Chapter 163

14:12. And they little regarded it, because they had made under the table a secret entrance, and they always came in by it, and consumed those things.

14:13. So it came to pass after they were gone out, the king set the meats before Bel: and Daniel commanded his servants, and they brought ashes, and he sifted them all over the temple before the king: and going forth, they shut the door, and having sealed it with the king's ring, they departed.

14:14. But the priests went in by night, according to their custom, with their wives, and their children: and they eat and drank up all.

14:15. And the king arose early in the morning, and Daniel with him.

14:16. And the king said: Are the seals whole, Daniel? And he answered: They are whole, O king.

14:17. And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked upon the table, and cried out with a loud voice: Great art thou, O Bel, and there is not any deceit with thee.

14:18. And Daniel laughed: and he held the king, that he should not go in: and he said: Behold the pavement, mark whose footsteps these are.

14:19. And the king said: I see the footsteps of men, and women, and children. And the king was angry.

14:20. Then he took the priests, and their wives, and their children: and they shewed him the private doors by which they came in, and consumed the things that were on the table.

14:21. The king, therefore, put them to death, and delivered Bel into the power of Daniel: who destroyed him and his temple.

14:22. And there was a great dragon in that place, and the Babylonians worshipped him.

14:23. And the king said to Daniel: Behold, thou canst not say now, that this is not a living god: adore him, therefore.

14:24. And Daniel said: I adore the Lord, my God: for he is the living God: but that is no living god.

14:25. But give me leave, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or club. And the king said, I give thee leave.

14:26. Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and boiled them together: and he made lumps, and put them into the dragon's mouth, and the dragon burst asunder. And he said: Behold him whom you worship.

14:27. And when the Babylonians had heard this, they took great indignation: and being gathered together against the king, they said: The king is become a Jew. He hath destroyed Bel, he hath killed the dragon, and he hath put the priests to death.

14:28. And they came to the king, and said: Deliver us Daniel, or else we will destroy thee and thy house.

14:29. And the king saw that they pressed upon him violently: and being constrained by necessity: he delivered Daniel to them.

14:30. And they cast him into the den of lions, and he was there six days.

The den of lions... Daniel was twice cast into the den of lions; one under Darius the Mede, because he had transgressed the king's edict, by praying three times a day: and another time under Evilmerodach by a sedition of the people. This time he remained six days in the lions' den; the other time only one night.

14:31. And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given to them two carcasses every day, and two sheep: but then they were not given unto them, that they might devour Daniel.

14:32. Now there was in Judea a prophet called Habacuc, and he had boiled pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl: and was going into the field, to carry it to the reapers.

Habacuc... The same, as some think whose prophecy is found among the lesser prophets but others believe him to be different.

14:33. And the angel of the Lord said to Habacuc: Carry the dinner which thou hast into Babylon, to Daniel, who is in the lions' den.

14:34. And Habacuc said: Lord, I never saw Babylon, nor do I know the den.

14:35. And the angel of the Lord took him by the top of his head, and carried him by the hair of his head, and set him in Babylon, over the den, in the force of his spirit.

14:36. And Habacuc cried, saying: O Daniel, thou servant of God, take the dinner that God hath sent thee.

14:37. And Daniel said, Thou hast remembered me, O God, and thou hast not forsaken them that love thee.

14:38. And Daniel arose, and eat. And the angel of the Lord presently set Habacuc again in his own place.

14:39. And upon the seventh day the king came to bewail Daniel: and he came to the den, and looked in, and behold Daniel was sitting in the midst of the lions.

14:40. And the king cried out with a loud voice, saying: Great art thou, O Lord, the God of Daniel. And he drew him out of the lions' den.

14:41. But those that had been the cause of his destruction, he cast into the den, and they were devoured in a moment before him.

14:42. Then the king said: Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel: for he is the Saviour, working signs, and wonders in the earth: who hath delivered Daniel out of the lions' den.

THE PROPHECY OF OSEE

OSEE, or Hosea, whose name signifies A saviour, was the first in the order of time among those who are commonly called lesser prophets, because their prophecies are short. He prophesied in the kingdom of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, about the same time that Isaias prophesied in the kingdom of Juda.

Osee Chapter 1

By marrying a harlot, and by the names of his children, the prophet sets forth the crimes of Israel and their punishment. He foretells their redemption by Christ.

1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Osee, the son of Beeri, in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joas, king of Israel.

1:2. The beginning of the Lord's speaking by Osee: and the Lord said to Osee: Go, take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications: for the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord.

