Christian Biblical Reflections.40

Chapter 5 Part 2. Minor Prophets. mjmselim, 2021.

Daniel & Minor Prophets.

1. HOSEA: Chapters 1-14.

                Jehovah’s-Word that came to Hosea Ben-Beeri, in the Days of Uzziah (also called Azariah Ben-Amaziah or Uzziah Ben-Amaziah), Jotham, Ahaz, & Hezekiah, Kings of Judah, & in the Days of Jeroboam  Ben-Joash (not to be confused with Jeroboam ben-Nebat of Solomon’s day; & herein lies the difference to the prophetic ministries of Isaiah & Hosea, one focuses on Judah & the other on Israel, or the Northern Kingdom), King of Israel. (Isaiah opens: ‘in the days Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, & Hezekiah, Kings of Judah) First, the LORD spoke (dibber) in Hosea: He said (yo’mer) to Hosea: ‘Go, take a wife of whoredom (harlotry, fornication, prostitution) & children of whoredom (harlotry, fornication ); for the land commits great whoredom (harlotry, fornication),  leaving the LORD‘. He went & took Gomer bath-Diblaim; & she conceived, & birthed him a son. The LORD said , ‘Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the House of Jehu, & will cause the Kingdom of the House of Israel to cease. At that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel‘ (The House of Jehu is related to the blood of Jezreel in King Jehu ben-Nimshi in total destruction & annihilation of the House of King Ahab & his wife Jezebel; but Jehu did not seek to return the Kingdom to the House of David, but continued in the ways of King Jeroboam ben-Nebat.). She was again pregnant, & birthed a daughter. He said to him, ‘Call her name Lo-Ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy upon the House of Israel, to pardon them. But I will have mercy upon the House of Judah, & will save them by the LORD  their God, & will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, nor by horsemen‘. When she weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she was pregnant, & birthed a son. & He said, ‘Call his name Lo-Ammi; for ye are not My people, and I will not be yours. The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people‘, it shall be said to them, ‘sons of the living God”. The children of Judah & the children of Israel shall be gathered together, & they shall appoint themselves one head, & shall go up from the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel. (The Jezreel Valley, also known as the Valley of Megiddo, & Armageddon & Har-Megiddo & Tel-Megiddo is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern District of Israel. It is bordered to the north by the highlands of the Lower Galilee region, to the south by the Samarian highlands, to the west and northwest by the Mount Carmel range, and to the east by the Jordan Valley, with Mount Gilboa marking its southern extent. It is first mentioned Joshua 15: Jezreel of Judah’s possessions & 17: Valley of Jezreel of the House of Joseph’s possessions. The largest settlement in the valley is the city of Afula, which lies near its center. ‘Here the armies of the world have fought many battles deciding the course of human history’.)

                ‘Tell your brothers, Ammi; & your sisters, Ruhamah:  Contend with your mother; for she is not My wife, neither am I her Husband;  let her put away her harlotry (fornication, adultery) from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked, set her as in the day  she was born, make her as a wilderness, set her like a dry land, & slay her with thirst. On her children will I have no mercy (Lo-Ruhamah); for they are children of harlotry (adultery); their mother played the harlot; she who was pregnant has done shamefully; she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread & my water, my wool & my flax, mine oil & my drink‘ (as payments for adultery). I will hedge up yur way with thorns,  I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths. She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, ‘I will go & return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now‘. ‘She did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, the oil, & multiplied to her silver & gold, which they used for Baal. I will take back My grain in its time, My new wine in its season, & pluck away My wool & My flax which should have covered her nakedness. I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, & none shall deliver her out of My hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, & all her solemn-assemblies. I will lay waste her vines & her fig-trees, whereof she said, ‘These are my hire that my lovers have given me‘;  I will make them a forest, the beasts of the field shall eat them. I will visit on her the days of the Baalim, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings & her jewels, & went after her lovers, and forgot Me, says the LORD. I will allure her, &  bring her into the desert, & speak comfortably to her. I will give her vineyards from there, & the Valley of Achor for a Door of Hope; she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth,  as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. It shall be at that day, says the LORD, that yu will call Me Ishi (my Husband, as contrasted to lovers), & will call Me no more Baali (my Lord, as in idolatry). I will take-away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name. In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, & with the birds of the heavens, with the creeping-things of the ground: I will break the bow & the sword & the battle out of the land, & will make them to lie down safely. I will betroth yu to Me forever; I will betroth yu to Me in righteousness,  in justice, in lovingkindness, & in mercies. I will betroth yu to me in faithfulness; & yu will know the LORD.  In that day, I will answer, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens, & they shall answer the earth;  the earth shall answer the grain, the new wine, & the oil; they shall answer Jezreel (Heb. means: God-sows, El-zara`). I will sow (zara`)  her to Me in the earth; I will have mercy (ruhamah, ruchamah from rechem, racham)  on her who had not obtained mercy (lo-ruhamah); I will say to them who were not My people (lo-`ammi), ‘Yu are My people (`ammi)‘; & they shall say, ‘my God ‘Elohay‘.’

