Paraphrase of the Hard Texts of Scripture, Scripture 19 · Chapter 33 – Chapter 48
CAP. XXXIII.
1 Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee: when thou shalt cease to spoile, thou shalt bee spoiled.WOe to thee, O thou cruell Assyrian, that spoylest Gods people causelesly, and unprovoked; and dealest treacherously with those, that have offered no such measure unto thee; for God wil be sure to meet with thee in thine own way; when thou hast done spoyling the Iewes, the Chaldees shall beginne to spoyle thee, &c.
2 O Lord, be gracious unto us, wee have waited for thee, bee thou their arme every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.O Lord, be gracious to us thy chosen people; wee have ever hitherto depended upon thee, thou hast beene the refuge of our fore-fathers; as thou hast beene their God of old, so renew thy favour and protection to us, every day; and be thou our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 At the noise of the tumult, the people fled, at the lifting up of thy selfe the nations were scattered.Upon the noyse of the tumultuous onset of the Jewes, the multitudes of the Assyrian armie fled; when thou, O God, didst but seeme to rouze up thy selfe, all those nations were suddenly dispersed.
As when the country is annoyed with caterpillers,4 And your spoile shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller. all sorts of people runne forth (even women and children) to destroy them at once, and even the weakest can kill them with ease, so shall all the people runne forth to gather this spoile of the Assyrians, &c.
The maine strength,6 And wisedome and knowledge shall bee the stabilitie of thy times, and strength of salvation: the feare of the Lord is his treasure. and stability which thy times shall have, shall consist in the true spirituall wisedome, and in the knowledge of God; and the greatest treasure of thy good King Ezekiah shall be the feare of the Lord.
Behold, for the time,7 Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without, the Ambassadors of peace shal weepe bitterly. Jerusalem shall be put to great distresse; their Captaines and souldiers shall be discouraged, and their Ambassadors, that went to treat for peace, shall returne discontented, and sorrowfull.
The whole country mourneth, and languisheth,9 The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewen downe: Sharon is like a wildernesse, and Bashan, and Carmel, shake off their fruits. even those parts which are remotest; and every Province thereof beareth his owne proper share in this misery; The Cedars of Lebanon are cut downe, the corne of Sharon, and the fruitfull pastures of Bashan and Carmel are wasted.
Now when things are comne to an extremity,10 Now will I rise, saith the Lord. will I rise, saith the Lord, &c.
Ye have conceived great hopes of victory and triumph,11 Yee shall conceive chaffe, ye shall bring forth stubble, your breath as fire shall devour you. but you shall goe away with a shamefull foile; yea, yee shall perish by your own plots; the fire which your owne breath hath kindled, shall devoure you.
Those that are prophane and godlesse in Jerusalem,14 The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearefulnesse hath surprised the hypocrites: who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? are, not without cause, much terrified; and those hypocrites, which would not beleeve the predictions of these evills, are now overwhelmed with fearefulnesse; and now they are ready to say; Alas, how shall we be able to indure this wrath of God, which is gone out against us? &c.
He shall dwell in a safe place,16 He shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the munitions of rockes, bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure. inaccessible to all enemies; and utterly impregnable; and shall have all things cast in his way, which are necessary for his sustentation.
Whosoever thou art that walkest thus uprightly; thou shalt see the Court of Jerusalem restored to his full glory, though Ezekiah bee under hatches for the time,17 Thine eyes shall see the King in his beautie: they shall behold the land that is very farre off. yet thou shalt see him in his wonted port and magnificence; and thou shalt see him subduing other remote Kingdomes, and ruling over them.
Thine heart shall thinke upon the terrour thou wert in, when thou distractedly askedst for thy officers;18 Thine heart shall meditate terrour; where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the Towers? where is the clarke of the band? Where is the receiver? Where is the survaior of the workes? as if these could have availed thee.
Thou shalt not be forced to see and indure the tyranny of those fierce and cruell Assyrians,19 Thou shat not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech then thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand. to live under the servitude of a nation, whose barbarous and harsh language thou understandest not.
