THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL…

THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL

DANIEL, whose name signifies THE JUDGMENT OF GOD, was of the royal blood of the kings of Juda: and one of those that were first of all carried away into captivity. He was so renowned for wisdom and knowledge, that it became a proverb among the Babylonians, AS WISE AS DANIEL (Ezech. 28.3). And his holiness was so great from his very childhood, that at the time when he was as yet but a young man, he is joined by the SPIRIT of GOD with NOE and JOB, as three persons most eminent for virtue and sanctity, Ezech. 14. He is not commonly numbered by the Hebrews among THE PROPHETS: because he lived at court, and in high station in the world: but if we consider his many clear predictions of things to come, we shall find that no one better deserves the name and title of A PROPHET: which also has been given him by the SON of GOD himself, Matt. 24, Mark 13., Luke 21.

Daniel Chapter 1

Daniel and his companions are taken into the palace of the king of Babylon: they abstain from his meat and wine, and succeed better with pulse and water. Their excellence and wisdom.

1:1. In the third year of the reign of Joakim, king of Juda, Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem, and besieged it.

1:2. And the Lord delivered into his hands Joakim, the king of Juda, and part of the vessels of the house of God: and he carried them away into the land of Sennaar, to the house of his god, and the vessels he brought into the treasure house of his god.

His god.... Bel or Belus, the principal idol of the Chaldeans.

1:3. And the king spoke to Asphenez, the master of the eunuchs, that he should bring in some of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes,

1:4. Children in whom there was no blemish, well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, acute in knowledge, and instructed in science, and such as might stand in the king’s palace, that he might teach them the learning, and tongue of the Chaldeans.

1:5. And the king appointed them a daily provision, of his own meat, and of the wine of which he drank himself, that being nourished three years, afterwards they might stand before the king.

1:6. Now there were among them of the children of Juda, Daniel, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias.

1:7. And the master of the eunuchs gave them names: to Daniel, Baltassar: to Ananias, Sidrach: to Misael, Misach: and to Azarias, Abdenago.

1:8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not be defiled with the king’s table, nor with the wine which he drank: and he requested the master of the eunuchs that he might not be defiled.

Be defiled, etc.... Viz., either by eating meat forbidden by the law, or which had before been offered to idols.

1:9. And God gave to Daniel grace and mercy in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs.

1:10. And the prince of the eunuchs said to Daniel: I fear my lord, the king, who hath appointed you meat and drink: who if he should see your faces leaner than those of the other youths, your equals, you shall endanger my head to the king.

1:11. And Daniel said to Malasar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias:

1:12. Try, I beseech thee, thy servants for ten days, and let pulse be given us to eat, and water to drink:

Pulse.... That is, pease, beans, and such like.

1:13. And look upon our faces, and the faces of the children that eat of the king’s meat: and as thou shalt see, deal with thy servants.

1:14. And when he had heard these words, he tried them for ten days.

1:15. And after ten days, their faces appeared fairer and fatter than all the children that ate of the king’s meat.

1:16. So Malasar took their portions, and the wine that they should drink: and he gave them pulse.

1:17. And to these children God gave knowledge, and understanding in every book, and wisdom: but to Daniel the understanding also of all visions and dreams.

1:18. And when the days were ended, after which the king had ordered they should be brought in: the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nabuchodonosor.

1:19. And when the king had spoken to them, there were not found among them all such as Daniel, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias: and they stood in the king’s presence.

1:20. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the diviners, and wise men, that were in all his kingdom.

1:21. And Daniel continued even to the first year of king Cyrus.

Daniel Chapter 2

Daniel, by divine revelation, declares the dream of Nabuchodonosor, and the interpretation of it. He is highly honoured by the king.

2:1. In the second year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, Nabuchodonosor had a dream, and his spirit was terrified, and his dream went out of his mind.

The second year.... Viz., from the death of his father Nabopolassar; for he had reigned before as partner with his father in the empire.

2:2. Then the king commanded to call together the diviners and the wise men, and the magicians, and the Chaldeans: to declare to the king his dreams: so they came and stood before the king.

The Chaldeeans.... That is, the astrologers, that pretended to divine by stars.

2:3. And the king said to them: I saw a dream: and being troubled in mind I know not what I saw.

2:4. And the Chaldeans answered the king in Syriac: O king, live for ever: tell to thy servants thy dream, and we will declare the interpretation thereof.

2:5. And the king, answering, said to the Chaldeans: The thing is gone out of my mind: unless you tell me the dream, and the meaning thereof, you shall be put to death, and your houses shall be confiscated.

2:6. but if you tell the dream, and the meaning of it, you shall receive of me rewards, and gifts, and great honour: therefore, tell me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.

2:7. They answered again and said: Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will declare the interpretation of it.

2:8. The king answered and said: I know for certain, that you seek to gain time, since you know that the thing is gone from me.

2:9. If, therefore, you tell me not the dream, there is one sentence concerning you, that you have also framed a lying interpretation, and full of deceit, to speak before me till the time pass away. Tell me, therefore, the dream, that I may know that you also give a true interpretation thereof.

2:10. Then the Chaldeans answered before the king, and said: There is no man upon earth, that can accomplish thy word, O king; neither doth any king, though great and mighty, ask such a thing of any diviner, or wise man, or Chaldean.

2:11. For the thing that thou askest, O king, is difficult: nor can any one be found that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose conversation is not with men.

2:12. Upon hearing this, the king in fury, and in great wrath, commanded that all the wise men of Babylon should be put to death.

2:13. And the decree being gone forth, the wise men were slain: and Daniel and his companions were sought for, to be put to death.

2:14. Then Daniel inquired concerning the law and the sentence, of Arioch, the general of the king’s army, who was gone forth to kill the wise men of Babylon.

2:15. And he asked him that had received the orders of the king, why so cruel a sentence was gone forth from the face of the king. And when Arioch had told the matter to Daniel,

2:16. Daniel went in, and desired of the king, that he would give him time to resolve the question, and declare it to the king.

2:17. And he went into his house, and told the matter to Ananias, and Misael, and Azarias, his companions:

2:18. To the end that they should ask mercy at the face of the God of heaven, concerning this secret, and that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

2:19. Then was the mystery revealed to Daniel by a vision in the night: and Daniel blessed the God of heaven,

2:20. And speaking, he said: Blessed be the name of the Lord from eternity and for evermore: for wisdom and fortitude are his.

2:21. And he changeth times and ages: taketh away kingdoms, and establisheth them: giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that have understanding:

2:22. He revealeth deep and hidden things, and knoweth what is in darkness: and light is with him.

2:23. To thee, O God of our fathers, I give thanks, and I praise thee: because thou hast given me wisdom and strength: and now thou hast shewn me what we desired of thee, for thou hast made known to us the king’s discourse.

2:24. After this Daniel went in to Arioch, to whom the king had given orders to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and he spoke thus to him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will tell the solution to the king.

2:25. Then Arioch in haste brought in Daniel to the king, and said to him: I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Juda, that will resolve the question to the king.

2:26. The king answered, and said to Daniel, whose name was Baltassar: Thinkest thou indeed that thou canst tell me the dream that I saw, and the interpretation thereof?

2:27. And Daniel made answer before the king, and said: The secret that the king desireth to know, none of the wise men, or the philosophers, or the diviners, or the soothsayers, can declare to the king.

2:28. But there is a God in heaven that revealeth mysteries, who hath shewn to thee, O king Nabuchodonosor, what is to come to pass in the latter times. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these:

2:29. Thou, O king, didst begin to think in thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth mysteries shewed thee what shall come to pass.

2:30. To me also this secret is revealed, not by any wisdom that I have more than all men alive: but that the interpretation might be made manifest to the king, and thou mightest know the thoughts of thy mind.

2:31. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold there was as it were a great statue: this statue, which was great and high, tall of stature, stood before thee, and the look thereof was terrible.

2:32. The head of this statue was of fine gold, but the breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass.

2:33. And the legs of iron, the feet part of iron and part of clay.

2:34. Thus thou sawest, till a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands: and it struck the statue upon the feet thereof that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.

2:35. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of a summer’s threshing floor, and they were carried away by the wind: and there was no place found for them: but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

2:36. This is the dream: we will also tell the interpretation thereof before thee, O king.

2:37. Thou art a king of kings: and the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, and strength, and power, and glory:

2:38. And all places wherein the children of men, and the beasts of the field do dwell: he hath also given the birds of the air into thy hand, and hath put all things under thy power: thou, therefore, art the head of gold.

2:39. And after thee shall rise up another kingdom, inferior to thee, of silver: and another third kingdom of brass, which shall rule over all the world.

Another kingdom.... Viz., that of the Medes and Persians. Ibid. Third kingdom.... Viz., that of Alexander the Great.

2:40. And the fourth kingdom shall be as iron. As iron breaketh into pieces, and subdueth all things, so shall that break, and destroy all these.

The fourth kingdom, etc.... Some understand this of the successors of Alexander, the kings of Syria and Egypt, others of the Roman empire, and its civil wars.

2:41. And whereas thou sawest the feet, and the toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron: the kingdom shall be divided, but yet it shall take its origin from the iron, according as thou sawest the iron mixed with the miry clay.

2:42. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay: the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

2:43. And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall be mingled indeed together with the seed of man, but they shall not stick fast one to another, as iron cannot be mixed with clay.

2:44. But in the days of those kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people: and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms: and itself shall stand for ever.

A kingdom.... Viz., the kingdom of Christ in the Catholic Church which cannot be destroyed.

2:45. According as thou sawest, that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces the clay and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God hath shewn the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful.

2:46. Then king Nabuchodonosor fell on his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer in sacrifice to him victims and incense.

2:47. And the king spoke to Daniel, and said: Verily, your God is the God of gods, and Lord of kings, and a revealer of hidden things: seeing thou couldst discover this secret.

2:48. Then the king advanced Daniel to a high station, and gave him many and great gifts: and he made him governor over all the provinces of Babylon: and chief of the magistrates over all the wise men of Babylon.

2:49. And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, over the works of the province of Babylon: but Daniel himself was in the king’s palace.

Daniel Chapter 3

Nabuchodonosor set up a golden statue; which he commands all to adore: the three children for refusing to do it are cast into the fiery furnace; but are not hurt by the flames. Their prayer and canticle of praise.

3:1. King Nabuchodonosor made a statue of gold, of sixty cubits high, and six cubits broad, and he set it up in the plain of Dura, of the province of Babylon.

3:2. Then Nabuchodonosor, the king, sent to call together the nobles, the magistrates, and the judges, the captains, the rulers, and governors, and all the chief men of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the statue which king Nabuchodonosor had set up.

3:3. Then the nobles, the magistrates, and the judges, the captains, and rulers, and the great men that were placed in authority, and all the princes of the provinces, were gathered together to come to the dedication of the statue, which king Nabuchodonosor had set up. And they stood before the statue which king Nabuchodonosor had set up.

3:4. Then a herald cried with a strong voice: To you it is commanded, O nations, tribes and languages:

3:5. That in the hour that you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, and of the flute, and of the harp, of the sackbut, and of the psaltery, and of the symphony, and of all kind of music, ye fall down and adore the golden statue which king Nabuchodonosor hath set up.

3:6. But if any man shall not fall down and adore, he shall the same hour be cast into a furnace of burning fire.

3:7. Upon this, therefore, at the time when all the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the flute, and the harp, of the sackbut, and the psaltery, of the symphony, and of all kind of music, all the nations, tribes, and languages fell down and adored the golden statue which king Nabuchodonosor had set up.

3:8. And presently at that very time some Chaldeans came and accused the Jews,

3:9. And said to king Nabuchodonosor: O king, live for ever:

3:10. Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the trumpet, the flute, and the harp, of the sackbut, and the psaltery, of the symphony, and of all kind of music, shall prostrate himself, and adore the golden statue:

3:11. And that if any man shall not fall down and adore, he should be cast into a furnace of burning fire.

3:12. Now there are certain Jews, whom thou hast set over the works of the province of Babylon, Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago: these men, O king, have slighted thy decree: they worship not thy gods, nor do they adore the golden statue which thou hast set up.

3:13. Then Nabuchodonosor in fury, and in wrath, commanded that Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago should be brought: who immediately were brought before the king.

3:14. And Nabuchodonosor, the king, spoke to them, and said: Is it true, O Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, that you do not worship my gods, nor adore the golden statue that I have set up?

3:15. Now, therefore, if you be ready, at what hour soever, you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, harp, sackbut, and psaltery, and symphony, and of all kind of music, prostrate yourselves, and adore the statue which I have made: but if you do not adore, you shall be cast the same hour into the furnace of burning fire: and who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hand?

3:16. Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, answered, and said to king Nabuchodonosor: We have no occasion to answer thee concerning this matter.

3:17. For behold our God, whom we worship, is able to save us from the furnace of burning fire, and to deliver us out of thy hands, O king.

3:18. But if he will not, be it known to thee, O king, that we will not worship thy gods, nor adore the golden statue which thou hast set up.

3:19. Then was Nabuchodonosor filled with fury: and the countenance of his face was changed against Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and he commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it had been accustomed to be heated.

3:20. And he commanded the strongest men that were in his army, to bind the feet of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and to cast them into the furnace of burning fire.

3:21. And immediately these men were bound, and were cast into the furnace of burning fire, with their coats, and their caps, and their shoes, and their garments.

3:22. For the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace was heated exceedingly. And the flame of the fire slew those men that had cast in Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago.

3:23. But these three men, that is, Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, fell down bound in the midst of the furnace of burning fire.

3:24. And they walked in the midst of the flame, praising God, and blessing the Lord.

And they walked, etc.... Here St. Jerome takes notice, that from this verse, to ver. 91, was not in the Hebrew in his time. But as it was in all the Greek Bibles, (which were originally translated from the Hebrew,) it is more than probable that it had been formerly in the Hebrew or rather in the Chaldaic, in which the book of Daniel was written. But this is certain: that it is, and has been of old, received by the church, and read as canonical scripture in her liturgy, and divine offices.

3:25. Then Azarias standing up, prayed in this manner, and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire, he said:

3:26. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and thy name is worthy of praise, and glorious for ever:

3:27. For thou art just in all that thou hast done to us, and all thy works are true, and thy ways right, and all thy judgments true.

3:28. For thou hast executed true judgments in all the things that thou hast brought upon us, and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our fathers: for according to truth and judgment, thou hast brought all these things upon us for our sins.

3:29. For we have sinned, and committed iniquity, departing from thee: and we have trespassed in all things:

3:30. And we have not hearkened to thy commandments, nor have we observed nor done as thou hadst commanded us, that it might go well with us.

3:31. Wherefore, all that thou hast brought upon us, and every thing that thou hast done to us, thou hast done in true judgment:

3:32. And thou hast delivered us into the hands of our enemies that are unjust, and most wicked, and prevaricators, and to a king unjust, and most wicked beyond all that are upon the earth.

