Page images
PDF
EPUB

East I have scattered the people of two provinces, even of Tyrus and Sidon, and have slain all their enemies.

9 Speak thou therefore unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord,

10 I led you through the sea, and in the beginning gave you a large and safe passage; I gave you Moses for a leader, and Aaron for a priest.

11 I gave you light in a pillar of fire, and great wonders have I done among you; yet have ye forgotten me, saith the Lord.

12 Thus saith the Almighty Lord, The quails were as a token to you; I gave you tents for your safeguard : nevertheless ye murmured there,

13 And triumphed not in my name for the destruction of your enemies, but ever to this day do ye yet murmur.

14 Where are the benefits that I have done for you? when ye were hungry and thirsty in the wilderness, did ye not cry

[blocks in formation]

fruitful land, I cast out the Canaanites, the Pherezites, and the Philistines, before you : what shall I yet do more for you? saith the Lord.

19 Thus saith the Almighty Lord, When ye were in the wilderness, in the river of the Amorites, being athirst, and blaspheming my name,

20 I gave you not fire for your blasphemies, but cast a tree in the water, and made the river sweet.

21 What shall I do unto thee, O Jacob? thou, Judah, wouldest not obey me: I will turn me to other nations, and unto those will I give my name, that they may keep my sta

tutes.

22 Seeing ye have forsaken me, I will forsake you also; when ye desire me to be gracious unto you, I shall have no mercy upon you.

23 Whensoever ye shall call upon me, I will not hear you : for ye have defiled your hands with blood, and your feet are swift to commit manslaughter.

24 Ye have not, as it were, forsaken me, but your own selves, saith the Lord.

LESSON XLV.

THUS saith the Almighty Lord, Have I not prayed you as a father his sons, as a mother her daughters, and a nurse her babes,

2 That ye would be my people, and I should be your God; that ye would be my children, and I should be your father?

3 I gathered you together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings: but now what shall I do unto you? I will cast you out from my face.

4 When ye offer unto me, I will turn my face from you: for your solemn feast days, your new moons, and your circumcisions, have I forsaken.

5 I sent unto you my servants the prophets, whom ye have taken and slain, and torn their bodies in pieces, whose blood I will require of your hands, saith the Lord.

6 Thus saith the Almighty Lord, Your house is desolate, I will cast you out as the wind doth stubble.

7 And your children shall not be fruitful; for they have despised my commandment, and done the thing that is evil before me.

¶8 Your houses will I give to a people that shall come; which not having heard of me, yet shall believe me; to whom I have shewed no signs, yet they shall do that I have commanded them.

9 They have seen no prophets, yet they shall call their sins to remembrance, and acknowledge them.

10 I take to witness the grace of the people to come, whose little ones rejoice in gladness; and though they have not seen me with their bodily eyes, yet in spirit they believe the thing that I say.

11 Thus saith the Lord, I brought this people out of bondage, and I gave them my

commandments by my servants the prophets; whom they would not hear, but despised my counsels.

12 The mother that bare them saith unto them, Go your way, ye children; for I am a widow and forsaken :

13 I brought you up with gladness; but with sorrow and heaviness have I lost you for ye have sinned before the Lord your God, and done that thing that is evil before him.

14 But what shall I now do unto you? I am a widow and forsaken: go your way, O my children, and ask mercy of the Lord.

LESSON XLVI.

To the Lord our God belongeth righteousness, but unto us confusion of face, as it is come to pass this day, unto them of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

2 And to our kings, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers:

3 For we have sinned before the Lord,

4 And disobeyed him, and have not hearkened unto the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the commandments that he gave us openly:

5 Since the day that the Lord brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, unto this present day, we have been disobedient unto the Lord our God, and we have been negligent in not hearing his voice.

6 Wherefore the evils cleaved unto us, and the curse, which the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land that floweth with milk and honey, like as it is to see this day.

7 Nevertheless we have not hearkened unto the voice of the Lord our God, according unto all the words of the prophets, whom he sent unto us.

8 But every man followed the imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods, and to do evil in the sight of the Lord our God.

