ways of destruction; and therefore take thy balances, and weigh thy hair into three equal parts.

V. 2 Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. One third part, shalt thou burn with fire; to shew the extremity of that calamity, which a third part of the inhabitants shall endure, in pestilence and famine, in the siege: another third part, thou shalt smite about with a knife; to shew, that a third part of them shall fall by the sword: and one other third part of it, thou shalt scatter in the wind; to signify their dispersion in the captivity, which shall be attended also with much cruelty afterwards.

See verse 12.

V. 3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.

But thou shalt take up a few of those hairs out of this division, and shalt bind them in thy skirts; to signify that there shall be a small remnant yet reserved of my people.

V. 4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

Then, afterward, take of them again, which thou hadst reserved in thy skirts, and cast them into the midst of the fire; to signify, that those remainders shall put themselves into miserable affliction, and at last shall bring an utter destruction to all the house of Israel.

V. 16 I will send upon them the evil arrows of famine.

I will send a grievous famine upon them, which, like unto deadly arrows, shall pierce through their souls.

VI. 3 Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord &c. The men of Israel will not hear; hear therefore, O ye mountains of Israel, which are less deaf than they, hear ye the judgments, that God hath denounced against the sinful remainders of Israel.

VI. 9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols.

And those, that escape of you, shall remember me among the nations, &c. and bethink themselves how I have been over-provoked by their wicked idolatries; in that they have departed from me, and have abandoned themselves to their shameful and abominable idols.

VI. 11 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas &c.

Be thou vehement and passionate, in expressing thy sorrow and indignation for the sins and judgments of thy people; and therefore smite thine hands together, and stamp with thy feet, and say,

Alas &c.

VI. 14 More desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath.

Yea, more desolate than the most horrid, craggy, forlorn wilderness in the world.

VII. 5 An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.

7

That evil is come upon thee, which alone shall make a dispatch of thee: there will need no other to second it.

VII. 7 The day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.

The day of thy grievous trouble is actually and really come; which thou shalt find sensibly, to be no empty and vain sound of an echo among the mountains, but a true and feeling destruction.

VII. 10 The rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

That rod of punishment, wherewith they shall be smitten, howsoever it come from Chaldea, and hath put forth thence, yet the root of it is from themselves, even from their own pride.

VII. 11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness:`none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs : neither shall there be wailing for them.

And from this root is grown up cruelty, and violence; and that violence hath shewed itself in open wickedness, and outrageous oppositions unto good; which shall bring upon them so perfect a destruction, as that none of them shall be left alive to bewail the dead.

VII. 12 The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the mul titude thereof.

The time of this judgment is at hand, wherein all shall be inwrapped in one common calamity; so as there shall be no difference betwixt the condition of the buyer and the seller, for wrath is indifferently gone out upon all sorts.

VII. 13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, abthough they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

And, whereas in the ordinary sale of Israelitish lands, the seller is wont, in the year of Jubilee, to return to those possessions which he hath aliened; now it shall not be so: though he be then alive, yet there shall be no challenge or recovery of that, which he hath sold; for this captivity shall be universal, which is foretold in this vision, and that which shall not admit of any such return, as might restore this generation to their ancient inheritance; neither shall any wicked man have cause to encourage himself, in the vain confidence of his impunity for his sin.

VII. 14 They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

And though the men of Israel train, and muster, and make great preparations of a warlike resistance, yet all this shall be in vain ;

for they shall never be able to stand in the day of battle, for my wrath fights against all the multitude of them,

VII. 16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the vallies, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

And if any of them shall escape, as some shall escape, the sword and pestilence, yet their life shall be rather more miserable than death; for they shall be fain to hide their heads in the desert mountains, and shall be like the fearful doves that want shelter in the vallies; all of them protracting a woeful life, only to suffer and languish under the conscience of their own wickedness.

VII. 19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not sa tisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling. block of their iniquity.

And, whereas they formerly trusted to their riches, now, they shall cast their silver and gold in the streets, as utterly unprofita ble for their relief, &c. now, they shall well find, how little power this wealth of theirs hath to satisfy their souls, and to content their hearts; because it is that, which they have made an occasion of their sin, by their unjust and wicked confidence they have put in it.