3:33. And now we cannot open our mouths: we are become a shame, and a reproach to thy servants, and to them that worship thee.

3:34. Deliver us not up for ever, we beseech thee, for thy name’s sake, and abolish not thy covenant.

3:35. And take not away thy mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, thy beloved, and Isaac, thy servant, and Israel, thy holy one:

3:36. To whom thou hast spoken, promising that thou wouldst multiply their seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea shore.

3:37. For we, O Lord, are diminished more than any nation, and are brought low in all the earth this day for our sins.

3:38. Neither is there at this time prince, or leader, or prophet, or holocaust, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place of first fruits before thee,

3:39. That we may find thy mercy: nevertheless, in a contrite heart and humble spirit let us be accepted.

3:40. As in holocausts of rams, and bullocks, and as in thousands of fat lambs: so let our sacrifice be made in thy sight this day, that it may please thee: for there is no confusion to them that trust in thee.

3:41. And now we follow thee with all our heart, and we fear thee, and seek thy face.

3:42. Put us not to confusion, but deal with us according to thy meekness, and according to the multitude of thy mercies.

3:43. And deliver us, according to thy wonderful works, and give glory to thy name, O Lord:

3:44. And let all them be confounded that shew evils to thy servants, let them be confounded in all thy might, and let their strength be broken:

3:45. And let them know that thou art the Lord, the only God, and glorious over all the world.

3:46. Now the king’s servants that had cast them in, ceased not to heat the furnace with brimstone and tow, and pitch, and dry sticks,

3:47. And the flame mounted up above the furnace nine and forty cubits:

3:48. And it broke forth, and burnt such of the Chaldeans as it found near the furnace.

3:49. But the angel of the Lord went down with Azarias and his companions into the furnace: and he drove the flame of the fire out of the furnace,

3:50. And made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew, and the fire touched them not at all, nor troubled them, nor did them any harm.

3:51. Then these three, as with one mouth, praised and glorified and blessed God, in the furnace, saying:

3:52. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers; and worthy to be praised, and glorified, and exalted above all for ever: and blessed is the holy name of thy glory: and worthy to be praised and exalted above all, in all ages.

3:53. Blessed art thou in the holy temple of thy glory: and exceedingly to be praised and exalted above all for ever.

3:54. Blessed art thou on the throne of thy kingdom, and exceedingly to be praised and exalted above all for ever.

3:55. Blessed art thou that beholdest the depths, and sittest upon the cherubims: and worthy to be praised and exalted above all for ever.

3:56. Blessed art thou in the firmament of heaven: and worthy of praise, and glorious for ever.

3:57. All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:58. O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:59. O ye heavens, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:60. O all ye waters that are above the heavens, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:61. O all ye powers of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:62. O ye sun and moon, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:63. O ye stars of heaven, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:64. O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:65. O all ye spirits of God, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:66. O ye fire and heat, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:67. O ye cold and heat, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:68. O ye dews and hoar frost, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:69. O ye frost and cold, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:70. O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:71. O ye nights and days, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:72. O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:73. O ye lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:74. O let the earth bless the Lord: let it praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:75. O ye mountains and hills, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:76. O all ye things that spring up in the earth, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:77. O ye fountains, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:78. O ye seas and rivers, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:79. O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:80. O all ye fowls of the air, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:81. O all ye beasts and cattle, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:82. O ye sons of men, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:83. O let Israel bless the Lord: let them praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:84. O ye priests of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:85. O ye servants of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:86. O ye spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:87. O ye holy and humble of heart, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.

3:88. O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. For he hath delivered us from hell, and saved us out of the hand of death, and delivered us out of the midst of the burning flame, and saved us out of the midst of the fire.

3:89. O give thanks to the Lord, because he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever and ever.

3:90. O all ye religious, bless the Lord, the God of gods: praise him, and give him thanks, because his mercy endureth for ever and ever.

3:91. Then Nabuchodonosor, the king, was astonished, and rose up in haste, and said to his nobles: Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered the king, and said: True, O king.

3:92. He answered, and said: Behold, I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no hurt in them, and the form of the fourth is like the son of God.

3:93. Then Nabuchodonosor came to the door of the burning fiery furnace, and said: Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, ye servants of the most high God, go ye forth, and come. And immediately Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, went out from the midst of the fire.

3:94. And the nobles, and the magistrates, and the judges, and the great men of the king, being gathered together, considered these men, that the fire had no power on their bodies, and that not a hair of their head had been singed, nor their garments altered, nor the smell of the fire had passed on them.

3:95. Then Nabuchodonosor breaking forth, said: Blessed be the God of them, to wit, of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that believed in him: and they changed the king’s word, and delivered up their bodies, that they might not serve nor adore any god except their own God.

3:96. By me, therefore, this decree is made: That every people, tribe, and tongue, which shall speak blasphemy against the God of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, shall be destroyed, and their houses laid waste: for there is no other God that can save in this manner.

3:97. Then the king promoted Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, in the province of Babylon.

3:98. Nabuchodonosor, the king, to all peoples, nations, and tongues, that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you.

Nabuchodonosor, etc.... These last three verses are a kind of preface to the following chapter, which is written in the style of an epistle from the king.

3:99. The most high God hath wrought signs and wonders towards me. It hath seemed good to me, therefore, to publish

3:100. His signs, because they are great: and his wonders, because they are mighty: and his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his power to all generations.

Daniel Chapter 4

Nabuchodonosor’s dream, by which the judgments of God are denounced against him for his pride, is interpreted by Daniel, and verified by the event.

4:1. I, Nabuchodonosor, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace:

4:2. I saw a dream that affrighted me: and my thoughts in my bed, and the visions of my head, troubled me.

4:3. Then I set forth a decree, that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought in before me, and that they should shew me the interpretation of the dream.

4:4. Then came in the diviners, the wise men, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, and I told the dream before them: but they did not shew me the interpretation thereof.

4:5. Till their colleague, Daniel, came in before me, whose name is Baltassar, according to the name of my god, who hath in him the spirit of the holy gods: and I told the dream before him.

Baltassar, according to the name of my god.... He says this, because the name of Baltassar, or Belteshazzar, is derived from the name of Bel, the chief god of the Babylonians.

4:6. Baltassar, prince of the diviners, because I know that thou hast in thee the spirit of the holy gods, and that no secret is impossible to thee, tell me the visions of my dreams that I have seen, and the interpretation of them.

4:7. This was the vision of my head in my bed: I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was exceeding great.

4:8. The tree was great and strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven: the sight thereof was even to the ends of all the earth.

4:9. Its leaves were most beautiful, and its fruit exceeding much: and in it was food for all: under it dwelt cattle and beasts, and in the branches thereof the fowls of the air had their abode: and all flesh did eat of it.

4:10. I saw in the vision of my head upon my bed, and behold a watcher, and a holy one came down from heaven.

A watcher.... A vigilant angel, perhaps the guardian of Israel.

4:11. He cried aloud, and said thus: Cut down the tree, and chop off the branches thereof: shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruits: let the beasts fly away that are under it, and the birds from its branches.

4:12. Nevertheless, leave the stump of its roots in the earth, and let it be tied with a band of iron and of brass, among the grass, that is without, and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let its portion be with the wild beasts in the grass of the earth.

4:13. Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given him: and let seven times pass over him.

Let his heart be changed, etc.... It does not appear by scripture that Nabuchodonosor was changed from human shape; much less that he was changed into an ox; but only that he lost his reason, and became mad; and in this condition remained abroad in the company of beasts, eating grass like an ox, till his hair grew in such manner as to resemble the feathers of eagles, and his nails to be like birds’ claws.

4:14. This is the decree by the sentence of the watchers, and the word and demand of the holy ones: till the living know, that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men: and he will give it to whomsoever it shall please him, and he will appoint the basest man over it.

4:15. I, king Nabuchodonosor, saw this dream: thou, therefore, O Baltassar, tell me quickly the interpretation: for all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to declare the meaning of it to me: but thou art able, because the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.

4:16. Then Daniel, whose name was Baltassar, began silently to think within himself for about one hour: and his thought troubled him. But the king answering, said: Baltassar, let not the dream and the interpretation thereof trouble thee. Baltassar answered, and said: My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thy enemies.

4:17. The tree which thou sawest, which was high and strong, whose height reached to the skies, and the sight thereof into all the earth:

4:18. And the branches thereof were most beautiful, and its fruit exceeding much, and in it was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and the birds of the air had their abode in its branches.

4:19. It is thou, O king, who art grown great, and become mighty: for thy greatness hath grown, and hath reached to heaven, and thy power unto the ends of the earth.

4:20. And whereas the king saw a watcher, and a holy one come down from heaven, and say: Cut down the tree, and destroy it, but leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, and let it be bound with iron and brass, among the grass without, and let it be sprinkled with the dew of heaven, and let his feeding be with the wild beasts, till seven times pass over him.

4:21. This is the interpretation of the sentence of the most High, which is come upon my lord, the king.

4:22. They shall cast thee out from among men, and thy dwelling shall be with cattle, and with wild beasts, and thou shalt eat grass, as an ox, and shalt be wet with the dew of heaven: and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

4:23. But whereas he commanded, that the stump of the roots thereof, that is, of the tree, should be left: thy kingdom shall remain to thee, after thou shalt have known that power is from heaven.

4:24. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to thee, and redeem thou thy sins with alms, and thy iniquities with works of mercy to the poor: perhaps he will forgive thy offences.

4:25. All these things came upon king Nabuchodonosor.

4:26. At the end of twelve months he was walking in the palace of Babylon.

4:27. And the king answered, and said: Is not this the great Babylon, which I have built, to be the seat of the kingdom, by the strength of my power, and in the glory of my excellence?

4:28. And while the word was yet in the king’s mouth, a voice came down from heaven: To thee, O king Nabuchodonosor, it is said: Thy kingdom shall pass from thee.

4:29. And they shall cast thee out from among men, and thy dwelling shall be with cattle and wild beasts: thou shalt eat grass like an ox, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

4:30. The same hour the word was fulfilled upon Nabuchodonosor, and he was driven away from among men, and did eat grass, like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven: till his hairs grew like the feathers of eagles, and his nails like birds’ claws.

4:31. Now at the end of the days, I, Nabuchodonosor, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my sense was restored to me: and I blessed the most High, and I praised and glorified him that liveth for ever: for his power is an everlasting power, and his kingdom is to all generations.

4:32. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing before him: for he doth according to his will, as well with the powers of heaven, as among the inhabitants of the earth: and there is none that can resist his hand, and say to him: Why hast thou done it?

4:33. At the same time my sense returned to me, and I came to the honour and glory of my kingdom: and my shape returned to me: and my nobles, and my magistrates, sought for me, and I was restored to my kingdom: and greater majesty was added to me.

4:34. Therefore I, Nabuchodonosor, do now praise, and magnify, and glorify the King of heaven: because all his works are true, and his ways judgments, and them that walk in pride he is able to abase.

I, Nabuchodonosor, do now, etc.... From this place some commentators infer that this king became a true convert, and dying not long after, was probably saved.

Daniel Chapter 5

Baltasar’s profane banquet: his sentence is denounced by a handwriting on the wall, which Daniel reads and interprets.

5:1. Baltasar, the king, made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles: and every one drank according to his age.

Baltasar.... He is believed to be the same as Nabonydus, the last of the Chaldean kings, grandson to Nabuchodonosor. He is called his son, ver. 2, 11, etc., according to the style of the scriptures, because he was a descendant from him.

5:2. And being now drunk, he commanded that they should bring the vessels of gold and silver, which Nabuchodonosor, his father, had brought away out of the temple, that was in Jerusalem, that the king and his nobles, and his wives, and his concubines, might drink in them.

5:3. Then were the golden and silver vessels brought, which he had brought away out of the temple that was in Jerusalem: and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.

5:4. They drank wine, and praised their gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, and of wood, and of stone.

5:5. In the same hour there appeared fingers, as it were of the hand of a man, writing over against the candlestick, upon the surface of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king beheld the joints of the hand that wrote.

5:6. Then was the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him: and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees struck one against the other.

5:7. And the king cried out aloud to bring in the wise men, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spoke, and said to the wise men of Babylon: Whosoever shall read this writing, and shall make known to me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with purple, and shall have a golden chain on his neck, and shall be the third man in my kingdom.

5:8. Then came in all the king’s wise men, but they could neither read the writing, nor declare the interpretation to the king.

5:9. Wherewith king Baltasar was much troubled, and his countenance was changed: and his nobles also were troubled.

5:10. Then the queen, on occasion of what had happened to the king, and his nobles, came into the banquet-house: and she spoke, and said: O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, neither let thy countenance be changed.

The queen.... Not the wife, but the mother of the king.

5:11. There is a man in thy kingdom that hath the spirit of the holy gods in him: and in the days of thy father knowledge and wisdom were found in him: for king Nabuchodonosor, thy father, appointed him prince of the wise men, enchanters, Chaldeans, and soothsayers, thy father, I say, O king:

5:12. Because a greater spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, and interpretation of dreams, and shewing of secrets, and resolving of difficult things, were found in him, that is, in Daniel: whom the king named Baltassar. Now, therefore, let Daniel be called for, and he will tell the interpretation.

5:13. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. And the king spoke, and said to him: Art thou Daniel, of the children of the captivity of Juda, whom my father, the king, brought out of Judea?

5:14. I have heard of thee, that thou hast the spirit of the gods, and excellent knowledge, and understanding, and wisdom are found in thee.

5:15. And now the wise men, the magicians, have come in before me, to read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof; and they could not declare to me the meaning of this writing.

5:16. But I have heard of thee, that thou canst interpret obscure things, and resolve difficult things: now if thou art able to read the writing, and to shew me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with purple, and shalt have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third prince in my kingdom.

5:17. To which Daniel made answer, and said before the king: thy rewards be to thyself, and the gifts of thy house give to another: but the writing I will read to thee, O king, and shew thee the interpretation thereof.

5:18. O king, the most high God gave to Nabuchodonosor, thy father, a kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and honour.

5:19. And for the greatness that he gave to him, all people, tribes, and languages trembled, and were afraid of him: whom he would, he slew: and whom he would, he destroyed: and whom he would, he set up: and whom he would, he brought down.

5:20. But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit hardened unto pride, he was put down from the throne of his kingdom, and his glory was taken away.

5:21. And he was driven out from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses, and he did eat grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven: till he knew that the most High ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he will set over it whomsoever it shall please him.

5:22. Thou also, his son, O Baltasar, hast not humbled thy heart, whereas thou knewest all these things:

5:23. But hast lifted thyself up against the Lord of heaven: and the vessels of his house have been brought before thee: and thou, and thy nobles, and thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them: and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and of gold, and of brass, of iron, and of wood, and of stone, that neither see, nor hear, nor feel: but the God who hath thy breath in his hand, and all thy ways, thou hast not glorified.

