A.C. About 2 And now 725. add to sin. * they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to * Heb. they their own understanding, all of it the work of the crafts+ Or, the samen: they say of them, Let + the men that sacrifice kiss the crifices of men. calves. k Is. xliii. 11. ch. xii. 9. ↑ Heb. droughts. Heb. the beast of the field. Heb. in thy help. * Rather, Where is thy 3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. 4 Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. 5 ¶ I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of + great drought. 6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. 7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: 8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: § the wild beast shall tear them. 9¶O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me || is thine help. 10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save king? King thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, then in prison, Give me a king and princes? Hoshea being 2 Kings xvii. 4. 11 'I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away 11 Sam. viii. 5, in my wrath. &c. & xv. 23. & xvi. 1. 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid. 13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon + Heb. a time. him he is an unwise son; for he should not stay + long in the place of the breaking forth of children. 14 I will ransom them from the Heb. the hand. 51, 55. power of the m1 Cor. xv. will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy grave; I plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. n Ezek. xix. 12. 15¶Though he be fruitful among his brethren," an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all Heb. vessels § pleasant vessels. of desire. 16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. HOSEA XIV. 1 An exhortation to repentance. 4 A promise of God's blessing. 1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast A. C. About fallen by thine iniquity. 725. 2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so Or, give will we render the calves of our lips. 3 Asshur shall not save 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. 4 ¶ I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. good. 5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall † grow as the +Or, blossom lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 6 His branches § shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. + Heb, strikc go, Heb. shall scent || Or, blossom. 7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and || grow as the vine: the thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. 8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. 9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein. * Or, memorial. SECTION III. Reign of Hoshea continued-Captivity of the Ten Tribes. 2 KINGS XVII. VER. 5-24 5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. 6¶P In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed P. them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in 16, the cities of the Medes. 7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 723. 721. ch. xviii. 10, Hos. xiii. foretold. A.C. 721. *Heb.statucs. 9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. * 10 And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree : 11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: 12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said q Deut. iv. 19. unto them, ¶ Ye shall not do this thing. hand of all. r Jer. xviii. Jl. & xxv. 5. r 13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Ju+ Heb, by the dah, + by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. & xxxv. 15. ■ Deut. xxxi. 27. 14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their Ex. xxxii. 8. God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. I Kings xii. 28. 17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. 19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. 20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin. 22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; 23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. 2 KINGS XVIII. VER. 9-13. 9¶ And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. X A.C. 721. 723. u ch. xvii. 3. x 721. 10 And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea * ch. xvii. 6. king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: 12 Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them. CHAPTER XIV. Reign of Manasseh, 55 Years-From 698 to 643. SECTION I. Idolatry of Manasseh. 2 KINGS XXI. VER. 1—17. 698. 1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to a 2 Chron. reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And xxxiii. 1, &c his mother's name was Hephzi-bah. 2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah bch. xviii. 4. his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. 34. 4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of Jer. xxxii. which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. d 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and ob d 2 Sam. vii. 13. A.C.e98. served times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. e 7 And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and e1 Kings viii. to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: 29. & ix. 3. ch. xxiii. 27. f Jer. xv. 4. 8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. 9 But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. 10 ¶ And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying, 11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: I 12 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that g 1 Sam. iii.11. whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. * Heb. he wipeth and turneth it upon the face thereof. mouth to 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, * wiping it, and turning it upside down. 14 And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; 15 Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day. 16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, + Heb. from till he had filled Jerusalem + from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. mouth. SECTION II. Isaiah's Prophecy of the Captivity of Shebnah. ISAIAH XXII. ver. 15, to tHE END. 15 Thus saith the Lord GoD of hosts, Go, get thee |