THE HARLOT

and

BALAAM'S DONKEY

compiled by Dee Finney

Note: I believe this is prophetic -for the future - not just historical
                                                                        by Dee

4-15-07 - NAP DREAM - I was living in a country-like town and out in front of the house was a large plaza with an extra-wide street that went for about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile down to a large bar at the other end.

I met a beautiful dark-haired woman wearing a brilliant red dress that was ankle length.  I was wearing a beautiful, slinky ankle length black dress and I was blonde.  Side by side, we looked really elegant together.

We walked side-by-side towards the bar and met my husband on the way.  He was walking closely behind us.  He made a comment about us and started to laugh. 

I didn't think what he said was funny at all, so I reached back and grabbed his left arm and squeezed it tightly so it had to hurt and said, "Don't say things only 'you' think are funny."

I let go of his arm and the three of us continued walking.  Then a really rough, ruddy-looking pock-skinned man came up and called my husband aside.  He looked very Mafioso to me and I wondered if he was drunk.

My husband and the man stopped to talk and then went through some very heavy wooden doors into the bar.

I and the woman dressed in red got down to the bar door also and I decided I didn't want to drink afterall, so I let her go in and I walked back home alone.

Back at the house, which was large, was divided in half.  I, my husband and children lived in the front half and a woman with children (all girls) lived upstairs in the back half. They had their own back entrance.

The girls preferred to go in and out the front door, which was okay when they played with my children or if I was taking care of them while their mother was gone.  I actually spent a lot of time with them, played with them, and entertained them. They were cute.

During the afternoon, I played with the girls, and one of them spent some time brushing my hair for me for fun, and I blew fake bubbles on the babies tummy to make her laugh.

But this particular day, the older two girls decided to put all their shoes on my side of the connecting door between my house and their house.  So, I bent down and picked up their shoes and put them on their side of the door and told them to keep their shoes on their own side of the door.

I then went back outside to go find my husband who hadn't yet come home from the bar and see if he was drunk.  I walked out onto the plaza and there were quite a few people out there going in different directions.

Over aways was a tall, black man, dressed in a greyish coarse foot length robe with a white pasty mask all over his face. He seemed to be talking or mumbling to himself.

I was worried that he was crazy in the head, but on the other side of him was a young boy wearing similar clothing, leading a donkey that was pulling a little cart behind it.

So, I thought that maybe the black man was talking to the young boy.

I didn't want to talk to the man because of his pasty white mask and his constant mumbling - it felt very uncomfortable, but he was moving in a direction that wasn't quite parallel to mine but kept moving slightly closer the farther I walked. 

I kept my eye on the young boy with the donkey.  His skin was darker than mine, but not black like the tall man. I couldn't be sure they were together and I couldn't be sure the black man was talking to him either, but the black man continued talking either to himself or to that boy or to the donkey.  I couldn't hear what he was saying but they both were going to cross my path and were getting closer and closer.

Finally, my path was blocked by a large patch of grass that someone had pulled all the sod off of and left only deeply rutted dirt and sand behind. 

At first I thought maybe I could walk on it, but then I realized I would sink deep down into the sand and couldn't get out again, so I decided it would be better not to take a chance and walk around it.

To do that, I would have to cross the path of the black man and the boy with the donkey and cart or backtrack and walk around them.

I finally decided it would be better if I walked way around them and the grass patch pit.

The roadway down to the bar looked awfully far and I wasn't sure I wanted to walk that far either because if my husband wasn't there, I'd have to walk back home in the dark all alone too - the whole way by myself.

So I woke up instead

.

Harlot

  1. Hebrew: zonah (Gen. 34:31; 38:15). In verses 21, 22 the Hebrew word used in kedeshah, i.e., a woman consecrated or devoted to prostitution in connection with the abominable worship of Asherah or Astarte, the Syrian Venus. This word is also used in Deut. 23:17; Hos. 4:14. Thus Tamar sat by the wayside as a consecrated kedeshah. It has been attempted to show that Rahab, usually called a "harlot" (Josh. 2:1; 6:17; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25), was only an innkeeper. This interpretation, however, cannot be maintained.

    Jephthah's mother is called a "strange woman" (Judg. 11:2). This, however, merely denotes that she was of foreign extraction.

    In the time of Solomon harlots appeared openly in the streets, and he solemnly warns against association with them (Prov. 7:12; 9:14. See also Jer. 3:2; Ezek. 16:24, 25, 31). The Revised Version, following the LXX., has "and the harlots washed," etc., instead of the rendering of the Authorized Version, "now they washed," of 1 Kings 22:38.

    To commit fornication is metaphorically used for to practice idolatry (Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:15; Hos. throughout); hence Jerusalem is spoken of as a harlot (Isa. 1:21).

    Hebrew: nokriyah, the "strange woman" (1 Kings 11:1; Prov. 5:20; 7:5; 23:27). Those so designated were Canaanites and other Gentiles (Josh. 23:13). To the same class belonged the "foolish", i.e., the sinful, "woman."

    In the New Testament the Greek pornai, plural, "harlots," occurs in Matt. 21:31,32, where they are classed with publicans; Luke 15:30; 1 Cor. 6:15,16; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25. It is used symbolically in Rev. 17:1, 5, 15, 16; 19:2.

    BRIDE = the Church in covenant relationship with Christ
     

    BALAAM'S DONKEY

    Numbers
    Chapter 22
    1
    1 Then the Israelites moved on and encamped in the plains of Moab on the other side of the Jericho stretch of the Jordan.
    2
    Now Balak, son of Zippor, saw all that Israel did to the Amorites.
    3
    Indeed, Moab feared the Israelites greatly because of their numbers, and detested them.
    4
    So Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Soon this horde will devour all the country around us as an ox devours the grass of the field." And Balak, Zippor's son, who was king of Moab at that time,
    5
    sent messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor on the Euphrates, in the land of the Amawites, summoning him with these words, "A people has come here from Egypt who now cover the face of the earth and are settling down opposite us!
    6
    2 Please come and curse this people for us; they are stronger than we are. We may then be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed."
    7
    Then the elders of Moab and of Midian left with the divination fee in hand and went to Balaam. When they had given him Balak's message,
    8
    he said to them in reply, "Stay here overnight, and I will give you whatever answer the LORD gives me." So the princes of Moab lodged with Balaam.
    9
    Then God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men visiting you?"
    10
    Balaam answered God, "Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me the message:
    11
    'This people that came here from Egypt now cover the face of the earth. Please come and lay a curse on them for us; we may then be able to give them battle and drive them out.'"
    12
    But God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them and do not curse this people, for they are blessed."
    13
    The next morning Balaam arose and told the princes of Balak, "Go back to your own country, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you."
    14
    So the princes of Moab went back to Balak with the report, "Balaam refused to come with us."
    15
    Balak again sent princes, who were more numerous and more distinguished than the others.
    16
    On coming to Balaam they told him, "This is what Balak, son of Zippor, has to say: Please do not refuse to come to me.
    17
    I will reward you very handsomely and will do anything you ask of me. Please come and lay a curse on this people for me."
    18
    But Balaam replied to Balak's officials, "Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, small or great, contrary to the command of the LORD, my God.
    19
    But, you too shall stay here overnight, till I learn what else the LORD may tell me."
    20
    That night God came to Balaam and said to him, "If these men have come to summon you, you may go with them; yet only on the condition that you do exactly as I tell you."
    21
    So the next morning when Balaam arose, he saddled his ass, and went off with the princes of Moab.
    22
    3 But now the anger of God flared up at him for going, and the angel of the LORD stationed himself on the road to hinder him as he was riding along on his ass, accompanied by two of his servants.
    23
    When the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing on the road with sword drawn, she turned off the road and went into the field, and Balaam had to beat her to bring her back on the road.
    24
    Then the angel of the LORD took his stand in a narrow lane between vineyards with a stone wall on each side.
    25
    When the ass saw the angel of the LORD there, she shrank against the wall; and since she squeezed Balaam's leg against it, he beat her again.
    26
    The angel of the LORD then went ahead, and stopped next in a passage so narrow that there was no room to move either to the right or to the left.
    27
    When the ass saw the angel of the LORD there, she cowered under Balaam. So, in anger, he again beat the ass with his stick.
    28
    But now the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she asked Balaam, "What have I done to you that you should beat me these three times?"
    29
    "You have acted so willfully against me," said Balaam to the ass, "that if I but had a sword at hand, I would kill you here and now."
    30
    But the ass said to Balaam, "Am I not your own beast, and have you not always ridden upon me until now? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way before?" "No," replied Balaam.
    31
    Then the LORD removed the veil from Balaam's eyes, so that he too saw the angel of the LORD standing on the road with sword drawn; and he fell on his knees and bowed to the ground.
    32
    But the angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you beaten your ass these three times? It is I who have come armed to hinder you because this rash journey of yours is directly opposed to me.
    33
    When the ass saw me, she turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away from me, I would have killed you; her I would have spared."
    34
    Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned. Yet I did not know that you stood against me to oppose my journey. Since it has displeased you, I will go back home."
    35
    But the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men; but you may say only what I tell you." So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.
    36
    When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the boundary city Ir-Moab on the Arnon at the end of the Moabite territory.
    37
    And he said to Balaam, "I sent an urgent summons to you! Why did you not come to me? Did you think I could not reward you?"
    38
    Balaam answered him, "Well, I have come to you after all. But what power have I to say anything? I can speak only what God puts in my mouth."
    39
    Then Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth.
    40
    Here Balak slaughtered oxen and sheep, and sent portions to Balaam and to the princes who were with him.
    41
    The next morning Balak took Balaam up on Bamoth-baal, and from there he saw some of the clans.

    Footnotes

    1 [1] The plains of Moab: the lowlands to the northeast of the Dead Sea, between the Jordan and the foothills below Mount Nebo. Here the Israelites remained until they crossed the Jordan, as told in Joshua 1-4. Jericho lay to the west of the Jordan.

    2 [6] Curse this people for us: Balak believed that if Balaam forecast an evil omen for Israel, this evil would come to pass, as if by magic. Balaam was a soothsayer or foreteller; cf Joshua 13:22.

    3 [22] The anger of God flared up: not merely because Balaam was going to Balak, for he had God's permission for the journey (Numbers 22:20), but perhaps because he was tempted by avarice to curse Israel against God's command. "They have followed the way of Balaam, son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing" (2 Peter 2:15); "and have rushed on thoughtlessly into the error of Balaam for the sake of gain" (Judges 1:11). Cf Numbers 22:32 and compare Exodus 4:18-26.

    Numbers
    Chapter 23
    1
    Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars, and prepare seven bullocks and seven rams for me here."
    2
    So he did as Balaam had ordered, offering a bullock and a ram on each altar. And Balak said to him, "I have erected the seven altars, and have offered a bullock and a ram on each."
    3
    Balaam then said to him, "Stand here by your holocaust while I go over there. Perhaps the LORD will meet me, and then I will tell you whatever he lets me see." He went out on the barren height,
    4
    and God met him.
    5
    When he had put an utterance in Balaam's mouth, the LORD said to him, "Go back to Balak, and speak accordingly."
    6
    So he went back to Balak, who was still standing by his holocaust together with all the princes of Moab.
    7
    1 Then Balaam gave voice to his oracle: From Aram has Balak brought me here, Moab's king, from the Eastern Mountains: "Come and lay a curse for me on Jacob, come and denounce Israel."
    8
    How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?
    9
    2 For from the top of the crags I see him, from the heights I behold him. Here is a people that lives apart and does not reckon itself among the nations.
    10
    3 Who has ever counted the dust of Jacob, or numbered Israel's wind-borne particles? May I die the death of the just, may my descendants be as many as theirs!
    11
    "What have you done to me?" cried Balak to Balaam. "It was to curse my foes that I brought you here; instead, you have even blessed them."
    12
    Balaam replied, "Is it not what the LORD puts in my mouth that I must repeat with care?"
    13
    4 Then Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place from which you can see only some and not all of them, and from there curse them for me."
    14
    So he brought him to the lookout field on the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on each of them.
    15
    Balaam then said to Balak, "Stand here by your holocaust, while I seek a meeting over there."
    16
    Then the LORD met Balaam, and having put an utterance in his mouth, he said to him, "Go back to Balak, and speak accordingly."
    17
    So he went back to Balak, who was still standing by his holocaust together with the princes of Moab. When Balak asked him, "What did the LORD say?"
    18
    Balaam gave voice to his oracle: Be aroused, O Balak, and hearken; give ear to my testimony, O son of Zippor!
    19
    God is not man that he should speak falsely, nor human, that he should change his mind. Is he one to speak and not act, to decree and not fulfill?
    20
    It is a blessing I have been given to pronounce; a blessing which I cannot restrain.
    21
    5 Misfortune is not observed in Jacob, nor misery seen in Israel. The LORD, his God, is with him; with him is the triumph of his King.
    22
    6 It is God who brought him out of Egypt, a wild bull of towering might.
    23
    No, there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor omen against Israel. It shall yet be said of Jacob, and of Israel, "Behold what God has wrought!"
    24
    Here is a people that springs up like a lioness, and stalks forth like a lion; It rests not till it has devoured its prey and has drunk the blood of the slain.
    25
    "Even though you cannot curse them," said Balak to Balaam, "at least do not bless them."
    26
    But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not warn you that I must do all that the LORD tells me?"
    27
    Then Balak said to Balaam, "Come, let me bring you to another place; perhaps God will approve of your cursing them for me from there."
    28
    So he took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks Jeshimon.
    29
    Balaam then said to him, "Here build me seven altars; and here prepare for me seven bullocks and seven rams."
    30
    And Balak did as Balaam had ordered, offering a bullock and a ram on each altar.

    Footnotes

    1 [7] Aram: the ancient name of the region later known as Syria. The Eastern Mountains: the low ranges in the Syrian desert near the Euphrates and Balaam's town of Pethor; cf Numbers 22:5.

    2 [9] A people that lives apart: Israel, as the chosen people of God, occupied a unique place among the nations, from which they kept themselves aloof.

    3 [10] The dust of Jacob . . . Israel's wind-borne particles: the Israelites will be as numerous as dust in a desert sandstorm. May I . . . as many as theirs: a formula by which Balaam swears he is speaking the truth; he sees the reward of virtue in having numerous descendants.

    4 [13] To another place: Balak thought that if Balaam would view Israel from a different site, he could forecast a different kind of omen.

    5 [21] Misfortune . . . misery: Balaam admits that he is unable to predict any evils for Israel.

    6 [22] A wild bull of towering might: the reference is to Israel, rather than to God.