5:24. Wherefore, he hath sent the part of the hand which hath written this that is set down.

5:25. And this is the writing that is written: MANE, THECEL, PHARES.

5:26. And this is the interpretation of the word. MANE: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it.

5:27. THECEL: thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.

5:28. PHARES: thy kingdom is divided, and is given to the Medes and Persians.

5:29. Then by the king’s command, Daniel was clothed with purple, and a chain of gold was put about his neck: and it was proclaimed of him that he had power as the third man in the kingdom.

5:30. The same night Baltasar, the Chaldean king, was slain.

5:31. And Darius, the Mede, succeeded to the kingdom, being threescore and two years old.

Darius.... He is called Cyaxares by the historians; and was the son of Astyages, and uncle to Cyrus.

Daniel Chapter 6

Daniel is promoted by Darius: his enemies procure a law forbidding prayer; for the transgression of this law Daniel is cast into the lions’ den: but miraculously delivered.

6:1. It seemed good to Darius, and he appointed over the kingdom a hundred and twenty governors, to be over his whole kingdom.

6:2. And three princes over them of whom Daniel was one: that the governors might give an account to them, and the king might have no trouble.

6:3. And Daniel excelled all the princes, and governors: because a greater spirit of God was in him.

6:4. And the king thought to set him over all the kingdom; whereupon the princes, and the governors, sought to find occasion against Daniel, with regard to the king: and they could find no cause, nor suspicion, because he was faithful, and no fault, nor suspicion was found in him.

6:5. Then these men said: We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, unless perhaps concerning the law of his God.

6:6. Then the princes, and the governors, craftily suggested to the king, and spoke thus unto him: King Darius, live for ever:

6:7. All the princes of the kingdom, the magistrates, and governors, the senators, and judges, have consulted together, that an imperial decree, and an edict be published: That whosoever shall ask any petition of any god, or man, for thirty days, but of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of the lions.

6:8. Now, therefore, O king, confirm the sentence, and sign the decree: that what is decreed by the Medes and Persians may not be altered, nor any man be allowed to transgress it.

6:9. So king Darius set forth the decree, and established it.

6:10. Now, when Daniel knew this, that is to say, that the law was made, he went into his house: and opening the windows in his upper chamber towards Jerusalem, he knelt down three times a day, and adored and gave thanks before his God, as he had been accustomed to do before.

6:11. Wherefore those men carefully watching him, found Daniel praying and making supplication to his God.

6:12. And they came and spoke to the king concerning the edict: O king, hast thou not decreed, that every man that should make a request to any of the gods, or men, for thirty days, but to thyself, O king, should be cast into the den of the lions? And the king answered them, saying: The word is true, according to the decree of the Medes and Persians, which it is not lawful to violate.

6:13. Then they answered, and said before the king: Daniel, who is of the children of the captivity of Juda, hath not regarded thy law, nor the decree that thou hast made: but three times a day he maketh his prayer.

6:14. Now when the king had heard these words, he was very much grieved, and in behalf of Daniel he set his heart to deliver him, and even till sunset he laboured to save him.

6:15. But those men perceiving the king’s design, said to him: Know thou, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, that no decree which the king hath made, may be altered.

6:16. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of the lions. And the king said to Daniel: Thy God, whom thou always servest, he will deliver thee.

6:17. And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den: which the king sealed with his own ring, and with the ring of his nobles, that nothing should be done against Daniel.

6:18. And the king went away to his house, and laid himself down without taking supper, and meat was not set before him, and even sleep departed from him.

6:19. Then the king rising very early in the morning, went in haste to the lions’ den:

6:20. And coming near to the den, cried with a lamentable voice to Daniel, and said to him: Daniel, servant of the living God, hath thy God, whom thou servest always, been able, thinkest thou, to deliver thee from the lions?

6:21. And Daniel answering the king, said: O king, live for ever:

6:22. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut up the mouths of the lions, and they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him justice hath been found in me: yea, and before thee, O king, I have done no offence.

6:23. Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and he commanded that Daniel should be taken out of the den: and Daniel was taken out of the den, and no hurt was found in him, because he believed in his God.

6:24. And by the king’s commandment, those men were brought that had accused Daniel: and they were cast into the lions’ den, they and their children, and their wives: and they did not reach the bottom of the den, before the lions caught them, and broke all their bones in pieces.

6:25. Then king Darius wrote to all people, tribes, and languages, dwelling in the whole earth: PEACE be multiplied unto you.

6:26. It is decreed by me, that in all my empire and my kingdom, all men dread and fear the God of Daniel. For he is the living and eternal God for ever: and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his power shall be for ever.

6:27. He is the deliverer, and saviour, doing signs and wonders in heaven, and in earth: who hath delivered Daniel out of the lions’ den.

6:28. Now Daniel continued unto the reign of Darius, and the reign of Cyrus, the Persian.

Daniel Chapter 7

Daniel’s vision of the four beasts, signifying four kingdoms: of God sitting on his throne: and of the opposite kingdoms of Christ and Antichrist.

7:1. In the first year of Baltasar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream: and the vision of his head was upon his bed: and writing the dream, he comprehended it in a few words: and relating the sum of it in short, he said:

7:2. I saw in my vision by night, and behold the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

7:3. And four great beasts, different one from another, came up out of the sea.

Four great beasts.... Viz., the Chaldean, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. But some rather choose to understand the fourth beast of the successors of Alexander the Great, more especially of them that reigned in Asia and Syria.

7:4. The first was like a lioness, and had the wings of an eagle: I beheld till her wings were plucked off, and she was lifted up from the earth, and stood upon her feet as a man, and the heart of a man was given to her.

7:5. And behold another beast, like a bear, stood up on one side: and there were three rows in the mouth thereof, and in the teeth thereof, and thus they said to it: Arise, devour much flesh.

7:6. After this I beheld, and lo, another like a leopard, and it had upon it four wings, as of a fowl, and the beast had four heads, and power was given to it.

7:7. After this I beheld in the vision of the night, and lo, a fourth beast, terrible and wonderful, and exceeding strong, it had great iron teeth, eating and breaking in pieces, and treading down the rest with its feet: and it was unlike to the other beasts which I had seen before it, and had ten horns.

Ten horns.... That is, ten kingdoms, (as Apoc. 17.12,) among which the empire of the fourth beast shall be parcelled. Or ten kings of the number of the successors of Alexander; as figures of such as shall be about the time of Antichrist.

7:8. I considered the horns, and behold another little horn sprung out of the midst of them: and three of the first horns were plucked up at the presence thereof: and behold eyes like the eyes of a man were in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things.

Another little horn.... This is commonly understood of Antichrist. It may also be applied to that great persecutor Antiochus Epiphanes, as a figure of Antichrist.

7:9. I beheld till thrones were placed, and the ancient of days sat: his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool: his throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a burning fire.

7:10. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him: the judgment sat, and the books were opened.

7:11. I beheld, because of the voice of the great words which that horn spoke: and I saw that the beast was slain, and the body thereof was destroyed, and given to the fire to be burnt:

7:12. And that the power of the other beasts was taken away: and that times of life were appointed them for a time, and a time.

7:13. I beheld, therefore, in the vision of the night, and lo, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the ancient of days: and they presented him before him.

7:14. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.

7:15. My spirit trembled; I, Daniel, was affrighted at these things, and the visions of my head troubled me.

7:16. I went near to one of them that stood by, and asked the truth of him concerning all these things, and he told me the interpretation of the words, and instructed me:

7:17. These four great beasts, are four kingdoms, which shall arise out of the earth.

7:18. But the saints of the most high God shall take the kingdom: and they shall possess the kingdom for ever and ever.

7:19. After this I would diligently learn concerning the fourth beast, which was very different from all, and exceeding terrible: his teeth and claws were of iron: he devoured and broke in pieces, and the rest he stamped upon with his feet:

7:20. And concerning the ten horns that he had on his head: and concerning the other that came up, before which three horns fell: and of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things, and was greater than the rest.

7:21. I beheld, and lo, that horn made war against the saints, and prevailed over them,

7:22. Till the ancient of days came and gave judgment to the saints of the most High, and the time came, and the saints obtained the kingdom.

7:23. And thus he said: The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be greater than all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

7:24. And the ten horns of the same kingdom, shall be ten kings: and another shall rise up after them, and he shall be mightier than the former, and he shall bring down three kings.

7:25. And he shall speak words against the High One, and shall crush the saints of the most High: and he shall think himself able to change times and laws, and they shall be delivered into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time.

A time, and times, and half a time.... That is, three years and a half; which is supposed to be the length of the duration of the persecution of Antichrist.

7:26. And a judgment shall sit, that his power may be taken away, and be broken in pieces, and perish even to the end.

7:27. And that the kingdom, and power, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, may be given to the people of the saints of the most High: whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings shall serve him, and shall obey him.

7:28. Hitherto is the end of the word. I, Daniel, was much troubled with my thoughts, and my countenance was changed in me: but I kept the word in my heart.

Daniel Chapter 8

Daniel’s vision of the ram and the he goat interpreted by the angel Gabriel.

8:1. In the third year of the reign of king Baltasar, a vision appeared to me. I, Daniel, after what I had seen in the beginning,

8:2. Saw in my vision when I was in the castle of Susa, which is in the province of Elam: and I saw in the vision that I was over the gate of Ulai.

8:3. And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold a ram stood before the water, having two high horns, and one higher than the other, and growing up. Afterward

A ram.... The empire of the Medes and Persians.

8:4. I saw the ram pushing with his horns against the west, and against the north, and against the south: and no beasts could withstand him, nor be delivered out of his hand: and he did according to his own will, and became great.

8:5. And I understood: and behold a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and he touched not the ground, and the he goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

A he goat.... The empire of the Greeks, or Macedonians. Ibid. He touched not the ground.... He conquered all before him, with so much rapidity, that he seemed rather to fly, than to walk upon the earth.—Ibid. A notable horn.... Alexander the Great.

8:6. And he went up to the ram that had the horns, which I had seen standing before the gate, and he ran towards him in the force of his strength.

8:7. And when he was come near the ram, he was enraged against him, and struck the ram: and broke his two horns, and the ram could not withstand him: and when he had cast him down on the ground, he stamped upon him, and none could deliver the ram out of his hand.

8:8. And the he goat became exceeding great: and when he was grown, the great horn was broken, and there came up four horns under it towards the four winds of heaven.

Four horns.... Seleucus, Antigonus, Philip, and Ptolemeus, the successors of Alexander, who divided his empire among them.

8:9. And out of one of them came forth a little horn: and it became great against the south, and against the east, and against the strength.

A little horn.... Antiochus Epiphanes, a descendant of Seleucus. He grew against the south, and the east, by his victories over the kings of Egypt and Armenia: and against the strength, that is, against Jerusalem and the people of God.

8:10. And it was magnified even unto the strength of heaven: and it threw down of the strength, and of the stars, and trod upon them.

Unto the strength of heaven.... or, against the strength of heaven. So are here called the army of the Jews, the people of God.

8:11. And it was magnified even to the prince of the strength: and it took away from him the continual sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanctuary.

8:12. And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper.

8:13. And I heard one of the saints speaking, and one saint said to another I know not to whom, that was speaking: How long shall be the vision, concerning the continual sacrifice, and the sin of the desolation that is made: and the sanctuary, and the strength be trodden under foot?

8:14. And he said to him: Unto evening and morning two thousand three hundred days: and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

Unto evening and morning two thousand three hundred days.... That is, six years and almost four months: which was the whole time from the beginning of the persecution of Antiochus till his death.

8:15. And it came to pass when I, Daniel, saw the vision, and sought the meaning, that behold there stood before me as it were the appearance of a man.

8:16. And I heard the voice of a man between Ulai: and he called, and said: Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

8:17. And he came, and stood near where I stood: and when he was come, I fell on my face, trembling, and he said to me: Understand, O son of man, for in the time of the end the vision shall be fulfilled.

8:18. And when he spoke to me, I fell flat on the ground: and he touched me, and set me upright.

8:19. And he said to me: I will shew thee what things are to come to pass in the end of the malediction: for the time hath its end.

8:20. The ram, which thou sawest with horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians.

8:21. And the he goat, is the king of the Greeks, and the great horn that was between his eyes, the same is the first king.

8:22. But whereas when that was broken, there arose up four for it, four kings shall rise up of his nation, but not with his strength.

8:23. And after their reign, when iniquities shall be grown up, there shall arise a king of a shameless face, and understanding dark sentences.

8:24. And his power shall be strengthened, but not by his own force: and he shall lay all things waste, and shall prosper, and do more than can be believed. And he shall destroy the mighty, and the people of the saints,

8:25. According to his will, and craft shall be successful in his hand: and his heart shall be puffed up, and in the abundance of all things he shall kill many: and he shall rise up against the prince of princes, and shall be broken without hand.

8:26. And the vision of the evening and the morning, which was told, is true: thou, therefore, seal up the vision, because it shall come to pass after many days.

8:27. And I, Daniel, languished, and was sick for some days: and when I was risen up, I did the king’s business, and I was astonished at the vision, and there was none that could interpret it.

Daniel Chapter 9

Daniel’s confession and prayer: Gabriel informs him concerning the seventy weeks to the coming of Christ.

9:1. In the first year of Darius, the son of Assuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans:

9:2. The first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, concerning which the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, the prophet, that seventy years should be accomplished of the desolation of Jerusalem.

9:3. And I set my face to the Lord, my God, to pray and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

9:4. And I prayed to the Lord, my God, and I made my confession, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord God, great and terrible, who keepest the covenant, and mercy to them that love thee, and keep thy commandments.

9:5. We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and have revolted: and we have gone aside from thy commandments, and thy judgments.

9:6. We have not hearkened to thy servants, the prophets, that have spoken in thy name to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

9:7. To thee, O Lord, justice: but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, to them that are near, and to them that are far off, in all the countries whither thou hast driven them, for their iniquities, by which they have sinned against thee.

9:8. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our princes, and to our fathers, that have sinned.

9:9. But to thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from thee:

9:10. And we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord, our God, to walk in his law, which he set before us by his servants, the prophets.

9:11. And all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have turned away from hearing thy voice, and the malediction, and the curse, which is written in the book of Moses, the servant of God, is fallen upon us, because we have sinned against him.

9:12. And he hath confirmed his words which he spoke against us, and against our princes that judged us, that he would bring in upon us a great evil, such as never was under all the heaven, according to that which hath been done in Jerusalem.

9:13. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: and we entreated not thy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and think on thy truth.

9:14. And the Lord hath watched upon the evil, and hath brought it upon us: the Lord, our God, is just in all his works which he hath done: for we have not hearkened to his voice.

