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the heathen, and there will I argue this case with you; laving before you those offences, wherewith you have justly provoked

me.

XX. 37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

I will cause you to pass under the rod, both of my correction and my guidance; and will recal you to the memory and recognition of that bond of mutual covenant, which hath been made betwixtus. XX. 39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols.

As for you, Ŏ ye house of Israel, thus saith the Lord; I will have none of your half-services: never hope to divide betwixt me and your idols; since ye will not be wholly mine, go ye, serve ye every one his idols.

XX. 40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and &c.

But for you, that are the true spiritual seed of faithful Israel, ye shall all serve me in my holy Church; and I will both expect and graciously accept of those services and devotions, which ye shall offer unto me. So also verse 41 and 42.

XX. 46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;

Son of man, turn thy face toward Jerusalem, which lieth southward from the land where thou art, and utter thy words towards that coast; and prophesy against the sinful land of Israel, which hath been as some wild forest in those southern parts;

XX. 47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: &c.

And say to the land of Israel, Hear the word of the Lord, &c. I will bring a grievous destruction upon thee, by the band of thy merciless enemies, which, like a furious and unquenchable fire, shall utterly consume thee. So verse 48.

XX. 49 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?

Then said I, Ah Lord God, this perverse people are apt to take exceptions against me; and now they quarrel me for the obscu-rity of my prophecies, and say, This man speaks riddles and parables: we know not what he means.

XXI. 2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem.

Lo then, without all parables, I say unto thee plainly, O thou son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem.

XXI. 4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.

I will make no spare at all; but will sweep away every living man in the common destruction, even the righteous and the wicked:

the righteous will I remove to their advantage and glory; the wicked, to their utter confusion.

XXI. 5 That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more. That all flesh may know it is my judgment, that is thus severely and unpartially executed upon Israel.

XXI. 6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

Sigh thou therefore, O thou son of man, sigh so deeply and strongly, as to break thy girdle from thy loins; and, by this sighing of thine, intimate unto them that great sorrow, which is com

ing upon them.

XXI. 10 It contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree. This sharp sword is not for correction, or for the pruning of superfluities, which I am wont to practise upon my beloved children; but for an utter excision, both of stock and branches; and will leave no way, either for the amendment or for the being of any in Israel.

XXI. 13 Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.

Because it shall be a fiery trial indeed; and what if this sword scorn to rest in an affliction only of my people, but shall at once cut them off that they shall be no more? surely thus it shall do, saith the Lord God.

XXI. 17 I will cause my fury to rest. See chap. xvi. verse 42. XXI. 19, 20 Also, theu son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come both twain shall come forth out of one land and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city. Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced. Describe thou in a table a draught of two ways, by which the sword of the king of Babylon may come let the ways run on together, as coming from one place; and then, when they come to the parting of them, Let one way lead to Rabbath the city of the Ammonites, and another to Jerusalem the chief and defenced city of Judah.

XXI. 21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination..

For the king of Babylon shall stand at the parting of two ways; and, being in a doubt whether way to take, shall use divinations for his direction.

XXI. 22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, &c.

The sorcerers and soothsayers shall agree upon his assaulting of Jerusalem; and shall thereupon give him advice, to prepare for that siege, to attempt the sacking and destruction thereof with all courage and violence.

XXI. 23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remem brance the iniquity, that they may be taken.

But this prophecy of thine shall seem to them as a false prediction; even to them, which have dared to swear the certainty of the contrary success: but this great enemy will reckon with them, for all their former iniquity, and they shall be surprised with judgment.

XXI. 25, 26 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. And thou, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, Zedekiah, whose time of just punishment is now come, wherein thine iniquity shall be called to a full account and dispatch, Thus saith the Lord; Take away the kingdom from that treacherous prince: he shall not rule any more: let Jechoniah, who is now unre garded, be exalted; and let Zedekiah, who is now advanced, be brought low.

XXI. 27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. I will utterly overturn, for ever, this kingdom of Judah and Is rael; and it shall never be erected any more, until the Messiah come whose right it is; and to him will I spiritually give it.