    Numbers
    Chapter 24
    1
    Balaam, however, perceiving that the LORD was pleased to bless Israel, did not go aside as before to seek omens, but turned his gaze toward the desert.
    2
    When he raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped, tribe by tribe, the spirit of God came upon him,
    3
    and he gave voice to his oracle: The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor, the utterance of the man whose eye is true,
    4
    The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, Of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured, and with eyes unveiled:
    5
    How goodly are your tents, O Jacob; your encampments, O Israel!
    6
    They are like gardens beside a stream, like the cedars planted by the LORD.
    7
    His wells shall yield free-flowing waters, he shall have the sea within reach; His king shall rise higher than. . . . and his royalty shall be exalted.
    8
    It is God who brought him out of Egypt, a wild bull of towering might. He shall devour the nations like grass, their bones he shall strip bare.
    9
    He lies crouching like a lion, or like a lioness; who shall arouse him? Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you!
    10
    1 Balak beat his palms together in a blaze of anger at Balaam and said to him, "It was to curse my foes that I summoned you here; yet three times now you have even blessed them instead!
    11
    Be off at once, then, to your home. I promised to reward you richly, but the LORD has withheld the reward from you!"
    12
    Balaam replied to Balak, "Did I not warn the very messengers whom you sent to me,
    13
    'Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not of my own accord to anything, good or evil, contrary to the command of the LORD'? Whatever the LORD says I must repeat.
    14
    "But now that I am about to go to my own people, let me first warn you what this people will do to your people in the days to come."
    15
    Then Balaam gave voice to his oracle: The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor, the utterance of the man whose eye is true,
    16
    The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, Of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured and with eyes unveiled.
    17
    2 I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near: A star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel, That shall smite the brows of Moab, and the skulls of all the Shuthites,
    18
    Till Edom is dispossessed, and no fugitive is left in Seir. Israel shall do valiantly,
    19
    and Jacob shall overcome his foes.
    20
    3 Upon seeing Amalek, Balaam gave voice to his oracle: First of the peoples was Amalek, but his end is to perish forever.
    21
    4 Upon seeing the Kenites, he gave voice to his oracle: Your abode is enduring, O smith, and your nest is set on a cliff;
    22
    Yet destined for burning-- even as I watch--are your inhabitants.
    23
    5 Upon seeing. . . . he gave voice to his oracle: Alas, who shall survive of Ishmael,
    24
    to deliver his people from the hands of the Kittim? When they have conquered Asshur and conquered Eber, He too shall perish forever.
    25
    Then Balaam set out on his journey home; and Balak also went his way.

    Footnotes

    1 [10] Balak beat his palms: a sign of disclaiming any responsibility for paying the promised reward.

    2 [17] A star . . . a staff: many of the Fathers have understood this as a Messianic prophecy, although it is not referred to anywhere in the New Testament; in this sense the star is Christ himself, just as he is the staff from Israel; cf Isaiah 11:1. But it is doubtful whether this passage is to be connected with the "star of the Magi" in Matthew 2:1-12. The Shuthites: mentioned in other documents of this period as nomads on the borders of Palestine.

    3 [20] First: literally "the beginning." Amalek was an aboriginal people in Palestine and therefore considered as of great antiquity. There is a deliberate contrast here between the words first and end.

    4 [21] The Kenites lived in high strongholds in the mountains of southern Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula, and were skilled in working the various metals found in their territory. Their name is connected, at least by popular etymology, with the Hebrew word for "smith"; of similar sound is the Hebrew word for "nest"-hence the play on words in the present passage.

    5 [23-24] The translation of this short oracle is based on a reconstructed text and is rather uncertain. Ishmael: the survival of Ishmael is indicated in Genesis 17:20; 21:13, 18.


     

    New American Bible Copyright © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

    HARLOT VERSES

Genesis
Chapter 38
1
1 About that time Judah parted from his brothers and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite named Hirah.
2
There he met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua, married her, and had relations with her.
3
She conceived and bore a son, whom she named Er.
4
Again she conceived and bore a son, whom she named Onan.
5
2 Then she bore still another son, whom she named Shelah. They were in Chezib when he was born.
6
Judah got a wife named Tamar for his first-born, Er.
7
But Er, Judah's first-born, greatly offended the LORD; so the LORD took his life.
8
3 Then Judah said to Onan, "Unite with your brother's widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother's line."
9
Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother's widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother.
10
What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too.
11
Thereupon Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Stay as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up"--for he feared that Shelah also might die like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father's house.
12
Years passed, and Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah completed the period of mourning, he went up to Timnah for the shearing of his sheep, in company with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13
When Tamar was told that her father-in-law was on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep,
14
she took off her widow's garb, veiled her face by covering herself with a shawl, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she was aware that, although Shelah was now grown up, she had not been given to him in marriage.
15
When Judah saw her, he mistook her for a harlot, since she had covered her face.
16
So he went over to her at the roadside, and not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he said, "Come, let me have intercourse with you." She replied, "What will you pay me for letting you have intercourse with me?"
17
He answered, "I will send you a kid from the flock." "Very well," she said, "provided you leave a pledge until you send it."
18
4 Judah asked, "What pledge am I to give to you?" She answered, "Your seal and cord, and the staff you carry." So he gave them to her and had intercourse with her, and she conceived by him.
19
When she went away, she took off her shawl and put on her widow's garb again.
20
Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman; but he could not find her.
21
5 So he asked the men of the place, "Where is the temple prostitute, the one by the roadside in Enaim?" But they answered, "There has never been a temple prostitute here."
22
He went back to Judah and told him, "I could not find her; and besides, the men of the place said there was no temple prostitute there."
23
"Let her keep the things," Judah replied; "otherwise we shall become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her the kid, even though you were unable to find her."
24
About three months later, Judah was told that his daughter-in-law Tamar had played the harlot and was then with child from her harlotry. "Bring her out," cried Judah; "she shall be burned."
25
But as they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "It is by the man to whom these things belong that I am with child. Please verify," she added, "whose seal and cord and whose staff these are."
26
Judah recognized them and said, "She is more in the right than I am, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." But he had no further relations with her.
27
When the time of her delivery came, she was found to have twins in her womb.
28
While she was giving birth, one infant put out his hand; and the midwife, taking a crimson thread, tied it on his hand, to note that this one came out first.
29
6 But as he withdrew his hand, his brother came out; and she said, "What a breach you have made for yourself!" So he was called Perez.
30
7 Afterward his brother came out; he was called Zerah.

 


HARLOTS VERSES

Deuteronomy
Chapter 22
1
"You shall not see your kinsman's ox or sheep driven astray without showing concern about it; see to it that it is returned to your kinsman.
2
If this kinsman does not live near you, or you do not know who he may be, take it to your own place and keep it with you until he claims it; then give it back to him.
3
You shall do the same with his ass, or his garment, or anything else which your kinsman loses and you happen to find; you may not be unconcerned about them.
4
You shall not see your kinsman's ass or ox foundering on the road without showing concern about it; see to it that you help him lift it up.
5
"A woman shall not wear an article proper to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's dress; for anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, your God.
6
"If, while walking along, you chance upon a bird's nest with young birds or eggs in it, in any tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on them, you shall not take away the mother bird along with her brood;
7
you shall let her go, although you may take her brood away. It is thus that you shall have prosperity and a long life.
8
"When you build a new house, put a parapet around the roof; otherwise, if someone falls off, you will bring bloodguilt upon your house.
9
1 "You shall not sow your vineyard with two different kinds of seed; if you do, its produce shall become forfeit, both the crop you have sown and the yield of the vineyard.
10
You shall not plow with an ox and an ass harnessed together.
11
You shall not wear cloth of two different kinds of thread, wool and linen, woven together.
12
2 "You shall put twisted cords on the four corners of the cloak that you wrap around you.
13
"If a man, after marrying a woman and having relations with her, comes to dislike her,
14
and makes monstrous charges against her and defames her by saying, 'I married this woman, but when I first had relations with her I did not find her a virgin,'
15
3 the father and mother of the girl shall take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the elders at the city gate.
16
There the father of the girl shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, but he has come to dislike her,
17
and now brings monstrous charges against her, saying: I did not find your daughter a virgin. But here is the evidence of my daughter's virginity!' And they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the city.
18
4 Then these city elders shall take the man and chastise him,
19
besides fining him one hundred silver shekels, which they shall give to the girl's father, because the man defamed a virgin in Israel. Moreover, she shall remain his wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives.
20
"But if this charge is true, and evidence of the girl's virginity is not found,
21
they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father's house and there her townsmen shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.
22
"If a man is discovered having relations with a woman who is married to another, both the man and the woman with whom he has had relations shall die. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.
23
5 "If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her,
24
you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.
25
"If, however, it is in the open fields that a man comes upon such a betrothed maiden, seizes her and has relations with her, the man alone shall die.
26
You shall do nothing to the maiden, since she is not guilty of a capital offense. This case is like that of a man who rises up against his neighbor and murders him:
27
it was in the open fields that he came upon her, and though the betrothed maiden may have cried out for help, there was no one to come to her aid.
28
"If a man comes upon a maiden that is not betrothed, takes her and has relations with her, and their deed is discovered,
29
the man who had relations with her shall pay the girl's father fifty silver shekels and take her as his wife, because he has deflowered her. Moreover, he may not divorce her as long as he lives.

Footnotes

1 [9] Become forfeit: to the sanctuary; cf Lev 19:19; Joshua 6:19.

2 [12] Twisted cords: referred to as "tassels" on "violet cords" in Numbers 15:38. See note there.

3 [15] The evidence of her virginity: the bridal garment or sheet stained with a little blood from the first nuptial relations.

4 [18] Chastise him: flog him, as prescribed in Deut 25:1-3.

5 [23] A maiden who is betrothed: a girl who is married but not yet brought to her husband's home and whose marriage is therefore still unconsummated.

Deuteronomy
Chapter 23

1
1 "A man shall not marry his father's wife, nor shall he dishonor his father's bed.
2
"No one whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may be admitted into the community of the LORD.
3
No child of an incestuous union may be admitted into the community of the LORD, nor any descendant of his even to the tenth generation.
4
No Ammonite or Moabite may ever be admitted into the community of the LORD, nor any descendants of theirs even to the tenth generation,
5
because they would not succor you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because Moab hired Balaam, son of Beor, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to curse you;
6
though the LORD, your God, would not listen to Balaam and turned his curse into a blessing for you, because he loves you.
7
Never promote their peace and prosperity as long as you live.
8
But do not abhor the Edomite, since he is your brother, nor the Egyptian, since you were an alien in his country.
9
Children born to them may in the third generation be admitted into the community of the LORD.
10
"When you are in camp during an expedition against your enemies, you shall keep yourselves from everything offensive.
11
If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he shall go outside the camp, and not return until,
12
toward evening, he has bathed in water; then, when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.
13
Outside the camp you shall have a place set aside to be used as a latrine.
14
You shall also keep a trowel in your equipment and with it, when you go outside to ease nature, you shall first dig a hole and afterward cover up your excrement.
15
Since the LORD, your God, journeys along within your camp to defend you and to put your enemies at your mercy, your camp must be holy; otherwise, if he sees anything indecent in your midst, he will leave your company.
16
"You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has taken refuge from him with you.
17
2 Let him live with you wherever he chooses, in any one of your communities that pleases him. Do not molest him.
18
3 "There shall be no temple harlot among the Israelite women, nor a temple prostitute among the Israelite men.
19
You shall not offer a harlot's fee or a dog's price as any kind of votive offering in the house of the LORD, your God; both these things are an abomination to the LORD, your God.
20
"You shall not demand interest from your countrymen on a loan of money or of food or of anything else on which interest is usually demanded.
21
You may demand interest from a foreigner, but not from your countryman, so that the LORD, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings on the land you are to enter and occupy.
22
"When you make a vow to the LORD, your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it; otherwise you will be held guilty, for the LORD, your God, is strict in requiring it of you.
23
Should you refrain from making a vow, you will not be held guilty.
24
But you must keep your solemn word and fulfill the votive offering you have freely promised to the LORD.
25
"When you go through your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat as many of his grapes as you wish, but do not put them in your basket.
26
When you go through your neighbor's grainfield, you may pluck some of the ears with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor's grain.

Footnotes

1 [1] Father's wife: stepmother. Dishonor: cf Deut 27:20.

2 [17] In any one of your communities: from this it would seem that the slave in question is a fugitive from a foreign country.

3 [18-19] The pagans believed that they could enter into special relationship with their gods and goddesses by having sexual relations with the pagan priests and priestesses who prostituted themselves for this purpose. The money paid for this was considered a sort of votive offering made to the pagan sanctuary. Such abominations were naturally forbidden in Israel. A dog's price: the money paid to the pagan priest for his indecent service.

New American Bible Copyright © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

 

The Book of Joshua
6

The Fall of Jericho
1  Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
 
2  And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.
 
3  And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
 
4  And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
 
5  And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
 
6  And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD.
 
7  And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.
 
8  ¶ And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them.
 
9  And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rearward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
 
10  And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.
 
11  So the ark of the LORD compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.
 
12  ¶ And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.
 
13  And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rearward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
 
14  And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did six days.
 
15  ¶ And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.
 
16  And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.
 
17  And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
 
18  And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
 
19  But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.
 
20  So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, Heb. 11.30 so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
 
21  And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.
 
22  ¶ But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her.
 
23  And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.
 
24  And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.
 
25  And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Heb. 11.31
 
26  ¶ And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. 1 Kgs. 16.34
 
27  ¶ So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.
 

 

2 Chronicles 21

Jehoram Succeeds Jehoshaphat in Judah
 1(A)Then Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Jehoram his son became king in his place.

 2He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azaryahu, Michael and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king (B)of Israel.

 3Their father gave them many gifts of silver, gold and precious things, (C)with fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn.

 4Now when Jehoram had taken over the kingdom of his father and made himself secure, he (D)killed all his brothers with the sword, and some of the rulers of Israel also.

 5(E)Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

 6(F)He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did ((G)for Ahab's daughter was his wife), and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.

 7Yet the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant which He had made with David, (H)and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.

Revolt against Judah
 8In his days (I)Edom revolted [a]against the rule of Judah and set up a king over themselves.

 9Then Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and all his chariots with him. And he arose by night and struck down the Edomites who were surrounding him and the commanders of the chariots.

 10So Edom revolted [b]against Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time against his rule, because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers.

 11Moreover, (J)he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem (K)to play the harlot and led Judah astray.

 12Then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet saying, "Thus says the LORD God of your father David, 'Because (L)you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father (M)and the ways of Asa king of Judah,

 13but (N)have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot (O)as the house of Ahab played the harlot, and you (P)have also killed your brothers, your own family, who were better than you,

 14behold, the LORD is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives and all your possessions with a great calamity;

 15and (Q)you will suffer severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day.'"

 16Then (R)the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and (S)the Arabs who bordered the Ethiopians;

 17and they came against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king's house together with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except (T)Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.

 18So after all this the LORD smote him (U)in his bowels with an incurable sickness.

 19Now it came about in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his sickness and he died in great pain. And his people made no fire for him like (V)the fire for his fathers.

 20He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed (W)with no one's regret, and they buried him in the city of David, (X)but not in the tombs of the kings.

Footnotes:

  1. 2 Chronicles 21:8 Lit from under the hand of
  2. 2 Chronicles 21:10 Lit from under the hand of

 

Proverbs Chapter 6

1 My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbour, if thou hast struck thy hands for a stranger--
2 Thou art snared by the words of thy mouth, thou art caught by the words of thy mouth--
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, seeing thou art come into the hand of thy neighbour; {N}
go, humble thyself, and urge thy neighbour.
4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a gazelle from the hand [of the hunter], and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. {P}

6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise;
7 Which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provideth her bread in the summer, and gatherest her food in the harvest.
9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10 'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep'--
11 So shall thy poverty come as a runner, and thy want as an armed man. {P}

12 A base person, a man of iniquity, is he that walketh with a froward mouth;
13 That winketh with his eyes, that scrapeth with his feet, that pointeth with his fingers;
14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth evil continually; he soweth discord.
15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; on a sudden shall he be broken, and that without remedy. {P}

16 There are six things which the LORD hateth, yea, seven which are an abomination unto Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;
18 A heart that deviseth wicked thoughts, feet that are swift in running to evil;
19 A false witness that breatheth out lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. {P}

20 My son, keep the commandment of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;
21 Bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck.
22 When thou walkest, it shall lead thee, when thou liest down, it shall watch over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life;
24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the smoothness of the alien tongue.
25 Lust not after her beauty in thy heart; neither let her captivate thee with her eyelids.
26 For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a loaf of bread, but the adulteress hunteth for the precious life. {P}

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?
29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not go unpunished.
30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
31 But if he be found, he must restore sevenfold, he must give all the substance of his house.
32 He that committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding; he doeth it that would destroy his own soul.
33 Wounds and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. {P}

 

The Proverbs
7

The Wiles of a Harlot
 
1  My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
 
2  Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
        
 
3  Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
 
4  Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
 
5  that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
 
6  For at the window of my house I looked through my casement.
 
7  and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned the among the youths, a young man void of understanding.
 