9:15. And now, O Lord, our God, who hast brought forth thy people out of the land of Egypt, with a strong hand, and hast made thee a name as at this day: we have sinned, we have committed iniquity,

9:16. O Lord, against all thy justice: let thy wrath and thy indignation be turned away, I beseech thee, from thy city, Jerusalem, and from thy holy mountain. For by reason of our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and thy people, are a reproach to all that are round about us.

9:17. Now, therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of thy servant, and his prayers: and shew thy face upon thy sanctuary, which is desolate, for thy own sake.

9:18. Incline, O my God, thy ear, and hear: open thy eyes, and see our desolation, and the city upon which thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before thy face, but for the multitude of thy tender mercies.

9:19. O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken, and do: delay not, for thy own sake, O my God: because thy name is invocated upon thy city, and upon thy people.

9:20. Now while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people of Israel, and presenting my supplications in the sight of my God, for the holy mountain of my God:

9:21. As I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice.

The man Gabriel.... The angel Gabriel in the shape of a man.

9:22. And he instructed me, and spoke to me, and said: O Daniel, I am now come forth to teach thee, and that thou mightest understand.

9:23. From the beginning of thy prayers the word came forth: and I am come to shew it to thee, because thou art a man of desires: therefore, do thou mark the word, and understand the vision.

Man of desires.... that is, ardently praying for the Jews then in captivity.

9:24. Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the saint of saints may be anointed.

Seventy weeks.... Viz., of years, (or seventy times seven, that is, 490 years,) are shortened; that is, fixed and determined, so that the time shall be no longer.

9:25. Know thou, therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ, the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the walls, in straitness of times.

From the going forth of the word, etc.... That is, from the twentieth year of king Artaxerxes, when by his commandment Nehemias rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, 2 Esd. 2. From which time, according to the best chronology, there were just sixty-nine weeks of years, that is, 483 years to the baptism of Christ, when he first began to preach and execute the office of Messias.—Ibid. In straitness of times ... angustia temporum: which may allude both to the difficulties and opposition they met with in building: and to the shortness of the time in which they finished the wall, viz., fifty-two days.

9:26. And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny him shall not be his. And a people, with their leader, that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation.

A people with their leader.... The Romans under Titus.

9:27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end.

In the half of the week.... or, in the middle of the week, etc. Because Christ preached three years and a half: and then by his sacrifice upon the cross abolished all the sacrifices of the law.—Ibid. The abomination of desolation.... Some understand this of the profanation of the temple by the crimes of the Jews, and by the bloody faction of the zealots. Others of the bringing in thither the ensigns and standard of the pagan Romans. Others, in fine, distinguish three different times of desolation: viz., that under Antiochus; that when the temple was destroyed by the Romans; and the last near the end of the world under Antichrist. To all which, as they suppose, this prophecy may have a relation.

Daniel Chapter 10

Daniel having humbled himself by fasting and penance seeth a vision, with which he is much terrified; but he is comforted by an angel.

10:1. In the third year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, a word was revealed to Daniel, surnamed Baltassar, and a true word, and great strength: and he understood the word: for there is need of understanding in a vision.

10:2. In those days I, Daniel, mourned the days of three weeks.

10:3. I ate no desirable bread, and neither flesh, nor wine, entered into my mouth, neither was I anointed with ointment: till the days of three weeks were accomplished.

10:4. And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, I was by the great river, which is the Tigris.

10:5. And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw: and behold a man clothed in linen, and his loins were girded with the finest gold:

10:6. And his body was like the chrysolite, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as a burning lamp: and his arms, and all downward even to the feet, like in appearance to glittering brass: and the voice of his word like the voice of a multitude.

10:7. And I, Daniel alone, saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw it not: but an exceeding great terror fell upon them, and they fled away, and hid themselves.

10:8. And I, being left alone, saw this great vision: and there remained no strength in me, and the appearance of my countenance was changed in me, and I fainted away, and retained no strength.

10:9. And I heard the voice of his words: and when I heard I lay in a consternation upon my face, and my face was close to the ground.

10:10. And behold a hand touched me, and lifted me up upon my knees, and upon the joints of my hands.

10:11. And he said to me: Daniel, thou man of desires, understand the words that I speak to thee, and stand upright: for I am sent now to thee. And when he had said this word to me, I stood trembling.

10:12. And he said to me: Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, to afflict thyself in the sight of thy God, thy words have been heard: and I am come for thy words.

10:13. But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me one and twenty days: and behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there by the king of the Persians.

The prince, etc.... That is, the angel guardian of Persia: who according to his office, seeking the spiritual good of the Persians was desirous that many of the Jews should remain among them.

10:14. But I am come to teach thee what things shall befall thy people in the latter days, for as yet the vision is for days.

10:15. And when he was speaking such words to me, I cast down my countenance to the ground, and held my peace.

10:16. And behold as it were the likeness of a son of man touched my lips: then I opened my mouth and spoke, and said to him that stood before me: O my lord, at the sight of thee my joints are loosed, and no strength hath remained in me.

10:17. And how can the servant of my lord speak with my lord? for no strength remaineth in me; moreover, my breath is stopped.

10:18. Therefore, he that looked like a man, touched me again, and strengthened me.

10:19. And he said: Fear not, O man of desires, peace be to thee: take courage, and be strong. And when he spoke to me, I grew strong, and I said: Speak, O my lord, for thou hast strengthened me.

10:20. And he said: Dost thou know wherefore I am come to thee? And now I will return, to fight against the prince of the Persians. When I went forth, there appeared the prince of the Greeks coming.

10:21. But I will tell thee what is set down in the scripture of truth: and none is my helper in all these things, but Michael your prince.

Michael your prince.... The guardian general of the church of God.

Daniel Chapter 11

The angel declares to Daniel many things to come, with regard to the Persian and Grecian kings: more especially with regard to Antiochus as a figure of Antichrist.

11:1. And from the first year of Darius, the Mede, I stood up, that he might be strengthened, and confirmed.

11:2. And now I will shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be enriched exceedingly above them all: and when he shall be grown mighty by his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.

Three kings.... Viz., Cambyses, Smerdes Magus, and Darius, the son of Hystaspes.—Ibid. The fourth.... Xerxes.

11:3. But there shall rise up a strong king, and shall rule with great power: and he shall do what he pleaseth.

A strong king.... Alexander.

11:4. And when he shall come to his height, his kingdom shall be broken, and it shall be divided towards the four winds of the heaven: but not to his posterity, nor according to his power with which he ruled. For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces, even for strangers, besides these.

11:5. And the king of the south shall be strengthened, and one of his princes shall prevail over him, and he shall rule with great power: for his dominion shall be great.

The king of the south.... Ptolemeus the son of Lagus, king of Egypt, which lies south of Jerusalem.—Ibid. One of his princes.... that is, one of Alexander’s princes, shall prevail over him: that is, shall be stronger than the king of Egypt. He speaks of Seleucus Nicator, king of Asia and Syria, whose successors are here called the kings of the north, because their dominions lay to the north in respect to Jerusalem.

11:6. And after the end of years they shall be in league together: and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make friendship, but she shall not obtain the strength of the arm, neither shall her seed stand: and she shall be given up, and her young men that brought her, and they that strengthened her in these times.

The daughter of the king of the south.... Viz., Berenice, daughter of Ptolemeus Philadelphus, given in marriage to Antiochus Theos, grandson of Seleucus.

11:7. And a plant of the bud of her roots shall stand up: and he shall come with an army, and shall enter into the province of the king of the north: and he shall abuse them, and shall prevail.

A plant, etc.... Ptolemeus Evergetes, the son of Philadelphus.

11:8. And he shall also carry away captive into Egypt their gods, and their graven things, and their precious vessels of gold and silver: he shall prevail against the king of the north.

The king of the north.... Seleucus Callinicus.

11:9. And the king of the south shall enter into the kingdom, and shall return to his own land.

11:10. And his sons shall be provoked, and they shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and he shall come with haste like a flood: and he shall return, and be stirred up, and he shall join battle with his force.

His sons.... Seleucus Ceraunius, and Antiochus the Great, the sons of Callinicus.—Ibid. He shall come.... Viz., Antiochus the Great.

11:11. And the king of the south being provoked, shall go forth, and shall fight against the king of the north, and shall prepare an exceeding great multitude, and a multitude shall be given into his hand.

The king of the south.... Ptolemeus Philopator, son of Evergetes.

11:12. And he shall take a multitude, and his heart shall be lifted up, and he shall cast down many thousands: but he shall not prevail.

11:13. For the king of the north shall return, and shall prepare a multitude much greater than before: and in the end of times, and years, he shall come in haste with a great army, and much riches.

11:14. And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the south, and the children of prevaricators of thy people shall lift up themselves to fulfil the vision, and they shall fall.

11:15. And the king of the north shall come, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take the best fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, and his chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they shall not have strength.

11:16. And he shall come upon him, and do according to his pleasure, and there shall be none to stand against his face: and he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed by his hand.

He shall come upon him.... Viz., Antiochus shall come upon the king of the south.—Ibid. The glorious land.... Judea.

11:17. And he shall set his face to come to possess all his kingdom, and he shall make upright conditions with him: and he shall give him a daughter of women, to overthrow it: and she shall not stand, neither shall she be for him.

All his kingdom.... Viz., all the kingdom of Ptolemeus Epiphanes, son of Philopator.—Ibid. A daughter of women.... That is, a most beautiful woman, viz., his daughter Cleopatra.—Ibid. To overthrow it.... Viz., the kingdom of Epiphanes: but his policy shall not succeed; for Cleopatra shall take more to heart the interest of her husband, than that of her father.

11:18. And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: and he shall cause the prince of his reproach to cease, and his reproach shall be turned upon him.

The prince of his reproach.... Seipio the Roman general, called the prince of his reproach, because he overthrew Antiochus, and obliged him to submit to very dishonourable terms, before he would cease from the war.

11:19. And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land, and he shall stumble, and fall, and shall not be found.

11:20. And there shall stand up in his place one most vile, and unworthy of kingly honour: and in a few days he shall be destroyed, not in rage nor in battle.

One most vile.... Seleucus Philopator, who sent Heliodorus to plunder the temple: and was shortly after slain by the same Heliodorus.

11:21. And there shall stand up in his place one despised, and the kingly honour shall not be given him: and he shall come privately, and shall obtain the kingdom by fraud.

One despised.... Viz., Antiochus Epiphanes, who at first was despised and not received for king. What is here said of this prince, is accommodated by St. Jerome and others to Antichrist; of whom this Antiochus was a figure.

11:22. And the arms of the fighter shall be overcome before his face, and shall be broken: yea, also the prince of the covenant.

Of the fighter.... That is, of them that shall oppose him, and shall fight against him.—Ibid. The prince of the covenant.... or, of the league. The chief of them that conspired against him: or the king of Egypt his most powerful adversary.

11:23. And after friendships, he will deal deceitfully with him: and he shall go up, and shall overcome with a small people.

11:24. And he shall enter into rich and plentiful cities: and he shall do that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers’ fathers: he shall scatter their spoils, and their prey, and their riches, and shall forecast devices against the best fenced places: and this until a time.

11:25. And his strength, and his heart, shall be stirred up against the king of the south, with a great army: and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with many and very strong succours: and they shall not stand, for they shall form designs against him.

The king.... Ptolemeus Philometor.

11:26. And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him, and his army shall be overthrown: and many shall fall down slain.

11:27. And the heart of the two kings shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies at one table, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is unto another time.

11:28. And he shall return into his land with much riches: and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, and he shall succeed, and shall return into his own land.

11:29. At the time appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the south, but the latter time shall not be like the former.

11:30. And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return, and shall devise against them that have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary.

The galleys and the Romans.... Popilius, and the other Roman ambassadors, who came in galleys, and obliged him to depart from Egypt.

11:31. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice: and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation.

They shall place there the abomination, etc.... The idol of Jupiter Olympius, which Antiochus ordered to be set up in the sanctuary of the temple: which is here called the sanctuary of strength, from the Almighty that was worshipped there.

11:32. And such as deal wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but the people that know their God shall prevail and succeed.

11:33. And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days.

11:34. And when they shall have fallen, they shall be relieved with a small help: and many shall be joined to them deceitfully.

11:35. And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made white, even to the appointed time: because yet there shall be another time.

11:36. And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the wrath be accomplished. For the determination is made.

11:37. And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against all things.

11:38. But he shall worship the god Maozim, in his place: and a god whom his fathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price.

The god Maozim.... That is, the god of forces or strong holds.

11:39. And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath acknowledged, and he shall increase glory, and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land gratis.

And he shall increase glory, etc.... He shall bestow honours, riches and lands, upon them that shall worship his god.

11:40. And at the time prefixed the king of the south shall fight against him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a great navy, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall destroy, and pass through.

11:41. And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall: and these only shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the principality of the children of Ammon.

11:42. And he shall lay his hand upon the lands: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

11:43. And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt: and he shall pass through Lybia, and Ethiopia.

11:44. And tidings out of the east, and out of the north, shall trouble him: and he shall come with a great multitude to destroy and slay many.

11:45. And he shall fix his tabernacle, Apadno, between the seas, upon a glorious and holy mountain: and he shall come even to the top thereof, and none shall help him.

Apadno.... Some take it for the proper name of a place: others, from the Hebrew, translate it his palace.

Daniel Chapter 12

Michael shall stand up for the people of God: with other things relating to Antichrist, and the end of the world.

12:1. But at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people: and a time shall come, such as never was from the time that nations began, even until that time. And at that time shall thy people be saved, every one that shall be found written in the book.

12:2. And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always.

12:3. But they that are learned, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity.

Learned.... Viz., in the law of God and true wisdom, which consists in knowing and loving God.

12:4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time appointed: many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold.

12:5. And I, Daniel, looked, and behold as it were two others stood: one on this side upon the bank of the river, and another on that side, on the other bank of the river.

12:6. And I said to the man that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the river: How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

12:7. And I heard the man that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the river, when he had lifted up his right hand, and his left hand to heaven, and had sworn by him that liveth for ever, that it should be unto a time, and times, and half a time. And when the scattering of the band of the holy people shall be accomplished, all these things shall be finished.

12:8. And I heard, and understood not. And I said: O my lord, what shall be after these things?

12:9. And he said: Go, Daniel, because the words are shut up, and sealed until the appointed time.

12:10. Many shall be chosen, and made white, and shall be tried as fire: and the wicked shall deal wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the learned shall understand.

12:11. And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days.

12:12. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh unto a thousand three hundred thirty-five days.

12:13. But go thou thy ways until the time appointed: and thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot unto the end of the days.

Daniel Chapter 13

The history of Susanna and the two elders.

This history of Susanna, in all the ancient Greek and Latin Bibles, was placed in the beginning of the book of Daniel: till St. Jerome, in his translation, detached it from thence; because he did not find it in the Hebrew: which is also the case of the history of Bel and the Dragon. But both the one and the other are received by the Catholic Church: and were from the very beginning a part of the Christian Bible.

