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.

1. THe vision of Oba∣diah: Thus saith the Lord God concerning E∣dom; We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an Ambassadour is sent a∣mong the heathen! Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battell.

2 Behold, I have made thee small among the hea∣then: thou art greatly de∣spised.

3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee? thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart; Who shall bring me down to the ground?

4 Though thou exalt thy self as the Eagle, and though thou set thy nest a∣mong the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.

5 If theives came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!)

would they not have stolne till they had enough? If the grape gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?

6 How are the things of Esau searched out? how are his hid things sought up?

7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee, have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee: they that eat thy bread, have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.

8 Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismay∣ed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau, may be cut off by slaugh∣ter.

10 For thy violence a∣gainst thy brother Iacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for∣ever.

11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and forreiners en∣tered into his gates, and cast lots upon Ierusalem, even thou wast as one of them.

12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger, nei∣ther shouldest thou have re∣joyced over the children of Iudah in the day of their destruction: neither shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distresse.

13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity: yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their sub∣stance in the day of their calamity.

14 Neither shouldst thou have stood in the crosse way to cut off those of his that did escape, neither shouldst thou have delivered up those

of his that did remain in the day of distresse.

15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee, thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually: yea, they shall drink, and they shall swal∣low down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holinesse, and the house of Iacob shall possesse their possessions.

18 And the house of Ia∣cob shall be a fire, and the house of Ioseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them, and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it.

19 And they of the south shall possesse the mount of Esau, and they of the plain, the Philistines: and they shall possesse the fields of E∣phraim, and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possesse Gilead.

20 And the captivity of this hoste of the children of Israel shall possesse that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath, and the capti∣vity of Ierusalem which is in Sepharad, shall possesse the cities of the South.

21 And Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lords.