8  passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house.
 
9  in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.
 
10  And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart.
 
11  (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
 
12  now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.
 
13  So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
 
14  I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows.
 
15  Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
 
16  I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, wit fine linen of Egypt.
 
17  I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
 
18  Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
 
19  For the goodman is not at home, he is gone on a long journey.
 
20  he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
 
21  With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
 
22  He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
 
23  till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not it is for this life.
 
24  Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
 
25  Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
 
26  For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
 
27  Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
 

 

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

 

Chapter 23

1

The burden of Tyre. Howl,54 ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste,27 so that there is no house, no entering in:2 from the land of Chittim it is revealed8 to them.
 

2

Be still,3 ye inhabitants6 of the isle; thou whom the merchants6 of Zidon, that pass over6 the sea, have replenished.14

3

And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, [is] her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
 

4

Be thou ashamed,3 O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken,1 [even] the strength of the sea, saying,2 I travail1 not, nor bring forth children,1 neither do I nourish up14 young men, [nor] bring up31 virgins.
 

5

As at the report concerning Egypt, [so] shall they be sorely pained4 at the report of Tyre.
 

6

Pass ye over3 to Tarshish; howl,54 ye inhabitants6 of the isle.

7

[Is] this your joyous [city], whose antiquity [is] of ancient days? her own feet shall carry55 her afar off to sojourn.2

8

Who hath taken this counsel1 against Tyre, the crowning56 [city], whose merchants6 [are] princes, whose traffickers [are] the honourable12 of the earth?
 

9

The LORD of hosts hath purposed1 it, to stain15 the pride of all glory, [and] to bring into contempt53 all the honourable12 of the earth.
 

10

Pass through3 thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: [there is] no more strength.
 

11

He stretched out1 his hand over the sea, he shook52 the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment14 against the merchant [city], to destroy53 the strong holds thereof.
 

12

And he said,4 Thou shalt no more55 rejoice,2 O thou oppressed30 virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise,3 pass over3 to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.4
 

13

Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, [till] the Assyrian founded1 it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up52 the towers thereof, they raised up22 the palaces thereof; [and] he brought1 it to ruin.
 

14

Howl,54 ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.27
 

15

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten12 seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.6
 

16

Take3 an harp, go about3 the city, thou harlot6 that hast been forgotten;12 make sweet54 melody,15 sing many54 songs, that thou mayest be remembered.11
 

17

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit4 Tyre, and she shall turn1 to her hire, and shall commit fornication1 with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
 

18

And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured11 nor laid up;11 for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell6 before the LORD, to eat2 sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

 

Jeremias Chapter 3

God invites the rebel Jews to return to him, with a promise to receive them: he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles.

3:1. It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.

3:2. Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications, and with thy wickedness.

3:3. Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush.

3:4. Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:

3:5. Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end? Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.

3:6. And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot there.

3:7. And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,

3:8. That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.

3:9. And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.

3:10. And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.

3:11. And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.

3:12. Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.

3:13. But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.

3:14. Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your I husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.

3:15. And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.

3:16. And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.

3:17. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.

3:18. In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.

3:19. But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to walk after me.

3:20. But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel despised me, saith the Lord.

3:21. A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.

3:22. Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions. Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.

3:23. In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

3:24. Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

3:25. We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.

Ezechiel Chapter 16

Under the figure of an unfaithful wife, God upbraids Jerusalem with her ingratitude and manifold disloyalties: but promiseth mercy by a new covenant.

16:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

16:2. Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.
Make known to Jerusalem... That is, by letters, for the prophet was then in Babylon.

16:3. And thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God to Jerusalem: Thy root, and thy nativity is of the land of Chanaan, thy father was an Amorrhite, and thy mother a Cethite.

16:4. And when thou wast born, in the day of thy nativity thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with water for thy health, nor salted with salt, nor swaddled with clouts.

16:5. No eye had pity on thee to do any of these things for thee, out of compassion to thee: but thou wast cast out upon the face of the earth in the abjection of thy soul, in the day that thou wast born.

16:6. And passing by thee, I saw that thou wast trodden under foot in thy own blood: and I said to thee when thou wast in thy blood: Live: I have said to thee: Live in thy blood.

16:7. I caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field: and thou didst increase and grow great, and advancedst, and camest to woman's ornament: thy breasts were fashioned, and thy hair grew: and thou was naked, and full of confusion.

16:8. And I passed by thee, and saw thee: and behold thy time was the time of lovers: and I spread my garment over thee, and covered thy ignominy and I swore to thee, and I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God: and thou becamest mine.

16:9. And I washed thee with water, and cleansed away thy blood from thee: and I anointed thee with oil.

16:10. And I clothed thee with embroidery, and shod thee with violet coloured shoes: and I girded thee about with fine linen, and clothed thee with fine garments.

16:11. I decked thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets on thy hands, and a chain about thy neck.
I decked thee also with ornaments, etc... That is, with spiritual benefits, giving you a law with sacrifices, sacraments, and other holy rites.

16:12. And I put a jewel upon thy forehead and earrings in thy ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.

16:13. And thou wast adorned with gold, and silver, and wast clothed with fine linen, and embroidered work, and many colours: thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil, and wast made exceeding beautiful: and wast advanced to be a queen.

16:14.
And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty: for thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.

16:15. But trusting in thy beauty, thou playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and thou hast prostituted thyself to every passenger, to be his.

16:16. And taking of thy garments thou hast made thee high places sewed together on each side: and hast played the harlot upon them, as hath not been done before, nor shall be hereafter.

16:17. And thou tookest thy beautiful vessels, of my gold, and my silver, which I gave thee, and thou madest thee images of men, and hast committed fornication with them.

16:18. And thou tookest thy garments of divers colours, and coveredst them: and settest my oil and my sweet incense before them.

16:19. And my bread which I gave thee, the fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast set before them for a sweet odour; and it was done, saith the Lord God.

16:20. And thou hast taken thy sons, and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne to me: and hast sacrificed the same to them to be devoured. Is thy fornication small?

16:21. Thou hast sacrificed and given my children to them, consecrating them by fire.
I
Thou hast sacrificed, etc... As there is nothing more base and abominable than the crimes mentioned throughout this chapter; so the infidelities of the Israelites in forsaking God, and sacrificing even their children to idols, are strongly figured by these allegories.

16:22. And after all thy abominations, and fornications, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked, and full of confusion, trodden under foot in thy own blood.

16:23. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness (woe, woe to thee, saith the Lord God)

16:24. That thou didst also build thee a common stew, and madest thee a brothel house in every street.

16:25. At every head of the way thou hast set up a sign of thy prostitution: and hast made thy beauty to be abominable: and hast prostituted thyself to every one that passed by, and hast multiplied thy fornications.

16:26. And thou hast committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, men of large bodies, and hast multiplied thy fornications to provoke me.

16:27. Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will take away thy justification: and I will deliver thee up to the will of the daughters of the Philistines that hate thee, that are ashamed of thy wicked way.

16:28. Thou hast also committed fornication with the Assyrians, because thou wast not yet satisfied: and after thou hadst played the harlot with them, even so thou wast not contented.

16:29. Thou hast also multiplied thy fornications in the land of Chanaan with the Chaldeans: and neither so wast thou satisfied.

16:30. Wherein shall I cleanse thy heart, saith Lord God: seeing thou dost all these the works of a shameless prostitute?

16:31. Because thou hast built thy brothel house at the head of every way, and thou hast made thy high place in every street: and wast not as a harlot that by disdain enhanceth her price,

16:32. But is an adulteress, that bringeth in strangers over her husband.

16:33. Gifts are given to all harlots: but thou hast given hire to all thy lovers, and thou hast given them gifts to come to thee from every side, to commit fornication with thee.

16:34. And it hath happened in thee contrary to the custom of women in thy fornications, and after thee there shall be no such fornication, for in that thou gavest rewards, and didst not take rewards, the contrary hath been done in thee.

16:35. Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord.

16:36. Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy money hath been poured out, and thy shame discovered through thy fornications with thy lovers, and with the idols of thy abominations, by the blood of thy children whom thou gavest them:

16:37. Behold, I will gather together all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all whom thou hast loved, with all whom thou hast hated: and I will gather them together against thee on every side, and will discover thy shame in their sight, and they shall see all thy nakedness.

16:38. And I will judge thee as adulteresses, and they that shed blood are judged: and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

16:39. And I will deliver thee into their hands, and they shall destroy thy brothel house, and throw down thy stews: and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take away the vessels of thy beauty: and leave thee naked, and full of disgrace.

16:40. And they shall bring upon thee a multitude, and they shall stone thee with stones, and shall slay thee with their swords.

16:41. And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and shall execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and thou shalt cease from fornication, and shalt give no hire any more.

16:42. And my indignation shall rest in thee: and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will cease and be angry no more.

16:43. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast provoked me in all these things: wherefore I also have turned all thy ways upon thy head, saith the Lord God, and I have not done according to thy wicked deeds in all thy abominations.

16:44. Behold every one that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: As the mother was, so also is her daughter.

16:45. Thou art thy mother's daughter, that cast off her husband, and her children: and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who cast off their husbands, and their children: your mother was a Cethite, and your father an Amorrhite.

16:46. And thy elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is Sodom, and her daughters.

16:47. But neither hast thou walked in their ways, nor hast thou done a little less than they according to their wickednesses: thou hast done almost more wicked things than they in all thy ways.

16:48.
As I live, saith the Lord God, thy sister Sodom herself, and her daughters, have not done as thou hast done, and thy daughters.

16:49. Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of her, and of her daughters: and they did not put forth their hand to the needy, and the poor.

This was the iniquity of Sodom, etc... That is, these were the steps by which the Sodomites came to fall into those abominations for which they were destroyed. For pride, gluttony, and idleness are the highroad to all kinds of lust; especially when they are accompanied with a neglect of the works of mercy.

16:50. And they were lifted up, and committed abominations before me: and I took them away as thou hast seen.

16:51. And Samaria committed not half thy sins: but thou hast surpassed them with thy crimes, and hast justified thy sisters by all thy abominations which thou hast done.

16:52. Therefore do thou also bear thy confusion, thou that hast surpassed thy sisters with thy sins, doing more wickedly than they: for they are justified above thee, therefore be thou also confounded, and bear thy shame, thou that hast justified thy sisters.

16:53. And I will bring back and restore them by bringing back Sodom, with her daughters, and by bringing back Samaria, and her daughters: and I will bring those that return of thee in the midst of them.

I will bring back, etc... This relates to the conversion of the Gentiles out of all nations, and of many of the Jews, to the church of Christ.

16:54. That thou mayest bear thy shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, comforting them.

16:55. And thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their ancient state: and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their ancient state: and thou and thy daughters shall return to your ancient state.

f
Ancient state... That is, to their former state of liberty, and their ancient possessions. In the spiritual sense, to the true liberty, and the happy inheritance of the children of God, through faith in Christ.

16:56. And Sodom thy sister was not heard of in thy mouth, in the day of thy pride,

16:57. Before thy malice was laid open: as it is at this time, making thee a reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all the daughters of Palestine round about thee, that encompass thee on all sides.

16:58. Thou hast borne thy wickedness, and thy disgrace, saith the Lord God.

16:59. For thus saith the Lord God: I will deal with thee, as thou hast despised the oath, in breaking the covenant:

16:60. And I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth: and I will establish with thee an everlasting covenant.

16:61. And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed: when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thy elder and thy younger: and I will give them to thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

16:62. And I will establish my covenant with thee: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord,

16:63. That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and mayest no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I shall be pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.
 

Hosea Chapter 1

FROM: http://www.gotothebible.com/Geneva/Hosea/1.html

Hosea 1:1
1:1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days {a} of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, 
[and] Hezekiah, {b} kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

    The Argument - After the ten tribes had fallen away from God by the wicked and subtle counsel of Jeroboam, 
    the son of Neba, and instead of his true service commanded by his word, worshipped him according to their 
    own imaginings and traditions of men, giving themselves to most vile idolatry and superstition, the Lord 
    from time to time sent them Prophets to call them to repentance.  But they grew even worse and worse, and
    still abused God's benefits.  Therefore now when their prosperity was at the highest under Jeroboam, the
    son of Joash, God sent Hosea and Amos to the Israelites (as he did at the same time send Isaiah and Micah
    to those of Judah) to condemn them for their ingratitude. 

    And whereas they thought themselves to be greatly in the favor of God, and to be his people, the Prophet 
    calls them bastards and children born in adultery: and therefore shows them that God would take away their 
    kingdom, and give them to the Assyrians to be led away captives.  Thus Hosea faithfully executed his 
    office for the space of seventy years, though they remained still in their vices and wickedness and
    and derided the Prophets, and condemned God's judgments.  And because they would neither be discouraged
    with threatening only, nor should they flatter themselves by the sweetness of God's promises, he sets 
    before them the two principal parts of the Law, which are the promise of salvation, and the doctrine of
    life.  For the first part he directs the faithful to the Messiah, by whom alone they would have true
    deliverance: and for the second, he uses threatenings and menaces to bring them from their wicked manners
    and vices: and this is the chief scope of all the Prophets, either by God's promises to allure them to be
    godly, or else by threatenings of his judgments to scare them from vice.  And even though the whole Law 
    contains these two points, yet the Prophets moreover note distinctly both the time of God's judgments
    and the manner.
    
    (a) Also called Azariah, who being a leper was disposed from his kingdom.
    (b) So that it may be gathered by the reign of these four kings that he preached about eighty years.

Hosea 1:2
1:2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife 
    {c} of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom,(departing)
    from the LORD.

    (c) That is, one that has been a harlot for a long time: not that the Prophet did this thing in 
    effect, but he saw this in a vision, or else was commanded by God to set forth under this parable
    parable or figure the idolatry of the Synagogue, and of the people her children.

Hosea 1:3
1:3 So he went and took {d} Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.

    (d) Gomer signifies a consumption or corruption, and rotten clusters of figs, declaring that they 
    were all corrupt like rotten figs.

Hosea 1:4
1:4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name {e} Jezreel; for yet a little [while], and I will avenge 
the blood of Jezreel upon the house of {f} Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of 
Israel.

    (e) Meaning that they would no longer be called Israelites, which name they boasted because Israel 
     did prevail with God: but that they were as bastards, and therefore should be called Jezreelites, 
     that is, scattered people, alluding to Jezreel, which was the chief city of the ten tribes under 
     Ahab, where Jehu shed so much blood; 1 Kings 18:45.
   
