Paraphrase of the Hard Texts of Scripture, Scripture 12 – Scripture 15
II. KINGS.
CAP. I.
8 And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loynes.HE was a man roughly clad, as one that professed to be a messenger of penitence and humiliation to the world.
Thou which pretendest thy selfe to be a man of God,9 Thou man of God, the King hath said, Come downe. the King hath peremptorily sent me to fetch thee downe by strong hand into his presence; come downe therefore, or I will force thy descent.
CAP. II.
9 Let a doule portion of thy spirit be upon me.AS thou hast chosen me unto a nearer relation unto thee, and herein hast preferred me to all the rest of the sonnes of the Prophets; So give me this prerogative, that (according to the right of primogeniture) I may have a double portion to theirs, of that spirit, and those miraculous powers, which are in thee; which I know thou by thy last prayers, art able to effect.
11 There appeared a charet of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, &c.The Angells of God in the forme of a fiery charet and horses, not so much in a terrible, as a glorious fashion, appeared, and parting them, tooke up Elias.
12 Oh my father, my father, the charet of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.Oh my father, whose spirit I hope to inherit; all the safety and strength of Israel, was in thy holinesse, and prevalency with God; This glorious charet that hath fetcht thee up from us, puts me in minde of what thou wert unto us, the sure and glorious gard of thy Israel.
14 He smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Eliah?If, according to the ingagement and promise of my master, it hath pleased God to give me a double portion, to my brethren, of his spirit, let it now be shewed in this triall; as to him, so to me, let the waters of Jordan be divided.
17 And they urged him till he was ashamed; and he said, Send.Since your importunitie will take no deniall; please your selves, try the event; send your messengers.
CAP. III.
13 Nay; for the Lord hath called these three Kings together to deliver them into the hands of Moab.Nay, but howsoever I have deserved to be unregarded in this suit, yet, have thou pitty upon these other Princes, that are joyned with me; and especially on that Jehosaphat, whom thou knowest to be a godly, and gracious Prince; let us not for meere want of water, be delivered into the hands of Moab.
Bring me hither a minstrell, that by his Musicke,15 But now, bring me a minstrell. both my spirits, which have beene too much moved with indignation at thine unworthinesse, may be composed, and that by some divine ditty, your hearts may be lifted up to an expectation of this great mercy from God.
The enginers, and such as were imployed for battery,25 Howbeit the slingers went about & smote it. went about it, and taking advantage of the fittest place of entry, smote it.
He tooke the eldest sonne of the King of Edom prisoner, and offered to sacrifice him upon the wall,27 Then he tooke his eldest sonne that should have reigned in his stead; and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall; and there was great indignation against Israel, and they departed from him, and returned to their owne land. if the Kings would not breake up their siege; which when the King of Israel refused to doe; he, the said King of Moab offered that sonne of Edom, for a burnt offering upon the wall; and hereupon there was great indignation of Edom against Israel; and they in much discontentment departed to their owne contry.
CAP. IIII.
ABout forty weekes hence,16 About this season according to the time of life thou shalt embrace a sonne. according to the ordinary time of conception, and birth, thou shalt beare a sonne.
On solemne dayes I know it is our manner to resort unto the Prophet of God, for the worship of our God,23 Wherefore wilt thou goe to him to day? it is neither new Moone, nor Sabbath. and our owne instruction, but now, since, it is neither new Moone, nor Sabbath, that might occasion thy journey to the man of God, what businesse is it that calls thee to him?
Trouble not thy selfe with this question,26 And she answered; It is well. I shall give an account of it to thy master; in the meane time rest thou contented.
CAP. V.
I Doe solemnly protest unto thee that I will doe no worship to any God,18 In this thing pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship, there, and hee leaneth on my hand, and I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon, when I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. save to the true God of Israel only; and I could well wish, that I never might have occasion to come into any of the Temples of those Idoll gods; but, in this, I shall desire to be dispensed with, that, when, upon the necessity of my place and service, I must wait upon the King, into the temple of his Rimmon, and my master (leaning on my arme) shall bowe to his false god; I may thē (after publike notice given of my free intentions) not out of any respect of devotion to the Idoll, but out of my due service to my master, bowe downe under my master in the house of Rimmon, which however in it selfe, it may be construed as a gesture of adoration to the Idol; yet when the world shall be throughly possessed of my hatred of this Idolatry, and my unfained purpose to reserve my selfe wholly for the true God, it shall perhaps avoid that offence which otherwise might be taken at this, not religious, but civill gesture; in this I beseech thee pray to God, that he will not impute sinne unto me; as one that would faine be serviceable, and not Idolatrous.
