XIV. 30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.

And those miserably distressed Jews, the heirs of beggary and sorrow, shall be relieved, and dwell quietly; and for thee, O Palestine, I will kill the remainder of thee with famine, and the sword of the enemy.

XIV. 31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

O ye defenced cities and walled towns of Palestine, howl and lament; and thou whole country mourn, for thou art utterly wasted: there shall come from the north armies of Assyrians and Jews, which shall begin with a smoke, but end in a fire; they shall come banded together, and no man shall be left at home, alone, in that day of thy intended destruction.

XIV. 32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nations? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

What reason then shall be given to the world, when people shall be inquiring into the cause of this desolation of Palestine? even this; that the Lord hath had a gracious respect unto Zion; and that he would have his poor despised people, to find a sure refuge there, through his mighty protection, from the fury of their ene

mies.

XV. 1 The burdens of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;

The heavy tidings, which God sends by his prophet to Moab: Because the two great cities of Moab, Ar and Kir, are suddenly and unexpectedly surprised and sacked;

XV. 2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.

Therefore the foolish Moabites are gone up to their high places, to weep and complain to their idol Chemosh: they make moan for their other cities also, both those in the heart and in the skirts of the land; and they testify their mourning, by shaving of their heads and beards.

XV. 4 And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall· be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.

Their two other famous cities, of Heshbon and Elealeh, shall shriek and howl so loud, that their noise shall be heard to the utmost confines of the land: even the men of war, which should by their courage cheer up others, shall, in a despair of success, cry and lament; and their life shall be but a grief and burden to them, for that they are in a sad expectation of death.

XV. 5 My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee

unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.

My heart tells me that Moab shall cry out to his cowardly fugitives, which run away to the utmost borders of Judah, even as a young heifer of three years old belloweth after her fellows; for they shall follow them, over hills and dales, from one side of the country unto another, and shall raise a woeful hubbub after them. XV. 6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing. And the waters, that flow through the plains of Moab and the vale of Nimra, shall be utterly dried up: the grass shall fail, the hay shall be parched up; and there shall be no shew of ought, but drought and barrenness.

XV. 8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto BeerElim.

The fearful cries and howlings of the Moabites are universal: no place is free; they fill the whole land, and all the obscurest corners thereof.

XV. 9 For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

For the river of Dimon, which runs through Moab, shall, according to the name of it, be bloody with the slaughter of his people: and yet I have a further judgment in store, beyond this stain of Dimon; for the man, that escapeth from the sword of the enemy, in that valley will I give up to be a prey to the wild beasts, the lions shall devour him.

XVI. 1 Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. Yet, Moab, if at last, thou shalt relent, there may be a possibility of life and recovery; which if thou desire to hearken unto, send then, first, according to thy old promise and engagement, that tribute of lambs, which thou oughtest to have paid to the king of Judah: send it humbly unto him, even all of you from the utmost bounds of Edom, to mount Zion, where his court resideth. XVI. 2 For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon. Else, be sure ye shall be like a wandering bird, whose nest is pulled down; disappointed of your habitations; so as the daughters of Moab, though near to you in blood, shall be glad to seek their lodging in foreign parts.

XVI. 3 Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noon day; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.

Go to then, bethink thyself of better courses: do right to all men: be thou harborous and kind to thy brethren of Israel; yielding them as cool a shadow, in the midst of the heat of the day, as if

it were midnight: give shelter and entertainment to their chased and distressed exiles, and bewray not him, that, in his wandering, seeks to thee for succour.

XVI. 4 The spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

For God hath put an end to the calamities of his people; there shall be no more spoil, no more oppression of their cruel enemies to waste them.

XVI. 5 And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David.

And in great mercy to his Church, shall the throne of the Messiah be established; and he shall sit upon it, as a most just governor of his people; even in the place of his type and ancestor David. XVI. 6 But his lies shall not be so.

But his lying and vain boasting shall deceive him; neither shall they come to any effect.

XVI. 7 Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken.

Therefore, one city of Moab shall condole with another, and all shall howl together, for the razing down of the prime city, Kirbareseth for the razing, even of the very foundations thereof, shall ye mourn in vain: not one of the inhabitants shall escape; surely they shall be all destroyed.