    (f) I will be avenged upon Jehu for the blood that he shed in Jezreel: for even though God stirred 
     him up to execute his judgments, yet he did them for his own ambition, and not for the glory of 
     God as the intended goal: for he built up that idolatry which he had destroyed.

Hosea 1:5
1:5 And it shall come to pass at that {g} day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of 
Jezreel.

    (g) When the measure of their iniquity is full, and I will take vengeance and destroy all their 
    administration and strength.

Hosea 1:6
1:6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And [God] said unto him, Call her name {h} Loruhamah: 
for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly {i} take them away.

    (h) That is, not obtaining mercy: by which he signifies that God's favour had departed from them.
    (i) For the Israelites never returned after they were taken captives by the Assyrians.

Hosea 1:7
1:7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will {k} save them by the LORD their God, and 
will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

    (k) For after their captivity he restored them miraculously by the means of Cyrus; Ezra 1:1.

Hosea 1:9
1:9 Then said [God], Call his name {l} Loammi: for ye [are] not my people, and I will not be your [God].

    (l) That is, not my people.

Hosea 1:10
1:10 Yet the number of the {m} children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be 
measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye 
[are] not my people, [there] it shall be said unto them, [Ye are] the sons of the living God.

     (m) Because they thought that God could not have been true in his promise unless he had preserved 
     them, he declares that though they were destroyed, yet the true Israelites who are the sons of the 
     promise, would be without number, who consist both of the Jews and the Gentiles; Romans 9:26.

Hosea 1:11
1:11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be {n} gathered together, and appoint 
themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great [shall be] the day of Jezreel.

     (n) That is, after the captivity of Babylon, when the Jews were restored: but chiefly this refers 
     to the time of Christ, who would be the head both of the Jews and Gentiles.
     (o) The calamity and destruction of Israel will be so great, that to restore them will be a miracle.
Hosea Chapter 2
Hosea 2:1
2:1 Say ye unto your {a} brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

    (a) Seeing that I have promised you deliverance, it remains that you encourage one another to embrace 
    this promise, considering that you are my people on whom I will have mercy.

Hosea 2:2
2:2 Plead with your {b} mother, plead: for she [is] not my wife, neither [am] I her husband: let her 
therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries {c} from between her breasts;

     (b) God shows that the fault was not in him, that he forsook them, but in their Synagogue, and their 
     idolatries; Isaiah 50:1.
     (c) Meaning that their idolatry was so great, that they were not ashamed, but boasted of it; 
     Ezekiel 16:25.

Hosea 2:3
2:3 Lest I strip her naked, and {d} set her as in the day that she was {e} born, and make her as a 
wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

    (d) For even though his people were as a harlot for their idolatries, yet he had left them with 
     their dress and dowry and certain signs of his favour, but if they continued still, he would 
     utterly destroy them.
    (e) When I brought her out of Egypt. \\See Geneva "Eze 16:4"\\

Hosea 2:4
2:4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they [be] the {f} children of whoredoms.

    (f) That is bastards, and begotten in adultery.

Hosea 2:5
2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, 
I will go after my {g} lovers, that give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and 
my drink.

    (g) Meaning the idol which they served, and by whom they thought they had wealth and abundance.

Hosea 2:6
2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up {h} thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find 
her paths.

    (h) I will punish you so that you may then test whether your idols can help you, and bring you into 
     such straightness that you will have no lust to play the harlot.

Hosea 2:7
2:7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, 
but hall not find [them]: then shall she say, {i} I will go and return to my first husband; for then 
[was it] better with me than now.

    (i) This he speaks of the faithful, who are truly converted, and also shows the use and profit of 
     God's punishments.

Hosea 2:8
2:8 For she did not know that I {k} gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and 
gold, [which] they prepared for Baal.

    (k) This declares that idolaters defraud God of his honour, when they attribute his benefits to 
     their idols.

Hosea 2:9
2:9 Therefore will I return, and take away {l} my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season 
thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax [given] to cover her nakedness.

    (l) Signifying that God will take away his benefits, when man by his ingratitude abuses them.

Hosea 2:10
2:10 And now will I discover her {m} lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her 
out of mine hand.

     (m) That is, all her service, ceremonies, and inventions by which she worshipped her idols.

Hosea 2:13
2:13 And I will visit upon her the days of {n} Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she 
decked herself with her to} earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, 
saith the LORD.

     (n) I will punish her for her idolatry.
     (o) By showing how harlots trim themselves to please others, he declares how superstitious 
      idolaters set a great part of their religion in adorning themselves on their holy days.

Hosea 2:14
2:14 Therefore, behold, I will {p} allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak 
comfortably unto her.

     (p) By my benefits in offering her grace and mercy, even in that place where she will think 
      herself destitute of all help and comfort.

Hosea 2:15
2:15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley {q} of Achor for a door of hope: 
and she shall {r} sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of 
the land of Egypt.

     (q) Which was a plentiful valley, and in which they had great comfort when they came out of the 
      wilderness, as in Joshua 7:26, and is called the door of hope, because it was a departing from 
      death and an entry into life.
     (r) She will then praise God as she did when she was delivered out of Egypt.

Hosea 2:16
2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, [that] thou shalt call me {s} Ishi; and shalt call 
me no more {t} Baali.

     (s) That is, my husband, knowing that I am united to you by a covenant which could not be 
      violated.
     (t) That is, my master: which name was applied to their idols.

Hosea 2:17
2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered 
by their {u} name.

     (u) No idolatry will come into their mouth at all, but they will fear me purely according to my 
      word.

Hosea 2:18
2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the {x} beasts of the field, and with the 
fowls of heaven, and [with] the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword 
and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

     (x) Meaning that he will so bless them that all creatures will favor them.

Hosea 2:20
2:20 I will even betroth thee unto me in {y} faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

     (y) With a covenant that will never be broken.

Hosea 2:21
2:21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear {z} the heavens, 
and they shall hear the earth;

     (z) Then will the heaven desire rain for the earth, which will bring forth things for the use 
      of man.
Hosea Chapter 3
Hosea 3:1
3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, {a} Go yet, love a woman beloved of [her] friend, yet an adulteress, 
according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and {b} love 
flagons of wine.

    (a) In this the Prophet represents the person of God, who loved his Church before he called her, 
     and did not withdraw his love when she gave herself to idols.
    (b) That is, gave themselves wholly to pleasure, and could not stop, as those that are given to 
     drunkenness.

Hosea 3:2
3:2 So {c} I bought her to me for fifteen [pieces] of silver, and [for] an homer of barley, and an 
half homer of barley:

    (c) Yet I loved her and paid a small portion for her, lest she would have perceived the greatness 
     of my love, and abused me, and not been under duty: for fifteen pieces of silver was but half 
     the price the price of a slave; Exodus 21:32.

Hosea 3:3
3:3 And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for {d} me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, 
and thou shalt not be for (another] man: so [will] I also [be] for thee.

    (d) I will try you a long time as in your widowhood, whether you will be mine or not.

Hosea 3:4
3:4 For the children of Israel shall {e} abide many days without a king, and without a {f} prince, 
and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and [without] teraphim:

    (e) Meaning not only all the time of their captivity, but also until Christ.
    (f) That is, they would neither have administration nor religion, and their idols also in which 
     they put their confidence, would be destroyed.

Hosea 3:5
3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and {g} David their 
king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

    (g) This is meant of Christ's kingdom, which was promised to David to be eternal; Psalm 72:17.
Hosea Chapter 4
Hosea 4:1
4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD {a} hath a controversy with the 
inhabitants of the land, because [there is] no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

    (a) Because the people would not obey the admonitions of the Prophets, he accuses them before the 
     judgment seat of God, against whom they chiefly offended; Isaiah 7:13
        Zechariah 12:10 Micah 6:1,2.

Hosea 4:2
4:2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and 
{b} blood toucheth blood.

    (b) In every place appears a liberality to most wicked vices, so that one follows right after 
     another.

Hosea 4:4
4:4 Yet {c} let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people [are] as they that strive with 
the priest.

    (c) As though he would say that it was in vain to rebuke hem, for no man can endure it: indeed, 
     they will speak against the prophets and priests whose office it is chiefly to rebuke them.

Hosea 4:5
4:5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the {d} day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, 
and I will destroy thy {e} mother.

    (d) You will both perish together as one, because the former would not obey, and the other,
     because he would not admonish.
    (e) That is, the synagogue in which you boast.

Hosea 4:6
4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because {f} thou hast rejected knowledge, I will 
also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing {g} thou hast forgotten the law of thy 
God, I will also forget thy children.

    (f) That is, the priests will be cast off, because for lack of knowledge they are not able to 
     execute their charge, and instruct others; Deuteronomy 33:3, Malachi 2:7.
    (g) Meaning the whole body of the people, who were weary with hearing the word of God.

Hosea 4:7
4:7 As they were {h} increased, so they sinned against me: [therefore] will I change their glory 
into shame.

    (h) The more I was beneficial to them.

Hosea 4:8
4:8 {i} They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.

    (i) That is, the priests seek to eat the people's offerings, and flatter them in their sins.

Hosea 4:9
4:9 And there shall be, like people, like {k} priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and 
reward them their doings.

    (k) Signifying that as they have sinned together, so will they be punished together.

Hosea 4:10
4:10 For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall {l} commit whoredom, and shall not increase: 
because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.

     (l) Showing that their wickedness will be punished in all ways: for even though they think by 
      the multitude of wives to have many children, yet they will be deceived of their hope.

Hosea 4:11
4:11 {m} Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

     (m) In giving themselves to pleasures, they become like brute beasts.

Hosea 4:12
4:12 My {n} people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the {o} 
spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

     (n) Thus he speaks by derision in calling them his people, who now because of their sins they 
      were not his people: for they sought help from stocks or wooden images and sticks or idols.
     (o) They are carried away with madness.

Hosea 4:13
4:13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks 
and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof [is] good: therefore your daughters shall {p} commit 
whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

     (p) Because they take away God's honour, and give it to idols: therefore he will give them up to 
      their lusts, so that they will dishonour their own bodies; Romans 1:28.

Hosea 4:14
4:14 I will not {q} punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they 
commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore 
the people [that] doth not understand shall fall.

     (q) I will not correct your shame to bring you to proper living, but will let you run headlong 
      to your own damnation.

Hosea 4:15
4:15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, [yet] {r} let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto {s} 
Gilgal, neither go ye up to {t} Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.

     (r) God complains that Judah is infected, and wants them to learn to return in time.
     (s) For even though the Lord had honoured this place by his presence, yet because it was 
      abused by their idolatry, he did not want his people to resort there.
     (t) He calls Bethel, that is, the house of God, Bethaven, that is, the house of iniquity, 
      because of their abominations set up there, signifying that no place is holy, where God is 
      not purely worshipped.

Hosea 4:16
4:16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a {u} lamb 
in a large place.

     (u) God will so disperse them, that they will not remain in any certain place.

Hosea 4:18
4:18 Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers [with] shame do 
love, {x} Give ye.

     (x) They are so shameless in receiving bribes, that they command men to bring them to them.

Hosea 4:19
4:19 The wind hath {y} bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their 
sacrifices.

     (y) To carry them suddenly away.

HOSEA 5
Hosea 5:1
5:1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the 
king; for judgment [is] toward you, because ye have been a {a} snare on Mizpah, and a net spread 
upon Tabor.

    (a) The priests and princes caught the poor people in their snares, as the fowlers did the 
     birds, in these two high mountains.

Hosea 5:2
5:2 And the revolters are profound to make {b} slaughter, though I [have been] a {c} rebuker of 
them all.

    (b) Even though they seemed to be given altogether to holiness, and to sacrifices which here 
     he calls slaughter in contempt.
    (c) Though I had admonished them continually by my Prophets.

Hosea 5:3
5:3 I know {d} Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest 
whoredom, [and] Israel is defiled.

    (d) They boasted themselves not only to be Israelites, but also Ephraimites, because their 
     King Jeroboam came from that tribe.

Hosea 5:5
5:5 And the {e} pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim 
fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

    (e) Meaning their condemning of all admonitions.

Hosea 5:7
5:7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten {f} strange children: 
now shall {g} a month devour them with their portions.

    (f) That is, their children are degenerate, so that there is no hope in them.
    (g) Their destruction is not far off.

Hosea 5:8
5:8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, [and] the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud [at] Bethaven, after 
thee, O {h} Benjamin.

    (h) That is, all of Israel that was included under this tribe, signifying that the Lord's 
     plagues would pursue them from place to place until they were destroyed.

Hosea 5:9
5:9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made {i} 
known that which shall surely be.

    (i) By the success they will know that I have surely determined this.

Hosea 5:10
5:10 The princes of Judah were like them that {k} remove the bound: [therefore] I will pour out 
my wrath upon them like water.

     (k) They have turned upside down all political order and all manner of religion.

Hosea 5:11
5:11 Ephraim [is] oppressed [and] broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the {l} 
commandment.

     (l) That is, after King Jeroboam's commandment, and did not rather follow God.

Hosea 5:13
5:13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah [saw] his wound, then went Ephraim to {m} the 
Assyrian, and sent to king {n} Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

     (m) Instead of seeking for remedy from God's hand.
     (n) Who was king of the Assyrians.
Hosea Chapter 6
Hosea 6:1
6:1 Come, and let {a} us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath 
smitten, and he will bind us up.

    (a) He shows the people that they ought to turn to the Lord, so that he might stop his 
     plagues.

Hosea 6:2
6:2 After two days will {b} he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall 
live in his sight.

    (b) Though he correct us from time to time, yet his help will not be far off, if we return 
     to him.

Hosea 6:4
6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for {c} your 
goodness [is] as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

    (c) You seem to have a certain holiness and repentance, but it is very sudden, and as a 
     morning cloud.

Hosea 6:5
6:5 Therefore have I {d} hewed [them] by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my 
mouth: and thy {e} judgments (are as] the light [that] goeth forth.

    (d) I have still labored by my prophets, and as it were prepared you to bring you to 
     correction, but all was in vain: for my word was not food to feed them, but a sword to 
     slay them.
    (e) My doctrine which I taught you, was most evident.

Hosea 6:6
6:6 For I desired {f} mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt 
offerings.

    (f) He shows to what his doctrine was aimed at, that they should unite the obedience of 
     God, and the love of their neighbour, with outward sacrifices.

Hosea 6:7
6:7 But they {g} like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously 
against me.

    (g) That is, like small and weak persons.

Hosea 6:8
6:8 {h} Gilead [is] a city of them that work iniquity, [and is] polluted with blood.

    (h) Which was the place where the priests dwelt, and which should have been best instructed 
     in my word.

Hosea 6:11
6:11 Also, O Judah, he hath set an {i} harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my 
people.

     (i) That is, imitates your idolatry, and has taken grafts of your trees.

Hosea Chapter 7 
Hosea 7:1
7:1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the 
wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and {a} the thief cometh in, [and] the troop 
of robbers spoileth without.

    (a) Meaning that there was no one type of vice among them, but that they were subject to 
     all wickedness, both secret and open.

Hosea 7:3
7:3 They make the {b} king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

    (b) They esteem their wicked king Jeroboam above God, and seek how to flatter and please him.

Hosea 7:4
7:4 They [are] all adulterers, as an {c} oven heated by the baker, [who] ceaseth from raising 
after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

    (c) He compares the rage of the people to a burning oven which the baker heats, until his 
     dough is leavened and raised.