And he said unto him; God speed thee well; Goe, and doe that which may best stand with the peace of a good Conscience;19 And he said unto him, Goe in peace. For me, I give thee neither warrant, nor dispensation.
Couldst thou vainly hope to elude a Prophet; Had not I notice from God of all the way that thou wentest,26 Went not mine heart with thee when the man turned againe from his charet, &c? and of all thy carriage towards Naaman, &c?
CAP. VI.
17 Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see.O Lord, doe thou so illuminate, and enable the eyes of this my servant, that they may discerne this spirituall aid that thou hast provided for our succour and rescue.
33 And he said, Behold this evill is of the Lord, what should I wait for the Lord any longer?And when the Prophet advised him to wait still patiently upon God, he answered desperatly; Doe ye not see to what height of misery we are comne; that mothers are forced to eate their owne children; It is the hand of God that hath brought us to this extremity; worse we cannot be; to what purpose is it to expect any favour from that hand, that hath thus plagued us; if ever God would have delivered us, he would have done it, ere we had comne to this hopelesse condition.
CAP. VIII.
10 Goe, say unto him, thou maist certainly recover, Howbeit, the Lord hath shewed me that hee shall surely dye.Goe, say unto him, The disease is not in it selfe deadly; but such as thou maist well, in course of nature recover; but withall, I must tell thee, that the Lord hath shewed me that he shall die by another meanes; and shall not rise from the bed of his sicknesse.
Why doth my Lord speake so foule,14 But what? Is thy servant a dog, that hee should doe this great thing? and bloody things of me? He must be extremely savage and cruell that should doe such violences; For me, I doe not finde in my selfe any such brutish, and tyrannous disposition.
CAP. IX.
WHat businesse hast thou with this crackt-braine-franticke fellow?11 Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication. what can a man of this robe have to doe with thee? And he said; The habit shewes you the mans profession; that he is a Prophet; and his profession intimates his errand.
What possibilitie is there of holding good termes with thee whiles the abhominable Idolatries,22 What peace, so long as the whordomes and witchcrafts of thy mother Iezebel are so many? and superstition of thy mother Jezebel, both remaine, and are maintained, and countenanced by thee.
CAP. X.
THus Jehu destroyed all the Idols of Baal;28 Thus Iehu destroyed Baal out of the land. and rooted out all the false gods from Israel.
But that part of Idolatry which consisted in the false worship of the true God, (brought in by Jeroboam,29 Howbeit, from the sinnes of Ieroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sinne, Iehu departed not from them, the golden calves that were in Dan, and that were in Bethel. in those golden calves of Dan and Bethel) Jehu did not at all oppose; but countenanced, and practized it rather.
CAP. XI.
VVHereas the Levits (being distributed into foure and twenty courses) are appointed to keep their changes, every Sabbath,5 This is the thing which yee shall doe; A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall bee even keepers of the watch of the Kings house, &c. to the number of about sixteene hundred, in every succession now ye shall so marshall your selves, that whiles the new course enters, the former shall yet continue for this turne undischarged; and those that come in to succeed, shall divide themselves into three parts, whereof one shall keepe the watch of the Kings house, &c.
Upon my command from God,19 Thou shouldst have smitten five or sixe time… then hadst thou smitten Syria, till thou hadst consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. thou shouldst have smittē, till I had staid thy hand; which if thou hadst done, thy obedience had beene rewarded with frequent victories; now, thou shalt overcome, but according to the proportion of thine obedience, diligence, and faith in that word which thou hast received.
CAP. XIIII.
9 The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the Cedar that was in Lebanon, saying; Give thy daughter to my sonne to wife. And there passed a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trod downe the thistle, &c.THou the King of Juda, who art but as a thistle, sent'st to me, the King of Israel who am a Cedar of Lebanon, to give thee aid, and joine in an offensive warre with thee, against the King of Edom; now, if some lawlesse rovers on my part, which are as the wild beasts of that forrest, have troden downe thy thistle, and made a spoile of thy country; why shouldest thou take it so highly, as to undertake a warre hereupon with me?
CAP. XVI.
18 And the cover for the Sabbath, that they had built in the house; and the Kings entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord.ANd that covered place of shelter (neare to the house of God) which was used for the snade, and ease both of the officers of the temple, and of the people, on the occasions of their concourse upon the Sabbath dayes, and the close walke or cloyster which the King had made from his house to the Temple, he defaced.
CAP. XVII.