But there, (even in Jerusalem) will the Lord be unto us in stead of all the rivers, and ditches, and bulwarkes of defence which other cities boast themselves of;21 But there the glorious Lord, will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streames, wherein shall goe no gally with Oares. yea he shall give Jerusalem protection without danger; In other cities and countries where they have the commodity of large rivers and inlets from the Sea, there may be perhaps some perill of advantage to an enemie; and oportunity of invasion, but here shall be no such matter, no galley shall go here with oares, &c.
23 Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not wel strengthen their mast: they could not spread the saile: then is the prey of a great spoile divided, the lame take the prey.But for thee, O Assyrian, howsoever thou camest like a well rigged ship to this siege, yet thy tacklings doe not hold, thy mast totters; yea, so shall God ply thee with stormes, that thou shalt not so much as spread a saile, but shalt be wracked, and spilt, and every one, though lame and impotent, shall share in the spoile of thee.
14 And the inhabitant shall not say: I am sicke; the people that dwell therein, shall be forgiven their iniquitie.But, my people shall, in the meane time, be kept in safety, and health; for so much, as the very cause of their suffering, which is their iniquity, shall be removed and forgiven.
CAP. XXXIV.
3 And the Mountaines shall be melted with their blood.ANd the mountaines shall so runne down with blood as if they were melted and dissolved into it.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved.And in that great day of the Lord shall the very frame of heaven feele an apparent alteration, &c.
5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven, behold, it shall come downe upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse to judgement.For my judgement, decreed in heaven, shall be fearefully executed upon the knowne, and professed enemies of my Church; upon those people, whom I have accursed to an everlasting condemnation.
God shall take full vengeance on his enemies; his sword shall be,6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatnes: and with the blood of lambs, and goates, with the fat of the kidneies of rammes, &c. as it were, fed with the blood of his great and noted adversaries; this slaughter of his shall be like to that of an universall sacrifice, which shall be killed on the altar of the land of Edom, and all the regions of his proud opposites.
Neither shall the tame cattle onelyonly be the matter of this sacrifice,7 And the Vnicornes shall come downe with them, and the bullockes with the Bulls, and their land shall be soaked with blood. as the poore and quiet lambs, which have no power to resist; but the wildest and fiercest of all other creatures (as the Vnicorns, and Bulls, &c.) figuring the most lawlesse and potent enemies of Christ, shall be exposed to this bloody oblation; and their land shall be drenched and soaked with their blood, &c.
It is the time,8 For it is the day of the Lords vengeance, and the yeare of recompences for the controversie of Zion. wherein God will give a full satisfaction, and retribution of the wrongs that have beene done to his Church, in the consummate plagues of his enemies.
There shall be nothing but horrour, and burning;9 And the streames thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. for in stead of streames there shall be liquid pitch; and in stead of dust, brimstone; and a fire shall be put to both of them; so as the whole world shall bee but as one flame.
As for those hostile countries that have made havock of Ierusalem, they shall be laid waste in the meane time;11 The cormorant and the Bitterne shall possesse it, the Owle also and the Raven shall dwell in it, and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptinesse. and turned to an habitation of solitary, dolefull, and dismall birds; God shall condemne them to perpetuall confusion and ruine, never to be either built, or inhabited.
See Isa. 13.21.14 The wild beasts, &c. the Satyre shall cry to his fellow.
Inquire after this prophesie which I have delivered to you from the Lord, and compare it with the event,15 There shall the great Owle make her nest, &c. 16 Seeke ye out of the booke of the Lord, and read, no one of these shall faile, none shall want her mate, for my mouth it hath commanded; and his spirit it hath gathered them.yee shall finde none of these particulars to faile; but these foules of solitude and desolation shall nest, and breed here; none of them shall want her mate; I have spoken it as from God, and his power shall call them thither, and fasten them there.
He hath distributed the land to them for their use,17 And he cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possesse it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein. and his just providence hath divided it to them, by line, there they shall take up their abode for ever.
CAP. XXXV.
THe Kingdome of Christ shall come,1 The wildernesse and the solitarie place shall bee glad for them, and the desert shall rejoyce and blossome as the rose. wherein he shall rule by the Gospell of peace, at what time all things shall flowrish; even those places which now seeme to bee forlorne deserts shall then rejoyce, and blossome as the rose.
That which was once a dry sandy desert,2 The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellencie of Carmel and Sharon. shall be now as fresh and greene, as Lebanon, and as plentifull, and rich as Carmel and Sharon, &c.