13:1. Now there was a man that dwelt in Babylon, and his name was Joakim:

13:2. And he took a wife, whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Helcias, a very beautiful woman, and one that feared God.

13:3. For her parents being just, had instructed their daughter according to the law of Moses.

13:4. Now Joakim was very rich, and had an orchard near his house: and the Jews resorted to him, because he was the most honourable of them all.

13:5. And there were two of the ancients of the people appointed judges that year, of whom the Lord said: That iniquity came out from Babylon, from the ancient judges, that seemed to govern the people.

13:6. These men frequented the house of Joakim, and all that had any matters of judgment came to them.

13:7. And when the people departed away at noon, Susanna went in, and walked in her husband’s orchard.

13:8. And the old men saw her going in every day, and walking: and they were inflamed with lust towards her:

13:9. And they perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes, that they might not look unto heaven, nor remember just judgments.

13:10. So they were both wounded with the love of her, yet they did not make known their grief one to the other.

13:11. For they were ashamed to declare to one another their lust, being desirous to have to do with her:

13:12. And they watched carefully every day to see her. And one said to the other:

13:13. Let us now go home, for it is dinner time. So going out, they departed one from another.

13:14. And turning back again, they came both to the same place: and asking one another the cause, they acknowledged their lust: and then they agreed together upon a time, when they might find her alone.

13:15. And it fell out, as they watched a fit day, she went in on a time, as yesterday and the day before, with two maids only, and was desirous to wash herself in the orchard: for it was hot weather.

13:16. And there was nobody there, but the two old men that had hid themselves, and were beholding her.

13:17. So she said to the maids: Bring me oil, and washing balls, and shut the doors of the orchard, that I may wash me.

13:18. And they did as she bade them: and they shut the doors of the orchard, and went out by a back door to fetch what she had commanded them, and they knew not that the elders were hid within.

13:19. Now when the maids were gone forth, the two elders arose, and ran to her, and said:

13:20. Behold the doors of the orchard are shut, and nobody seeth us, and we are in love with thee: wherefore consent to us, and lie with us.

13:21. But if thou wilt not, we will bear witness against thee, that a young man was with thee, and therefore thou didst send away thy maids from thee.

13:22. Susanna sighed, and said: I am straitened on every side: for if I do this thing, it is death to me: and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands.

13:23. But it is better for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord.

13:24. With that Susanna cried out with a loud voice: and the elders also cried out against her.

13:25. And one of them ran to the door of the orchard, and opened it.

13:26. So when the servants of the house heard the cry in the orchard, they rushed in by the back door, to see what was the matter.

13:27. But after the old men had spoken, the servants were greatly ashamed: for never had there been any such word said of Susanna. And on the next day,

13:28. When the people were come to Joakim, her husband, the two elders also came full of wicked device against Susanna, to put her to death.

13:29. And they said before the people: Send to Susanna, daughter of Helcias, the wife of Joakim. And presently they sent.

13:30. And she came with her parents, and children and all her kindred.

13:31. Now Susanna was exceeding delicate, and beautiful to behold.

13:32. But those wicked men commanded that her face should be uncovered, (for she was covered) that so at least they might be satisfied with her beauty.

13:33. Therefore her friends, and all her acquaintance wept.

13:34. But the two elders rising up in the midst of the people, laid their hands upon her head.

13:35. And she weeping, looked up to heaven, for her heart had confidence in the Lord.

13:36. And the elders said: As we walked in the orchard alone, this woman came in with two maids, and shut the doors of the orchard, and sent away the maids from her.

13:37. Then a young man that was there hid came to her, and lay with her.

13:38. But we that were in a corner of the orchard, seeing this wickedness, ran up to them, and we saw them lie together.

13:39. And him indeed we could not take, because he was stronger than us, and opening the doors, he leaped out:

13:40. But having taken this woman, we asked who the young man was, but she would not tell us: of this thing we are witnesses.

13:41. The multitude believed them, as being the elders, and the judges of the people, and they condemned her to death.

13:42. Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said: O eternal God, who knowest hidden things, who knowest all things before they come to pass,

13:43. Thou knowest that they have borne false witness against me: and behold I must die, whereas I have done none of these things, which these men have maliciously forged against me.

13:44. And the Lord heard her voice.

13:45. And when she was led to be put to death, the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young boy, whose name was Daniel:

13:46. And he cried out with a loud voice: I am clear from the blood of this woman.

13:47. Then all the people turning themselves towards him, said: What meaneth this word that thou hast spoken?

13:48. But he standing in the midst of them, said: Are ye so foolish, ye children of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth, you have condemned a daughter of Israel?

13:49. Return to judgment, for they have borne false witness against her.

13:50. So all the people turned again in haste, and the old men said to him: Come, and sit thou down among us, and shew it us: seeing God hath given thee the honour of old age.

13:51. And Daniel said to the people: Separate these two far from one another, and I will examine them.

13:52. So when they were put asunder one from the other, he called one of them, and said to him: O thou that art grown old in evil days, now are thy sins come out, which thou hast committed before:

13:53. In judging unjust judgments, oppressing the innocent, and letting the guilty to go free, whereas the Lord saith: The innocent and the just thou shalt not kill.

13:54. Now then if thou sawest her, tell me under what tree thou sawest them conversing together: He said: Under a mastic tree.

13:55. And Daniel said: Well hast thou lied against thy own head: for behold the angel of God having received the sentence of him, shall cut thee in two.

13:56. And having put him aside, he commanded that the other should come, and he said to him: O thou seed of Chanaan, and not of Juda, beauty hath deceived thee, and lust hath perverted thy heart:

13:57. Thus did you do to the daughters of Israel, and they for fear conversed with you: but a daughter of Juda would not abide your wickedness.

13:58. Now, therefore, tell me, under what tree didst thou take them conversing together. And he answered: Under a holm tree.

13:59. And Daniel said to him: Well hast thou also lied against thy own head: for the angel of the Lord waiteth with a sword to cut thee in two, and to destroy you.

13:60. With that all the assembly cried out with a loud voice, and they blessed God, who saveth them that trust in him.

13:61. And they rose up against the two elders, (for Daniel had convicted them of false witness by their own mouth) and they did to them as they had maliciously dealt against their neighbour,

13:62. To fulfil the law of Moses: and they put them to death, and innocent blood was saved in that day.

13:63. But Helcias, and his wife, praised God, for their daughter, Susanna, with Joakim, her husband, and all her kindred, because there was no dishonesty found in her.

13:64. And Daniel became great in the sight of the people from that day, and thence forward.

13:65. And king Astyages was gathered to his fathers; and Cyrus, the Persian, received his kingdom.

Daniel Chapter 14

The history of Bel, and of the great serpent worshipped by the Babylonians.

14:1. And Daniel was the king’s guest, and was honoured above all his friends.

The king’s guest.... It seems most probable, that the king here spoken of was Evilmerodach, the son and successor of Nabuchodonosor, and a great favourer of the Jews.

14:2. Now the Babylonians had an idol called Bel: and there was spent upon him every day twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine.

14:3. The king also worshipped him, and went every day to adore him: but Daniel adored his God. And the king said to him: Why dost thou not adore Bel?

14:4. And he answered, and said to him: Because I do not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, that created heaven and earth, and hath power over all flesh.

14:5. And the king said to him: Doth not Bel seem to thee to be a living god? Seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh every day?

14:6. Then Daniel smiled, and said: O king, be not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, neither hath he eaten at any time.

14:7. And the king being angry, called for his priests, and said to them: If you tell me not who it is that eateth up these expenses, you shall die.

14:8. But if you can shew that Bel eateth these things, Daniel shall die, because he hath blasphemed against Bel. And Daniel said to the king: Be it done according to thy word.

14:9. Now the priests of Bel were seventy, besides their wives, and little ones, and children. And the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel.

14:10. And the priests of Bel said: Behold, we go out: and do thou, O king, set on the meats, and make ready the wine, and shut the door fast, and seal it with thy own ring:

14:11. And when thou comest in the morning, if thou findest not that Bel hath eaten up all, we will suffer death, or else Daniel, that hath lied against us.

14:12. And they little regarded it, because they had made under the table a secret entrance, and they always came in by it, and consumed those things.

14:13. So it came to pass after they were gone out, the king set the meats before Bel: and Daniel commanded his servants, and they brought ashes, and he sifted them all over the temple before the king: and going forth, they shut the door, and having sealed it with the king’s ring, they departed.

14:14. But the priests went in by night, according to their custom, with their wives, and their children: and they ate and drank up all.

14:15. And the king arose early in the morning, and Daniel with him.

14:16. And the king said: Are the seals whole, Daniel? And he answered: They are whole, O king.

14:17. And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked upon the table, and cried out with a loud voice: Great art thou, O Bel, and there is not any deceit with thee.

14:18. And Daniel laughed: and he held the king, that he should not go in: and he said: Behold the pavement, mark whose footsteps these are.

14:19. And the king said: I see the footsteps of men, and women, and children. And the king was angry.

14:20. Then he took the priests, and their wives, and their children: and they shewed him the private doors by which they came in, and consumed the things that were on the table.

14:21. The king, therefore, put them to death, and delivered Bel into the power of Daniel: who destroyed him and his temple.

14:22. And there was a great dragon in that place, and the Babylonians worshipped him.

14:23. And the king said to Daniel: Behold, thou canst not say now, that this is not a living god: adore him, therefore.

14:24. And Daniel said: I adore the Lord, my God: for he is the living God: but that is no living god.

14:25. But give me leave, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or club. And the king said, I give thee leave.

14:26. Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and boiled them together: and he made lumps, and put them into the dragon’s mouth, and the dragon burst asunder. And he said: Behold him whom you worship.

14:27. And when the Babylonians had heard this, they took great indignation: and being gathered together against the king, they said: The king is become a Jew. He hath destroyed Bel, he hath killed the dragon, and he hath put the priests to death.

14:28. And they came to the king, and said: Deliver us Daniel, or else we will destroy thee and thy house.

14:29. And the king saw that they pressed upon him violently: and being constrained by necessity: he delivered Daniel to them.

14:30. And they cast him into the den of lions, and he was there six days.

The den of lions.... Daniel was twice cast into the den of lions; one under Darius the Mede, because he had transgressed the king’s edict, by praying three times a day: and another time under Evilmerodach by a sedition of the people. This time he remained six days in the lions’ den; the other time only one night.

14:31. And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given to them two carcasses every day, and two sheep: but then they were not given unto them, that they might devour Daniel.

14:32. Now there was in Judea a prophet called Habacuc, and he had boiled pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl: and was going into the field, to carry it to the reapers.

Habacuc.... The same, as some think whose prophecy is found among the lesser prophets but others believe him to be different.

14:33. And the angel of the Lord said to Habacuc: Carry the dinner which thou hast into Babylon, to Daniel, who is in the lions’ den.

14:34. And Habacuc said: Lord, I never saw Babylon, nor do I know the den.

14:35. And the angel of the Lord took him by the top of his head, and carried him by the hair of his head, and set him in Babylon, over the den, in the force of his spirit.

14:36. And Habacuc cried, saying: O Daniel, thou servant of God, take the dinner that God hath sent thee.

14:37. And Daniel said, Thou hast remembered me, O God, and thou hast not forsaken them that love thee.

14:38. And Daniel arose, and ate. And the angel of the Lord presently set Habacuc again in his own place.

14:39. And upon the seventh day the king came to bewail Daniel: and he came to the den, and looked in, and behold Daniel was sitting in the midst of the lions.

14:40. And the king cried out with a loud voice, saying: Great art thou, O Lord, the God of Daniel. And he drew him out of the lions’ den.

14:41. But those that had been the cause of his destruction, he cast into the den, and they were devoured in a moment before him.

14:42. Then the king said: Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel: for he is the Saviour, working signs, and wonders in the earth: who hath delivered Daniel out of the lions’ den.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

THE PROPHECY OF OSEE

OSEE, or Hosea, whose name signifies A saviour, was the first in the order of time among those who are commonly called lesser prophets, because their prophecies are short. He prophesied in the kingdom of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, about the same time that Isaias prophesied in the kingdom of Juda.

Osee Chapter 1

By marrying a harlot, and by the names of his children, the prophet sets forth the crimes of Israel and their punishment. He foretells their redemption by Christ.

1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Osee, the son of Beeri, in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joas, king of Israel.

1:2. The beginning of the Lord’s speaking by Osee: and the Lord said to Osee: Go, take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications: for the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord.

A wife of fornications.... That is, a wife that has been given to fornication. This was to represent the Lord’s proceedings with his people Israel, who, by spiritual fornication, were continually offending him.—Ibid. Children of fornications.... So called from the character of their mother, if not also from their own wicked dispositions.

1:3. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived, and bore him a son.

1:4. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezrahel: for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrahel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

1:5. And in that day I will break in pieces the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrahel.

1:6. And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to him: Call her name, Without mercy: for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them.

Without mercy.... Lo-Ruhamah.

1:7. And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them by the Lord, their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.

1:8. And she weaned her that was called Without mercy. And she conceived, and bore a son.

1:9. And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.

Not my people.... Lo-ammi.

1:10. And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that is without measure, and shall not be numbered. And it shall be in the place where it shall be said to them: You are not my people: it shall be said to them: Ye are the sons of the living God.

The number, etc.... Viz., of the true Israelites, the children of the church of Christ.

1:11. And the children of Juda, and the children of Israel, shall be gathered together: and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up out of the land: for great is the day of Jezrahel.

One head.... viz., Christ.—Ibid. Great is the day of Jezrahel.... That is, of the seed of God; for Jezrahel signifies the seed of God.

Osee Chapter 2

Israel is justly punished for leaving God. The abundance of grace in the church of Christ.

2:1. Say ye to your brethren: You are my people: and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.

Say to your brethren, etc.... or, Call your brethren, My people: and your sister, Her that hath obtained mercy. This is connected with the latter end of the foregoing chapter, and relates to the converts of Israel.

2:2. Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

Your mother.... The synagogue.

2:3. Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through and will kill her with drought.

2:4. And I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of fornications.

2:5. For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.

2:6. Wherefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.

2:7. And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband: because it was better with me then than now.

2:8. And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.

2:9. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.

2:10. And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand:

2:11. And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.

2:12. And I will destroy her vines, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her as a forest and the beasts of the field shall devour her.

2:13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and decked herself out with her earrings, and with her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.

2:14. Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.

I will allure her, etc.... After all her disloyalties, I will still allure her by my grace etc., and send her vinedressers, viz., the apostles: originally her own children, who shall open to her the gates of hope; as heretofore at her coming into the land of promise, she had all good success after she had satisfied the divine justice by the execution of Achan in the valley of Achor. Jos. 7.

2:15. And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

2:16. And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord: That she shall call me: My husband, and she shall call me no more Baali.