XVI. 8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, &c.

Yea, not only the chief cities, but the whole region shall be laid waste: the fruitful fields and vineyards of Heshbon and Sibmah, which were famous for their excellent grapes, shall be spoiled by the lords of the heathen; which shall not rest in the vastation of some parts of the land, but shall run over all, even to Jazer, which is in the utmost confines, &c.

XVI. 9 Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen.

Therefore, shall the Moabite say, I will, with a general lamentation, such as shall be heard from the uttermost skirts of the land, bewail the desolation of the excellent vineyards of Sibmah; &c. for the joy and acclamations, that were wont to be at the gathering of thy summer fruits, and for thy plentiful harvest, is now at an end, and shall be heard no more.

XVI. 11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.

Wherefore, my bowels shall in their yearning, through the ve hemence of my passion, make a loud noise; and mine inward parts shall be moved for the chief city of Moab, to see the woeful desolation thereof.

VOL. III.

XVI. 12 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.

It shall come to pass, that Moab, finding no relief in the petty idols of his high places, shall come to his chief sanctuary, to implore the aid of Chemosh, his god; but he shall not prevail.

XVI. 14 Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned.

Within three years, which shall be as precisely set and observed as the hireling uses to keep account of the time agreed upon for his service, all the glory of Moab shall be dashed, &c.

XVII. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The cities of Aroer, in the region of Syria, shall be forsaken and turned desolate: nothing shall be seen there but cots for shepherds, and their flocks, which shall feed in those solitary plains, without fear.

XVII. 3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.

And since Israel and Syria will be joining together against Judah, I will be avenged on them both: Ephraim, which is the prime tribe of Israel, shall lose his strength; and Damascus, the prime city of Syria, shall lose his kingdom; and so shall all Syria: it shall speed like to Israel, which it hath enticed to join in this unjust war.

XVII. 5 And it shall be as when the harvest-man gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

And it shall be, as when the harvest-man gathereth close within his arm all those stalks of corn, which he can reach, that he may cut them off together; so shall the enemy deal with Israel: he shall cut them off, at once; even as a labourer's sickle cuts the ears of corn, in the fruitful valley of Rephaim, where they stand thickest together.

XVII. 6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.

Yet, as in a field, after the most careful harvest-man, there will be some gleanings left; and some grapes, after the gathering of the vintage, may be hid under the leaves; and some olives left upon the out-boughs, after the tree is most shaken; so shall it be here with Israel: some few of them shall yet be reserved, after the common destruction.

XVII. 7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker.

And this correction shall have so prevailed, that now the remaining Israelites shall look up to their Maker.

XVII. 9 In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough,

and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.

In that day shall the strong cities of the ten tribes be left unpeopled and waste; even as a bough, whose olives are shaken off; whose branch yet shall be left still, for the sake of those Israelites, which I will reserve.

XVII. 11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

Thou mayest bestow thy best husbandry upon thy plants and upon thy seed, and expect a plentiful increase; but when it shall come to the harvest, thy hopes shall be utterly disappointed; and thou shalt find nothing, but cause of sorrow and humiliation.

XVII. 12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas.

Woe be to that great and numerous army of the Assyrians and Ethiopians, which come up against Jerusalem, whose noise is loud and hideous, like the noise of the sea.

XVII. 13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters. The several nations, which shall be confederate against Judah, shall rush like the gushing of many waters.

XVII. 14 And behold at eveningtide trouble: and before the morning he is not.

Behold, in the evening, there is horror, and confusion, in the host, through the slaughter made by the angel of God; and in the morning, there is not one left of a hundred fourscore and five thousand

men.

XVIII. 1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

Woe to the land of Ethiopia; and that part especially, which is comprehended in Egypt, and the maritime coast; whose frequent shipping doth shadow, as it were, other nations with her sails:

XVIII. 2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the water, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto ; &c.

That sendeth ambassadors by sea, in vessels fit for that purpose, artificially framed of bulrushes, to avoid the danger of that rocky passage; to call together united nations from remote parts, to come up against that miserable and spoiled people of the Jews; whose land is overrun and overspread with an inundation of enemies.

XVIII. 3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

Let all the inhabitants of the world, every where, take notice of the Lord's revenge, which he will take of the enemies of his people; when he therefore lifts up his ensign on high, and bloweth