Paraphrase of the Hard Texts of Scripture, Scripture 19 · Chapter 8 – Chapter 9
CAP. VIII.
1 Take thee a great roule, and write in it with mans penne, concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.TAke thee a large roule, and write therein with large text letters, that word of threatned judgement, which thou shalt take for the name of thy sonne; even, Maher-shalal-hash-baz; those foure words compounded in one shall be enough to fill thy scrole, & the hearts of the people, with an expectation of the destruction menaced.
And I took unto me faithfull witnesses,2 And I tooke unto me faithfull witnesses to record, Vriah the priest. both of this act that I did, in fastening this roll upon the doores of the Temple, and of the name given to my said sonne, in his circumcision; even Uriah the priest, &c.
For I had conversed with my wife the prophetesse,3 And I went unto the prophetesse, and shee conceived and bare a son, then said the Lord to me, call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. and she had conceived, and borne a sonne; and the Lord had appointed me to call his name; Make speed to the spoile, hasten to the prey; in a signe, and denunciation of that judgement, which the Assyrians shall bring upon Jerusalem.
For, ere the child shall come to the age of speech,4 For before the Child shall have knowledge to cry, my father and my mother, the riches of Damascus, and the spoile of Samaria shall be taken away before the King of Assyria. and discretion, to distinguish his parents from strangers, the generall of the King of Assyria, shall spoile the countries of Israel, and Syria; whereof the chiefe cities are Damascus and Samaria.
For as much as this people have not rested themselves upon the gracious promises of Gods protection,6 For so much as this people refuseth the waters of Siloah that goe softly, & rejoyce in Rezin and Remaliahs sonne. but being dishartened with their owne paucity, and weaknesse, have sought to other helpes, and depended upon Rezin, and Pekah; the Kings of Syria and Israel.
The power of the King of Assyria shall spread it selfe over the whole land of Judah, to destroy it,8 And hee shall passe through Iudah, hee shall over-flow, and goe over, he shal reach even to the neck and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. even over that holy land, which is consecrated to thy name, O thou Saviour of thy Church, God, and man; which yet, because it so nearly pertaineth unto thee, shall at last finde the benefit of thy protection.
Goe to then, O ye enemies of Gods people; band your selves together; joyn your hearts and heads,9 Associate your selves (O ye people,) and ye shall be broken in peeces. and hands in one; yet yee shall in spight of all your power be crushed, and broken in pieces, &c.
For the Lord did not only speake to me,11 For the Lord spake thus to mee with a strong hand, and instructed mee that I should not walke in the way of this people, saying; but with his mighty hand guided, and directed me, that I should not yield my selfe to a conformity with the sins of this people, and give way to their infidelity, and obstinacy, saying;
Say ye not out of your distrust, let us make a confederacy with the Assyrians;12 Say ye not, A confederacie to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacie; neither feare ye their feare, nor be afraid. without whose aid we cannot stand against our enemies, neither be ye dejected with this cowardly feare of them, that rise up against you.
Give yee glory to God, in the confidence, and praise of his Almighty power, whereby he subdueth all things, Let your holy and awfull feare be only bent upon him,13 Sanctifie the Lord of hostes himselfe, and let him be your feare, and let him be your dread. who can deliver, or destroy you, at pleasure.
He shall be a rocke of sure defence to those that feare him, but a stone of stumbling,14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, & for a rocke of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin, and for a snare to the inhabitants of Ierusalem. and a rock of offence to those that distrust and disobey him, even of both the houses of Juda, and Ephraim, and for a snare to those, that are godlesse, and rebellious, even in Jerusalem it selfe.
Give full assurance to my people of the certainty of this prophesie,16 Binde up the Testimonie, Seale the law among my disciples. and seale it up as a law that shall not bee reversed.
17 And I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Iacob, and I will looke for him.For my part, however others entertaine these words of God, I will make account of their assured performance; and depend upon the good providence of that just God, who deservedly withdrawes his favour from the rebellious house of Jacob.
18 Behold I, and the Children whom the Lord hath givē me, are for signes & for wōders in Israel, frō the Lord of Hostes, which dwelleth in mount Zion.Behold, I, and those faithfull disciples, whom the Lord hath by my meanes converted unto him, are made a gazing stock, and wonderment to the children of Israel, and this is a judgement, that is justly comne upon them from the Lord of hosts, which hath, with so small effect, gratiously manifested himselfe in his Temple on mount Sion.
19 And when they shal say unto you, seeke unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards, that peep, and that mutter, should not a people seeke unto their God? for the living to the dead?What a madnesse is it in you not to cleave fast unto the Lord, your true and only God? For if the profane heathen shall thinke they have reason to perswade you to depend upon magicians, and wizards, that use divelish inchantments, is it not a shame that you should not finde cause to seeke, and cleave unto your only true God? should we be so foolish, as to seek in the case of the living to the dead?