My husband.... In Hebrew, Ishi. Baali, my lord. The meaning of this verse is: that whereas Ishi and Baali were used indifferently in those days by wives speaking to their husbands; the synagogue, whom God was pleased to consider as his spouse, should call him only Ishi, and abstain from the name of Baali, because of its affinity with the idol Baal.

2:17. And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name.

Baalim.... It is the plural number of Baal: for there were divers idols of Baal.

2:18. And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make them sleep secure.

2:19. And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.

I will espouse thee, etc.... This relates to the happy espousals of Christ with his church: which shall never be dissolved.

2:20. And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

2:21. And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.

Hear the heavens, etc.... All shall conspire in favour of the church, which in the following verse is called Jezrahel, that is, the seed of God.

2:22. And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall hear Jezrahel.

2:23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy.

2:24. And I will say to that which is not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.

That which was not my people, etc.... This relates to the conversion of the Gentiles.

Osee Chapter 3

The prophet is commanded again to love an adulteress; to signify God’s love to the synagogue. The wretched state of the Jews for a long time, till at last they shall be converted.

3:1. And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, and love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress: as the Lord loveth the children of Israel, and they look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes.

3:2. And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley, and for half a core of barley.

3:3. And I said to her: Thou shalt wait for me many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt be no man’s, and I also will wait for thee.

3:4. For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim.

Theraphim.... Images or representations.

3:5. And after this the children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord, their God, and David, their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness, in the last days.

David their king.... That is, Christ, who is of the house of David.

Osee Chapter 4

God’s judgment against the sins of Israel: Juda is warned not to follow their example.

4:1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord shall enter into judgment with the inhabitants of the land: for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land.

4:2. Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery, have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood.

4:3. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth in it shall languish with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air: yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be gathered together.

4:4. But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest.

Let not any man judge, etc.... As if he would say: It is in vain to strive with them, or reprove them, they are so obstinate in evil.

4:5. And thou shalt fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with thee: in the night I have made thy mother to be silent.

4:6. My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

4:7. According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.

4:8. They shall eat the sins of my people, and shall lift up their souls to their iniquity.

4:9. And there shall be like people like priest: and I will visit their ways upon them, and I will repay them their devices.

4:10. And they shall eat and shall not be filled: they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not observing the law.

4:11. Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness, take away the understanding.

4:12. My people have consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God.

4:13. They offered sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burnt incense upon the hills: under the oak, and the poplar, and the turpentine tree, because the shadow thereof was good: therefore shall your daughters commit fornication, and your spouses shall be adulteresses.

4:14. I will not visit upon your daughters, when they shall commit fornication, and upon your spouses when they shall commit adultery: because themselves conversed with harlots, and offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and the people that doth not understand shall be beaten.

4:15. If thou play the harlot, O Israel, at least let not Juda offend: and go ye not into Galgal, and come not up into Bethaven, and do not swear: The Lord liveth.

Galgal and Bethaven.... Places where idols were worshipped. Bethel, which signifies the house of God, is called by the prophet, Bethaven, that is, the house of vanity, from Jeroboam’s golden calf that was worshipped there.

4:16. For Israel hath gone astray like a wanton heifer now will the Lord feed them, as a lamb in a spacious place.

4:17. Ephraim is a partaker with idols, let him alone.

4:18. Their banquet is separated, they have gone astray by fornication: they that should have protected them have loved to bring shame upon them.

4:19. The wind hath bound them up in its wings, and they shall be confounded because of their sacrifices.

Osee Chapter 5

God’s threats against the priests, the people, and princes of Israel, for their idolatry.

5:1. Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king: for there is a judgment against you, because you have been a snare to them whom you should have watched over and a net spread upon Thabor.

O priests.... What is said of priests in this prophecy is chiefly understood of the priests of the kingdom of Israel; who were not true priests of the race of Aaron; but served the calves at Bethel and Dan.

5:2. And you have turned aside victims into the depth and I am the teacher of them all.

5:3. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me for now Ephraim hath committed fornication, Israel is defiled.

5:4. They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

5:5. And the pride of Israel shall answer in his face: and Israel, and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity, Juda also shall fall with them.

5:6. With their flocks and with their herds, they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not find him: he is withdrawn from them.

5:7. They have transgressed against the Lord: for they have begotten children that are strangers: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

Children that are strangers.... That is, aliens from God: and therefore they are threatened with speedy destruction.

5:8. Blow ye the cornet in Gabaa, the trumpet in Rama: howl ye in Bethaven, behind thy back, O Benjamin.

5:9. Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel I have shewn that which shall surely be.

5:10. The princes of Juda are become as they that take up the bound: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

As they that take up the bound.... That is, they that remove the boundary, encroaching on the property of their neighbors: figuratively: going beyond the boundary of the laws of God.

5:11. Ephraim is under oppression, and broken in judgment: because he began to go after filthiness.

5:12. And I will be like a moth to Ephraim: and like rottenness to the house of Juda.

5:13. And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Juda his band: and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to the avenging king: and he shall not be able to heal you, neither shall he be able to take off the band from you.

5:14. For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion’s whelp to the house of Juda: I, I will catch, and go: I will take away, and there is none that can rescue.

5:15. I will go and return to my place: until you are consumed, and seek my face.

Osee Chapter 6

Affliction shall be a means to bring many to Christ, a complaint of the untowardness of the Jews. God loves mercy more than sacrifice.

6:1. In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord.

6:2. For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us.

6:3. He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.

6:4. What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.

6:5. For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.

6:6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.

6:7. But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me.

6:8. Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.

Supplanted with blood.... that is, undermined and brought to ruin, for shedding of blood: and, as it is signified in the following verse, for conspiring with the priests (of Bethel) like robbers, to murder in the way such as passed out of Sichem to go towards the temple of Jerusalem. Or else ... supplanted with blood ... signifies flowing in such manner with blood, as to suffer none to walk there without imbruing the soles of their feet in blood.

6:9. And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out of Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.

6:10. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled.

6:11. And thou also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back the captivity of my people.

Osee Chapter 7

The manifold sins of Israel, and of their kings, hinder the Lord from healing them.

7:1. When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, for they have committed falsehood, and the thief is come in to steal, the robber is without.

7:2. And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: their own devices now have beset them about, they have been done before my face.

7:3. They have made the king glad with their wickedness: and the princes with their lies.

Made the king glad, etc.... To please Jeroboam, and their other kings they have given themselves up to the wicked worship of idols, which are mere falsehood and lies.

7:4. They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened.

7:5. The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners.

7:6. Because they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid snares for them: he slept all the night baking them, in the morning he himself was heated as a flaming fire.

7:7. They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges: all their kings have fallen: there is none amongst them that calleth unto me.

7:8. Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned.

7:9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not: yea, grey hairs also are spread about upon him, and he is ignorant of it.

7:10. And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face: and they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought him in all these.

7:11. And Ephraim is become as a dove that is decoyed, not having a heart: they called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians.

7:12. And when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them: I will bring them down as the fowl of the air, I will strike them as their congregation hath heard.

7:13. Woe to them, for they have departed from me: they shall be wasted because they have transgressed against me: and I redeemed them: and they have spoken lies against me.

7:14. And they have not cried to me with their heart, but they howled in their beds: they have thought upon wheat and wine, they are departed from me.

7:15. And I have chastised them, and strengthened their arms: and they have imagined evil against me.

7:16. They returned, that they might be without yoke: they became like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongue. This is their derision in the land of Egypt.

Osee Chapter 8

The Israelites are threatened with destruction for their impiety and idolatry.

8:1. Let there be a trumpet in thy throat like an eagle upon the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law.

8:2. They shall call upon me: O my God, we, Israel, know thee.

8:3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, the enemy shall pursue him.

8:4. They have reigned, but not by me: they have been princes, and I knew not: of their silver and their gold they have made idols to themselves, that they might perish.

8:5. Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled against them. How long will they be incapable of being cleansed?

8:6. For itself also is the invention of Israel: a workman made it, and it is no god: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders’ webs.

8:7. For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.

8:8. Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an unclean vessel.

8:9. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.

8:10. But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.

8:11. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become to him unto sin.

8:12. I shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted as foreign.

8:13. They shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it, and the Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their iniquity, and will visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

8:14. And Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples: and Juda hath built many fenced cities: and I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the houses thereof.

Osee Chapter 9

The distress and captivity of Israel for their sins and idolatry.

9:1. Rejoice not, O Israel: rejoice not as the nations do: for thou hast committed fornication against thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

9:2. The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the wine shall deceive them.

9:3. They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land: Ephraim is returned to Egypt, and hath eaten unclean things among the Assyrians.

9:4. They shall not offer wine to the Lord, neither shall they please him: their sacrifices shall be like the bread of mourners: all that shall eat it shall be defiled: for their bread is life for their soul, it shall not enter into the house of the Lord.

9:5. What will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord?

9:6. For behold they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them together, Memphis shall bury them: nettles shall inherit their beloved silver, the bur shall be in their tabernacles.

9:7. The days of visitation are come, the days of repaying are come: know ye, O Israel, that the prophet was foolish, the spiritual man was mad, for the multitude of thy iniquity, and the multitude of thy madness.

9:8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: the prophet is become a snare of ruin upon all his ways, madness is in the house of his God.

9:9. They have sinned deeply, as in the days of Gabaa: he will remember their iniquity, and will visit their sin.

9:10. I found Israel like grapes in the desert, I saw their fathers like the firstfruits of the fig tree in the top thereof: but they went in to Beelphegor, and alienated themselves to that confusion, and became abominable, as those things were, which they loved.

9:11. As for Ephraim, their glory hath flown away like a bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

9:12. And though they should bring up their children, I will make them without children among men: yea, and woe to them, when I shall depart from them.

9:13. Ephraim, as I saw, was a Tyre, founded in beauty: and Ephraim shall bring out his children to the murderer.

9:14. Give them, O Lord. What wilt thou give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.

9:15. All their wickedness is in Galgal, for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their devices I will cast them forth out of my house: I will love them no more, all their princes are revolters.

9:16. Ephraim is struck, their root is dried up, they shall yield no fruit. And if they should have issue, I will slay the best beloved fruit of their womb.

9:17. My God will cast them away, because they hearkened not to him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Osee Chapter 10

After many benefits, great affliction shall fall upon the ten tribes, for their ingratitude to God.

10:1. Israel a vine full of branches, the fruit is agreeable to it: according to the multitude of his fruit, he hath multiplied altars, according to the plenty of his land he hath abounded with idols.

10:2. Their heart is divided: now they shall perish: he shall break down their idols, he shall destroy their altars.

10:3. For now they shall say: We have no king: because we fear not the Lord: and what shall a king do to us?

10:4. You speak words of an unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.

10:5. The inhabitants of Samaria have worshipped the kine of Bethaven: for the people thereof have mourned over it, and the wardens of its temple that rejoiced over it in its glory because it is departed from it.

The kine of Bethaven.... The golden calves of Jeroboam.

10:6. For itself also is carried into Assyria, a present to the avenging king: shame shall fall upon Ephraim, and Israel shall be confounded in his own will.

Itself also is carried, etc.... One of the golden calves was given by king Manahem, to Phul, king of the Assyrians, to engage him to stand by him.

10:7. Samaria hath made her king to pass as froth upon the face of the water.

10:8. And the high places of the idol, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the bur and the thistle shall grow up over their altars: and they shall say to the mountains Cover us; and to the hills: Fall upon us.

10:9. From the days of Gabaa, Israel hath sinned, there they stood: the battle in Gabaa against the children of iniquity shall not overtake them.

10:10. According to my desire, I will chastise them: and the nations shall be gathered together against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.

Their two iniquities.... Their two calves.

10:11. Ephraim is a heifer taught to love to tread out corn, but I passed over upon the beauty of her neck: I will ride upon Ephraim, Juda shall plough, Jacob shall break the furrows for himself.

10:12. Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy, break up your fallow ground: but the time to seek the Lord is, when he shall come that shall teach you justice.

10:13. You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the multitude of thy strong ones.

10:14. A tumult shall arise among thy people: and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed as Salmana was destroyed, by the house of him that judged Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon her children.

As Salmana, king of the Midianites, was destroyed by the house, that is, by the followers of him that judged Baal; that is, of Gideon, who threw down the altar of Baal; and was therefore called Jerubaal. See Judges 6 and 8.

10:15. So hath Bethel done to you, because of the evil of your iniquities.

Osee Chapter 11

God proceeds in threatening Israel for their ingratitude: yet he will not utterly destroy them.

11:1. As the morning passeth, so hath the king of Israel passed away. Because Israel was a child, and I loved him: and I called my son out of Egypt.

I called my son.... Viz., Israel. But as the calling of Israel out of Egypt, was a figure of the calling of Christ from thence; therefore this text is also applicable to Christ, as we learn from Matthew 2.15.

11:2. As they called them, they went away from before their face: they offered victims to Baalim, and sacrificed to idols.

They called.... Viz., Moses and Aaron called; but they went away after other gods and would not hear.

11:3. And I was like a foster father to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms: and they knew not that I healed them.

11:4. I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love: and I will be to them as one that taketh off the yoke on their jaws: and I put his meat to him that he might eat.

11:5. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king: because they would not be converted.

11:6. The sword hath begun in his cities, and it shall consume his chosen men, and shall devour their heads.

11:7. And my people shall long for my return: but a yoke shall be put upon them together, which shall not be taken off.

11:8. How shall I deal with thee, O Ephraim, shall I protect thee, O Israel? how shall I make thee as Adama, shall I set thee as Seboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentance is stirred up.

Adama, etc.... Adama and Seboim were two cities in the neighborhood of Sodom: and underwent the like destruction.

11:9. I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath: I will not return to destroy Ephraim: because I am God, and not man: the holy one in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city.

11:10. They shall walk after the Lord, he shall roar as a lion: because he shall roar, and the children of the sea shall fear.

11:11. And they shall fly away like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of the Assyrians: and I will place them in their own houses, saith the Lord.

11:12. Ephraim hath compassed me about with denials, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Juda went down as a witness with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Osee Chapter 12

Israel is reproved for sin. God’s favours to them.

12:1. Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all the day long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt.

12:2. Therefore there is a judgment of the Lord with Juda, and a visitation for Jacob: he will render to him according to his ways, and according to his devices.

12:3. In the womb he supplanted his brother: and by his strength he had success with an angel.

12:4. And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us.

12:5. Even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.

12:6. Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.

12:7. He is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved oppression.

12:8. And Ephraim said: But yet I am become rich, I have found me an idol: all my labours shall not find me the iniquity that I have committed.

12:9. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the feast.

12:10. And I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.

12:11. If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal offering sacrifices with bullocks: for their altars also are as heaps in the furrows of the field.

