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Their quiver shall be full of deadly arrows, that shall send many to their graves, &c.

V. 24 That giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. That giveth seasonable rain, in the autumn and spring; and reserveth a dry season, for the gathering in of the harvest.

V. 25 Your iniquities have turned away these things.

If ye have been abridged of these comfortable and meet seasons, ye may thank your iniquities, which have justly procured it.

VI. 1 O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpets in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.

O ye children of Benjamin, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, gather you together, and agree to flee out of that your city; and give warning to Tekoa, to do the like; and set your beacons on fire in Beth-haccerem ; that all may understand, that the enemy is coming down against you, out of Chaldea, with great fury and violence. VI. 3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her. The great leaders of those northern people, with their troops, shall come before Jerusalem.

VI. 4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of

noon.

the evening are stretched out.

Then shall the eager and furious commanders say, Hasten your preparations against her: arise, let us take the day before us: the time flees away; the evening hastens on; let no minutes be lost for our assault.

VI. 8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee.

At last yet, be thou warned, O Jerusalem; lest, if thou continuest obstinate, I do utterly cast thee off and abhor thee.

VI. 9 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.

They shall make an exquisite dispatch of the inhabitants; as the vine-gatherer, when he hath pulled off the most remarkable clusters, goes over the tree again, and gleans those bunches that re mained; so shall the Chaldean enemies search for the remainders of the Jews, escaped in the first destruction.

VI. 11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad. Therefore, I neither may nor can contain myself from breaking forth into the expressions of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding it in: I will freely declare and denounce it amongst you, &c.

VI. 14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Instead of seasonable and conscionable reproofs, they have gone about to salve up the spiritual sores of my people, with flattering

and plausible words; saying, Peace, peace, all shall be well; when there is nothing but fear and danger.

VI. 17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

At least, if ye will not hear my prophets, yet hearken to the sound of the trumpet, which tells you of the approach of the they wilfully said, We will not hearken.

enemy; but

VI. 20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, &c.?

To what purpose do ye think to please me with sweet incense and perfumes, coming afar off from Sheba, offered on my altars?

VI. 21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them.

Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will prepare and lay before this people means of ruin and subversion, by which, both the fathers and children shall perish together.

VI. 22 Behold, a people cometh from the north &c.

See chapter i. verse 14. and chapter ii. verse 15. and chapter iv.

verse 7.

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VI. 27 I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

As for thee, O my prophet, I have set thee as in a watch-tower, to descry the ways of my people; yea, I have made thee as a strong tower and fortress, against all the rage of them: so that thou mayest fearlessly discover, and reprove them.

VI. 28 They are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. Whereas they pretend to be of the best metal, gold or silver; they are indeed no better than brass and iron: they are all but falsifiers and corrupters.

VI. 29 The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. Whereas we went about to melt them, under that pretence of pure silver, the labour is lost; the bellows are burnt; that lead, which is mixed to make it run, is consumed of the fire: the founder trieth to melt it in vain; for that wickedness, which is in them, is tough and unremoveable.

VI. 30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.

If they will needs therefore go for silver, let them do so; but they shall then go for such silver as they are, reprobate and drossy; for, however they are reputed amongst men, God hath rejected

them.

VII. 11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

Ye think all is well, if ye present yourselves into my temple; though you bring with you the guilt of manifold sins: ye come

hither full of theft, of oppression, of injustice: is my temple, think ye, for such clients? Is this house, which is called by my name, fit to be a den of thieves and robbers? Behold, I have well seen and noted, with how wicked dispositions and hollow hearts ye come hither, saith the Lord.

VII. 12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

Look back now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, where my ark was, for some time, kept it is the holiness of my ark that makes my temple holy; and, behold, that ark of mine was before in Shiloh: but did the presence of my ark there, shelter that place from sorrow and desolation?

VII. 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods.

All the sort of them, of all ages and both sexes, conspire together in their idolatry: children, fathers, women, put their hands to the work; and all agree to offer cakes, in way of sacrifice, to the

sun or moon.

