A paraphrasticall explication of the twelve minor prophets. Viz. Hoseah. Joel. Amos. Obadiah. Jonah. Micah. Nahum. Habakkuk. Zephaniah. Haggai. Zechariah. Malachi. / By Da. Stokes. D.D.

CHAP. I.

1 THe burden which Habakkuk the Prophet did see.

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out un∣to thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoil∣ing and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and conten∣tion.

4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgement doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compasse about the righteous: there∣fore wrong judgment pro∣ceedeth.

5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your daies, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.

6 For lo, I raise up the

Chaldaeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs.

7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judge∣ment and their dignity shall proceed of them∣selves.

8 Their horses also are swifter then the leopards, and are more fierce then the evening wolves: and their horse-men shall spread themselves, and their horse∣men shall come from far, they shall flie as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the capti∣vity as the sand.

10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the prin∣ces shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold, for they shall heap dust and take it.

11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall passe over, and offend, impu∣ting this his power unto his god.

12 Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine holy one? we shall not die: O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgement, and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

13 Thou art of purer eies then to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treache∣rously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righ∣teous then he?

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.

15 They take up all of them with the angle: they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they rejoyce and are glad.

16 Therefore they sa∣crifice unto their net, and

bnrn incense unto their drag: because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plentuous.

17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?