A fruitfull commentarie vpon the twelue small prophets briefe, plaine, and easie, going ouer the same verse by verse, and shewing every where the method, points of doctrine, and figures of rhetoricke, to the no small profit of all godly and well disposed readers, with very necessarie fore-notes for the vnderstanding of both of these, and also all other the prophets. The text of these prophets together with that of the quotations omitted by the author, faithfully supplied by the translatour, and purged of faults in the Latine coppie almost innumerable, with a table of all the chiefe matters herein handled, and marginall notes very plentifull and profitable; so that it may in manner be counted a new booke in regard of these additions. VVritten in Latin by Lambertus Danæus, and newly turned into English by Iohn Stockwood minister and preacher at Tunbridge.

Vers. 5.

Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the Prophet shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

* 1.1LIke as in the verse before going, the Prophet amplified the stub∣bornnesse of the Israelites, so also doth he now in this place am∣plifie the iudgement of God which was to ensue against them, that he may shew it worthylie, or as they haue deserued, to be such as they should feele it for to be. And he doth amplifie it by three pla∣ces. First,* 1.2 by the persons, the which at the same time shall perish and dye. And these are, both the People it selfe (vnto whome by the figure Apostrophe he turneth his speech for the more vehemen∣cie, or earnestnes sake, and also that thereby they may the more bee stirred vp) and also the Prophets of this people, that is, the false prophets, the which haue brought them vnto such con∣temning or despising of God, and ignorance of the trueth of God. For as Christ saith, If the blind lead the blind they shall both fall into the ditch. Mat. 15. ver. 14. So this Prophet cap. 9. ver. 8. complay∣neth of these ducing of the people by the false prophets: The watch∣man

of Ephraim (saith he) should bee with my God: but the prophet is the snare of a fouler in all his wayes. And therefore Ezechiel cap. 14. ver. 10. sheweth that they and the people that seeke vnto them shall be punished alike: And they shall beare their punishment: the punishment of the Prophet shall be euen as the punishment of him that asketh. Both of them therefore shall worthily bee punished, be∣cause that these, to wit, the false prophets haue deceiued the people, and they, namely, the people themselues would bee deceiued, and preferred a lye before the trueth. Such as these Paul 2. Thessal. 2. ver. 11, 12. saith: That God shall send vnto them strong delusion, that they should beleeue lyes, that all they might be damned which beleeued, not the trueth, but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse. Secondly,* 1.3 hee doth amplifie this iudgement of God by the circumstance of time. For they shall perish (day and night) that is, at all times, and when they shall think to be in prosperitie, as also in aduersitie. For the night couereth many, endeth strifes, & stoppeth & staieth the flying away of many: yet shall it not deliuer those from perill and daun∣ger. For darkenes is no darkenes but light vnto God, from whose presence it cannot hide men, as Dauid confesseth Psal. 139. vers. 11, 12. If I say, yet the darkenes shall hide me, euen the night shall be light about me. Yea the darkenes hideth not from thee: but the night shineth as the day: the darkenes and light are both alike. And where as here the Prophet maketh mention of the night, he seemeth to al∣lude or haue respect vnto the vaine boasting of the false Prophets, who falsly gaue out that they receiued from God, night reuelations, that is, in the night time reuealed vnto them. But they therefore in the selfe same time chiefly shall be punished by God.* 1.4 The third part of this verse doth amplifie the punishment by the greatnes of the affliction. For it shal be so great that the mother of this people, that is, the land it selfe wherein they haue their abode, shall be layd waste, and shall feele this iudgement of God. The land therefore is called a Mother, because those fruits, wherewith wee are nouri∣shed by God, doe growe out of the earth. Wherefore of the pro∣phane or heathen writers the earth is also called The mother of all things, and giuer of life. And hee termeth the soile it selfe by the name of a mother, to moue the hard affections of these men, that they might be throughly touched with the feare of so great pu∣nishments, as who by and for their stubbornnes, haue miserably pulled the same both vpon their own heads, and also vpon the head of their mother.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The iudgment of God against the Israelites, amplified by three places.
• * 1.2

  1. By the persons that shall then perish. What the fi∣gure Apostro∣phe is, see Amos cap. 8. ver 4.
• * 1.3

  2. By the circum∣stance of time.
• * 1.4

  3. By the great∣nes of the af∣fliction.