20 To the Law, and to the Testimony; if they speake not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.No; farre be that from us; let us have recourse to the Law and to the Testimony; that is it, which God hath given us for our infallible direction, and if any man speak either without, or against this word, it is because he hath not the true light of grace, or understanding in him.
21 And they shall passe through it hardly bestead and hungry, and it shall come to passe, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their King, and their god, and looke upward.And whereas they hoped to have beene fixed in this good land for ever; they shall now only passe through it, as fugitives; being hardly bestead, and pinched with hunger; and then, they shall fret, and gall themselves with late, and vaine indignation, and shall curse their Idoll, and their King, whose confidence hath mis-led them; and when they are thus throughly distressed, they shall begin to look upward, to the hand of that God, by whom they are punished.
22 And they shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble and darknesse, dimnesse of anguish: and they shall be driven to darknes.Neither can they expect comfort any other way, for if they looke unto the earth, there is nothing but misery and affliction; yea even extremity of anguish; so as that sorrow and distresse whereunto they shall be plunged, shall drive them forceably to looke up to heaven for succour.
CAP. IX.
YEt, though this calamitie shall bee exceeding great,1 Neverthelesse the dimnesse shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Iordan in Galilee of the nations. yet it shal not be utterly so extreme and disconsolate, as that former, which the land of Israel shall indure, when Tiglath Pilezer, King of Assyria, shall have miserably afflicted it, and when it was conquered and wasted by Salmanasar; and those maritine parts thereof, which were beyond Jordan, bordering upon Tyre and Sidon, were utterly wasted.
There is a comfortable assurance of delivery in this miserable captivity; for, behold,2 The people that walked in darknesse, have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. the Messiah shal certainly come, and by his doctrine, and spirit shall inlighten those that sate in darknesse, and that abide in the shadow of death, beginning his blessed Gospell in those utmost skirts of Galilee.
When thou shalt thus gratiously visit thy people,3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee, according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoile. howsoever the nation shall not be greater then now it is, yet the joy of it shall be more; as now, contrarily, the people are more, but the joy is not more; then shall our rejoycing be great and unspeakable, such as is wont to be of the husbandman, when he fetcheth in a rich and seasonable harvest, or of a souldier when he divideth the spoile.
For thou shalt have delivered thy people from the slavish yoke of their tyrannicall oppressours,4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staffe of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressour, as in the day of Midian. and from all their cruell impositions, as thou didst deliver them from the oppression of the Midianites, in the time of the Judges.
Commonly every battle is with confused noyse,5 For every battle of the warriour is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fewell of fire. and fearefull effusion of blood, and wallowing therein; but here, the case was otherwise; God did fight from heaven for his people, and did, as it were, set a fire amongst his enemies, causing them to fall one upon another, and to consume themselves.
Neither is it for Gods people to rest in the temporall deliverance from their captivity,6 For unto us a Child is borne, unto us a Sonne is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, &c. but to erect their thoughts unto higher hopes, even the happy assurances of salvation, by the true Messias, who is to come into the world, For unto us that Child is borne, and unto us that Sonne of God is given; who shall take upon his shoulders the perpetuall government of his Church, &c.
Behold, we will gaine by our ruines;10 The brickes are fallen downe, but we will build with hewne stones. for in stead of the brickes which shall be beaten downe, we will build more sumptuously with free stone, &c.
11 Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and joyne his enemies together.Because Israel doth so fondly rely upon Rezin, the King of Syria, God shall set up enemies against that King, on whose strength they have presumed; and shall conjoyne their forces to his destruction.
12 The Syrians before, and the Philistims behind, and they shall devoure Israel with open mouth: for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.The Syrians from the East, and the Philistims from the West, shall set upon Israel, like to some ravenous beasts with open mouth; and yet God hath not utterly done with them; but hath still further judgements in store for them.
Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel, both the noblest and basest of the people; the strongest and the weakest,14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel, head and taile, branch and rush in one day. and most contemptible of that nation.
The prophet that teacheth lies, hee is the most vile and despicable of all the people.15 —and the Prophet that teacheth lies he is the taile.
Your wickednesse is that, which the fire of Gods wrath taketh hold of; that is it, which shall devoure both your tall cedars,18 For wickednesse burneth as the fire: it shall devoure the bryers and Thornes. and your low shrubs; and shall not leave, till the very bryers and thornes bee consumed, &c.
20 And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungrie, & he shall eate on the left hand and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eate every man the flesh of his owne armes.No Israelite shall spare his brother, but shall snatch on all hands, what he can get by extreme violence; and shall insatiably spoyle and devoure those, which are as his owne flesh.
Those tribes which are in the highest league of love conjoyned together, shall fall into deadly hostility one against the other;21 Manasseh Ephraim: and Ephraim Manasseh: and they together shall be against Iudah. Manasseh shall fall foule upon his brother Ephraim; and Ephraim upon Manasseh, and both shall joyne in the quarrell against Judah, &c.