I wall: Will stand upon my watch, and fix my : to see what will be said to me, and what may answer to him that reproveth me. 2 And the Lord answered me, and said Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables: that he that readeth it may run over it. 11 For the stone shall cry out of the joints of the building shall answer. 12 Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood, and prepareth a city by iniquity. 13 Are not these things§ from the Lord of hosts? for the people shall labour in a great fire; and the nations in vain: and 3 For as yet the vision is far off; and it they shall faint. shall appear at the end, and shall not lie 14 For the earth shall be filled, that men if it make any delay, wait for it: for it may know the glory of the Lord, as waters shall surely come, and it shall not be slack.covering the sea. 4 Behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul 15 Wo to him that giveth drink to his shall not be right in himself: but the just friend, and presenteth his gall, and maketh shall live in his faith. him drunk, that he may behold his naked 5 And as wine deceiveth† him that drink-ness. eth it, so shall the proud man be, and he 16 Thou art filled with shame instead of shall not be honoured; who hath enlarged his glory: drink thou also, and fall fast asleep : desire like hell, and is himself like death; the cup of the right hand of the Lord shall and he is never satisfied; but will gather compass thee; and shameful vomiting shall together unto him all nations, and heap to-be on thy glory. gether unto him all people. 17 For the iniquity of Libanus] shall 6 Shall not all these take up a parable||cover thee, and the ravaging of beasts shall against him, and a dark speech concerning terrify them, because of the blood of men, him and it shall be said: Wo to him that and the iniquity of the land, and of the heapeth together that which is not his own city, and of all that dwell therein. how long also doth he load himself with thick clay? 18 What doth the graven thing avail, because the maker thereof hath graven it, a molten and a false image? because the forger thereof hath trusted in a thing of his own forging to make dumb idols. 7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee; and they be stirred up that shall tear thee; and thou shalt be a spoil to them? 19 Wo to him that saith to wood: Awake; 8 Because thou hast spoiled many na- to the dumb stone: Arise: can it teach? tions, all that shall be left of the people Behold, it is laid over with gold and sil shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, ver: and there is no spirit in the bowels and for the iniquity of the land, of the city, thereof. and of all that dwell therein. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple: 9 Wo to him that gathereth together an let all the earth keep silence before him. evil covetousness to his house, that his nest may be on high, and thinketh he may 1 A be delivered out of the hand of evil. 10 Thou hast devised confusion to thy 2 house; thou hast cut off many people; and thy soul hath sinned. CHAP. III. PRAYER OF HABACUC THE PRO- and was afraid. § Are not these things, &c. That is, shall Will stand, &c. Waiting to see what not these punishments that are here recordthe Lord will answer to my complaint, viz.ed, come from the Lord upon him that is that the Chaldeans, who are worse than the guilty of such crimes. The people shall laJews, and who attribute all their success to bour, &c. viz. the enemies of God's people. their own strength, or to their idols, should The iniquity of Libanus. That is, the nevertheless prevail over the people of the iniquity committed by the Chaldeans against Lord. The Lord's answer is that the pro- the temple of God, signified here by the phet must wait with patience and faith name of Libanus. that all should be set right in due time: For ignorances. That is, for the sins of and the enemies of God and his people his people. In the Hebrew it is Sigionoth; punished according to their deserts. which some take to signify a musical instruAs wine deceiveth, &c. viz. by affording ment, or tune; with which this sublime only a short passing pleasure: followed by prayer and canticle was to be sung. the evils and disgrace that are the usual Thy hearing, &c. That is, thy oracles, consequences of drunkenness: so shall it the great and wonderful things thou hast be with the proud enemies of the people revealed to me and I was struck with a of God: whose success ffordeth them only reverential fear and awe. Thy work. The a momentary pleasure, followed by innu- great work of the redemption of man, merable and everlasting evils. which thou wilt bring to life and light in # Thick clay. Ill-gotten goods, that, like the midst of the years, when our calamities mire, both burden and defile the soul. Land miseries shall be at their height. 1 O Lord, thy work, in the midst of the years bring it to life: In the midst of the years thou shalt make it known when thou art angry, thou wilt remember mercy. 3 God will come from the South, and the holy one from mount Pharan : His glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. 4 His brightness shall be as the light: horns are in his hands. There is his strength hid: 5 Death shall go before his face. And the devil shall go forth before his 6 He stood and measured the earth. Who wilt ride upon thy horses: and thy chariots are salvation. 9 Thou wilt surely take up thy bow, according to the oaths which thou hast spoken to the tribes. Thou wilt divide the rivers of the earth. 10 The mountains saw thee, and were grieved: the great body of waters passed away. The deep put forth its voice: the deep lifted up its hands. 