Comfort your selves therefore in the Lord,3 Strengthen yee the weake hands. O ye that are weake and dejected, &c.
That barren soile that was parched,7 And the parched ground shall become a poole, and the thirsty land springs of waters, in the habitation of Dragons, wher each lay, shall be grasse with reeds and rushes. and burnt up with drought, shall flow with abundance of water, &c. and those desolate and dry deserts which were wont to be the habitation of Dragons, shall now turne moist, and fruitfull, so as the rushes, and reeds shall cover it.
It shall not only be civill, and accessible, but holy and gracious;8 And an high way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holines, the unclean shall not passe over it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not erre therin. none shall dare to set their foot there, who are uncleane, and perversly wicked; but it shall be for those that are holy and conscionable; and the path shall bee so beaten with frequent passengers, that those which are otherwise simple and ignorant, cannot erre therein.
Neither shall it retaine so much of the nature, and use of a wildernes, as to give harbour to Lions, or any other ravenous beasts;9 No Lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shal goe up thereon, it shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walke there. Men of a cruell, and bestiall disposition shall finde no place there, only the redeemed shall bee meet inhabitants thereof.
CAP. XXXVI.
See 2. Kings 18.
CAP. XXXVII.
See 2. Kings 19.
30 And this shall bee a signe unto thee, Yee shall eate this yeare such as groweth of it selfe, and the second yeare that which springeth of the same.ANd now for thee, O Ezekiah, that thou maist know that this deliverance comes only from the Lord, let me tell thee, that God shall second this mercy, with another; thy freedome, with a plentiful increase of this land of thine, which is now wasted, and defaced with warre; which yet shall, through the miraculous blessing of God become so fruitfull, as that, for two yeares together, it shall yeeld thee a large and rich crop, without the labour, or seed of the husbandman, &c.
CAP. XXXVIII.
See 2. Kings 20.
11 I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living.I Said, I shall no more have the comfortable fruition of Gods presence in his house, amongst the men that live here on earth.
13 From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.This very day, ere the night come, wilt thou make an end of me.
O Lord, by those words and powerfull acts that proceed from thee,16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. is the life of man both had and maintained; and, in speciall, this life of mine, whereby my breath is still kept in me, is an immediate worke of thine, &c.
Man, when he is once dead,18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee. can doe thee no more service here upon earth, &c.
CAP. XXXIX.
I Doe in all humility submit my selfe to the good pleasure of God,8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, good is the word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken, he said moreover, for there shall be peace and truth in my daies. and doe acknowledge that God hath dealt very graciously with me, howsoever, for though I had deserved a present punishment, yet it hath pleased him in mercy to respite it, and to vouchsafe to grant, that true religion and peace shall be continued all my daies.
CAP. XL.
SHe hath received from the hand of Gods justice a large proportion of misery; double to that, which,2 For she hath received of the Lords hand double for all her sinnes. if their sins had not forced him to this necessary infliction, hee would have imposed on them.
God shall have his prophets,3 The voice of him that crieth in the wildernesse. who in the most forlorne estate of his Church, shall excite those Princes and governours, under whom his people shall be; for a preparation for their returne out of the Babylonish captivity; and as that returne shall be a type and figure of the delivery of Gods Church from spirituall tyranny; hee shall have his Evangelicall harbinger, before the comming of the Messiah; which shall be the voice of a cryer in the wildernesse, &c.
God shall remove every difficulty,4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountaine and hill shal be made low. and impediment which shal ly in the way of the restauration of his Church and people, &c.
As the grasse withereth, and, as the flower fadeth, upon every nipping winde, or scorching sun; so doe,7 The grasse withereth, the flowre fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it, surely the people is grasse. and shall the most glorious of the sonnes of men, if God, in his displeasure shall but breath upon them never so little.
O Sion, and Jerusalem, doe yee proclaime to all the world, the infinite goodnesse of your God to you,9 O Sion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountaine; O Ierusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of Iudah, behold your God. and therefore take all advantage of the highest mountains, to publish it, that it may be most, and best heard; since it is to you that God imparts the first tidings of a saviour, do ye gladly, and zealously divulge it to all the earth, and say to the other cities of Judah, concerning the Messiah to be exhibited in the flesh, Behold your God.