9 And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen, to the fenced City.THey set up their altars, and sacrificed to God in al high places, which themselves (contrary to Gods command) had erected, in all the parts of the Kingdome, from one side of the borders, to the other; no part was free, whether more solitary, or more frequented.
33 They feared the Lord, & serued their owne gods.They made a formall profession of serving the Lord, and yet continued the worship of their owne false gods.
CAP. XVIII.
4 He brake in peeces the brazen Serpent that Moses had made; for unto those dayes the children of Israel did burne incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan.HE brake in peeces the brazen serpent that Moses had long since made, and erected, in the wildernesse, as a type of that Christ, by whom his people are healed of the venomous stings of their sinnes; which holy monument being reserved to this day, was grossely abused by the superstitious Israelites, who burnt incense to it, as a God; this Ezekiah pulled downe, and defaced, terming it, by way of indignation, as it was, a peece of brasse.
CAP. XIX.
IT is with us as with a woman in travell,3 The children are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth. which hath not strength to bring forth her birth; extreme calamitie hath seized upon us; of which we have no power to deliver our selves.
I will with a blast of winde send him away,7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and hee shall heare a rumour, and shall returne. for I will raise a rumour of Tirhakaes cōming up against his land, which shall fetch him off from you.
See Esay 37.30.29 Ye shall eat this yeare, &c.
CAP. XX.
FOr the greater privacie of his meditation,2 Then he turned his face to the wall. he turned his face from the view of his attendants towards the wall.
Shall the shadow in one moment skippe over ten degrees,9 Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees? &c. so as the day shall be so much shorter then ordinarie?
And Isaiah prayed earnestly unto the Lord;11 And Isaiah the Prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow backe ten degrees, by which it had gone downe in the diall of Ahaz. and hee recalled the motion of the Sunne ten degrees backe, from the point, where it was; so as the day (which in ordinary course consisted of twelve houres) was now protracted to two and twenty, and that this retrograde motion might be sensibly discerned; hee caused it to be apparently seene, and noted in the famous diall of Jerusalem, which was called by the name of Ahaz.
God hath dealt graciously with me herein;19 And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my daies? For I had well deser…ed a speedy judgement upon my selfe, in my owne person, but loe, the mercy of God hath not proceeded thus against me, but hath, notwithstanding my offence, promised peace, and stabilitie of his wonted grace to me, all my life.
CAP. XXI.
AS one that affected to be an universall Idolater,3 And worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. he worshipped all the spirits that rule in the aire, and all the starres that are fixed in heaven.
I will take the same course with Jerusalem,13 And I will stretch over Ierusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab. that I have taken with Samaria; and with the wicked house of Ahab, which I have urterly rooted out from before me.
CAP. XXII.
8 I have found the booke of the Law in the house of the Lord.I Have found the very originall record of the booke of the Law, which was left by Moses, and reserved in the Holy of holies by the command of God.
14 Now she dwelt in Ierusalem in the Colledge.Now she dwelt at Jerusalem, in the colledge which is set apart for the use and inhabitation of the Prophets; as being (notwithstanding her sexe) of great eminence in that profession.The bookes of the Chronicles, consisting partly of Genealogies, and partly of the same histories repeated; have afforded no use of this Paraphrase.
EZRA.
CAP. II.
62 But they were not found; therefore were they as polluted put from the Priesthood.BEcause their Genealogy could not be found, and approved, they were held in the ranke of ordinary Israelites, men not sanctified for the holy office of Priest-hood; and therefore were accordingly put from their ministration.
63 And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a Priest with Vrim and Thummim.And the Governour or Deputie (who was Sheshbazzar) said unto them, by the motion, and information of the Jewes; that they should not be admitted to eate of those holy things (whose use was peculiar to the sacred tribe) untill there should be a decision made of this question by a Priest of God, who by the Oracle of the brestplate should give sentence and determination hereof from God himselfe.
CAP. IIII.
4 The people of the land weakned the hands of the people of Iudah.THe people of the land disheartened, and discouraged the people of Judah, from this holy enterprise of building the Temple of God.
10 Whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over.Whom the great and noble Esar-haddon King of Assyria brought over. See verse 2.
CAP. IX.
2 So that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of the land.SO as, those who are the chosen, and peculiar people of God, the Jewes, have matched themselves in marriages, with the heathenish and Idolatrous people of the land.
To fasten us,8 And to give us a naile in his holy place. and to give us the hope of a setled being in this holy place, as some naile that is driven up to the head, in some solid table, that cannot be removed.
NEHEMIAH.
CAP. II.