11 The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation, in the light of thy arrows, they shall go in the brightness of thy glittering spear. 12 In thy anger thou wilt tread the earth under foot: in thy wrath thou wilt astonish the nations. 13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation The hills of the world were bowed down of thy people, for salvation with thy Christ. by the journies of his eternity. Thou struckest the head of the house of 7 I saw the tents of Ethiopia for their the wicked :** thou hast laid bare his founiniquity; the curtains of the land of Ma-dation even to the neck. dian shall be troubled. 14 Thou hast cursed his sceptres, the 8 Wast thou angry, O Lord, with the head of his warriors, them that came out as rivers or was thy wrath upon the rivers?a whirlwind to scatter me. or thy indignation in the sea? Their joy was like that of him that devoureth the poor man in secret. 15 Thou madest a way in the seatt for God will come from the South, &c. God himself will come to give us his law, thy horses, in the mud of many waters. and to conduct us into the true land of promise: as heretofore he came from the South (in the Hebrew, Theman) and from mount Pharan to give his law to his people in the desert. See Deuteronomy xxxiii. 2. and drove out death and the devil. and Chananites. 16 I have heard,‡‡ and my bowels were troubled: my lips trembled at the voice. Let rottenness enter into my bones, and swarm under me: That I may rest in the day of tribulation; + Horns, &c. That is, strength and power, which by a Hebrew phrase are called horns. when he came as it were, with his korset Or, beams of light, which come forth from and chariots to save them: when he took his hands. Or it may allude to the cross, up his bow for their defence, in consequence in the horns of which the hands of Christ of the oath he had made to their tribes; were fastened, where his strength was hid when the mountains trembled, and the deep den, by which he overcame the world, stood with its waves raised up in a heap, as with hands lifted up to heaven: when the + Death shall go before his face, &c. Both death and the devil shall be the execution to comply with his anger, not against the sun and moon stood still at his command, &c. ers of his justice against his enemies as rivers and sea, but against the enemies of they were heretofore against the Egyptians his people. How much more will he do in § He beheld, &c. One look of his eye is of his church. favour of his Son: and against the enemies enough to melt all the nations, and to reduce them to nothing. For all heaven and earth ** The head of the house of the wicked. disappear, when they come before his light. Such was Pharao heretofore: such shall Apocalypse xx. 11. The ancient mountains, Antichrist be hereafter. &c. By the mountains and hills are signified Thou madest a way in the sea, &c. To the great ones of the world, that persecute deliver thy people from the Egyptian bonthe church, whose power was quickly dage: and thou shalt work the like woncrushed by the Almighty. ders, in the spiritual way, to rescue the children of thy church from their enemies. + I have heard, &c. viz. the evils that are now coming upon the Israelites for their sins; and that shall come hereafter upon With the rivers, &c. He alludes to the all impenitent sinners: and the foresight that wonders wrought heretofore by the Lord in I have of these miseries makes me willing favour of his people Israel, when the waters to die, that I may be at rest, before this of the rivers, viz. of Arnon and Jordan, and general tribulation comes, in which all good of the Red sea, retired before their face things shall be withdrawn from the wicked. Ethiopia, the land of the Blacks and Madian, are here taken for the enemies of of God and his people who shall perish for their iniquity. that I may go up to our people that are 17 For the fig-tree shall not blossom: girded. and there shall be no spring in the vines. The labour of the olive-tree shall fail: and That I may go up to our people, &c. the fields shall yield no food: the flock That I may join the happy company in the shall be cut off from the fold; and there bosom of Abraham, that are girded, that shall be no herd in the stalls. : is, prepared for their journey, by which 18 But I will rejoice in the Lord and I they shall attend their Lord, when he shall will joy in God my Jesus. ascend into heaven. To which high and 19 The Lord God is my strength and happy place, my Jesus, that is, my Saviour, he will make my feet like the feet of harts: the great conqueror of death and hell, shall and he the conqueror will lead me upon my one day conduct me rejoicing and singing high places singing psalins. palms of praise, ver. 18. and 19. THE PROPHECY OF SOPHONIAS. Sophonias, whose name, saith St Jerom, signi- 5 And them that worship the host of fies the watchman of the Lord, or the hid- heaven upon the tops of houses, and them den of the Lord, prophesied in the begin- that adore, and swear by the Lord, and ning of the reign of Josias. He was a na- swear by Melchom :‡ tive of Sarabatha, and the tribe of Simeon, 6 And them that turn away from followaccording to the more general opinion. He ing after the Lord, and that have not sought prophesied the punishments of the Jews, the Lord, nor searched after him. for their idolatry and other crimes; also 8 Be silent before the face of the Lord the punishments that were to come on divers God; for the day of the Lord is near; for nations; the coming of Christ, the conver- the Lord hath prepared a victim: he hath sion of the Gentiles, the blindness of the sanctified his guests. Jews, and their conversion towards the end of the world. CHAP. I. 8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the victim of the Lord, that I will visit upon the princes, and upon the king's sons, and upon all such as are clothed with strange apparel: For divers enormous sins, the kingdom of Ju- 2 Gathering, I will gather together all things from off the face of the land, saith the Lord: 10 And there shall be in that day, saith the Lord, the noise of a cry from the fishgate, and a howling from the Second,§ and a great destruction from the hills. 