If there be any of his elect ones,11 He shall gather the lambes with his arme, and carry them in his bosome, and shall gently lead those that are with yong. that is weak and distressed, and that is over-pressed with the conscience of his owne unworthinesse, such a one will he pitty and releeve.
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.What needst thou care, O Israel, for all the world, if thy God be for thee; alas, how poore a thing are all the nations of the earth, if they be compared to the power of the Almighty? they are but as one drop of a bucket to a whole spring, yea to the sea it selfe, &c.
Lift up your eyes to heaven, and consider the mighty power of him that made all this glorious frame;26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by names, by the greatnesse of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth. that hath marshalled all those bright and goodly starres, like some mighty and innumerable host; he knowes them all severally, and distinctly, and hath ordained their severall times of rising, and when he bids them come forth, not one of them doe, or can faile of his appearance.
CAP. XLI.
1 Keepe silence before me, (O ye lands) & let the people renew their strēgthI Have a contestation with my people, which I would have the very heathen to be the witnesses of; come therefore, O ye forraine nations, and give eare, &c.
2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over Kings?Who was it that fetched faithfull Abraham from Vr of the Chaldees? and caused him to travell to the promised land, and gave him the victory over divers Kings? &c.
I the Lord am he, that alters not with time, and occasions;4 I the Lord the first, & with the last, I am he. as I was to the first, so am I to the last; as I was before all things, and had my being of my selfe, so I give being and sustentation to all things that shal be unto the very end.
5 The isles saw it, and feared, the ends of the earth were afraid, drew neere, and came.The nations round about were witnesses of the great workes I did for my people, in their deliverance, and feared; even the remotest of them were afraid, and combined together, and assembled;
6 They helped every one his neighbour, and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.And incouraged themselves mutually, notwithstanding, in their Idolatry; as though they would make head against the true God.
7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, & he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvill.The foolish artificers agreed amongst themselves to make an idoll, and one of them hartned another to the work, &c.
14 Feare not, thou worm Iacob, and ye men of Israel I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer the holy One of Israel.Be not dismaid, O ye my despised people of the Jewes; how base and despicable soever ye seeme in the eyes of your enemies, the world shall see, and finde, that yee are deare to me, and that I will help and deliver you.
15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the moūtaines, and beat them smal, and shalt make the hils as chaffe.And, however the world doe now insult upon you, I will raise you up, to a power of just revenge; and will inable you to subdue your greatest and proudest enemies, so as ye shall humble them to the very dust.
And whereas the dry and barren wildernes may seeme a just discouragement of your passage, and returne,19 I will plant in the wildernesse the Cedar, the Shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oyle tree, I will set in the desert the firre tree, and the pine and the boxe tree together. I will cause that to be pleasantly planted, and coolely shaded, with variety of goodly trees, of all growths and statures.
He that maketh choice of such gods, as ye are to worship and adore, shall be no other then an abhomination unto the true God.24 An abomination is he that chooseth you.
I will, in the fulnesse of time, raise up a Messiah,25 I have raised up one from the north, and hee shall come; from the rising of the Sun shall he call upon my name, and hee shall come upon Princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay. who shall call mine elect out of all coasts of the world, to my holy service; and he shall by his mighty power subdue those great potentates of the earth, who have opposed themselves to him.
CAP. XLII.
HEE shall make no noise in the world,2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. but shall come without either pompe or tumult.
Those that are humbled, and contrite, shall he rather releeve, and comfort,3 A bruised reede shall he not breake, and the smoaking flaxe shal he not quench, he shall bring forth judgement unto truth. then adde any thing to their sorrow and affliction, and those that have received but the weakest beginnings of grace, shall have no discouragement from him, but shall be rather cheared up by him; yet so shall he be gracious to the penitently dejected, that he shall not beare with the obstinate sinner; but shall give severe judgement upon him, according to the justice of his demerits.
The forraine nations, even of the Gentiles, shall yeeld themselves over joyfully to his government.4 And the isles shall waite for his law.
I will give thee for that Saviour of the world,6 And give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. in whom my covenant of saving mankinde was founded of old even in those ancient promises, which I made, both in Paradise to the first parents of mankinde, and after, to Abraham the father of the faithfull; not onelyonly to that one chosen nation, but even to the Gentiles also, to whom I have ordained thee as a light, to guide them unto salvation.