If Galaad be an idol, etc.... That is, if Galaad with all its idols and sacrifices be like a mere idol itself, being brought to nothing by Theglathphalasar: how vain is it to expect, that the idols worshipped in Galgal shall be of any service to the tribes that remain.

12:12. Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and was a keeper for a wife.

12:13. But the Lord by a prophet brought Israel out of Egypt: and he was preserved by a prophet.

12:14. Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath with his bitterness, and his blood shall come upon him, and his Lord will render his reproach unto him.

Osee Chapter 13

The judgments of God upon Israel for their sins. Christ shall one day redeem them.

13:1. When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel: and he sinned in Baal, and died.

13:2. And now they have sinned more and more: and they have made to themselves a molten thing of their silver as the likeness of idols: the whole is the work of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves.

13:3. Therefore they shall be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

13:4. But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me, and there is no saviour beside me.

13:5. I knew thee in the desert, in the land of the wilderness.

13:6. According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me.

13:7. And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians.

13:8. I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there as a lion, the beast of the field shall tear them.

13:9. Destruction is thy own, O Israel: thy help is only in me.

13:10. Where is thy king? now especially let him save thee in all thy cities: and thy judges, of whom thou saidst: Give me kings and princes.

13:11. I will give thee a king in my wrath, and will take him away in my indignation.

13:12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hidden.

13:13. The sorrows of a woman in labour shall come upon him, he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.

13:14. I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.

13:15. Because he shall make a separation between brothers: the Lord will bring a burning wind that shall rise from the desert, and it shall dry up his springs, and shall make his fountain desolate, and he shall carry off the treasure of every desirable vessel.

Osee Chapter 14

Samaria shall be destroyed. An exhortation to repentance: God’s favour through Christ to the penitent.

14:1. Let Samaria perish, because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness: let them perish by the sword, let their little ones be dashed, and let the women with child be ripped up.

Perish, because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness.... It is not a curse or imprecation, but a prophecy of what should come to pass.

14:2. Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen down by thy iniquity.

14:3. Take with you words, and return to the Lord, and say to him: Take away all iniquity, and receive the good: and we will render the calves of our lips.

14:4. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more: The works of our hands are our gods: for thou wilt have mercy on the fatherless that is in thee.

14:5. I will heal their breaches, I will love them freely: for my wrath is turned away from them.

14:6. I will be as the dew, Israel shall spring as the lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Libanus.

14:7. His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree: and his smell as that of Libanus.

14:8. They shall be converted that sit under his shadow: they shall live upon wheat, and they shall blossom as a vine: his memorial shall be as the wine of Libanus.

14:9. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will hear him, and I will make him flourish like a green fir tree: from me is thy fruit found.

14:10. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know these things? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

THE PROPHECY OF JOEL

JOEL, whose name, according to ST. JEROME, signifies THE LORD GOD: or, as others say, THE COMING DOWN OF GOD: prophesied about the same time in the kingdom of Judea, as OSEE did in the kingdom of Israel. He foretells under figure the great evils that were coming upon the people for their sins: earnestly exhorts them to repentance: and comforts them with the promise of a TEACHER OF JUSTICE, viz., CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD, and of the coming down of his holy SPIRIT.

Joel Chapter 1

The prophet describes the judgments that shall fall upon the people, and invites them to fasting and prayer.

1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Joel, the son of Phatuel.

1:2. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

1:3. Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.

1:4. That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed.

That which the palmerworm hath left, etc.... Some understand this literally of the desolation of the land by these insects: others understand it of the different invasions of the Chaldeans, or other enemies.

1:5. Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take delight; in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.

1:6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion’s whelp.

1:7. He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

1:8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

1:9. Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the Lord’s ministers, have mourned:

1:10. The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.

1:11. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.

1:12. The vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree hath languished: the pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the apple tree, and all the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the children of men.

1:13. Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of your God.

1:14. Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly, gather together the ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God: and cry ye to the Lord:

1:15. Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at hand, and it shall come like destruction from the mighty.

1:16. Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

1:17. The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed, the storehouses are broken down: because the corn is confounded.

1:18. Why did the beasts groan, why did the herds of cattle low? because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are perished.

1:19. To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness: and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the country.

1:20. Yea, and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness.

Joel Chapter 2

2:1. Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: because the day of the Lord cometh, because it is nigh at hand.

The day of the Lord.... That is, the time when he will execute justice upon sinners.

2:2. A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it, even to the years of generation and generation.

A numerous and strong people.... The Assyrians, or Chaldeans. Others understand all this of an army of locusts laying waste the land.

2:3. Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.

2:4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they shall run like horsemen.

2:5. They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, as a strong people prepared to battle.

2:6. At their presence the people shall be in grievous pains: all faces shall be made like a kettle.

2:7. They shall run like valiant men: like men of war they shall scale the wall: the men shall march every one on his way, and they shall not turn aside from their ranks.

2:8. No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk every one in his path: yea, and they shall fall through the windows, and shall take no harm.

2:9. They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall come in at the windows, as a thief.

2:10. At their presence the earth hath trembled, the heavens are moved: the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

2:11. And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his army: for his armies are exceedingly great, for they are strong, and execute his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?

2:12. Now, therefore, saith the Lord. Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.

2:13. And rend your hearts, and not your garments and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil.

2:14. Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God?

2:15. Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly,

2:16. Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bridal chamber.

2:17. Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord’s ministers, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God?

2:18. The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people.

2:19. And the Lord answered, and said to his people: Behold I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

2:20. And I will remove far off from you the northern enemy: and I will drive him into a land unpassable, and desert, with his face towards the east sea, and his hinder part towards the utmost sea: and his stench shall ascend, and his rottenness shall go up, because he hath done proudly.

The northern enemy.... Some understand this of Holofernes and his army: others, of the locusts.

2:21. Fear not, O land, be glad, and rejoice: for the Lord hath done great things.

2:22. Fear not, ye beasts of the fields: for the beautiful places of the wilderness are sprung, for the tree hath brought forth its fruit, the fig tree, and the vine have yielded their strength.

2:23. And you, O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful in the Lord your God: because he hath given you a teacher of justice, and he will make the early and the latter rain to come down to you as in the beginning.

2:24. And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow with wine, and oil.

2:25. And I will restore to you the years which the locust, and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm hath eaten; my great host which I sent upon you.

2:26. And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God; who hath done wonders with you, and my people shall not be confounded for ever.

2:27. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: and I am the Lord your God, and there is none besides: and my people shall not be confounded forever.

2:28. And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

2:29. Moreover, upon my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour forth my spirit.

2:30. And I will shew wonders in heaven; and in earth, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.

2:31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come.

2:32. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved: for in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem shall be salvation, as the Lord hath said, and in the residue whom the Lord shall call.

Joel Chapter 3

3:1. For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem:

3:2. I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land.

3:3. And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink.

3:4. But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.

3:5. For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable, and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples.

3:6. And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country.

3:7. Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads.

3:8. And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.

3:9. Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.

3:10. Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.

3:11. Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.

3:12. Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.

3:13. Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.

3:14. Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.

3:15. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

3:16. And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

3:17. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through it no more.

3:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.

A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, etc.... Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations.

3:19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land.

3:20. And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation.

Judea—and Jerusalem.... That is, the spiritual Jerusalem, viz., the church of Christ.

3:21. And I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed: and the Lord will dwell in Sion.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

THE PROPHECY OF AMOS

AMOS prophesied in Israel about the same time as OSEE: and was called from following the cattle to denounce GOD’S judgments to the people of Israel, and the neighbouring nations, for their repeated crimes, in which they continued without repentance.

Amos Chapter 1

The prophet threatens Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, and Ammon with the judgments of God, for their obstinacy in sin.

1:1. The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Thecua: which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Ozias king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas king of Israel two years before the earthquake.

The earthquake.... Many understand this of a great earthquake, which they say was felt at the time that king Ozias attempted to offer incense in the temple. But the best chronologists prove that the earthquake here spoken of must have been before that time: because Jeroboam the second, under whom Amos prophesied, was dead long before that attempt of Ozias.

1:2. And he said: The Lord will roar from Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the beautiful places of the shepherds have mourned, and the top of Carmel is withered.

1:3. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four I will not convert it: because they have thrashed Galaad with iron wains.

For three crimes—and for four.... That is, for their many unrepented of crimes.—Ibid. I will not convert it.... That is, I will not spare them, nor turn away the punishments I design to inflict upon them.

1:4. And I will send a fire into the house of Azael, and it shall devour the houses of Benadad.

1:5. And I will break the bar of Damascus: and I will cut off the inhabitants from the plain of the idol, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of pleasure: and the people of Syria shall be carried away to Cyrene, saith the Lord.

1:6. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for four I will not convert it: because they have carried away a perfect captivity to shut them up in Edom.

1:7. And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the houses thereof.

1:8. And I will cut off the inhabitant from Azotus, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ascalon: and I will turn my hand against Accaron, and the rest of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

1:9. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for four I will not convert it: because they have shut up an entire captivity in Edom, and have not remembered the covenant of brethren.

1:10. And I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour the houses thereof.

1:11. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath pursued his brother with the sword, and hath cast off all pity, and hath carried on his fury, and hath kept his wrath to the end.

1:12. I will send a fire into Theman: and it shall devour the houses of Bosra.

1:13. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath ripped up the women with child of Galaad to enlarge his border.

1:14. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabba: and it shall devour the houses thereof with shouting in the day of battle, and with a whirlwind in the day of trouble.

1:15. And Melchom shall go into captivity, both he, and his princes together, saith the Lord.

Melchom.... The god or idol of the Ammonites, otherwise called Moloch, and Melech: which in Hebrew signifies a king, and Melchom their king.

Amos Chapter 2

The judgments with which God threatens Moab, Juda, and Israel for their sins, and their ingratitude.

2:1. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath burnt the bones of the king of Edom even to ashes.

2:2. And I will send a fire into Moab, and it shall devour the houses of Carioth: and Moab shall die with a noise, with the sound of the trumpet:

2:3. And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all his princes with him, saith the Lord.

2:4. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Juda, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath cast away the law of the Lord, and hath not kept his commandments: for their idols have caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked.

2:5. And I will send a fire into Juda, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem.

2:6. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath sold the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of shoes.

2:7. They bruise the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the humble: and the son and his father have gone to the same young woman, to profane my holy name.

2:8. And they sat down upon garments laid to pledge by every altar: and drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

2:9. Yet I cast out the Amorrhite before their face: whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was strong as an oak: and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots beneath.

2:10. It is I that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and I led you forty years through the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorrhite.

2:11. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not so, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?

2:12. And you will present wine to the Nazarites: and command the prophets, saying: Prophesy not.

2:13. Behold, I will screak under you as a wain screaketh that is laden with hay.

I will screak.... Unable to bear any longer the enormous load of your sins, etc. The spirit of God, as St. Jerome takes notice, accommodates himself to the education of the prophet and inspires him with comparisons taken from country affairs.

2:14. And flight shall perish from the swift, and the valiant shall not possess his strength, neither shall the strong save his life.

2:15. And he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not escape, neither shall the rider of the horse save his life.

2:16. And the stout of heart among the valiant shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.

Amos Chapter 3

The evils that shall fall upon Israel for their sins.

3:1. Hear the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O ye children of Israel: concerning the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

3:2. You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities.

Visit upon.... That is, punish.

3:3. Shall two walk together except they be agreed?

3:4. Will a lion roar in the forest, if he have no prey? will the lion’s whelp cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

3:5. Will the bird fall into the snare upon the earth, if there be no fowler? Shall the snare be taken up from the earth, before it hath taken somewhat?

3:6. Shall the trumpet sound in a city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done?

Evil in a city.... He speaks of the evil of punishments of war, famine, pestilence, desolation, etc., but not of the evil of sin, of which God is not the author.

3:7. For the Lord God doth nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

3:8. The lion shall roar, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who shall not prophesy?

3:9. Publish it in the houses of Azotus, and in the houses of the land of Egypt, and say: Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the many follies in the midst thereof, and them that suffer oppression in the inner rooms thereof.

3:10. And they have not known to do the right thing, saith the Lord, storing up iniquity, and robberies in their houses.

3:11. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: The land shall be in tribulation, and shall be compassed about: and thy strength shall be taken away from thee, and thy houses shall be spoiled.

3:12. Thus saith the Lord: As if a shepherd should get out of the lion’s mouth two legs, or the tip of the ear: so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria, in a place of a bed, and in the couch of Damascus.

3:13. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord the God of hosts:

3:14. That in the day when I shall begin to visit the transgressions of Israel, I will visit upon him, and upon the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altars shall be cut off, and shall fall to the ground.

3:15. And I will strike the winter house with the summer house: and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall be destroyed, saith the Lord.

Amos Chapter 4

The Israelites are reproved for their oppressing the poor, for their idolatry, and their incorrigibleness.

4:1. Hear this word, ye fat kine that are in the mountains of Samaria: you that oppress the needy, and crush the poor: that say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink.

Fat kine.... He means the great ones that lived in plenty and wealth.

4:2. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days shall come upon you, when they shall lift you up on pikes, and what shall remain of you in boiling pots.

4:3. And you shall go out at the breaches one over against the other, and you shall be cast forth into Armon, saith the Lord.

Armon.... A foreign country; some understand it of Armenia.

4:4. Come ye to Bethel, and do wickedly: to Galgal, and multiply transgressions: and bring in the morning your victims, your tithes in three days.

4:5. And offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven: and call free offerings, and proclaim it: for so you would do, O children of Israel, saith the Lord God.

4:6. Whereupon I also have given you dulness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet you have not returned to me, saith the Lord.

4:7. I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon: and the piece whereupon I rained not, withered.

4:8. And two and three cities went to one city to drink water, and were not filled: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

4:9. I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew, the palmerworm hath eaten up your many gardens, and your vineyards: your olive groves, and fig groves: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

4:10. I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt, I slew your young men with the sword, even to the captivity of your horses: and I made the stench of your camp to come up into your nostrils: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

4:11. I destroyed some of you, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

4:12. Therefore I will do these things to thee, O Israel: and after I shall have done these things to thee, be prepared to meet thy God, O Israel.

4:13. For behold he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth his word to man, he that maketh the morning mist, and walketh upon the high places of the earth: the Lord the God of hosts is his name.

Amos Chapter 5

A lamentation for Israel: an exhortation to return to God.

5:1. Hear ye this word, which I take up concerning you for a lamentation. The house of Israel is fallen, and it shall rise no more.

5:2. The virgin of Israel is cast down upon her land, there is none to raise her up.

5:3. For thus saith the Lord God: The city, out of which came forth a thousand, there shall be left in it a hundred: and out of which there came a hundred, there shall be left in it ten, in the house of Israel.

5:4. For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and you shall live.

5:5. But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgal, neither shall you pass over to Bersabee: for Galgal shall go into captivity, and Bethel shall be unprofitable.

Bethel,—Galgal,—Bersabee.... The places where they worshipped their idols.