11 Howl, ye inhabitants of the Morter. All the people of Chanaan is hush; all are cut off that were wrapped up in silver. 3 I will gather man and beast: I will gather the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea and the ungodly shall meet with ruin and I will destroy men from off the 12 And it shall come to pass at that time, face of the land, saith the Lord. : 4 And I will stretch out my hand upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal, and the names of the wardens of the temples with the priests: Gathering I will gather, &c. That is, I will assuredly take away, and wholly consume, either by captivity, or death, both men and beasts out of this land. The wardens, &c. viz. of the temples of the idols. Edituous; in Hebrew, the Chemarims; that is, such as kindle the fires, or burn incense. that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and will visit upon the men that are settled on their lees;** that say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil. + Melchom. The idol of the Ammonites. § The Second. A part of the city so called. The Morter. Maktesh. A valley in or near Jerusalem. The people of Chanaan. So he calls the Jews, from their following the wicked ways of the Chananites. ** Settled on their lees. That is, the wealthy, and such as live at their case, resting upon their riches, like wine upon the lees. 13 And their strength shall become a ple, and have magnified themselves upon booty, and their houses as a desert: and their borders. they shall build houses, and shall not dwell 9 Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of in them and they shall plant vineyards, hosts the God of Israel, Moab shall be as and shall not drink the wine of them. Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Go14 The great day of the Lord is near morrha, the dryness of thorns, and heaps of it is near and exceeding swift: the voice of salt, and a desert even for ever: the remthe day of the Lord is bitter: the mighty nant of my people shall make a spoil of man shall there meet with tribulation. them; and the residue of my nation shall 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of possess them. tribulation and distress, a day of calamity 10 This shall befal them for their pride; and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, because they have blasphemed, and have a day of clouds and whirlwinds, been magnified against the people of the 16 A day of the trumpet and alarm a-Lord of hosts. gainst the fenced cities, and against the high 11 The Lord shall be terrible upon them, bulwarks. and shall consume all the gods of the earth: 17 And I will distress men; and they and they shall adore him every man from shall walk like blind men, because they his own place, all the islands of the Genhave sinned against the Lord: and their tiles. blood shall be poured out as earth, and their bodies as dung. 12 You Ethiopians also shall be slain with my sword. 18 Neither shall their silver, and their 13 And he will stretch out his hand upon gold be able to deliver them in the day of the north, and will destroy Assyria: and the wrath of the Lord: all the land shall be he will make the beautiful city a wilderdevoured by the fire of his jealousy; for ness, and as a place not passable, and as a he shall make even a speedy destruction of desert. all them that dwell in the land. 1 CHAP. II. 14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst thereof, all the beasts of the nations: and the bittern and the urchin shall lodge in the An exhortation to repentance. The judg-threshold thereof; the voice of the singing ment of the Philistines, of the Moabites, bird in the window, the raven on the upper and the Ammonites; of the Ethiopians, and post; for I will consume her strength. the Assyrians. 15 This is the glorious city that dwelt in ASSEMBLE yourselves together: be ga-security; that said in her heart: I am, and be loved: thered together, Onation not worthy to there is none beside me: how is she be come a desert, a place for beasts to lie down 2 Before the decree bring forth the day in? every one that passeth by her, shall as dust passing away; before the fierce an-hiss, and wag his hand. ger of the Lord come upon you; before the day of the Lord's indignation come upon A wo to Jerusalem for her sins. A prophecy you. 3 Seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, you that have wrought his judgment: seek the just, seek the meek; if by any means you may be hid in the day of the Lord's indignation. CHAP. III. of the conversion of the Gentiles, and of the poor of Israel: God shall be with them. The Jews shall be converted at last. W O to the provoking and redeemed city, the dove. 2 She hath not hearkened to the voice; 4 For Gaza shall be destroyed; and As-neither hath she received discipline: she calon shall be a desert: they shall cast out hath not trusted in the Lord, she drew not Azotus at noon-day; and Accaron shall be near to her God. rooted up. 3 Her princes are in the midst of her as 5 Wo to you that inhabit the sea-coast, roaring lions: her judges are evening O nation of