A wife of fornications... That is, a wife that has been given to fornication. This was to represent the Lord's proceedings with his people Israel, who, by spiritual fornication, were continually offending him.-Ibid. Children of fornications... So called from the character of their mother, if not also from their own wicked dispositions.

1:3. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived, and bore him a son.

1:4. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezrahel: for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrahel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

1:5. And in that day I will break in pieces the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrahel.

1:6. And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to him: Call her name, Without mercy: for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them.

Without mercy... Lo-Ruhamah.

1:7. And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them by the Lord, their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.

1:8. And she weaned her that was called Without mercy. And she conceived, and bore a son.

1:9. And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.

Not my people... Lo-ammi.

1:10. And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that is without measure, and shall not be numbered. And it shall be in the place where it shall be said to them: You are not my people: it shall be said to them: Ye are the sons of the living God.

The number, etc... Viz., of the true Israelites, the children of the church of Christ.

1:11. And the children of Juda, and the children of Israel, shall be gathered together: and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up out of the land: for great is the day of Jezrahel.

One head... viz., Christ.-Ibid. Great is the day of Jezrahel... That is, of the seed of God; for Jezrahel signifies the seed of God.

Osee Chapter 2

Israel is justly punished for leaving God. The abundance of grace in the church of Christ.

2:1. Say ye to your brethren: You are my people: and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.

Say to your brethren, etc... or, Call your brethren, My people: and your sister, Her that hath obtained mercy. This is connected with the latter end of the foregoing chapter, and relates to the converts of Israel.

2:2. Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

Your mother... The synagogue.

2:3. Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through and will kill her with drought.

2:4. And I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of fornications.

2:5. For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.

2:6. Wherefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.

2:7. And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband: because it was better with me then than now.

2:8. And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.

2:9. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.

2:10. And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand:

2:11. And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.

2:12. And I will destroy her vines, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her as a forest and the beasts of the field shall devour her.

2:13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and decked herself out with her earrings, and with her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.

2:14. Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.

I will allure her, etc... After all her disloyalties, I will still allure her by my grace etc., and send her vinedressers, viz., the apostles: originally her own children, who shall open to her the gates of hope; as heretofore at her coming into the land of promise, she had all good success after she had satisfied the divine justice by the execution of Achan in the valley of Achor. Jos. 7.

2:15. And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

2:16. And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord: That she shall call me: My husband, and she shall call me no more Banli.

My husband... In Hebrew, Ishi. Baali, my lord. The meaning of this verse is: that whereas Ishi and Baali were used indifferently in those days by wives speaking to their husbands; the synagogue, whom God was pleased to consider as his spouse, should call him only Ishi, and abstain from the name of Baali, because of its affinity with the idol Baal.

2:17. And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name.

Baalim... It is the plural number of Baal: for there were divers idols of Baal.

2:18. And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make them sleep secure.

2:19. And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.

I will espouse thee, etc... This relates to the happy espousals of Christ with his church: which shall never be dissolved.

2:20. And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

2:21. And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.

Hear the heavens, etc... All shall conspire in favour of the church, which in the following verse is called Jezrahel, that is, the seed of God.

2:22. And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall hear Jezrahel.

2:23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy.

2:24. And I will say to that which is not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.

That which was not my people, etc... This relates to the conversion of the Gentiles.

Osee Chapter 3

The prophet is commanded again to love an adulteress; to signify God's love to the synagogue. The wretched state of the Jews for a long time, till at last they shall be converted.

3:1. And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, and love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress: as the Lord loveth the children of Israel, and they look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes.

3:2. And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley, and for half a core of barley.

3:3. And I said to her: Thou shalt wait for me many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt be no man's, and I also will wait for thee.

3:4. For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim.

Theraphim... Images or representations.

3:5. And after this the children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord, their God, and David, their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness, in the last days.

David their king... That is, Christ, who is of the house of David.

Osee Chapter 4

God's judgment against the sins of Israel: Juda is warned not to follow their example.

4:1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord shall enter into judgment with the inhabitants of the land: for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land.

4:2. Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery, have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood.

4:3. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth in it shall languish with the heat of the field, and with the fowls of the air: yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be gathered together.

4:4. But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest.

Let not any man judge, etc... As if he would say: It is in vain to strive with them, or reprove them, they are so obstinate in evil.

4:5. And thou shalt fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with thee: in the night I have made thy mother to be silent.

4:6. My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

4:7. According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.

4:8. They shall eat the sins of my people, and shall lift up their souls to their iniquity.

4:9. And there shall be like people like priest: and I will visit their ways upon them, and I will repay them their devices.

4:10. And they shall eat and shall not be filled: they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not observing the law.

4:11. Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness, take away the understanding.

