have committed fornication, and in their iniquity; Juda also shall fall with have not ceased: because they have for-them.

saken the Lord in not observing his law. 6 With their flocks, and with their herds, 11 Fornication, and wine, and drunken-they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not ness take away the understanding. find him: he is withdrawn from them.

12 My people have consulted their stocks; 7 They have transgressed against the and their staff hath declared unto them: for Lord; for they have begotten children that the spirit of fornication hath deceived them; are strangers:§ now shall a month devour and they have committed fornication against them with their portions.

their God.

8 Blow ye the cornet in Gabaa, the trum

13 They offered sacrifice upon the tops pet in Rama: howl ye in Bethaven, behind of the mountains, and burnt incense upon thy back, O Benjamin. the hills; under the oak, and the poplar, 9 Ephraim shall be in desolation in the and the turpentine-tree, because the sha- day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel dow thereof was good: therefore shall your I have shewn that which shall surely be. daughters commit fornication, and your 10 The princes of Juda are become as spouses shall be adulteresses. they that take up the bound: I will pour

14 I will not visit upon your daughters out my wrath upon them like water. when they shall commit fornication, and upon your spouses when they shall commit idols were worshipped. Bethel, which sigadultery because themselves conversed nifies the house of God, is called by the prowith harlots, and offered sacrifice with the phet Bethaven, that is, the house of vanity, effeminate and the people that doth not from Jeroboam's golden calf that was worunderstand shall be beaten.

shipped there.

15 If thou play the harlot, O Israel, at O priests. What is said of priests in this least let not Juda offend: and go ye not into Galgal, and come not up into Bethaven ;t and do not swear: The Lord liveth.

Let not any man judge, &c. As if he would say: It is in vain to strive with them, or reprove them, they are so obstinate in evil.

prophecy is chiefly understood of the priests of the kingdom of Israel; who were not true priests of the race of Aaron; but served the calves at Bethel and Dan.

§ Children that are strangers. That is, aliens from God: and therefore they are threatened with speedy destruction.

As they that take up the bound: That is, t Galgal and Bethaven. Places where they that remove the boundary, incroaching

11 Ephraim is under oppression, and 9 And like the jaws of highway robbers, broken in judgment; because he began to they conspire with the priests who murder go after filthiness. in the way those that pass out of Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.

12 And I will be like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Juda.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled.

13 And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Juda his band: and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to the avenging king: 11 And thou also, O Juda, set thee a har. and he shall not be able to heal you; neither vest, when I shall bring back the captivity shall he be able to take off the band from of my people.

you.

CHAP. VII.

14 For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, The manifold sins of Israel, and of their and like a lion's whelp to the house of Juda:

1, I will catch and go: I will take away;

and there is none that can rescue.

15 I will go and return to my place; until you are consumed, and seek my face. CHAP. VI.

Affliction shall be a means to bring many to Christ: : a complaint of the untowardness of the Jews. God loves mercy more than sacrifice.

kings, hinder the Lord from healing them. THEN I would have healed Israel, the

iniquity of Ephraim was discovered,

and the wickedness of Samaria; for they have committed falsehood; and the thief is come in to steal; the robber is without.

2 And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: their own devices now have beset them about; they have been done before my face.

3 They have made the king glad with IN their affliction they will rise early to N their affliction they will rise early to their wickedness: and the princes with their

Lord:

2 For he hath taken us, and he will heal us; he will strike, and he will cure us.

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4 They are all adulterers like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened.

3 He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up; and we 5 The day of our king, the princes beshall live in his sight. We shall know, and gan to be mad with wine: he stretched out we shall follow on, that we may know the his hand with scorners.

Lord. His going forth is prepared as the 6 Because they have applied their heart morning light: and he will come to us as like an oven, when he laid snares for them: the early and the latter rain to the earth. he slept all the night baking them; in the 4 What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim ? morning he himself was heated as a flaming what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy fire. is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.