Hosea 7:5
7:5 In the {d} day of our king the princes have made [him] sick with bottles of wine; he stretched 
out his hand with scorners.

    (d) They used all indulgence and excess in their feasts and solemnities, by which their king 
     was overcome with being fed too much, and brought into diseases, and who delighted in 
     flatteries.

Hosea 7:7
7:7 They are all hot as an oven, and have {e} devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: 
[there is] none among them that calleth unto me.

    (e) By their doing God has deprived them of all good rulers.

Hosea 7:8
7:8 Ephraim, he hath {f} mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

    (f) That is, he counterfeited the religion of the Gentiles, yet is but as a cake baked on 
     the one side, and raw on the other, that is, neither thoroughly hot, nor thoroughly cold, 
     but partly a Jew, and partly a Gentile.

Hosea 7:9
7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth [it] not: yea, {g} gray hairs are 
here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

    (g) Which are a token of his manifold afflictions.

Hosea 7:11
7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without {h} heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

     (h) That is, without all judgment, as those that cannot tell whether it is better to cleave 
      only to God, or to seek the help of man.

Hosea 7:12
7:12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of 
the heaven; I will chastise them, as their {i} congregation hath heard.

     (i) According to my curses made to the whole congregation of Israel.

Hosea 7:13
7:13 Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them!  because they have 
transgressed against me: though I have {k} redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against
me.

     (k) That is, at different times redeemed them, and delivered them from death.

Hosea 7:14
7:14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart, {l} when they howled upon their beds: 
{m} they assemble themselves for corn and wine, [and] they rebel against me.

     (l) When they were in affliction, and cried out in pain, they did not seek me for help.
     (m) They only seek their own benefit and wealth, and care not for me their God.

Hosea 7:16
7:16 They return, [but] not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes
shall fall by the sword for the rage {n} of their tongue: this [shall be] their derision in 
the land of Egypt.

     (n) Because they boast of their own strength, and do not care what they speak against me 
      and my servants; Psalm 73:9.

HOSEA 8

Hosea 8:1
8:1 [Set] the trumpet to thy {a} mouth.  [He shall come] as an eagle against the house of the 
LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

    (a) God encourages the Prophet to signify the speedy coming of the enemy against Israel, 
     which was once the people of God.

Hosea 8:2
8:2 Israel shall {b} cry unto me, My God, we know thee.

    (b) They will cry like hypocrites, but not from the heart, as their deeds declare.

Hosea 8:4
8:4 They have set up {c} kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew [it] not: of 
their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

    (c) That is, Jeroboam, by whom they sought their own liberty, and to obey my will.

Hosea 8:5
8:5 Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast [thee] off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long 
[will it be] ere they attain to {d} innocency?

    (d) That is, upright judgment and a godly life.

Hosea 8:6
8:6 {e} For from Israel [was] it also: the workman made it; therefore it [is] not God: but the 
calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

    (e) Meaning the calf was invented by themselves, and by their fathers in the wilderness.

Hosea 8:7
8:7 For they have {f} sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the 
bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

    (f) Showing that their religion has but a show, and in itself is but vanity.

Hosea 8:9
8:9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a {g} wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired 
lovers.

    (g) They never cease, but run to and fro to seek help.

Hosea 8:10
8:10 Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall 
sorrow a little for the {h} burden of the king of princes.

     (h) That is, for the king and the princes will lay upon them: and by this means the 
      Lord brings them to repentance.

Hosea 8:12
8:12 I have written to him the great things of my law, [but] they were counted as a {i} 
strange thing.

     (i) In this way the idolaters consider the word of God as strange with regard to their 
      own invention.

Hosea 8:13
8:13 They sacrifice flesh [for] the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat [it; but] the 
{k} LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: 
they shall return to Egypt.

     (k) Saying that they offer it to the Lord, but he accepts no service which he himself 
      has not appointed.

Hosea 9:1
9:1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, {a} as [other] people: for thou hast gone a whoring from 
thy God, thou hast loved {b} a reward upon every cornfloor.

    (a) For even though all other people should escape, yet you will be punished.
    (b) You have committed idolatry in hope of reward, and to have your barns filled 
     (Jeremiah 44:17), as a harlot that had rather live by playing the whore, than to be
     provided for by her own husband.

Hosea 9:2
9:2 {c} The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

    (c) These outward things that you seek will be taken from you.

Hosea 9:4
9:4 They shall not offer {d} wine [offerings] to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing 
unto him: their sacrifices [shall be] unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat
thereof shall be polluted: for their bread {e} for their  soul shall not come into the house 
of the LORD.

    (d) All their doings both with regard to administration and religion, will be rejected
     as polluted things.
    (e) The meat offering which they offered for themselves.

Hosea 9:5
9:5 What will ye do {f} in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

    (f) When the Lord will take away all the occasions of serving him, which will be the 
     most grievous part of your captivity, when you will see yourselves cut off from God.

Hosea 9:6
9:6 For, lo, they are gone because of {g} destruction: Egypt Shall gather them up, Memphis 
shall bury them: the pleasant [places] for their silver, nettles shall possess them:
thorns [shall be] in their tabernacles.

    (g) Even though they think to escape by fleeing the destruction that is at hand, yet 
     they will be destroyed in the place where they flee for help.

Hosea 9:7
9:7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know [it]: 
{h} the prophet [is] a fool, The spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine
iniquity, and the great hatred.

    (h) Then they will know that they were deluded by those who claimed themselves to be their 
     prophets and spiritual men.

Hosea 9:8
9:8 The watchman of Ephraim {i} [was] with my God: [but] the prophet [is] a snare of a fowler 
in all his ways, [and] hatred in the house of his God.

    (i) The Prophet's duty is to bring men to God, and not to be a snare to pull them from God.

Hosea 9:9
9:9 They {k} have deeply corrupted [themselves], as in the days of Gibeah: [therefore] he will 
remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

    (k) This people is so rooted in their wickedness, that Gibeah, which was similar to Sodom,
     was never more corrupt; Jude 19:22.

Hosea 9:10
9:10 I found Israel like {l} grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in
the fig tree at her first time: [but] they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto
[that] shame; and [their] abominations were according {m} as they loved.

     (l) Meaning, that he esteemed them and delighted in them in this way.
     (m) They were as abominable to me, as their lovers the idols. 

Hosea 9:11
9:11 [As for] Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, {n} and from 
the womb, and from the conception.

     (n) Signifying that God would destroy their children by these different means, and so 
      consume them by little and little.

Hosea 9:13
9:13 Ephraim, as I saw {o} Tyrus, [is] planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring 
forth his children to the murderer.

     (o) As they kept tender plants in their houses in Tyrus to preserve them from the cold 
      air of the sea, so was Ephraim at the first to me: but now I will give him to
         the slaughter.

Hosea 9:14
9:14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a {p} miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

     (p) The Prophet seeing the great plagues of God toward Ephraim, prays to God to make them 
      barren, rather than that this great slaughter should come upon their children.

Hosea 9:15
9:15 All their wickedness [is] in {q} Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their 
doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes [are] 
revolters.

     (q) The chief cause of their destruction is that they commit idolatry, and corrupt my 
      religion in Gilgal.
Hosea Chapter 10
Hosea 10:1
10:1 Israel [is] an {a} empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the 
multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the {b} goodness of his 
land they have made goodly images.

     (a) Of which though the grapes were gathered, yet always as it gathered new strength it 
      increased in new wickedness, so that the correction which should have brought them to 
      obedience, only proclaimed their stubbornness.
     (b) As they were rich and had abundance.

Hosea 10:2
10:2 Their heart is {c} divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their 
altars, he shall spoil their images.

     (c) That is, from God, by serving their false gods.

Hosea 10:3
10:3 For now they shall say, We have no {d} king, because we feared not the LORD; what then 
should a king do to us? 

     (d) The day will come that God will take away their king, and then they will feel the 
      fruit of their sins, and how they trusted in him in vain; 2 Kings 17:6-7.

Hosea 10:4
10:4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making {e} a covenant: thus {f} judgment 
springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

     (e) In promising to be faithful toward God.
     (f) In this way their integrity and fidelity which they pretended, was nothing but
       bitterness and grief.

Hosea 10:5
10:5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall {g} fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people 
thereof shall mourn over it, and the {h} priests thereof [that] rejoiced on it, for the glory 
thereof, because it is departed from it.

     (g) When the calf will be carried away.
     (h) These were certain idolatrous priests, who wore black apparel during their sacrifices, 
      and cried with a loud voice: which superstition Elijah derided, 1 Kings 18:27.
         \\See Geneva "2Ki 23:5"\\

Hosea 10:8
10:8 The high places also of {i} Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the 
thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the 
hills, Fall on us.

     (i) This he speaks in contempt of Bethel. \\Read Geneva (t)
         "Hosea 4:15"\\

Hosea 10:9
10:9 O Israel, thou hast {k} sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they {l} stood: the battle in 
Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not {m} overtake them.

     (k) In those days you were as wicked as the Gibeonites, as God there partly declared: for 
      your zeal could not be good in executing God's judgments, seeing your own deeds were as 
      wicked as theirs.
     (l) That is, to fight, or, the Israelites remained in that stubbornness from that time.
     (m) The Israelites were not moved by the example of the Gibeonites to cease from their sins.

Hosea 10:10
10:10 [It is] in my desire {n} that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered 
against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two {o} furrows.

      (n) Because they are so desperate, I will delight to destroy them.
      (o) That is, when they have gathered all their strength together.

Hosea 10:11
10:11 And Ephraim [is as] an heifer [that is] taught, [and] loveth to {p} tread out [the corn]; 
but I passed over upon her {q} fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, [and] 
Jacob shall break his clods.

      (p) In which is pleasure, whereas in plowing there is labor and pain.
      (q) I will lay my yoke upon her fat neck.

Hosea 10:12
10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; {r} break up your fallow ground: for 
[it is] time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

      (r) \\Read Geneva "Jer 4:3"\\
          See Jeremiah 4:4

Hosea 10:14
10:14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, 
as {s} Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon 
[her] children.

      (s) That is, Shalmaneser in the destruction of that city spared neither type nor age.
Hosea Chapter 11
Hosea 11:1
11:1 When Israel {a} [was] a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

     (a) While the Israelites were in Egypt, and did not provoke my wrath by their malice 
      and ingratitude.

Hosea 11:2
11:2 [As] they called them, so they {b} went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned 
incense to graven images.

     (b) They rebelled and went a contrary way when the Prophets called them to repentance.

Hosea 11:4
11:4 I drew them with cords {c} of a man, with bands of love:and I was to them as they that take off 
the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

     (c) That is, friendly, and not as beasts or slaves.

Hosea 11:5
11:5 He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his {d} king, because 
they refused to return.

     (d) Seeing that they condemn all this kindness, they will be led captive into Assyria.

Hosea 11:7
11:7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though {e} they called them to the most High, 
none at all would exalt [him].

     (e) That is, the Prophets.

Hosea 11:8
11:8 {f} How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? [how] shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make 
thee as {g} Admah? [how] shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, {h} my repentings 
are kindled together.

     (f) God considers with himself, and that with a certain grief, how to punish them.
     (g) Which were two of the cities that were destroyed with Sodom; Deuteronomy 29:23.
     (h) Meaning that his love with which he first loved them positioned him between doubt and 
      assurance in terms of what to do: and in this appears his Fatherly affection, that his mercy
      toward his own will overcome his judgments, as he declares in the next verse.

Hosea 11:9
11:9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I [am] 
God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not {i} enter into the city.

     (i) To consume you, but will cause you to yield, and so have mercy on you: and this is meant 
      of the final number who will walk after the Lord.

Hosea 11:11
11:11 {k} They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I 
will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.

      (k) The Egyptians and the Assyrians will be afraid when the Lord maintains his people.

Hosea 11:12
11:12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth 
with {l} God, and is faithful with the saints.

      (l) Governs their state according to God's word, and does not degenerate.
Hosea Chapter 12
Hosea 12:1
12:1 Ephraim feedeth {a} on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and 
desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and {b} oil is carried into Egypt.

     (a) That is, flatters himself with vain confidence.
     (b) Meaning presents to get friendship.

Hosea 12:2
12:2 The LORD hath also a controversy with {c} Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; 
according to his doings will he recompense him.

     (c) Which in those points was similar to Ephraim, but not in idolatry.

Hosea 12:3
12:3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had {d} power with God:

     (d) Seeing that God in this way preferred Jacob their father, Judah's ingratitude was the 
      more to be abhorred.

Hosea 12:4
12:4 Yea, he had {e} power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: 
{f} he found him [in] Bethel, and there he spake with us;

     (e) Read Genesis 32:24-32.
     (f) God found Jacob as he lay sleeping in Bethel Genesis 28:12, and spoke with him there in such 
      a way that the fruit of that speech appertained to the whole body of the people, of which we are.

Hosea 12:7
12:7 [He is] {g} a merchant, the balances of deceit [are] in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

     (g) As for Ephraim, he is more like the wicked Canaanites than godly Abraham or Jacob.

Hosea 12:8
12:8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: [in] all my labours they
shall find none iniquity in me {h} that [were] sin.

     (h) Thus way the wicked measure God's favour by outward prosperity, and like hypocrites cannot 
      endure that any should reprove their doings.

Hosea 12:9
12:9 And I [that am] the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles,
as in {i} the days of the solemn feast.

     (i) Seeing you will not acknowledge my benefits, I will bring you again to dwell in tents, as in 
      the feast of the Tabernacles, which you now condemn.

Hosea 12:11
12:11 [Is there] {k} iniquity [in] Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; 
yea, their altars [are] as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

      (k) The people thought that no man dare have spoken against Gilead, that holy place, and yet 
       the Prophet says that all their religion was but vanity.

Hosea 12:12
12:12 {l} And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he 
kept [sheep].

      (l) If you boast of your riches and nobility, you seem to reproach your father, who was a poor 
       fugitive and servant.

Hosea 12:13
12:13 And by a {m} prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

      (m) Meaning Moses, by which appears that whatever they have, it comes from God's free goodness.
HOSEA 13

Hosea 13:1
13:1 When Ephraim spake {a} trembling, he {b} exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, 
{c} he died.

     (a) He shows the excellency and authority that this tribe had above all the rest.
     (b) He made a king of his tribe.
     (c) The Ephraimites are not far from destruction, and have lost their authority.

Hosea 13:2
13:2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, [and] idols according 
to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, {d} Let the men that 
sacrifice kiss the calves.

     (d) "Let the men that sacrifice" or "while they sacrifice men". The false prophets persuaded the 
      idolaters to offer their children after the example of Abraham, and he shows how they would exhort 
      one another to the same, and to kiss and worship these calves which were their idols.

Hosea 13:4
13:4 Yet I [am] the LORD thy God {e} from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for [there is] 
no saviour beside me.

     (e) He calls them to repentance, and reproves their ingratitude.

Hosea 13:9
13:9 O Israel, thou {f} hast destroyed thyself; but in me [is] thine help.

     (f) Your destruction is certain, and my benefits toward you declare that it comes not from me: therefore 
      your own malice, idolatry, and vain confidence in men must necessarily be the cause of it.

Hosea 13:10
13:10 {g} I will be thy king: where [is any other] that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of 
whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? 

      (g) I am all one; James 1:17.

