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.

IN the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth moneth, in the first day of the moneth, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, gover∣nour of Iudah, and to Io∣shuah the son of Iosedech the high priest, saying,

2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lords house should be built.

3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4 Is it time for you, Oye, to dwell in your cieled hou∣ses, and this house lie wast?

5 Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Con∣sider your waies.

6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little: ye eat, but ye have not enough: ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink: ye cloth you, but there is none warm: and

he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your waies.

8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house: and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.

9 Ye looked for much, and lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it: why? saith the Lord of hosts: because of mine house that is wast, and ye run every man unto his own house.

10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and up∣on the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oyl, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattel, and upon all the labour of the hands.

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, (as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.

13. Then spake Haggai the Lords messenger in the Lords message unto the peo∣ple, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.

14 And the Lord stir∣red up the spirt of Zerub∣babel the son of Shealtiel, governour of Iudah, and the spirit of Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts their God,

15 In the four and twen∣tieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Da∣rius the king.