7 They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges: all their kings 5 For this reason have I hewed them by have fallen: there is none amongst them the prophets I have slain them by the that calleth unto me. words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.

6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than holo

causts.

8 Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned.

9 Strangers have devoured his strength; and he knew it not: yea, grey hairs also are 7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed spread about upon him; and he is ignorant the covenant: there have they dealt treach-of it. erously against me.

8 Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.*

10 And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face and they have not returned to the Lord their God; nor have they sought him in all these.

on the property of their neighbours; figura- 11 And Ephraim is become as a dove tively, their going beyond the boundary of that is decoyed, not having a heart: they the laws of God. called upon Egypt, they went to the Assy

* Supplanted with blood. That is, under-rians. mined and brought to ruin, for shedding of 12 And when they shall go, I will spread blood: and, as it is signified in the following my net upon them: I will bring them down verse, for conspiring with the priests (of Be-as the fowl of the air; I will strike them as thel) like robbers, to murder in the way such their congregation hath heard.

as passed out of Sichem to go towards the 13 Wo to them, for they have departed temple of Jerusalem. Or else supplanted with blood, signifies flowing in such manner with blood, as to suffer none to walk there without embruing the soles of their feet in

blood.

† Made the king glad, &c. To please Jeroboam, and their other kings, they have given themselves up to the wicked worship lof idols, which are mere falsehood and lies.

from me: they shall be wasted because they upon his cities; and it shall devour the have transgressed against me: and I re- houses thereof. deemed them: and they have spoken lies against me.

14 And they have not cried to me with

CHAP. IX.

The distress and captivity of Israel for their sins and idolatry.

EJOICE not, O Israel: rejoice not as

their heart: but they howled in their beds: Renations de: for thou hast committed

they have thought upon wheat and wine, they are departed from me.

fornication against thy God: thou hast loved

15 And I have chastised them, and a reward upon every corn-floor. strengthened their arms: and they have imagined evil against me.

16 They returned, that they might be without yoke: they became like a deceitful bow their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongue. This is their derision in the land of Egypt.

CHAP. VIII.

The Israelites are threatened with destruction for their impiety and idolatry.

L

ET there be a trumpet in thy throat like an eagle upon the house of the Lord because they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law.

2 They shall call upon me: O my God, we Israel know thee.

2 The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them; and the wine shall deceive them. 3 They shall not dwell in the Lord's land: Ephraim is returned to Egypt, and hath eaten unclean things among the Assyrians.

4 They shall not offer wine to the Lord; neither shall they please him: their sacrifices shall be like the bread of mourners: all that shall eat it shall be defiled: for their bread is life for their soul, it shall not enter into the house of the Lord.

5 What will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord?

6 For behold, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them together: Memphis shall bury them: nettles shall inherit their beloved silver; the bur shall

3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is be in their tabernacles. good; the enemy shall pursue him.

7 The days of visitation are come; the 4 They have reigned but not by me days of repaying are come; know ye, 0 they have been princes, and I knew not: of Israel, that the prophet was foolish, the their silver, and their gold they have made spiritual man was mad, for the multitude idols to themselves that they might perish. of thy iniquity, and the multitude of thy 5 Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off: my madness.

wrath is kindled against them. How long 8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my will they be incapable of being cleansed? God: the people is become a snare of ruin 6 For itself also is the invention of Israel: upon all his ways: madness is in the house a workman made it, and it is no god: for of his God.

the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spi- 9 They have sinned deeply, as in the days of Gabaa: he will remember their iniquity, and will visit their sin.

ders' webs.

7 For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind: there is no standing stalk in it; the bud shall yield no meal: and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the desert: I saw their fathers like the first-fruits of the fig-tree in the top thereof; but they 8 Israel is swallowed up: now is he be- went in to Beelphegor, and alienated themcome among the nations like an unclean selves to that confusion, and became abovessel. minable, as those things were, which they

9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild loved. ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.