That,7 To open the blinde eyes, to bring out the prisoners, from the prison, and them that sit in darknesse out of the prison house. whereas mankinde was utterly bereaved of the light of all divine knowledge, now, by his illumination their eyes might be opened to see the things belonging to their peace; and whereas they were shut up in a miserable bondage to sin and satan, he might graciously deliver them, &c.
11 Let the wildernesse and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabite: let the inhabitants of the rocke sing, let them shout from the top of the mountaines.Let the most barbarous of all nations know that they have cause to praise and magnifie the mercy of the Lord, for that interest which they shall have in this worke of redemption; let therefore the wildest Arabians sing and celebrate this great goodnesse of God our Saviour.
14 I have long time holden my peace, I have been still and refrained my selfe: now will I cry like a travailing woman, I will destroy and devoure at once.I have long time refrained my selfe from a revenge of mine enemies, and delivering of my Church; now I can forbeare no longer, but will suddenly expresse my love to the one, and my vengeance on the other; even as a woman, who hath long bitten in her paine, yet when the last throwes of her child-birth come upon her, cannot forbeare to cry out.
19 Who is blinde, but my servant? or deafe, as my messenger that I sent? who is blinde as he that is perfect, & blinde as the Lords servant?However the rest of the world may pretend for their ignorance, and blindnesse, yet my chosen people, who have had such meanes of knowledge from mee, might well put me into expectation of great skill in, and conscionable care of my commandements, and now behold (to their shame be it spoken) who is so blinde as their wilfulnesse hath made them? yea, not the ordinary sort of them only, but even my messengers and prophets, who have challenged much perfection to themselves, they have hood-winkt themselves from beholding the certaine truth of my judgements.
21 The Lord is well pleased for his righteousnesse sake, he will magnifie the law and make it honourable.The Lord is well pleased, for his gracious promise sake, to make good all that ever he hath undertaken, concerning his people, and to glorifie himselfe in the fulfilling of his word.
22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled, they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses, they are for a prey, & none delivereth, for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.But this people make themselves unworthy, and uncapable of the great mercies of God, and will needs bee guilty of those great miseries, and calamities that are comming upon them; for they shall be robbed, and spoiled, and fettered in dungeons, and be exposed to an utter vastation.
CAP. XLIII.
1 I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.I Have taken speciall notice of thee, above all other nations; and have entred into termes of more neare and deare respects unto thee.
3 I gave Aegypt for thy ransome, Aethiopia and Seba for thee.When Senacherib did so furiously besiege thee, I fetcht him off, and diverted his warres to Aegypt, and Aethiopia, and so made them to be thy ransome, and rescue.
So also verse 4.
5 Feare not, for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather thee from the West.I will bring all the true seed of Israel out of their spirituall captivity, from all the corners of the world, even from the East, and West.
As also from the North and South;6 I will say to the North, Give up, and to the South, Keep not back, bring my sonnes from farre, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. so as all that belong to mine election shall in Christ be gathered unto mee.
So also verse 7.
Bring forth those people that were once blinde,8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deafe that have eares. but now I have given them eyes, and those who were once deafe, but now I have given them eares.
It is for your sakes,14 For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought downe all their Nobles, and the Caldeans, whose cry is in the ships. (to contrive the returne of you my people from your captivity) that I wil send Cyrus against Babylon, where you are detained, and will give him victory against those Princes and Nobles of the Chaldeans, whom ye are subject unto, who shall be glad to make use of their ships for their flight and escape.
As I will addresse,19 I will make a way in the wildernesse, and rivers in the desert. and accommodate all things for the returne of my people, from their captivity, (so as no convenience shall be wanting thereunto) so also, will I give all gracious helps to all my chosen ones from the utmost coasts of heaven, for their conversion to my true Church.
Those that are the most bestiall and savage among all the people of the world,20 The beast of the field shall honour mee, the dragons and the owles, because I give waters in the wildernesse, and rivers in the desert. shall wonder at the great favors which I shew to my people, and shall give glory unto me both of power, and mercy.