Hosea 13:12
13:12 The iniquity of Ephraim [is] {h} bound up; his sin [is] hid.

      (h) It is surely laid up to be punished, as in Jeremiah 17:1.

Hosea 13:13
13:13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he [is] an unwise son; for he should not stay 
long in [the place of] the {i} breaking forth of children.

      (i) But would come out of the womb, that is out of these dangers in which he is, and not wait to be 
       suppressed.

Hosea 13:14
13:14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O {k} death, I will 
be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: {l} repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

      (k) Meaning that no power will resist God when he will deliver his own, but even in death he will 
       give them life.
      (l) Because they will not turn to me, I will change my purpose.
Hosea Chapter 14
Hosea 14:1
14:1 O Israel, {a} return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

     (a) He exhorts them to repentance to avoid all these plagues, exhorting them to declare by words 
      their obedience and repentance.

Hosea 14:2
14:2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, {b} Take away all iniquity, and receive [us] 
graciously: so will we render the calves of our {c} lips.

     (b) He shows them that they ought to confess their sins.
     (c) Declaring that this is the true sacrifice that the faithful can offer, even thanks and praise; 
       Hebrews 13:15.

Hosea 14:3
14:3 Asshur shall {d} not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our 
hands, [Ye are] our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

     (d) We will forsake all vain confidence and pride.

Hosea 14:4
14:4 {e} I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

     (e) He declares how ready God is to receive those that do repent.

Hosea 14:7
14:7 They that dwell under his {f} shadow shall return; they shall revive [as] the corn, and grow as the vine:
the scent thereof [shall be] as the wine of Lebanon.

     (f) Whoever unites themselves to this people will be blessed.

Hosea 14:8
14:8 Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I {g} have heard [him], and observed him: I 
[am] like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

     (g) God shows how prompt he is to hear his own when they repent, and to offer himself as a protection and
         safeguard for them, as a most sufficient fruit and benefit.

Hosea 14:9
14:9 Who [is] {h} wise, and he shall understand these [things]? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways
of the LORD (are] right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

     (h) Signifying that the true wisdom and knowledge consists in this, even to rest upon God.


end of Hosea

Micah

1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

1:2 Hear, all you people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the LORD from his holy temple.

1:3 For, behold, the LORD comes forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

1:4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

1:5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.

1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

1:8 Therefore I will wail and wail, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

1:9 For her wound is incurable; for it has come unto Judah; he has come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

1:10 Declare all of you it not at Gath, weep all of you not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll yourself in the dust.

1:11 Pass all of you away, you inhabitant of Saphir, having your shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive of you his standing.

1:12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.

1:13 O you inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

1:14 Therefore shall you give presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

1:15 Yet will I bring an heir unto you, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

1:16 Make you bald, and poll you for your delicate children; enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from you.

2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2:2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

2:3 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which all of you shall not remove your necks; neither shall all of you go haughtily: for this time is evil.

2:4 In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he has changed the portion of my people: how has he removed it from me! turning away he has divided our fields.

2:5 Therefore you shall have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.

2:6 Prophesy all of you not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.

2:7 O you that are named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly?

2:8 Even of late my people has risen up as an enemy: all of you pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.

2:9 The women of my people have all of you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have all of you taken away my glory for ever.

2:10 Arise all of you, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.

2:11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto you of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

2:12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.

2:13 The breaker has come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

3:1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and all of you princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

3:2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3:3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

3:4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

3:5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people go astray, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that puts not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

3:6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that all of you shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that all of you shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

3:7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

3:8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

3:9 Hear this, I pray you, all of you heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that detest judgment, and pervert all equity.

3:10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

3:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go out of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations far off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

4:4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it.

4:5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

4:6 In that day, says the LORD, will I assemble her that haltes, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

4:7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

4:8 And you, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

4:9 Now why do you cry out aloud? is there no king in you? is your counsellor perished? for pangs have taken you as a woman in travail.

4:10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shall you go forth out of the city, and you shall dwell in the field, and you shall go even to Babylon; there shall you be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem you from the hand of yours enemies.

4:11 Now also many nations are gathered against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.

4:12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make yours horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass: and you shall beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

5:1 Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops: he has laid siege against us: they shall strike the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

5:2 But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he comes forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose activities forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

5:3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which labors has brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

5:4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

5:5 And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

5:6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he treads within our borders.

5:7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarries not for man, nor waits for the sons of men.

5:8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treads down, and tears in pieces, and none can deliver.

5:9 Yours hand shall be lifted up upon yours adversaries, and all yours enemies shall be cut off.

5:10 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD, that I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and I will destroy your chariots:

5:11 And I will cut off the cities of your land, and throw down all your strong holds:

5:12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of yours hand; and you shall have no more soothsayers:

5:13 Your graven images also will I cut off, and your standing images out of the midst of you; and you shall no more worship the work of yours hands.

5:14 And I will pluck up your groves out of the midst of you: so will I destroy your cities.

5:15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

6:1 Hear all of you now what the LORD says; Arise, contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

6:2 Hear all of you, O mountains, the LORD's controversy, and all of you strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

6:3 O my people, what have I done unto you? and wherein have I wearied you? testify against me.

6:4 For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

6:5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that all of you may know the righteousness of the LORD.

6:6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

6:9 The LORD's voice cries unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see your name: hear all of you the rod, and who has appointed it.

6:10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

6:11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

6:12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

6:13 Therefore also will I make you sick in smiting you, in making you desolate because of your sins.

6:14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied; and your casting down shall be in the midst of you; and you shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and that which you deliver will I give up to the sword.

6:15 You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint you with oil; and sweet wine, but shall not drink wine.

6:16 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and all of you walk in their counsels; that I should make you a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore all of you shall bear the reproach of my people.

7:1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the gleaning of grapes of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first-fruits fruit.

7:2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

7:3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asks, and the judge asks for a reward; and the great man, he utters his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

7:4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of your watchmen and your visitation comes; now shall be their perplexity.

7:5 Trust all of you not in a friend, put all of you not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom.

7:6 For the son dishonours the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

7:7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

7:9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

7:10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD your God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

7:11 In the day that your walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.

7:12 In that day also he shall come even to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

7:13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

7:14 Feed your people with your rod, the flock of yours heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

7:15 According to the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things.

7:16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

7:17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of you.

7:18 Who is a God like unto you, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retains not his anger for ever, because he delights in mercy.

7:19 He will return, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

7:20 You will perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

 

Nahum Chapter 3

The miserable destruction of Ninive.

3:1. Woe to thee, 0 city of blood, all full of lies and violence: rapine shall not depart from thee.

3:2. The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the neighing horse; and of the running chariot, and of the horsemen coming up,

3:3. And of the shining sword, and of the glittering spear, and of a multitude slain, and of a grievous destruction: and there is no end of carcasses, and they shall fall down on their dead bodies.

3:4. Because of the multitude of the fornications of the harlot that was beautiful and agreeable, and that made use of witchcraft, that sold nations through her fornications, and families through her witchcrafts.

3:5. Behold I come against thee, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will discover thy shame to thy face, and will show thy nakedness to the nations, and thy shame to kingdoms.

3:6. And I will cast abominations upon thee, and will disgrace thee, and will make an example of thee.

3:7. And it shall come to pass that every one that shall see thee, shall flee from thee, and shall say: Ninive is laid waste: who shall bemoan thee? whence shall I seek a comforter for thee?

3:8. Art thou better than the populous Alexandria, that dwelleth among the rivers? waters are round about it: the sea is its riches: the waters are its walls.

Populous Alexandria... No-Ammon. A populous city of Egypt destroyed by the Chaldeans, and afterwards rebuilt by Alexander, and called Alexandria. Others suppose No-Ammon to be the same as Diospolis.

3:9. Ethiopia and Egypt were the strength thereof, and there is no end: Africa and the Libyans were thy helpers.

3:10. Yet she also was removed and carried into captivity: her young children were dashed in pieces at the top of every street, and they cast lots upon her nobles, and all her great men were bound in fetters.

3:11. Therefore thou also shalt be made drunk, and shalt be despised: and thou shalt seek help from the enemies.

3:12. All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with their green figs: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.

3:13. Behold thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open to thy enemies, the fire shall devour thy bars.

3:14. Draw thee water for the siege, build up thy bulwarks: go into the clay, and tread, work it and make brick.

3:15. There shall the fire devour thee: thou shalt perish by the sword, it shall devour thee like the bruchus: assemble together like the bruchus, make thyself many like the locust.

3:16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchandises above the stars of heaven: the bruchus hath spread himself and flown away.

3:17. Thy guards are like the locusts: and thy little ones like the locusts of locusts which swarm on the hedges in the day of cold: the sun arose, and they flew away, and their place was not known where they were.

Locusts of locusts... The young locusts.

3:18. Thy shepherds have slumbered, O king of Assyria, thy princes shall be buried: thy people are hid in the mountains, and there is none to gather them.

3:19. Thy destruction is not hidden, thy wound is grievous: all that have heard the fame of thee, have clapped their hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?


            
The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the
Corinthians
6

Going to Law before Unbelievers
1  Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
 
2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
 
3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
 
4  If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
 
5  I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
 
6  but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
 
7  ¶ Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
 
8  Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
 
9  ¶ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
 
10  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
 
11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
 

Glorify God in Your Body
12  ¶ All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: 1 Cor. 10.23 all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
 
13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
 
14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
 
15  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.
 
16  What! know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. Gen. 2.24
 
17  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
 
18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
 
19  What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, 1 Cor. 3.16 · 2 Cor. 6.16 which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
 
20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
 

 

Published by The American Bible Society
 

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the
Hebrews
11

Faith
1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
 
2  For by it the elders obtained a good report.
 
3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, Gen. 1.1 so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
 
4  ¶ By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Gen. 4.3-10
 
5  By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Gen. 5.21-24
 
6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
 
7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; Gen. 6.13-22 by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
 
8  ¶ By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Gen. 12.1-5
 
9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: Gen. 35.27
 
10  for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
 
11  Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, Gen. 18.11-14 ; 21.2 because she judged him faithful who had promised.
 
12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. Gen. 15.5 ; 22.17 ; 32.12
 
13  ¶ These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Gen. 23.4
 
14  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
 
15  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
 
16  But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
 
17  ¶ By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Gen. 22.1-14
 
18  of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Gen. 21.12
 
19  accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
 
20  By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Gen. 27.27--0.39
 
21  By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. Gen. 47.31--48.20
 
22  By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. Gen. 50.24, 25 · Ex. 13.19
 
23  ¶ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, Ex. 2.2 because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. Ex. 1.22
 
24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Ex. 2.10-12
 
25  choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
 
26  esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
 
27  By faith he forsook Egypt, Ex. 2.15 not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
 
28  Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. Ex. 12.21-30
 
29  ¶ By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. Ex. 14.21-31
 
30  By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. Josh. 6.12-21
 
31  By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, Josh. 6.22-25 when she had received the spies with peace. Josh. 2.1-21
 
32  ¶ And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Judg. 6.11--8.32 and of Barak, Judg. 4.6--5.31 and of Samson, Judg. 13.2--16.31 and of Jephthah; Judg. 11.1--12.7 of David 1 Sam. 16.1--1.1 also, and Samuel, 1 Sam. 1.1--25.1 and of the prophets:
 
33  who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Dan. 6.1-27
 
34  quenched the violence of fire, Dan. 3.1-30 escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
 
35  Women received their dead raised to life again: 1 Kgs. 17.17-24 · 2 Kgs. 4.25-37 and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
 
36  and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 1 Kgs. 22.26, 27 · 2 Chr. 18.25, 26 · Jer. 20.2 ; 37.15 ; 38.6
 
37  they were stoned, 2 Chr. 24.21 they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
 
38  of whom the world was not worthy: they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
 
39  ¶ And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
 
40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
 

Published by The American Bible Society
 


James 2:14-26
 

James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

James 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

James 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

James 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

James 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

James 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
 


 

 

 

 

Revelation

Revelation 15

1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is completed the wrath of God.

2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, you King of saints.

4  Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? for you only are holy: for all nations shall come and worship before you; for your judgments are made manifest.

5  And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden sashes.

7  And one of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.

8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
 


Chapter 17

1 Then one of the seven angels who were holding the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come here. I will show you the judgment on the great harlot 2 who lives near the many waters.

3 The kings of the earth have had intercourse with her, and the inhabitants of the earth became drunk on the wine of her harlotry."

Then he carried me away in spirit to a deserted place where I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast 4 that was covered with blasphemous names, with seven heads and ten horns.

The woman was wearing purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held in her hand a gold cup that was filled with the abominable and sordid deeds of her harlotry.

On her forehead was written a name, which is a mystery, "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth."

5 I saw that the woman was drunk on the blood of the holy ones and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. 6 When I saw her I was greatly amazed.

The angel said to me, "Why are you amazed? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, the beast with the seven heads and the ten horns.

7 The beast that you saw existed once but now exists no longer. It will come up from the abyss and is headed for destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world shall be amazed when they see the beast, because it existed once but exists no longer, and yet it will come again.

Here is a clue 8 for one who has wisdom. The seven heads represent seven hills upon which the woman sits. They also represent seven kings:

five have already fallen, one still lives, and the last has not yet come, 9 and when he comes he must remain only a short while.

The beast 10 that existed once but exists no longer is an eighth king, but really belongs to the seven and is headed for destruction.

The ten horns that you saw represent ten kings who have not yet been crowned; 11 they will receive royal authority along with the beast for one hour.

They are of one mind and will give their power and authority to the beast.

They will fight with the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and king of kings, and those with him are called, chosen, and faithful."

Then he said to me, "The waters that you saw where the harlot lives represent large numbers of peoples, nations, and tongues.

16

The ten horns 12 that you saw and the beast will hate the harlot; they will leave her desolate and naked; they will eat her flesh and consume her with fire.

For God has put it into their minds to carry out his purpose and to make them come to an agreement to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are accomplished.

The woman whom you saw represents the great city that has sovereignty over the kings of the earth."

Footnotes

1 [1-6] Babylon, the symbolic name (Rev 17:5) of Rome, is graphically described as "the great harlot."

2 [17:1-19:10] The punishment of Babylon is now described as a past event and, metaphorically, under the image of the great harlot who leads people astray into idolatry.

3 [2] Intercourse . . . harlotry: see the note on Rev 14:4. The pagan kings subject to Rome adopted the cult of the emperor.

4 [3] Scarlet beast: see the note on Rev 13:1-10. Blasphemous names: divine titles assumed by the Roman emperors; see the note on Rev 13:5-6.

5 [6] Reference to the great wealth and idolatrous cults of Rome.

6 [6b-18] An interpretation of the vision is here given.

7 [8] Allusion to the belief that the dead Nero would return to power (Rev 17:11); see the note on Rev 13:3.

8 [9] Here is a clue: literally, "Here a mind that has wisdom." Seven hills: of Rome.

9 [10] There is little agreement as to the identity of the Roman emperors alluded to here. The number seven (Rev 17:9) suggests that all the emperors are meant; see the note on Rev 1:4.

10 [11] The beast: Nero; see the note on Rev 17:8.

11 [12-13] Ten kings who have not yet been crowned: perhaps Parthian satraps who are to accompany the revived Nero (the beast) in his march on Rome to regain power; see the note on Rev 13:3. In Rev 19:11-21, the Lamb and his companions will conquer them.