ANd I went out by night,13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley even before the Dragons well, and to the Dungport, &c. by the gate which opens towards the vally of Jehosaphat, which is to the South (over against that which is called the Serpents well, by reason of the slie creeping of it) and so to the dung-port, towards the East, &c.
CAP. V.
THere is no difference in nature, in flesh, or blood,5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, &c. betwixt us, and the rest of Israel, why should we, without any fault of our part, be in worse condition then they?
I,14 I and my brethren have not eaten the bread to the Governour. and my familie have not taken that allowance which was appointed for the governour; so as, though I weilded the place, yet I forbore to take the maintenance allotted unto it, both of money, and provision, in favour of the people, and respect to the common good.
O God, thou that art wont to accept of,19 Thinke upon mee, my God for good, according to all that I have done for this people. & graciously to reward the good desires, & works, that are wrought by thy spirit, in, and by us thy unworthy servants, be thou pleased to receive, and to crowne these my good intentions, and indevours towards this thy people.
CAP. VI.
I Came to Shemaiah who was under pretence of devout humiliation, and prayer for my safety,10 To Shemaiah, &c. Who was shut up; and he he said, Let us meet together in the house of God. shut up in his house; and he pretending a tender care of my person, advised, that we shut up our selves in the Temple.
11 And I said, Should such a man as I flee?Have I taken upon me to be the governour of this people? and have I in a godly resolution, gone thorough this worke hitherto; and shall I now bewray any base feare, or cowardize? and seeme to set such a price upon my life, as that I would protract it by weake subducing of my selfe, and hiding my head in the Temple?
14 My God, thinke thou upon Tobiah, &c.O my God, I doe not out of any private malice or spleen, or in any respect to the affronts offred to my person, but in a sincere desire of thy glory, beseech thee, to make knowne to the world how ill thou takest these treacherous plots of Tobiah, and his complices, &c.
CAP. VII.
65 Now the Tirshatha, &c.See Ezra 2.63.
CAP. XI.
11 Seraiah, &c. the son Ahitub the ruler of the house of God.SEraiah the sonne of Ahitub, who was the man that had the charge of the over-sight of the Temple; both for the fabricke of it, and the good order to be kept in it.
CAP. XIII.
4 Having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God.HAving the over-sight of that chamber of store, which pertained to the Temple of the Lord; wherein were laid up all things that were of use for the sacrifices. See verse. 5.
14 Remember me, O God, &c.See chapter 6. verse 14.
I Rated them, and reviled them, and dealt so roughly with them,25 And I cursed them, and smote certaine of thē and pluckt off their haire. as that I proceeded to blowes, and to the tearing off their haire from their heads.
ESTHER.
CAP. I.
THat were men of excellent judgement,13 Wise men which knew the times. and knowledge in all affaires, able to give advice for the fittest times, and manners of performance, of all actions.
That Vashti be no more addmitted into thy presence as thy wife, but be instantly dismissed.19 That Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus.
CAP. II.
FOr the honour of his marriage he gratified the provinces, with pardons, and releases of those exactions,18 And he made a release to the provinces, &c. whereof they complained; and gave bountifull gifts amongst them, &c.
Mordecai,19 Then Mordecai sate at the Kings gate. according to the place or office that he had in the Court, sate in the gate of the King.
CAP. III.
BUt Mordecai,2 But Mordecai bowed not, nor did reverence. whether for that he knew Haman to be of that blood, which by Gods charge were exposed to the hatred, and revenge of Israel, or whether, for that he thought the honour required, was more then was fit for a man, bowed not, nor did that reverence which all others too officiously gave to Haman.
They did by superstitious lots,7 In the first monethmonth, &c. they cast Pur, that is, a lot, &c. seeke to finde out a day, which by their vaine conjectures, might be most likely to be prosperous for this their designe.
In the last monethmonth of the yeare,7 In the monethmonth of Adar. which answers to our February.
CAP. IIII.
I Will put my life in hazard;16 If I perish, I perish. I cannot venture it upon a better cause; I will doe the act, let God give what issue he pleaseth.
CAP. VI.
13 If he be of the seed of the Iewes before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevaile against him.I Have ever observed a speciall hand of God upon that his peculiar people, the Jewes; their friends are wont still to prosper, their enemies goe still to the worst; I feare the nation as much as I hate the man.
CAP. VIII.
9 The monethmonth Sivan.IN that monethmonth which answereth to our May.
CAP. IX.
26 Wherefore they called those dayes Purim.IN memory of those lotts, which were cast by Haman, for the prosperous successe of his bloody enterprise against the Jewes, they being now happily delivered, call the dayes of their deliverance, by the name at Purim.