10 But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory hath flown away like a bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

12 And though they should bring up their children, I will make them without children among men: yea, and wo to them, when I shall depart from them.

11 Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin altars are become to him unto 13 Ephraim, as I saw, was a Tyre, foundsin. ed in beauty and Ephraim shall bring out 12 I shall write to him my manifold laws, his children to the murderer. which have been accounted as foreign.

14 Give them, O Lord. What wilt thon 13 They shall offer victims; they shall give them? Give them a womb without sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it; and the Lord children, and dry breasts.

will not receive them: now will he remem- 15 All their wickedness is in Galgal, for ber their iniquity, and will visit their sins: there 1 hated them: for the wickedness of they shall return to Egypt. their dévices I will cast them forth out of 14 And Israel hath forgotten his maker, my house: I will love them no more: all and hath built temples: and Juda hath built their princes are revolters.

many fenced cities: and I will send a fire 16 Ephraim is struck: their root is dried

up: they shall yield no fruit. And if they is, when he shall come that shall teach you should have issue, I will slay the best be- justice. loved fruit of their womb.

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SRAEL a vine full of branches, the fruit is agreeable to it: according to the multitude of his fruit, he hath multiplied altars : according to the plenty of his land, he hath abounded with idols.

2 Their heart is divided; now they shall perish he shall break down their idols; he shall destroy their altars.

3 For now they shall say: We have no

king: because we fear not the Lord: and

what shall a king do to us?

4 You speak words of an unprofitable vision; and you shall make a covenant: and judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.

13 You have ploughed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the multitude of thy strong

ones.

14 A tumult shall arise among thy people: and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed as Salmanas was destroyed, by the house of him that judged Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon her children.

15 So hath Bethel done to you, because of the evil of your iniquities. CHAP. XI.

God proceeds in threatening Israel for their ingratitude; yet he will not utterly destroy them.

AS the morning passeth, so hath the king of Israel passed away. Because Israel was a child, and I loved him: and I called my son out of Egypt.

2 As they called them, they went away from before their face: they offered victims to Baalim, and sacrificed to idols.

5 The inhabitants of Samaria have wor- 3 And I was like a foster-father to Eshipped the kine of Bethaven:* for the peo-phraim: I carried them in my arms: and ple thereof have mourned over it, and the they knew not that I healed them. wardens of its temple that rejoiced over it 4 I will draw them with the cords of in its glory, because it is departed from it. Adam, with the bands of love: and I will be 6 For itself also is carriedt into Assyria, to them as one that taketh off the yoke on a present to the avenging king: shame shall their jaws: and I put his meat to him that fall upon Ephraim; and Israel shall be con- he might eat. founded in his own will.

7 Samaria hath made her king to pass as froth upon the face of the water.

8 And the high places of the idol, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the bur and the thistle shall grow up over their altars: and they shall say to the mountains: Cover us; and to the hills: Fall upon us.

9 From the days of Gabaa, Israel hath sinned, there they stood: the battle in Gabaa against the children of iniquity shall not overtake them,

10 According to my desire, I will chastise them: and the nations shall be gathered together against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.#

5 He shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king: because they would not be converted.

6 The sword hath begun in his cities: and it shall consume his chosen men, and shall devour their heads.

7 And my people shall long for my return: but a yoke shall be put upon them together, which shall not be taken off.

8 How shall I deal with thee, O Ephraim, shall I protect thee, O Israel? how shall I make thee as Adama ?** shall I set thee as Seboim ? my heart is turned within me; my repentance is stirred up.

§ As Salmana, king of the Midianites was 11 Ephraim is a heifer taught to love to destroyed by the house, that is, by the followtread out corn; but I passed over upon ers of him that judged Baal; that is, of Githe beauty of her neck: I will ride upon deon, who threw down the altar of Baal; Ephraim; Juda shall plough; Jacob shall and was therefore called Jerubaal. See break the furrows for himself. Judges vi. and viii.