12 [16-18] The ten horns: the ten pagan kings (Rev 17:12) who unwittingly fulfill God's will against harlot Rome, the great city; cf Ezekiel 16:37.
 

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The fall of Babylon (18:1).

18:1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendour. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted:

"Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. 3 For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

Rev 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

"Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. 6 Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. 7 Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, 'I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.' 8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.

For background see the following passages:

  1. The Fall of Lucifer is described in Isa 14:12.
  2. A dirge against the king of Tyre, Ezek 27:1-11.
  3. Doom song of Babylon, Isa 13:19-22.
  4. Doom song of Edom, Isa 34:11-15.
  5. Doom songs of Babylon, Jer 50:39, see also Jer 51 which contains many of the thoughts in Rev 18.
  6. Doom song of Nineveh, Zep 2:13-15.

v1 - After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendour. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted: - The angel has great authority delegated to him by God, just as Satan gave beast great authority. The angel is going to announce the fall of the great city which is the city of the beast. The earth was illuminated by his splendour which comes from the glory of God when the angel was in God's presence in heaven. Just as Moses face shone with the glory of God after he had been in God's presence. The angel is similar in description to that in Ezek 43:1-2 in which the land was radiant with God's glory. The glory of the angel is appropriate to the greatness of his announcement and his authority to proclaim the word of God concerning the demise of Babylon.

v2 - Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great - The angel announces the fall of Babylon the Great, this is a repetition of the angel's announcement in 14:8, see also Isa 21:9: 'Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All her idols lie shattered on the ground'. This also reminds us of the fall of the ancient Babylonian king, Belshazzar, in Dan 5:26, 'God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end'. The repetition of Fallen indicates the certainty of judgement.

v2 - She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. - After her destruction she will be deserted, this is enlarged upon by the angel in 18:21-24. She is already inhabited by unclean spirits who provoke men into unclean acts (xxxx). After man is no longer there the demons move around seeking rest (Luke 11:24). The description in this verse is a classical biblical description of a desolate city, Jer 9:11, 50:39, 51:37, Isa 13:19-22, 34:8-15.

v3 - For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries." - The angel gives the reasons for her destruction, she seduced the nations, kings and merchants to be unfaithful to God, see also 17:2. See Jer 51:7, 'Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord's hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad' and Isa 51:17-23. The kings join in with her in her sins against God, they also share in her power and luxury, see verse 9. The merchants also get rich from her desire for greater and greater luxury, we see this now in the world the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, what is condemned here is excessive luxury. The merchants will lament the loss of their profitable trade, Rev 18:11, 15, 23.

v4 - Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; - This is clearly a warning to the saints. There are two meanings here, first to come out meaning to be separate from her in her sins and secondly to flee from her in order to avoid her judgement (see 1 Cor 11:32, Jer 51:6, 45). Just as Lot fled Sodom before its destruction (Gen 19:12 ff.); the Israelites fled Egypt; God's people fled Babylon (Jer 51:45); and the early church fled Jerusalem to avoid persecution before her destruction; so God's people are told to leave Babylon before her destruction comes upon her. This is a personal command of God. This has an echo throughout scripture starting with Abraham who was told to leave his own country (Gen 12:1). He was looking forward to a better country, a heavenly one, and God has prepared a city for him (Heb 11:8-16). This finds its fulfilment with the heavenly Jerusalem later in Revelation. It finds an echo in 2 Cor 6:16 in which God's people are called out, that is they are to be a holy people separate from the world and its sin. Note that the word church in the NT is ekklesia meaning an assembly of God's called out ones. This should be read with the warnings to the churches at Pergamum (Balaam, idolatry, immorality) and Thyatira (Jezebel, idolatry, immorality) in mind. They saints do not belong to the world, but have been chosen out of the world (John 15:19 cf. James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15-17).

v5 - for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. - Just as man tried to make a tower at Babel that reached to heaven (Gen 11:4), so now her sins have piled up to heaven instead and God has remembered her crimes, He has not forgotten (cf. Jer 51:9). In the seventh bowl God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of his wrath, 16:19. Note that this is in contrast with the saints whose sins He will remember no more (Heb 8:12, 10:17, Jer 31:33)

v6 - Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. - In Exo 22:4 a thief must payback double the property that was stolen v4, v7, v9. Babylon must be repaid for her deeds, her punishment is according to her deeds, Jer 50:29, Psa 137:8. In Jer 16:18 they are paid back double for the sin of idolatry (cf. Isa 40:2). Just as she used the gold cup to tempt the world away from God so it will be used to judge her (cf. Rev 17:2, 4, 18:3, Jer 25:15, 51:7) and she will drink from the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath (16:19) which involves the destruction of the cities of the earth by an earthquake.

v7 - Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, 'I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.' - We see here that her punishment is just, she gets as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. 'In her heart she boasts "I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn" ' Isa 47:5-12, she is arrogant, but God sees all and judges her accordingly, the fall of Babylon described in Isa 47. This is also a denouncement of the Queen of Heaven, Jer 7:18, 44:17. This is also a warning to the church at Laodicea who had the same attitude, which said 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing' (3:17). John is using the harlot to show the church, especially the comfortable Laodiceans, the true nature of the harlot. The Christian is not to love the world or anything in it, the world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:15-17).

v8 - Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. - The 'therefore' relates to v 4-7. The one day indicates the suddenness of her judgement. The plagues are probably the seven bowls, especially the seventh but also the fifth. God judges her according to her words, 'I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.' I sit as a queen and death comes to her; I am not a widow and mourning comes to her; she lived in luxury and famine comes to her. She gets the double portion from her own cup v6. God uses the beast and ten kings to judge her, they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire, 17:16 (Zec 9:4, Isa 47:9). In Lev 21:9 the punishment for a priests daughter being a prostitute was to be burned in the fire. Finally note that however powerful Babylon is the Lord God who judges her (as shown by the angel with great authority in verse 1) is mightier than her.

2.1. Mourning for Babylon (18:9).

This has much in common with the lament for Tyre in Ezek 26 and 27. Babylon is described as a city of power and of great wealth, in one hour she loses both of these. See also Isa 23:1-18 for a lament over Tyre. Notice the triple emphasis given by the kings, merchants and seamen of the one hour of her doom and ruination, verses 10, 17, 19, this is another example of the use of three in describing the structure of the city, cf. 11:8, 16:19 (Milligan). Because these people have based their life and their hope on the woman who represents the wealth and pleasures of this life, when she is destroyed their hope has gone and therefore they mourn her passing. These people were in love with the world and the things of this world (see 18:12 ff.) and therefore mourn its passing (1 John 2:15-17), this is in contrast to the saints who rejoice over her destruction because the world persecuted her (18:20, 19:2).

The kings mourn their loss of power and luxury; the merchants and seamen mourn their loss of wealth through trading in the things of the world. Notice the merchants carry out their trade over the land while the seamen carry out their trade by the sea, thus covering the whole world. Jesus warns us that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15 ff.).

2.1.1. The kings of the earth mourn (18:9).

Rev 18:9 "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. 10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

"'Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!'

v9 - "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. - The kings shared her luxury which is now destroyed therefore they weep and mourn over her (cf. Ezek 26:16, 27:35). The smoke of her burning arises because she is destroyed by fire, see previous verse and 17:16. John uses a similar expression to 'smoke of her burning' to describe the torment of those who worship the beast, 14:11. In 19:3 the saints, apostles and prophets who had been persecuted by her shout 'Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever'. Note that the beast, false prophet and the dragon are cast into the lake of fire, 20:10.

v10 - Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: "'Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!' - The kings mourn for their loss of power. Without her their power has gone. They are terrified because their security is gone, they know they are next because they committed adultery with her. They had committed adultery with her and were thus united to her in her fate (xxxx), cf. those who committed adultery with Jezebel who share her fate unless they repent of her ways (2:20-23). The kings of the earth are dispatched later (19:19-21). Babylon has lost her power in one hour which is the same time that the ten kings receive authority as kings along with the beast (17:12). Their sorrow is worldly sorrow not godly sorrow which leads to repentance (2 Cor 7:10), their sorrow is totally self centred. Caird comments that the one hour of persecution (17:12) is balance by the one hour of retribution, this assumes that the ten kings are the same as the kings of the earth, it should also be born in mind that the ten kings help destroy the whore so they are unlikely to be the same group. Consider the lament over the destruction of Egypt (Ezek 32:10) 'I will cause many peoples to be appalled at you, and their kings will shudder with horror because of you when I brandish my sword before them. On the day of your downfall each of them will tremble every moment for his life'.

2.1.2. The merchants mourn (18:11).

11 "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more-- 12 cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; 13 cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men. 14 "They will say, 'The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendour have vanished, never to be recovered.' 15 The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn 16 and cry out:

"'Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! 17 In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!'

v11-13 there are seven categories of goods, most of which are luxuries:

treasures: gold, silver, precious stones and pearls
fine fabrics: fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth
fancy building materials: every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble
spices etc.: cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense
Foods: of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat;
Livestock: cattle and sheep; horses and carriages;
Slaves: and bodies and souls of men

v11 - "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more-- The merchants mourn not over Babylon but because they have lost their trade. There follows a seven-fold list of goods which the merchants traded in.

v12 - cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; - The woman was decorated with many of these things, she was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls, 17:4, compare with her description given by the merchants in Rev 18:16 'Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!' They traded in pearls but missed the pearl of great price that would have gained them entry to the New Jerusalem (Mat 13:45, Rev 21:21).

v13 - cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men. - Wine and oil were not damaged by the third seal (6:6) wheat was scarce, Barley is not traded by the merchants because it is poor mans food, it is not a luxury.

v14 - "They will say, 'The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendour have vanished, never to be recovered.' - The fruit you longed for is likely to be those things listed in the previous verses. They note the finality of her destruction.

v15 - The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn - They mourn because they have lost their source of wealth, 18:3. Her torment is to be burned by fire, 17;16, 18:8, 9. They stand far off from her at a safe distance from her burning as did the kings. They could be next and join in her punishment since they too grew rich from her luxury.

v16 - and cry out: "'Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! - In 17:4 we find that the woman was also dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. These items were also part of their cargoes.

v17 - In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!' - Her wealth described in the previous verse has been ruined in a short time, one hour. cf. 18:10 the kings mourn, 18:19 the seamen mourn, the one hour corresponds to the period of the authority of the ten kings along with the beast (17:12) who bring her to ruin (17:16).

2.1.3. The sea captains mourn (18:17).

"Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. 18 When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, 'Was there ever a city like this great city?' 19 They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out:

"'Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!

20 Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.'"

v17 - Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. - The seamen are mentioned here because they compliment those who trade over land, the merchants, thus together they trade by land and sea over the whole world, which is the devil's kingdom (But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! 12:12). They mourn as do the merchants because they have lost their source of wealth, see Ezek 27:25. They also like the kings and merchants stand afar off terrified by her torment.

v18 - When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, 'Was there ever a city like this great city?' - The kings of the earth also saw the smoke of her burning (18:9). See also the lament over Tyre in Ezek 27:32.

v19 - They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: "'Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin! - Taken from the lament over Tyre in Ezek 27:30. They weep and mourn their loss of wealth rather than over their sins.

v20 - Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.'" - Compare with Jer 51:48 'Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her," declares the LORD'. In contrast to the mourning of the kings, merchants and sea captains those in heaven and God's people in heaven are called to rejoice over her because God has judged her for the way she treated the saints while they were on earth. In the NIV the quotation marks seem to be misplaced here but the speaker is most likely to still be the voice from heaven in verse 4. This is just an initial command for those in heaven to rejoice over her destruction, there follows a description of her destruction and after this in, 19:1, heaven erupts with a great roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting praise to God that he has condemned the great prostitute and avenged the blood of his servants. There is similar rejoicing in heaven when Satan is expelled 12:12. It is those in heaven who have been persecuted by the great city, their blood has been avenged, and so they are to rejoice. She had killed the saints, Rev 17:6 and prophets 18:24, God has at last vindicated His servants the martyrs when they cried out for justice and their blood to be avenged, Rev 6:9, 19:2. This is the only time that God's apostles are mentioned in the book, they are included because they have been persecuted as well as the saints and prophets (Luke 11:49, Rev 18:24). Prophets are mentioned more often than apostles because there is a stronger tradition of prophets being persecuted (Mat 5:12). Both apostle and prophet is a church ministry (1 Cor 12:28). God has treated her the same way she treated His people, this principle is also seen in 18:6, 'Give back to her as she has given', it is the principle of sowing and reaping (Gal 6:7).

2.2. Final destruction (18:21).

Rev 18:21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

"With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again. 22 The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. 23 The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. 24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."

Note the six fold repetition of never indicating the compete destruction of Babylon (Hendriksen):

Babylon never to be found again.
The music of.... never to be heard in you again
no workman... will ever be found in you again.
The sound of the millstone will never be heard in you again
The light of a lamp will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again

v21 - Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: "With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again. - This is based on the scroll upon which Jeremiah had written all the disasters that would come upon Babylon, the staff officer Seraiah was to read it and tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates, and say 'So Babylon will sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will fall' Jer 51:60-64. This is followed by a six fold statement of what will not be found in her again (Ezek 26:21). This should also remind us that Jesus said: 'But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea' Mat 18:6. The true crime of the harlot is that she tempts God's people to sin.

v22 - The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. - Compare this with the words of the Lord to Tyre in Ezek 26:13 and to the inhabitants of the earth in Isa 24:8. Contrast the lack of music with the redeemed, Rev 14:2, who play their harps.

v23-24 - The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. 24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth." - 'The light of a lamp will never shine in you again' in contrast to the New Jerusalem in which the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp (21:23). In the New Jerusalem where the Lamb is the bridegroom and the church is the bride and voices will be very much in evidence, see 19:6. Her merchants were the world's great men (Isa 23:8) who mourned for her in 18:11-17. Compare this to Jeremiah's words to the people of Judah as they were about to go into captivity because they did not obey the Lord or listen to his prophets, Jer 25:10 'I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp'. Contrast this to the blessedness of the wedding supper of the Lamb, 19:9. This also reminds us of two other earlier judgements: in the days of Noah people were eating, drinking, marrying and the flood destroyed them all; in the days of Lot people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building (notice that marriage was not mentioned) but then they were destroyed by fire and sulphur from heaven; then Jesus reminds us that it will be just like this when he comes again (Luke 17:26-30); a contemporary example was Pompeii in AD 79 (Sweet). The reasons for judgement are given as:

  1. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray (cf. Nahum 3:4).
  2. In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth c.f. the souls under the altar (6:9) and 19:2 where he has avenged on her the blood of his servants (Jer 51:49).

Nineveh was known for its bloodshed, sorcery and witchcraft (Nahum 3:4) 'all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft'. Verse 24 is similar in thought to Jer 51:49 'Babylon must fall because of Israel's slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon'. Nineveh and Jerusalem (Mat 23:37) are types of Babylon depicted here by John. In her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints, in 17:6 we saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, she persecuted the saints and got her just retribution. She is not just a persecutor but is responsible for the blood of all those killed on the earth. So she is much more than just the apostate church, she represent that lust for power and wealth that causes nations to go to war for. She reigns over the kings of the earth and she is therefore, in her greed, responsible for all wars

FROM; http://www.apocalipsis.org/rev-18.htm

Revelation  19

The saints glorify God for his judgments on the great harlot. Christ's victory over the beast and the kings of the earth.

19:1. After these things, I heard as it were the voice of much people in heaven, saying: Alleluia. Salvation and glory and power is to our God.