Those oblations, which thou hast formally made unto mee, have not beene such, as I cared to receive from thee;23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings, neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices, I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. I have not been beholden to thee for a true devout consecration of thy selfe, and thy services unto me, all these have been only outward, and fashionable.
So also verse 24.
Thou hast cast heavie and intolerable burdens upon mee by thy sinnes;24 For thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. as if my mercy served for nothing but to humour thy wickednesse; yea thou hast pressed me so farre, as that I am now weary of induring thy provocations.
If thou hast any thing to say for thy selfe;26 Put mee in remembrance, let us plead together, declare thou, that thou maist be justified. speak it out freely, I give thee full scope to plead thy owne cause with me; and, if thou canst, doe thou either justifie, or excuse thy selfe.
Therefore I have determined to disregard,28 Therefore I have prophaned the Princes of the sanctuary, and have given Iacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches. and expose to contempt the chiefe Priests and rulers of my sanctuary and to give up Jacob to destruction, and Israel to the reproach of all nations.
CAP. XLIV.
6 I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.I Am the onelyonly true, eternall God; without all possibility of alteration; and therefore will be ever approved most constant to my owne decrees, and purposes.
7 And who as I, shall call and shall declare it and set it in order for me?Since I decreed, before ever any of your Idol-gods were extant in the world, to select a people to my selfe frō the rest of the earth, which of your false gods could, or can order their vocation, and government as I have done, &c.
12 Yea hee is hungry and his strength faileth, he drinketh no water, and is faint.Weake, and foolish man will bee making a god to himselfe; and findes himselfe hungry, and thirsty, and faint, with the very worke, whiles hee makes it, yet so eager is he in that businesse, as that he forbeares his own necessary sustenance in his zeale to finish it.
18 They have not knowne nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand.God hath in his just judgement, given them up to a strange besottednesse, and hath suffered their idoll to bereave them of their wits, and senses, so as, though they have both hearts and eyes, yet they neither see, nor understand.
20 He feedeth of ashes, a deceived hart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his house, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?That which should be his comfort, is his affliction and misery; he trusteth to his idol, and that shall no more helpe him, then ashes can feed and nourish him; he hath given way to these idolatrous fopperies; and now they have utterly infatuated him; so as he hath not the grace to bethinke himselfe of his fond and wicked courses.
28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepheard, and shall performe all my pleasure, even saying to Ierusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.That saith of Cyrus, (that Persian Monarch, who shall after many yeares be borne) hee is the man that shall favour, and restore my people, and performe my pleasure concerning their returne from the Babylonish captivity: who shall also give order for the reedifying of the walls of Jerusalem, and the Temple.
CAP. XLV.
1 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him: and I will loose the loynes of Kings to open before him the two leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut.THus saith the Lord, concerning Cyrus, who is yet unborne, whō I have ordained to be the King of Persia; whom I have decreed to prosper in all his designes, and to make him victorious over all nations, and to subdue mighty Kings, so as they shall be glad to open unto him their most defenced cities.
3 And I will give thee the treasures of darknesse, & hidden riches of secret places.I will give thee those treasures, which have beene long laid up in the secret store-houses of Kings, &c.
5 I girded thee, though thou hast not knowne me.I have girded thee with honor, and power, though thou hast not considered whence these favours have comne, neither hast thou, O Cyrus, so well knowne me, as to abdicate thine Idolatry, and to worship me aright.
Let all my creatures (saith the Lord) conspire together to the furtherance of the restored happinesse of my people; let the heavens, and the clouds,8 Drop downe, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies poure downe righteousnesse: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousnsse spring up together: I the Lord have created it. and the earth contribute all the blessings (which are committed unto them) to their inlargement, and prosperitie; and convey unto them the just performance of all the mercifull promises they have had from me.
Shall the worke rise up, and controll the workman, and say; He hath no skill?9 Or thy worke, hee hath no hands?
I who am the faithfull Gardian of my Church have raised up Cyrus, who in future times shall come,13 I have raised him up in righteousnesse, and I will direct all his wayes, he shall build my citie, and he shall let goe my Captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts. and prosper in his great enterprises; and he shall build up the walls of Jerusalem; and shall send back the captive Jewes into their country, not being hired thereto by any price, or reward, but by my immediate instigation.
