week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

CHAP. VI. VII.

HOSEA.

Exhortation to Repentance. COME; and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and

he will bind us up. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. 4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. 6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. 10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face; and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. 13 Wo unto them! for they have fled from me; destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

JOEL.'

CHAP. II. Horrors of war.

BLOW ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 3 A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and, as horsemen, so shall they run. 10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining; 11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? 17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

AMOS.

CHAP. IX. Restoration of Israel.

9 FOR, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. 10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. 11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old : 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. 13 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.

MICAH.

CHAP. IV. V. Christ's Advent.

BUT in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be

Micah. established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. 2 And many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 4 But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. 5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. 2 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

CHAP. VI. VII. Acceptable service of God.

6 WHEREWITH shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first born for my transgression? 8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk hunbly with thy God? 18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the trans

gression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, beause he delighteth in mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities : and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

HABAKKUK.

CHAP. III. Majesty of Jehovah.

2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid. 3 His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 6 He stood and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. 10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled; the overflowing of the water passed by the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. 13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed. 17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.