19:2. For true and just are his judgments, who hath judged the great harlot which corrupted the earth with her fornication and hath revenged the blood of his servants, at her hands.

19:3. And again they said: Alleluia. And her smoke ascendeth for ever and ever.

19:4. And the four and twenty ancients and the four living creatures fell down and adored God that sitteth upon the throne, saying: Amen. Alleluia.

19:5. And a voice came out from the throne, saying: Give praise to our God, all ye his servants: and you that fear him, little and great.

19:6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunders, saying: Alleluia: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, hath reigned.

19:7. Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb is come: and his wife hath prepared herself.

19:8. And it is granted to her that she should clothe herself with fine linen, glittering and white. For the fine linen are the justifications of saints.

19:9. And he said to me: Write: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith to me: These words of God are true.

19:10. And I fell down before his feet, to adore him. And he saith to me: See thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Adore God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.*

19:11. And I saw heaven opened: and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true: and with justice doth he judge and fight.

19:12. And his eyes were as a flame of fire: and on his head were many diadems. And he had a name written, which no man knoweth but himself.

19:13. And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood. And his name is called: THE WORD OF GOD.

19:14. And the armies that are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

19:15. And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two-edged sword, that with it he may strike the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty.

19:16. And he hath on his garment and on his thigh written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

19:17. And I saw an angel standing in the sun: and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that did fly through the midst of heaven: Come, gather yourselves together to the great supper of God:

19:18. That you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of tribunes and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them: and the flesh of all freemen and bondmen and of little and of great.

19:19. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war with him that sat upon the horse and with his army.

19:20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who wrought signs before him, wherewith he seduced them who received the character of the beast and who adored his image. These two were cast alive into the pool of fire burning with brimstone.

19:21. And the rest were slain by the sword of him that sitteth upon the horse, which proceedeth out of his mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

*NOTE

VERSE 10. I fell down before, etc... St. Augustine (lib. 20, contra Faust, c. 21) is of opinion, that this angel appeared in so glorious a manner, that St. John took him to be God; and therefore would have given him divine honour had not the angel stopped him, by telling him he was but his fellow servant. St. Gregory (Hom. 8, in Evang.) rather thinks that the veneration offered by St. John, was not divine honour, or indeed any other than what might lawfully be given; but was nevertheless refused by the angel, in consideration of the dignity to which our human nature had been raised, by the incarnation of the Son of God, and the dignity of St. John, an apostle, prophet, and martyr.

 

 

No nation reached the heights of riches and prosperity, as did Israel under the rule of Solomon. God had raised Israel, his chosen one, as the most beautiful woman among every nation of the world. No king ever prospered, no king was ever as rich, and no king was ever as wise in worldly wisdom as was Solomon. Solomon had the opportunity to glorify God as no other king but instead of glorifying God, Solomon turned to Baal worship and followed the gods of his pagan wives.

Israel had been united into one nation under King David's rule and continued to be one nation under the rule of King Solomon, but after the death of King Solomon Israel became divided once more. Eventually ten tribes of Israel were carried into captivity by the king of Assyria. (2 Ki 18:11 KJV) And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. The king of Judah was left in the land of Israel but soon Judah would forget God. Israel had been carried away because of her whoredoms and followed the ways that Solomon had given unto them. Israel was known by God as Aholah and was carried away by her lovers the Assyrians. Jerusalem, known as Aholibah, would whore with Babylon and eventually be carried off by her lover and defiled also. It has always been the pattern of Israel to follow paganism and to whore after Baal.

When in Babylon the Jews after seventy years were allowed to return to Jerusalem. When the Jews returned they brought Babylonian mysteries back with them. The religious system of Kabala or Jewish mysticism was formed and this system was in effect during the times of Jesus and Paul. It was the spirit of Antichrist working then and these pagan doctrines and beliefs through the doctrine of the trinities have filled the world. We know that if God would not accept a temple built by King David that he surly would not have accepted King Herod's Temple as a habitation. Herod was a proselyte that was King of Israel through the power of the Roman Empire and was a very ungodly man. His temple was a den of serpents or devils that followed after the ways of paganism through Jewish mysticism. The serpent was responsible for putting mankind or Adam out of the garden, and responsible for putting Israel out of a land or garden that flowed with milk and honey through seduction and deceit. Solomon gave unto the whole world the gods and religion of his wives, which were into witchcraft and the ways of the pagans. The key of Solomon is used to find tables used in the practice of white and black magic. Solomon gave unto Israel the star of Remphan. (Acts 7:43 KJV) Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the STAR of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

ACTS

37 ¶ This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A aprophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

  38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively aoracles to give unto us:
  39 To whom our fathers would not aobey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
  40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us agods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
  41 And they made a acalf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
  42 Then God turned, and agave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
  43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

 

 

Notice below that the Star of David, in the first picture, has the name of Michael in the center of it.


 

The Star of David is used on Israel's national flag. King David did not have a star and was not into astrology. King Solomon however did go whoring after other gods and did get involved into astrology and the Zodiac. Solomon's star was the star of Remphan and he allowed the tabernacle and the god Moloch to be worshipped. This pagan worship was not new unto Israel Amos also addressed this same issue with Israel. (Amos 5:26 KJV) But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. These words are the same words that Stephen spoke in the book of Acts and was stoned for.

Jeroboam became king over ten tribes of Israel and Jeroboam did more evil than any of the kings that had reigned before him. God allowed Rehoboam to reign over Judah after the death of Solomon. I want all that read this article to know that because of receiving the ways of the pagans, the lovely wife of God became the whore above all whores and even paid her lovers to sleep with her. It still seems that the nations have not learned and all are still whoring.

The Roman Catholic Harlot Church has instilled the Babylonian mysteries back into practice among the brethren. This serpent has entered back into the garden of God being among us. This serpent has sold his lying doctrine unto many of the virgins and these virgins have run out of oil. The Roman Catholic Church has instilled the ceremonial law back into practice in the modern churches. Worship by religious works and outward appearances are the common way among most.

I am not saying works and appearances are not important. Our works does not save us but the works of our heavenly father that are done in us saves us. Also we no longer live according to the flesh therefore it is the works of Christ Jesus in us that are seen by others. Above I am talking about the works and outward appearance of the old man.

The religion of the harlot of Islam is practice in the same flesh manner. These modern day Pharisees use loud speakers so that all may hear their righteous prayers. Their ceremonial religion has become so prevalent in America that it is one of the fastest growing religions in the states. When you compare the religions of the Orthodox Jews, Trinitarian Christians, and the Moslems you have the same spirit of antichrist. These religions all contain Baal worship and are pagan.

God put seven feast days that were to be kept by Israel in his word. Each and every one of these feast days was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. All of these feast days were replaced by ceremonial feast days of the pagans and instilled into the Protestant faith by the harlot Roman Catholic Church. Also it must be noted that the harlot Islam faith has its ceremonial and pagan feast days also. Truly the feast days of God were to be studied in order to bring us to Christ Jesus but they and the oracles of God are very seldom taught in the body of Christ. Only the carnal pagan holy days of ceremonial flesh are kept as a whole.

The majority of people reject these teachings but most truth against paganism and Baal worship is rejected throughout the world. It would seem apparent that most could study the history of Israel and see how Baal worship has made Israel suffer as no other nation has suffered and still is suffering. The bride of God rejected him and killed their husband, king and the Messiah. No people have suffered more than the Jews have suffered in the last two thousand years.

Paul stated that Jerusalem was under bondage in his day to Agar, which was Mount Sinai. (Gal 4:24 KJV) Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. (Gal 4:25 KJV) For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. (Gal 4:26 KJV) But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

I know that the earthly city of Jerusalem today is still under that same bondage. The earthly nation of Israel is still looking for the Messiah to come and restore Israel to the greatness that she had under Solomon. We know that a greater one than Solomon came and that one was Jesus Christ. The bride of Christ Jesus has received a glory and greatness above the Israel under Solomon. This is the Jerusalem, which is from above she is the bride of Jesus Christ.

The Jews that are in Israel need to know that the Antichrist is close to being exposed. He will rule from Jerusalem and all the nations of the world will accept him. The ones that are in Israel that are truly of Israel will fight against this man. There is a remnant in Israel that needs to hear the spiritual things that the prophets taught. This is one of my missions in life that I pray will be fulfilled. I know that some of these writings will reach a few that live in that land. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this remnant will read and understand the truth.

America will follow the rest of the nations. Our country's flag has her pagan stars also. There will be a world religion just as there was in the days of Rome. The Antichrist will seem to be as wise as Solomon, which became a failure that disgraced God. Solomon allowed the doctrines of Baal to exalt itself and defile God's lovely virgin.

All nations of the world are partakers of the Baal and pagan doctrine of the Jerusalem that is under bondage to Agar. They are under bondage to the ceremonial law of Pharisee religion. The serpent is selling his false word unto the world saying that a woman and city of this world is the bride of Christ Jesus but Agar is rejected and cast out with her son Ishmael.

If you see what Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is doing today you instantly realize how it goes against God's will. Israel is accepting Ishmael into their bosom. Ishmael sings unto his moon god three times a day, Allah. They are making peace treaties with worshippers of Baal and the gods of astrology. The Temple Mount is polluted with a pagan temple of the moon god Allah. Her past lovers still have authority over her. (Ezek 16:39 KJV) And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

The true Jerusalem, which is free through Jesus Christ, has cast out the bondwoman and her son. We only worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have accepted Jesus Messiah the king and husband of New Jerusalem the one and only bride of the living God. (Rev 18:4 KJV) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

We have been grafted into the house of Israel becoming Israel also. Israel ruled the world under Solomon through peace. All of the kings of the world came to seek the Wisdom of Solomon. The Antichrist will rule from Jerusalem also through wisdom and the promise of peace. When has not Jerusalem played a part in the pattern of God's word? When has not God sent prophets unto her? When has not Jerusalem persecuted and killed the prophet's of God? This pattern will not change until God destroys Ishmael and the house of Eli once and for all.

Jerusalem stands alone in the land of Israel as a great city of gods. She is polluted with every antichrist spirit in the world. The rest of Israel is as ungodly and as polluted as America and the rest of the nations. Jesus Messiah, the husband of Jerusalem, is as rejected by her today as he was when Messiah walked upon the earth two thousand years ago. Ishmael or Moslems reject Jesus Messiah along with the Orthodox Jews and the harlot Roman Catholic Church and her Protestant whorish daughters. Jerusalem believes she will smite the rock Jesus Christ again through an Antichrist Messiah. They do not know that through Moses God showed us that the rock or Jesus Messiah will not be smitten twice.

There are two women, one is Jerusalem that is under bondage to Agar through her son Ishmael, and the other is New Jerusalem, which is from above and is the bride of Christ Jesus. We need to help the remnant that is in the land that is controlled by Agar. We need men located in that area to fight against the whore and Antichrist that most will follow and have followed through pagan and Baal worship.

Jerusalem has and will play a valuable part of bible prophecy until the end of the world. This is the pattern that God has always followed. Agar and Ishmael are rejected and the son of promise the seed, which is Messiah Jesus rules in his kingdom that is not of this world. We as Abraham are looking for a city not made by hands, the bride of Messiah, which is New Jerusalem. The whore has been rejected and will be burned and any temple that is made with hands will never stand. (Heb 11:8 KJV) By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. (Heb 11:9 KJV) By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: (Heb 11:10 KJV) For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

FROM: http://www.thunderministries.com/Beast/Whore2.html

Daniel 3:12  KJV: There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Conclusion
FROM: http://www.bible-history.com/gentile_court/TEMPLECOURTConclusion.htm

It is probably very hard to conceive Jerusalem during the time of Jesus without its many Gentile inhabitants. No doubt they were many foreigners performing in the great theater, conducting business in the many marketplaces, organizing the main events in the hippodrome, and serving in Herod's personal court as his bodyguard.

After Archelaus was exiled in 6 A.D. the number of foreigners in the city greatly increased with the presence of the Roman army. Yet the city of Jerusalem was almost exclusively Jewish, and if we were to paint a picture of the foreigners we should probably paint them as specialists in various fields.

As for the Jews the variety of people was immense for Jews "from every nation under heaven" would gather for the feasts, and many of them actually lived in the city as residents. If we were to walk through the streets of ancient Jerusalem we would find every degree of religion devotion, as well as the great many who were set in their Hellenistic ways and not practicing the keeping of the Law.

Jerusalem, nevertheless was a predominantly Jewish city, but it's beautiful character belonged to the fact that is magnificent Temple was not only admired by the local Jews, but actually belonged to every Jew throughout the world. A great portion of religious devotion could only be performed in the Temple at Jerusalem, and the great Jerusalem Council, the "Sanhedrin", was the only central reference point in the entire world for the interpretation of the Torah. It is very interesting and ironic that even this body of rulers should have been called by a Greek name, because "Sanhedrin" is simply a rendering of synedrion, the Greek word for council.

This central status of Jerusalem for international Jewry had many financial benefits. Unlike any of the cities in Syria it received annual Temple dues from a large and organized "Dispersion", and unlike other cities, it received an immense cash flow. It is very unlikely that this cash was held in safekeeping within the Temple vaults. The Temple no doubt served as a bank, and put the cash back into circulation by lending, and financing businesses. As a matter of fact, we learned from Josephus that Pontius Pilate caused a disturbance by "spending of the sacred fund called Corbonus on a water supply" (War 2:175). This action provoked a monstrous demonstration against his authority. It is interesting that the complaint was not because he had somehow managed to obtain money given to the Temple authorities, but that he had received money from the wrong fund.

Nevertheless, the water supply probably doubled the population within Jerusalem, from around 35,000 to 70,000, throughout the reign of Herod the Great. This estimate is simply a likely guess. It is also important to know that there were an estimated 2 million people who worshipped at Jerusalem during the Passover.

It is probably very underestimated just how many non-Jewish admirers had come to Jerusalem as proselytes to worship at the Temple of the One and True God.

Throughout the ministry of Jesus, He ministered the love and mercy of God. People could see this by the look in His eyes, and by the tone of His voice. No one with an open hard could mistake the genuine love of God that was in Christ. He turned away no one, including the foreigners whose very presence was considered unclean to the Jews. This was not only an offense to the Jewish religious authorities, but one of the main reasons why they plotted His death.

When Jesus had finally set His face to go to Jerusalem, the religious leaders were hostile, and there is no doubt that by this time they had committed to His murder and dared Him to show His face openly in public. Jesus not only came to Jerusalem and showed His face, but he came riding into Jerusalem through the eastern gate, even the Golden gate, on a donkey. This was in direct fulfillment to several Old Testament prophecies, including Zechariah 9:9. The people began waving palm branches and shouting "hosanna" which means "save now" and called Him "the son of David" which was a common expression among the Jews for "Messiah".

When Jesus entered the Temple of Jerusalem, He passed by Solomon's porch in the Court of the gentiles where He saw the money changers and those selling sacrifices, and he drove them out of the Temple, saying that they had made His Father' House into a den of thieves. The common people, including the foreigners, had every right to seek God and not be treated with contempt, and taken advantage of. Jerusalem, the faithful city, had become a harlot. At the end of Jesus ministry, He uttered the horrifying statement about the Temple to his disciples, "not one stone will be left on top of another, which will not be thrown down."

Jesus gave his final indictment to the faithless city:

Matt 23:37-39 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' "

 

 

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