VII. 20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein; therefore have I set it far from them. As for his beautiful and glorious temple, he placed it in great majesty among them, as that which might well be their best and greatest ornament; but they have notoriously profaned it, in setting up their abominable idols therein; therefore, have I forsaken both them and it, and give it over to the pollution and vastation of the heathen.

VII. 23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes. Make thee a chain of iron; to signify the miserable bondage and captivity which is coming upon thy people, for the land is full of bloody crimes.

VII. 26 Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. Then shall they be glad to inquire after the prophet of God, to know what the issue of things shall be; but, in a just punishment of their former neglect and security, God shall take away his gifts from their priests and prophets, so as they shall not be able to declare his will unto them, for their direction and preservation.

VIII. 1 That the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. The Spirit of the Lord was powerful with and upon me, in a di vine rapture and vision.

VIII. 2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and

from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.

Then I beheld, and, lo, there was shewed to me the likeness of a human shape; whose lower parts from the loins downward were as the colour of fire, and from the loins upward of a clear and pleasing brightness like unto amber; to signify, that that God, who is graciously majestical in himself, is terrible in the revenges of his wilful enemies.

VIII. 3 And he put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

And from this appearance of a human shape, there was a hand put forth, which took me, as it seemed unto me in this vision, by a lock of the hair of mine head; and, methought, the Spirit of God lifted me up betwixt the earth and the heaven, and brought me, not in body but in vision, to Jerusalem, to the very door of the inner gate of the common court; even that gate, which looketh towards the north, where was the shrine of that abominable idol of Baal, set up, which provoked the just jealousy of the Al mighty.

VIII. 4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.

And, behold, there I saw the same representation of the glory of the God of Israel, which had been formerly shewed unto me in the vision, which I had by the river of Chebar.

VIII. 8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, it is too much that thou seest. this one shameful idol, but thou shalt yet see many more; and, besides this open abomination, thou shalt see hidden and secret: dig now in the wall; and when I had, in my vision, digged in the wall, behold, a door seemed to appear.

VIII. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

And there stood before those idols, all the judges and rulers of Israel, which God had appointed to be seventy in number; and, in the midst of them, the president of that senate Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand, in which he had offered incense to all the abominable idols; and the fume thereof went up, as a thick cloud, for the abundance thereof.

VIII. 12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of Israel, who should be good examples of piety and holi

ness to the rest, do in this secret, retired room, unseen, unnoted; how they heap up gods to themselves, every one according to his own vain imagination? For they say, Tush, not only are we hid from the eyes of men, but even the eyes of the Lord himself descry

us not.

VIII. 14 And, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. And, behold, there sat women, after the manner of the Egyptian idolatry, bewailing the loss of Osiris, the husband of their beastly goddess Isis; whose superstition was joined with abominable filthiness.

VIII. 17 And, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

And, lo, they put forth accursed branches of several wickednesses, to the just provocation of God's anger, unto their own destruction.

IX. 2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side.

And, behold, there appeared six men, according to the number of the six principal gates of Jerusalem, in representation of so many destroying angels, which came from the way of the north, which lieth towards Chaldea; and every man had a weapon of slaughter in his hand and there was one amongst them resembling the Son of God, the gracious Mediator betwixt God and man; which was clothed with linen, to signify his everlasting priesthood; with a writer's inkhorn by his side, for the resemblance of his eternal consignation of his elect, and his careful marking them out for their preservation.

IX. 3 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house.

And the glorious God of Israel, who had wont to have his seat betwixt the cherubims which covered the ark, went up from thence; to shew them, that he meant to remove away from Israel; and yet, not all at once, but by degrees, and therefore he removed first only to the threshold of the temple.

IX. 4 Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

Go through all the streets of Jerusalem, and set a note or mark of distinction upon all those, that sigh and mourn for all the abominations that are done therein; that those men may be mercifully reserved from the common destruction.

IX. 7 And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

And he said unto him, Since my house hath been so shamefully defiled by idolatries, do not ye spare to defile it, together with the courts there, with the blood and the carcases of the slain.