XXI. 28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; &c.

Thus saith the Lord concerning the Ammonites, and that their reproach which they have been ever apt to cast upon my people; even thus say, Even for you, O ye children of Ammon, is the sword also prepared.

XXI. 29 While they see vanity unto thee, while they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end. While thy wizards feed thee with false predictions, to stir thee up against those already miserable and distressed Israelites, against those wicked revolters from me, whose judgment is now to be / fully accomplished.

XXI. 30 Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will julge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity. Shall I cause that slaughter of thine to cease? No; I will inflict this vengeance upon thee, in thy very home, in the place where thou wert born and bred.

XXI. 31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath.

I will come against thee like a mighty and terrible tempest, in the fierce fury of my wrath.

XXII. 2 Wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? See chap. xx. verse 4.

XXII. 9 In thee they eat upon the mountains.

In the midst of thee, there are those, that offer idolatrous sacrifices to their false gods, in their high places.

XXII. 10 In thee have they discovered their father's nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution. Amongst thy people, there are those, who have committed filthiness with their own parents; and have lain with those women, which have been separated for their legal or natural uncleannesses.

XXII. 18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross : all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

Son of man, the house of Israel was to me as the most precious metal, but now it is shamefully degenerated into dross; and the best of them is either extremely imbased with their sins, or else become nothing but mere offal and corruption.

XXII. 19, 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

Behold therefore, saith the Lord, Because ye are thus depraved, I will deal with you accordingly: I will gather you all up, as into one furnace, which shall be Jerusalem; and there I will send thefire of my judgment upon you, and consume you.

and 22.

So verse 21,

XXII. 24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

Thou art a land notoriously unclean with thine abominable sins, and therefore shalt be seized upon by my judgments, without mitigation when my fire shall flame up to consume thee, there shall not be so much as a shower of rain to fall upon thee, for the quenching thereof.

XXII. 28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them.

Their prophets have soothed them up in their sins; and, in a base flattery, have spoken plausible tidings to them, no less false than pleasing.

XXII. 30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, &c.

I sought for some faithful and innocent man amongst them, that might stand up, and intercede with me for the removal or protraction of my judgments.

XXIII. 2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.

Son of man, Israel and Judah, which were in their original but one people, now, since their division, were and are two daughters of one and the same mother.

XXIII. 3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they com mitted whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

They began to learn and practise idolatries in the land of Egypt; even from their first entrance into the calling of my people: there and then were they corrupted, with the gross superstitions of the heathen.

XXIII. 4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

Both of these divided people had their names from a tent or ta bernacle Israel, or the ten tribes, which is the greater part, is Aholah, His Own Tabernacle; which she would needs erect, according to her own device, to draw away clients from my tem ple: Judah is Aholibah, My Tent, or Tabernacle, fixed in her; be cause of the place of my worship, settled there: and both of these have their denominations from the two chief cities in them; Samaria the chief city of Israel is Aholah, and Jerusalem the chief city of Judah is Aholibah

XXIII. 5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doated on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours.

And Israel, which is Aholah, played the spiritual harlot, while she professed to be mine; and was miscarried into gross idolatry, by the Assyrians her neighbours.

XXIII. 6 Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. Which were rich and proudly set forth; men of great account, both for their wealth, and power, and valour.

XXIII. 8 Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.

Neither yet did she give over those superstitions, which she brought with her out of Egypt; for, in her first beginnings, they cor rupted her with their idolatrous services, and infected her with their abominations.

XXIII. 10 She became famous among women.

And she became a noted and remarkable example of God's judg ments amongst the nations.

XXIII. 11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.

And when Judah and Jerusalem saw this, instead of being warned by her sister Israel, she drew her wicked practices into example, and became more lewd and idolatrous than she.

XXIII. 12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding &c.

She also fell into a sinful league with the Assyrians, and into love of their idolatries; being besotted with the admiration of their wealth, and power, and bravery.

XXIII. 14, 15, 16 For when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

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