9 Therefore the Lord hath made good his word, which he pronounced against us, and against our judges that judged Israel, and against our kings, and against our princes, and against the men of Israel and Judah,

10 To bring upon us great plagues, such as never happened under the whole heaven, as it came to pass in Jerusalem, according to the things that were written in the law of Moses;

11 That a man should eat the flesh of his own son, and the flesh of his own daughter.

12 Moreover he hath delivered them to be in subjection to all the kingdoms that are round about us, to be as a reproach and desolation among all the people round about, where the Lord hath scattered them.

13 Thus we were cast down, and not exalted, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, and have not been obedient unto his voice.

14 To the Lord our God appertaineth righteousness: but unto us and to our fathers open shame, as appeareth this day.

15 For all these plagues are come upon us, which the Lord hath pronounced against us.

16 Yet have we not prayed before the Lord, that we might turn every one from the imaginations of his wicked heart.

17 Wherefore the Lord watched over us for evil, and the Lord hath brought it upon us

for the Lord is righteous in all his works which he hath commanded us.

18 Yet we have not hearkened unto his voice, to walk in the commandments of the Lord, that he hath set before us.

19 And now, O Lord God of Israel, that hast brought thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and high arm, and with signs, and with wonders, and with great power, and hast gotten thyself a name, as appeareth this day:

20 O Lord our God, we have sinned, we have done ungodly, we have dealt unrighteously in all thine ordinances.

21 Let thy wrath turn from us: for we are but a few left among the heathen, where thou hast scattered us.

22 Hear our prayers, O Lord, and our petitions, and deliver us for thine own sake, and give us

favour in the sight of them which have led us away:

23 That all the earth may

know that thou art the Lord our God, because Israel and his posterity is called by thy name.

SECTION XIX.-Promises to Israel.

LESSON XLVII.

THIS is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that keep it shall come to life; but such as leave it shall die.

2 Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk in the presence of the light thereof, that thou mayest be illuminated.

3 Give not thine honour to another, nor the things that are profitable unto thee to a strange nation.

4 O Israel, happy are we : for things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us.

5 Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel.

6 Ye were sold to the nations, not for your destruction : but because ye moved God to wrath, ye were delivered unto the enemies.

7 Ye have forgotten the everlasting God, that brought you up; and ye have grieved Jerusalem, that nursed you.

8 For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she said, Hearken, O ye that dwell about Sion: hath brought upon me mourning;

9 For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.

10 With joy did I nourish them; but sent them away with weeping and mourning.

11 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many, who for the sins of my children am left desolate; because they departed from the law of God.

12 They knew not his statutes, nor walked in the ways of his commandments, nor trod in the paths of discipline in his righteousness.

13 Let them that dwell about Sion come; and remember ye the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them.

14 For he hath brought a nation upon them from far, a shameless nation, and of a strange language, who neither reverenced old man, nor pitied child.

15 These have carried away the dear-beloved children of the widow, and left her that was alone, desolate without daughters.

16 But what can I help

you?

God

great

17 For he that brought these plagues upon you will deliver

you from the hands of your enemies.

18 Go your way, O my children, go your way, for I am left desolate.

19 I have put off the clothing of peace, and put upon me the sackcloth of my prayer: I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days.

20 Be of good cheer, O my children; cry unto the Lord, and he shall deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies.

21 For my hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you; and joy is come unto me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall soon come unto you from the Everlasting, our saviour.

22 For I sent you out with mourning and weeping: but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness for ever.

23 Like as now the neighbours of Sion have seen your captivity; so shall they see shortly your salvation from our God, which shall come upon you with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting.

24 My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God: for thine enemy hath persecuted thee; but shortly thou shalt see his destruction, and shalt tread upon his neck.

25 My delicate ones have gone rough ways, and were taken away as a flock caught of the enemies.

26 Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry unto God:

for ye shall be remembered of him that brought these things

upon you.

27 For as it was your mind to go astray from God; so, being returned, seek him ten times

more.

28 For he that hath brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation.

29 Take a good heart, O Jerusalem: for he that gave thee that name will comfort thee.

30 Miserable are they that afflicted thee and rejoiced at thy fall.

31 Miserable are the cities which thy children served: miserable is she that received thy

sons.

32 For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall; so shall she be grieved for her own desolation.

33 For I will take away the rejoicing of her great multitude, and her pride shall be turned into mourning.

34 O Jerusalem, look about thee toward the east, and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God.

35 Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.

36 Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of thy mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from God for ever.

37 Cast about thee a double garment of the righteousness

« PreviousContinue »