See Ezra. 1.
The Aegyptians, and the Ethiopians,24 Thus saith the Lord, The Labour of Aegypt, and Merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of stature shall come over unto thee, and they shall bee thine, they shall come after thee, in chaines they shall come over, &c. and Sabeans shall be tributary to Cyrus; and the benefit of their labour and merchandise shall by him bee improved to the building of Jerusalem; so as the great enemies of Gods Church shall voluntarily submit themselves thereunto; and shall acknowledge that Gods presence is in her, and his power for her.
All this shall be done for thy people; but, in the meane time they shall have need of patience;15 Verely thou art a God that hidest thy selfe, O God of Israel the Saviour. for thou wilt for a long while seeme to hide thy face from them, O thou God and Saviour of Israel, and wilt give them up into grievous affliction.
CAP. XLVI.
THe great idols of the Chaldees,1 Bell boweth downe, Nebo stoupeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattell: your carriages were heavie loden, they are a burden to the weary beast. in whom they so vainly trusted, shall now be pulled downe, and carried away in carts, as the spoiles of the Persian Conquerour, the beasts shall drag them away, and complaine of their weight.
Remember this, and shew your selves to be not more brutish then beasts,8 Remember this; and shew your selves men: bring it againe to minde, O ye transgressours. to worship those things which your selves have made; but men, indued with reason, which alone is able to teach you to abhorre this grosse idolatry, &c.
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsell shal stand, and I will do all my pleasure.Who from the beginning of times, and ever since, have still foretold you what would come to passe, both till this present, and in the times yet to come; which I have so infallibly performed, that you may hereby well know the immutable certainty of all my decrees.
11 Calling a ravenous bird from the East, the man that executeth my Counsell from a farre countrey.Calling Cyrus from the East to execute my decree, who shall come swiftly upon the wings of speed, to doe what I have determined, and shall devour the Kingdomes of the earth, before him, &c.
13 I bring neere my righteousnesse: it shall not be farre off, and my salvation shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.Howsoever ye have deserved to set me off from you, yet will I not suffer your incredulity to frustrate those gracious promises, which I have made for the deliverance of my people; but will, in my just time, performe them, and will bring salvation unto Zion, and there settle it, for the happinesse of my people Israel.
CAP. XLVII.
1 Come downe and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Caldeās: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.O Thou glorious citie of Babylon, which bragst of thine impregnablenesse, and might; come downe (for so thou shalt) and sit in the dust, for thither shalt thou be humbled; thou shalt no more rule over nations, but shalt be subject to anothers power; neither shal there be any more place for thy wanton delicacy, but thou shalt bee harshly and roughly intreated of thy Conquerour.
2 Take the milstones and grind meale, uncover thy lockes: make bare the legge: uncover the thigh, passe over the rivers.Make account to undergoe the cruellest bondage; wherein thou shalt be put to grinde in mills, & be whipt to all servile and base workes; and your coy dames, and proud wantons shall go now carelesly with their lockes uncovered, and neglected; and shall be forced to walke barefooted to their captivitie, through the stony wayes, and unknowne rivers.
3 I will take vengeance, and I will not meete thee as a man.I will not deale with thee in any gentle or moderate manner, but in all extremity; the revenge of men may be prevented, or mitigated, mine shall not.
CAP. XLVIII.
7 They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardest thē not, lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.THey, even those hidden things are inexpectedly brought about, and were not revealed to thee before hand; lest thou shouldest say; I foreknew them well enough.
8 And wast called a transgressour, from the wombe.Thou wast a stubborne and rebellious people, even from my first dealings with thee; ever since I sequestred thee for my peculiar.
I have taken courses with thee for thine amendment,10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver: I have chosen thee in the fornace of affliction. not for thy destruction; I have tryed thee with the fire of affliction, but not with so extreame a fire, as wherewith silver is tryed, that would have burnt thee up, and not have refined thee; I have testified my choice and allowance of thee upon this fiery try all.
I will free you, O my people; behold,20 Goe ye forth of Babylon, flee yee from the Caldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth. ye shall goe forth of Babylon; yee shall be rescued from the hand of the Chaldees; goe ye therefore from thence with triumph and exultation; and proclaime the great goodnesse of your God to all the world, &c.