4:12. My people have consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God.

4:13. They offered sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burnt incense upon the hills: under the oak, and the poplar, and the turpentine tree, because the shadow thereof was good: therefore shall your daughters commit fornication, and your spouses shall be adulteresses.

4:14. I will not visit upon your daughters, when they shall commit fornication, and upon your spouses when they shall commit adultery: because themselves conversed with harlots, and offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and the people that doth not understand shall be beaten.

4:15. If thou play the harlot, O Israel, at least let not Juda offend: and go ye not into Galgal, and come not up into Bethaven, and do not swear: The Lord liveth.

Galgal and Bethaven... Places where idols were worshipped. Bethel, which signifies the house of God, is called by the prophet, Bethaven, that is, the house of vanity, from Jeroboam's golden calf that was worshipped there.

4:16. For Israel hath gone astray like a wanton heifer now will the Lord feed them, as a lamb in a spacious place.

4:17. Ephraim is a partaker with idols, let him alone.

4:18. Their banquet is separated, they have gone astray by fornication: they that should have protected them have loved to bring shame upon them.

4:19. The wind hath bound them up in its wings, and they shall be confounded because of their sacrifices.

Osee Chapter 5

God's threats against the priests, the people, and princes of Israel, for their idolatry.

5:1. Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king: for there is a judgment against you, because you have been a snare to them whom you should have watched over and a net spread upon Thabor.

O priests... What is said of priests in this prophecy is chiefly understood of the priests of the kingdom of Israel; who were not true priests of the race of Aaron; but served the calves at Bethel and Dan.

5:2. And you have turned aside victims into the depth and I am the teacher of them all.

5:3. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me for now Ephraim hath committed fornication, Israel is defiled.

5:4. They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

5:5. And the pride of Israel shall answer in his face: and Israel, and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity, Juda also shall fall with them.

5:6. With their flocks and with their herds, they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not find him: he is withdrawn from them.

5:7. They have transgressed against the Lord: for they have begotten children that are strangers: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

Children that are strangers... That is, aliens from God: and therefore they are threatened with speedy destruction.

5:8. Blow ye the cornet in Gabaa, the trumpet in Rama: howl ye in Bethaven, behind thy back, O Benjamin.

5:9. Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel I have shewn that which shall surely be.

5:10. The princes of Juda are become as they that take up the bound: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

As they that take up the bound... That is, they that remove the boundary, encroaching on the property of their neighbors: figuratively: going beyond the boundary of the laws of God.

5:11. Ephraim is under oppression, and broken in judgment: because he began to go after filthiness.

5:12. And I will be like a moth to Ephraim: and like rottenness to the house of Juda.

5:13. And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Juda his band: and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to the avenging king: and he shall not be able to heal you, neither shall he be able to take off the band from you.

5:14. For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's whelp to the house of Juda: I, I will catch, and go: I will take away, and there is none that can rescue.

5:15. I will go and return to my place: until you are consumed, and seek my face.

Osee Chapter 6

Affliction shall be a means to bring many to Christ, a complaint of the untowardness of the Jews. God loves mercy more than sacrifice.

6:1. In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord.

6:2. For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us.

6:3. He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.

6:4. What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.

6:5. For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.

6:6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.

6:7. But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me.

6:8. Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.

Supplanted with blood... that is, undermined and brought to ruin, for shedding of blood: and, as it is signified in the following verse, for conspiring with the priests (of Bethel) like robbers, to murder in the way such as passed out of Sichem to go towards the temple of Jerusalem. Or else ...supplanted with blood... signifies flowing in such manner with blood, as to suffer none to walk there without imbruing the soles of their feet in blood.

6:9. And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out of Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.

6:10. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled.

6:11. And thou also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back the captivity of my people.

Osee Chapter 7

The manifold sins of Israel, and of their kings, hinder the Lord from healing them.

7:1. When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, for they have committed falsehood, and the thief is come in to steal, the robber is without.

7:2. And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: their own devices now have beset them about, they have been done before my face.

7:3. They have made the king glad with their wickedness: and the princes with their lies.

Made the king glad, etc... To please Jeroboam, and their other kings they have given themselves up to the wicked worship of idols, which are mere falsehood and lies.

7:4. They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened.

7:5. The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners.

7:6. Because they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid snares for them: he slept all the night baking them, in the morning he himself was heated as a flaming fire.

7:7. They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges: all their kings have fallen: there is none amongst them that calleth unto me.

7:8. Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned.

7:9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not: yea, grey hairs also are spread about upon him, and he is ignorant of it.

7:10. And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face: and they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought him in all these.