VII. 21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Ye brag much of your costly sacrifices, that ye offer unto me: go, take your bullocks and sheep, and make yourselves good cheer with them.

vii. 29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places.

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Mourn thou solemnly, O Jerusalem; and express thy sorrow by public acts of humiliation, that the world may take knowledge of it.

VII. 30 They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

They have set up altars to their idols, in my very temple, to pollute it. As 2 Kings xxi. 4.

VII. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet,

They have built altars to Moloch, in the high places of Tophet.

VII. 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: &c.

So great a slaughter shall be therefore in Jerusalem, that there shall not be room enough in the valley of Tophet, for the burial of the slain; and, thereupon, that valley shall change the name, and be called, The valley of slaughter.

VIII. 1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.

The calamity, that I will bring upon the Jews and Jerusalem,

shall not rest in the living, but shall reach to the very dead; for the very bones of their kings, and princes, and priests, and prophets, shall be torn up out of their graves.

VIII 4 Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

Thus saith the Lord; The fall of Jerusalem is great and fearful; but yet, if they had grace to repent, not desperate: if they would return to me, should not I turn in mercy unto them?

VIII. 8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain mude he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

How do ye, priests and scribes, say, We are wise and learned, and the law of the Lord is with us; when, in the mean time, ye live contrary to it? Certainly, if this be to know and make a right use of the law, the law should seem to be to small purpose, either in the making or writing of it.

VIII. 9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken : lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

Those, that have made this profession of wisdom, have shamed themselves, by their unanswerable practice: lo, they have cast off all care of doing that, which the word of God enjoins them; and how then can they challenge any true wisdom to themselvest

VIII. 11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, &c. See chap. vi. verse 14.

VIII. 14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us waters of gall to drink.

Why do we sit still, ye say, while the enemy shall come and cut our throats? Let us enter into our strong cities, and stand upon our defence; and rest there, till these Babylonians be departed: alas, ye shall rest there indeed, but for ever; for the Lord our God hath there intended to give us up to the slaughter; he hath there appointed us that bitter portion, which we must drink up. VIII. 16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: &c. See chap. iv. verse 15.

VIII. 17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.

Behold, I will send the Chaldees among you, cruel and implacable enemies; which will by no means be won to relent, but shall press you, even unto death.

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VIII. 18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

Fain would I put off this deep sorrow, that I have conceived, for the imminent destruction of my countrymen, and cheer up my heart with some kind of comfort; but I cannot.

VIII. 19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people

because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

For, behold, methinks I hear already the shrieks and cries of the Jews, because of the Babylonians, that are come in upon them, from Chaldea; and yet they are still ready to presume upon their title and interest in God; and say, Is not the Lord worshipped by us, in Zion ? Do not we profess him? Doth not he profess himself the King and God of Jerusalem? Alas; to what purpose is this idle formality ? They profess me indeed, saith God, but they provoke me, the while, to anger, with their idolatries.

VIII. 20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

The harvest is past, and the summer is ended; which might have given us hopes and opportunities of succours, yet we hear of none from Egypt, or any other our associates; so as we are now out of all hopes of deliverance.

VIII. 21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people, am I hurt i I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

Alas, how am I afflicted with this miserable condition of my people! How do I mourn for them! How am I astonished to think of the mischief that is towards them!

VIII. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered. Oh that there were any possible means of redress of this calamity! Oh that there were any medicine for this sore, or any physician to apply it, for cure ! But, alas, it will not, it cannot be : there is no remedy to be hoped for, so as this people are affected; there is no way but destruction.

IX. 1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people !

Oh that I could sufficiently bewail, since I cannot redress, this woeful desolation of Jerusalem and my people! Oh that I were all dissolved into tears, for this lamentable slaughter, which is coming upon them!

IX. 3 And they bend their tongue like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.

They bend their tongue for lies, and slacken it for the truth; having no courage to defend it, and too much to oppose it.

IX. 7 Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

They pretend to be pure metal; behold, I will melt them, saith the Lord, and try them in the fire of affliction; for how can I do otherwise with them, since they are utterly unreformable ?

IX. 10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; &c.

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