Yea a nation commeth vpon my land, mighty, and with∣out number, whose teeth are like the teeth of alyon, and he hath the iawes of a great lyon.
* 1.1THe yeelding of a reason. For he sheweth by what meanes this either hath in parte already come to passe (if we will haue Ionas to haue prophesied the famine being now already begun) because that it continued many yeares: or else why it should come to passe, if we be of opinion that he foretolde vnto them a famin the which was immediately to insue. Lest therfore this threatning might seem vaine vnto them, especially by reason of the multitude of the vines, wherewith all Iudea did abound, he sheweth how great the num∣ber of these forenamed beasts wasting the vines shall be, and how great plenty there shall be of them,* 1.2 and that by a Metaphor taken from some mighty people or armie of men gathered together. The multitude therefore of these creatures, albeit in themselues they be neuer so small, shall be so great, that they may in number match a nation, yea and that a mighty nation, whose teeth are like the teeth of a lyon, and consequently wost strong, and deuouring and eating vp all things. For a Lyon is a beast most rauenous, and also most strong, who with his teeth breaketh and teareth in••peeces the bones that are euen most hard. And therefore the good king Hezechiah in the feeling of his fraile flesh, thinking his visitation wherewith GOD in hs sicknes did for the time exercise him, to be very hard and extreame compareth it vnto a Lyon breaking his bones, Isai cap. 38. ver. 13. saying: I reckoned to the morning, but he brake all my bones, like a lyon: from day to night wilt thou mak an end of mee.