12 Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap I called my son, viz. Israel. But as the in the mouth of mercy; break up your fal-calling of Israel out of Egypt, was a figure low ground: but the time to seek the Lord of the calling of Christ from thence; therefore this text is also applicable to Christ, as

The kine of Bethaven. The golden calves we learn from St. Matt. ii. 15. of Jeroboam. They called, viz. Moses and Aaron calltItself also is carried, &c. One of the gold-ed; but they went away after other gods, en calves, was given by king Manahem, to and would not hear. Phul king of the Assyrians, to engage him to stand by him.

** Adama, &c. Adama and Seboim were two cities in the neighbourhood of Sodom; Their two iniquities. Their two calves.||and underwent the like destruction.

9 I will not execute the fierceness of my locks: for their altars also are as heaps in wrath: I will not return to destroy Ephraim: the furrows of the field.

because I am God, and not man: the holy 12 Jacob fled into the country of Syria: one in the midst of thee, and I will not en-and Israel served for a wife, and was a keepter into the city. er for a wife.

10 They shall walk after the Lord; he shall roar as a lion: because he shall roar, and the children of the sea shall fear.

13 But the Lord by a prophet brought Israel out of Egypt: and he was preserved by a prophet.

11 And they shall fly away like a bird out 14 Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of with his bitterness; and his blood shall the Assyrians: and I will place them in their come upon him; and his Lord will render own houses, saith the Lord. his reproach unto him.

12 Ephraim hath compassed me about with denials, and the house of Israel with

CHAP. XIII.

deceit but Juda went down as a witness The judgments of God upon Israel for their with God, and is faithful with the saints.

CHAP. XII.

sins.

Christ shall one day redeem them.

WHEN Ephraim spoke, a horror seized

Israel is reproved for sin. God's favours to died.

them.

Israel: and he sinned in Baal, and

2 And now they have sinned more and PHRAIM feedeth on the wind, and fol-more: and they have made to themselves a

Eloweth the burning heat: all the day molten thing of their silver as the likeness

long he multiplied lies and desolation and of idols; the whole is the work of craftshe hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, men: to these they say: Sacrifice men, ye and carried oil into Egypt. that adore calves.

2 Therefore there is a judgment of the Lord with Juda, and a visitation for Jacob he will render to him according to his ways, and according to his devices.

3 Therefore they shall be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke

3 In the womb he supplanted his bro-out of the chimney. ther and by his strength he had success with an Angel.

4 And he prevailed over the Angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us.

5 Even the Lord the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.

6 Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.

4 But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me; and there is no saviour beside me. 5 I knew thee in the desert in the land of the wilderness.

6 According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me.

7 And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians.

8 I will meet them as a bear that is rob7 He is like Chanaan; there is a deceitful bed of her whelps; and I will rend the inbalance in his hand; he hath loved oppres-ner parts of their liver and I will devour sion. them there as a lion, the beast of the field

8 And Ephraim said: But yet I am be-shall tear them. come rich; I have found me an idol: all my 9 Destruction is thy own, O Israel: thy labours shall not find me the iniquity that I help is only in me. have committed.

9 And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the feast.

10 Where is thy king? now especially let him save thee in all thy cities: and thy judges, of whom thou saidst: Give me kings and princes.

11 I will give thee a king in my wrath, and will take him away in my indignation. 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;

10 And I have spoken by the prophets; and I have multiplied visions; and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the pro-his sin is hidden. phets.

11 If Galaad be an idol,* then in vain were they in Galgal offering sacrifices with bul

• If Galaad be an idol, &c. That is, if Galaad with all its idols and sacrifices be like a mere idol itself, being brought to nothing by Theglathphalasar: how vain is it to expect, that the idols worshipped in Galgal shall be of any service to the tribes that

remain.

13 The sorrows of a woman in labour shall come upon him: he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.

14 I will deliver them out of the hand of death: I will redeem them from death: 0 death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.

15 Because he shall make a separation between brothers: the Lord will bring a burning wind that shall rise from the de

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