5:6. Seek ye the Lord, and live: lest the house of Joseph be burnt with fire, and it shall devour, and there shall be none to quench Bethel.

5:7. You that turn judgment into wormwood, and forsake justice in the land,

5:8. Seek him that maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and that turneth darkness into morning, and that changeth day into night: that calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.

Arcturus and Orion.... Arcturus is a bright star in the north: Orion a beautiful constellation in the south.

5:9. He that with a smile bringeth destruction upon the strong, and waste upon the mighty.

With a smile.... That is, with all ease, and without making any effort.

5:10. They have hated him that rebuketh in the gate: and have abhorred him that speaketh perfectly.

5:11. Therefore because you robbed the poor, and took the choice prey from him: you shall build houses with square stone, and shall not dwell in them: you shall plant most delightful vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.

5:12. Because I know your manifold crimes, and your grievous sins: enemies of the just, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in the gate.

5:13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time, for it is an evil time.

5:14. Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord the God of hosts will be with you, as you have said.

5:15. Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the Lord the God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

5:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of hosts the sovereign Lord: In every street there shall be wailing: and in all places that are without, they shall say: Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to lament.

5:17. And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pass through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.

5:18. Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

5:19. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.

5:20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it?

5:21. I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your assemblies.

5:22. And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.

5:23. Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp.

5:24. But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.

5:25. Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel?

Did you offer, etc.... Except the sacrifices that were offered at the first, in the dedication of the tabernacle, the Israelites offered no sacrifices in the desert.

5:26.But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.

A tabernacle, etc.... All this alludes to the idolatry which they committed, when they were drawn away by the daughters of Moab to the worship of their gods. Num. 25.

5:27. And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the God of hosts is his name.

Amos Chapter 6

The desolation of Israel for their pride and luxury.

6:1. Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men, heads of the people, that go in with state into the house of Israel.

6:2. Pass ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence into Emath the great: and go down into Geth of the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these: if their border be larger than your border.

6:3. You that are separated unto the evil day: and that approach to the throne of iniquity;

6:4. You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on your couches: that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd;

6:5. You that sing to the sound of the psaltery: they have thought themselves to have instruments of music like David;

6:6. That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments: and they are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph.

6:7. Wherefore now they shall go captive at the head of them that go into captivity: and the faction of the luxurious ones shall be taken away.

6:8. The Lord God hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord the God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the city with the inhabitants thereof.

6:9. And if there remain ten men in one house, they also shall die.

6:10. And a man’s kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, that he may carry the bones out of the house; and he shall say to him that is in the inner rooms of the house: Is there yet any with thee?

6:11. And he shall answer: There is an end. And he shall say to him: Hold thy peace, and mention not the name of the Lord.

6:12. For behold the Lord hath commanded, and he will strike the greater house with breaches, and the lesser house with clefts.

6:13. Can horses run upon the rocks, or can any one plough with buffles? for you have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood.

6:14. You that rejoice in a thing of nought: you that say: Have we not taken unto us horns by our own strength?

6:15. But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall destroy you from the entrance of Emath, even to the torrent of the desert.

Amos Chapter 7

The prophet sees, in three visions, evils coming upon Israel: he is accused of treason by the false priest of Bethel.

7:1. These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the locust was formed in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain, and lo, it was the latter rain after the king’s mowing.

The locust, etc.... These judgments by locusts and fire, which, by the prophet’s intercession, were moderated, signify the former invasions of the Assyrians under Phul and Theglathphalasar, before the utter desolation of Israel by Salmanasar.

7:2. And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, I said: O Lord God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he is very little?

7:3. The Lord had pity upon this: It shall not be, said the Lord.

7:4. These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the Lord called for judgment unto fire, and it devoured the great deep, and ate up a part at the same time.

7:5. And I said: O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee, who shall raise up Jacob, for he is a little one?

7:6. The Lord had pity upon this. Yea this also shall not be, said the Lord God.

7:7. These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold the Lord was standing upon a plastered wall, and in his hand a mason’s trowel.

7:8. And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A mason’s trowel. And the Lord said: Behold, I will lay down the trowel in the midst of my people Israel. I will plaster them over no more.

7:9. And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

7:10. And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos hath rebelled against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.

7:11. For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be carried away captive out of their own land.

Jeroboam shall die by the sword.... The prophet did not say this; but that the Lord would rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword: which was verified, when Zacharias, the son and successor of Jeroboam, was slain by the sword. 4 Kings 15.10.

7:12. And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Juda: and eat bread there, and prophesy there.

7:13. But prophesy not again any more in Bethel: because it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the house of the kingdom.

7:14. And Amos answered and said to Amasias: I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs.

I am not a prophet.... That is, I am not a prophet by education: nor is prophesying my calling or profession: but I am a herdsman, whom God was pleased to send hither to prophesy to Israel.

7:15. And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

7:16. And now hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, thou shalt not prophesy against Israel, and thou shalt not drop thy word upon the house of the idol.

The house of the idol.... Viz., of the calf worshipped in Bethel.

7:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall play the harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured by a line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go into captivity out of their land.

Amos Chapter 8

Under the figure of a hook, which bringeth down the fruit, the approaching desolation of Israel is foreshewed for their avarice and injustices.

8:1. These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.

8:2. And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.

8:3. And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.

8:4. Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,

8:5. Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,

8:6. That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?

8:7. The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.

8:8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?

8:9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:

8:10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.

8:11. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.

8:12. And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

8:13. In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.

8:14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.

Amos Chapter 9

The certainty of the desolation of Israel: the restoring of the tabernacle of David, and the conversion of the Gentiles to the church; which shall flourish for ever.

9:1. I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said: Strike the hinges, and let the lintels be shook: for there is covetousness in the head of them all, and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall be no flight for them: they shall flee, and he that shall flee of them shall not be delivered.

9:2. Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand bring them out: and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.

9:3. And though they be hid in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them away from thence: and though they hide themselves from my eyes in the depth of the sea, there will I command the serpent and he shall bite them.

9:4. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall kill them. And I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

9:5. And the Lord the God of hosts is he who toucheth the earth, and it shall melt: and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up as a river, and shall run down as the river of Egypt.

9:6. He that buildeth his ascension in heaven, and hath founded his bundle upon the earth: who calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord is his name.

His ascension.... That is, his high throne.—Ibid. His bundle.... That is, his church bound up together by the bands of one faith and communion.

9:7. Are not you as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? did not I bring up Israel, out of the land of Egypt: and the Philistines out of Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of Cyrene?

As the children of the Ethiopians.... That is, as black as they, by your iniquities.

9:8. Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: but yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

9:9. For behold I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve: and there shall not a little stone fall to the ground.

9:10. All the sinners of my people shall fall by the sword: who say: The evils shall not approach, and shall not come upon us.

9:11. In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen: and I will close up the breaches of the walls thereof, and repair what was fallen: and I will rebuild it as in the days of old.

9:12. That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all nations, because my name is invoked upon them: saith the Lord that doth these things.

9:13. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed: and the mountains shall drop sweetness, and every hill shall be tilled.

Shall overtake, etc.... By this is meant the great abundance of spiritual blessings; which, as it were, by a constant succession, shall enrich the church of Christ.

9:14. And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel: and they shall build the abandoned cities, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them: and shall make gardens, and eat the fruits of them. And I will plant them upon their own land: and I will no more pluck them out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

THE PROPHECY OF ABDIAS

ABDIAS, whose name is interpreted THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, is believed to have prophesied about the same time as OSEE, JOEL, and AMOS: though some of the Hebrews, who believe him to be the same with ACHAB’s steward, make him much more ancient. His prophecy is the shortest of any in number of words, but yields to none, says ST. JEROME, in the sublimity of mysteries. It contains but one chapter.

Abdias Chapter 1

The destruction of Edom for their pride: and the wrongs they did to Jacob: the salvation and victory of Israel.

1:1. The vision of Abdias. Thus saith the Lord God to Edom: We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and he hath sent an ambassador to the nations: Arise, and let us rise up to battle against him.

1:2. Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou art exceeding contemptible.

1:3. The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, who dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, and settest up thy throne on high: who sayest in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground?

1:4. Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars: thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.

1:5. If thieves had gone in to thee, if robbers by night, how wouldst thou have held thy peace? would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers had come in to thee, would they not have left thee at the least a cluster?

1:6. How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his hidden things?

1:7. They have sent thee out even to the border: all the men of thy confederacy have deceived thee: the men of thy peace have prevailed against thee: they that eat with thee shall lay snares under thee: there is no wisdom in him.

1:8. Shall not I in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

1:9. And thy valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau.

1:10. For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt perish for ever.

1:11. In the day when thou stoodest against him, when strangers carried away his army captive, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem: thou also wast as one of them.

1:12. But thou shalt not look on in the day of thy brother, in the day of his leaving his country: and thou shalt not rejoice over the children of Juda, in the day of their destruction: and thou shalt not magnify thy mouth in the day of distress.

Thou shalt not look, etc.... or, thou shouldst not, etc. It is a reprehension for what they had done, and at the same time a declaration that these things should not pass unpunished.—Ibid. Thou shalt not magnify thy mouth.... That is, thou shalt not speak arrogantly against the children of Juda as insulting them in their distress.

1:13. Neither shalt thou enter into the gate of my people in the day of their ruin: neither shalt thou also look on in his evils in the day of his calamity: and thou shalt not be sent out against his army in the day of his desolation.

1:14. Neither shalt thou stand in the crossways to kill them that flee: and thou shalt not shut up them that remain of him in the day of tribulation.

1:15. For the day of the Lord is at hand upon all nations: as thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee: he will turn thy reward upon thy own head.

1:16. For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so all nations shall drink continually: and they shall drink, and sup up, and they shall be as though they were not.

1:17. And in mount Sion shall be salvation, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess those that possessed them.

1:18. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble: and they shall be kindled in them, and shall devour them: and there shall be no remains of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it.

1:19. And they that are toward the south, shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they that are in the plains, the Philistines: and they shall possess the country of Ephraim, and the country of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Galaad.

1:20. And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, all the places of the Chanaanites even to Sarepta: and the captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south.

1:21. And saviours shall come up into mount Sion to judge the mount of Esau: and the kingdom shall be for the Lord.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

THE PROPHECY OF JONAS

JONAS prophesied in the reign of JEREBOAM the second: as we learn from 4 Kings 14.25. To whom also he foretold his success in restoring all the borders of Israel. He was of GETH OPHER in the tribe of ZABULON, and consequently of GALILEE: which confutes that assertion of the Pharisees, John 7.52, that no prophet ever rose out of GALILEE. He prophesied and prefigured in his own person the death and resurrection of CHRIST: and was the only one among the prophets that was sent to preach to the Gentiles.

Jonas Chapter 1

Jonas being sent to preach in Ninive, fleeth away by sea: a tempest riseth: of which he being found, by lot, to be the cause, is cast into the sea, which thereupon is calmed.

1:1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonas, the son of Amathi, saying:

1:2. Arise and go to Ninive, the great city, and preach in it: For the wickedness thereof is come up before me.

Nineve.... The capital city of the Assyrian empire.

1:3. And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord,

Tharsis.... Which some take to be Tharsus of Cilicia, others to be Tartessus of Spain, others to be Carthage.

1:4. But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea: and a great tempest was raised in the sea, and the ship was in danger to be broken.

1:5. And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them: and Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep.

A deep sleep.... This is a lively image of the insensibility of sinners, fleeing from God, and threatened on every side with his judgments: and yet sleeping as if they were secure.

1:6. And the ship master came to him and said to him: Why art thou fast asleep? rise up call upon thy God, if so be that God will think of us that we may not perish.

1:7. And they said every one to his fellow: Come and let us cast lots, that we may know why this evil is upon us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonas.

1:8. And they said to him: Tell us for what cause this evil is upon us, what is thy business? of what country art thou? and whither goest thou? or of what people art thou?

1:9. And he said to them: I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made both the sea and the dry land.

1:10. And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him: Why hast thou done this? (For the men knew that he fled from the face of the Lord: because he had told them.)

1:11. And they said to him: What shall we do with thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea flowed and swelled.

1:12. And he said to them: take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

1:13. And the men rowed hard to return to land, but they were not able: because the sea tossed and swelled upon them.

1:14. And they cried to the Lord, and said: We beseech thee, O Lord let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.

1:15. And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging.

1:16. And the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and sacrificed victims to the Lord, and made vows.

Jonas Chapter 2

Jonas is swallowed up by a great fish: he prayeth with confidence in God; and the fish casteth him out on the dry land.

2:1. Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

2:2. And Jonas prayed to the Lord, his God, out of the belly of the fish.

2:3. And he said: I cried out of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me: I cried out of the belly of hell, and thou hast heard my voice.

2:4. And thou hast cast me forth into the deep, in the heart of the sea, and a flood hath compassed me: all thy billows, and thy waves have passed over me.

2:5. And I said: I am cast away out of the sight of thy eyes: but yet I shall see thy holy temple again.

2:6. The waters compassed me about even to the soul: the deep hath closed me round about, the sea hath covered my head.

2:7. I went down to the lowest parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever: and thou wilt bring up my life from corruption, O Lord, my God.

2:8. When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer may come to thee, unto thy holy temple.

2:9. They that in vain observe vanities, forsake their own mercy.

2:10. But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee: I will pay whatsoever I have vowed for my salvation to the Lord.

2:11. And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land.

Spoke to the fish.... God’s speaking to the fish, was nothing else but his will, which all things obey.

Jonas Chapter 3

Jonas is sent again to preach in Ninive. Upon their fasting and repentance, God recalleth the sentence by which they were to be destroyed.

3:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time saying:

3:2. Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.

3:3. And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey.

Of three days’ journey.... By the computation of some ancient historians, Ninive was about fifty miles round: so that to go through all the chief streets and public places was three days’ journey.

3:4. And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried and said: Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed.

3:5. And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

3:6. And the word came to the king of Ninive: and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed in sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

3:7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen, nor sheep taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water.

3:8. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.

3:9. Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?

3:10. And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.

Jonas Chapter 4

4:1. And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry:

Was exceedingly troubled, etc.... His concern was lest he should pass for a false prophet; or rather, lest God’s word, by this occasion, might come to be slighted and disbelieved.

4:2. And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, is not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into Tharsis: for I know that thou art a gracious and merciful God, patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive evil.

4:3. And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me: for it is better for me to die than to live.

4:4. And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry?

4:5. Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city: and he made himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would befall the city.

4:6. And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was fatigued): and Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy.

The Lord God prepared an ivy.... Hederam. In the Hebrew it is Kikajon, which some render a gourd: others a palmerist, or palma Christi.

4:7. But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.

4:8. And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live.

4:9. And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry with reason even unto death.

4:10. And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night perished.

4:11. And shall I not spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons, that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us