reprobates: The word of the wolves; they left nothing for the morning. Lord upon you, O Chanaan, the land of the 4 Her prophets are senseless, men withPhilistines; and I will destroy thee, so that out faith: her priests have polluted the there shall not be an inhabitant. sanctuary: they have acted unjustly against 6 And the sea coast shall be the resting-the law. place of shepherds, and folds for cattle: 5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof; 7 And it shall be the portion of him that he will not do iniquity: in the morning, in shall remain of the house of Juda; there the morning he will bring his judgment to they shall feed: in the houses of Ascalon light; and it shall not be hid: but the wickthey shall rest in the evening; because the ed man hath not known shame. Lord their God will visit them, and bring 6 I have destroyed the nations, and their back their captivity. 8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, The beautiful city, viz. Ninive, which and the blasphemies of the children of Am-was destroyed soon after this, viz. in the mon, with which they reproached my peo-||sixteenth year of the reign of Josias. towers are beaten down: I have made theirful tongue be found in their mouth: for ways desert, so that there is none that pass-they shall feed, and shall lie down; and eth by their cities are desolate; there is there shall be none to make them afraid. not a man remaining, nor any inhabitant. 14 Give praise, O daughter of Sion: 7 I said: Surely thou wilt fear me; thou shout, O Israel: be glad, and rejoice with wilt receive correction: and her dwelling all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. shall not perish, for all things wherein I have 15 The Lord hath taken away thy judgvisited her; but they rose early, and cor-ment; he hath turned away thy enemies: rupted all their thoughts. the king of Israel the Lord is in the midst of 8 Wherefore expect me, saith the Lord, thee; thou shalt fear evil no more. in the day of my resurrection that is to 16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusacome; for my judgment is to assemble the lem: Fear not to Sion: Let not thy hands Gentiles, and to gather the kingdoms; and be weakened. to pour upon them my indignation, all my 17 The Lord thy God in the midst of fierce anger: for with the fire of my jea-thee is mighty; he will save: he will relousy shall all the earth be devoured." joice over thee with gladness; he will be 9 Because then I will restore to the peo-silent in his love; he will be joyful over ple a chosen lip, that all may call upon the thee in praise. name of the Lord, and may serve him with 18 The triflers that were departed from the law, I will gather together, because they were of thee: that thou mayest no more suffer reproach for them. one shoulder. 10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, shall my suppliants the children of my dispersed people bring me an offering. 19 Behold, I will cut off all that have af11 In that day thou shalt not be ashamed flicted thee at that time: and I will save her for all thy doings, wherein thou hast trans- that halteth, and will gather her that was gressed against me for then I will take cast out: and I will get them praise, and a away out of the midst of thee thy proud name, in all the land where they had been boasters: and thou shalt no more be lifted put to confusion: up because of my holy mountain. 20 At that time, when I will bring you, 12 And I will leave in the midst of thee and at the time that I will gather you for a poor and needy people: and they shall I will give you a name and praise among all hope in the name of the Lord. the people of the earth, when I shall have 13 The remnant of Israel shall not do brought back your captivity before your iniquity, nor speak lies; nor shall a deceit-lleyes, saith the Lord. THE PROPHECY OF AGGEUS. Aggeus was one of those that returned from sixth month, in the first day of the N the second year of Darius the king, in the the captivity of Babylon, in the first year of the reign of king Cyrus. He was sent month, the word of the Lord came by the by the Lord, in the second year of the reign||hand of Aggeus the prophet, to Zorobabel of king Darius, the son of Hystaspes, to the son of Salathiel, governor of Juda, and exhort Zorobabel the prince of Juda, and to Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, Jesus the high-priest, to the building of the saying: temple; which they had begun, but left off 2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: again through the opposition of the Sama- This people saith: The time is not yet come ritans. In consequence of this exhortation, for building the house of the Lord. they proceeded in the building, and finished the temple. And the prophet was commissioned by the Lord to assure them that this second temple should be more glorious than the former; because the Messiah should honour it with his presence; signifying withal how much the church of the new testament should excel that of the old testament. 3 And the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus the prophet, saying: 4 Is it time for you to dwell in ceiled houses, and this house lie desolate ? CHAP. I. The people are reproved for neglecting to build the temple. They are encouraged to set about the work. 5 And now thus saith the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts to consider your ways. 6 You have sowed much and brought in little: you have eaten, but have not had enough: you have drunk, but have not been filled with drink: you have clothed yourselves, but have not been warmed; and he that hath earned wages, put them into a bag with holes. |