                 The LORD said to me, ‘Go again, love a beloved woman (wife), unfaithful adulteress (fornicating adulteress, wicked harlot), even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other ‘gods’ (‘elohim), & love cakes of raisins (for idol offerings). So I bought her to me for 15 silver-coins (shekels) (or $6,000), & 1 1/2 homer of barley,  (homer = 10 = 5 or 15 ephahs or baths =  15 shekels = 15 shekels = 30 shekels = the price of a slave then; or in monetary value: 4 denars (zuzim) = 1 silver shekel; 1 denar = a day’s wage today is about $100 x 4 = 400 x 15 shekels = 60 dinars or 60 days of labor = $6,000; total price for her was $12,000 in today’s value; but all these figures are relative & approximate); & I told her, ‘Yu must stay  for me many days; yu must not play the harlot, & yu must not be another man’s wife: so will I also be to yu‘. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, & without prince, without sacrifice,  without pillar, & without Ephod or Teraphim (for idol worship): afterward shall the children of Israel return, & seek the LORD their God, & David (the Beloved) their king, and shall come with fear to the LORD & to His goodness in the Latter Days.

                Hear Jehovah’s Word, Children of (Beni) Israel; for the LORD  has a controversy (strife, contention, quarrel, complaint) with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. There is nought but swearing & breaking faith, killing, stealing, & adultery; they break-out (riot), & blood touches blood. ‘The land will mourn,  everyone who dwells therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field & the birds of the heavens; the fishes of the sea shall be taken-away. Let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; yur people are as they who strive with the priest. Yu will stumble in the day; the prophet shall stumble with yu in the night; I will destroy yur mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because yu have rejected knowledge, I will also reject yu, that yu shall be no priest to Me: seeing yu have forgotten the Law of yur God, I also will forget yur children. As they were multiplied, so they sinned against Me: I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of My people, & set their heart on their iniquity. It shall be, like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways, & will requite them their doings. They shall eat, & not have enough; they shall fornicate, & shall not increase (deliver, prosper); they have left-off taking heed to the LORD. Whoredom & wine & new wine take-away the understanding. My people ask counsel at their stock (trees),  their staff declares to them; for the spirit of whoredom has caused them to err, they prostituted, from under (beneath, as in His presence & authority) their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, burn incense upon the hills, under oaks & poplars & terebinths, because the shadow (shade) thereof is good: therefore your daughters fornicate, & your brides commit-adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they fornicate, nor your brides when they commit-adultery; for  themselves go-apart (visit, trade) with harlots, & they sacrifice with the prostitutes; & the people who does not understand shall be overthrown. Though yu, Israel, whore, yet let not Judah offend; come not ye to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth-aven, nor swear, ‘As Jehovah lives‘. Israel has behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer: now will the LORD feed them as a lamb in a large place.  Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone. Their drink is become sour; fornicate continually; her rulers dearly love shame. The wind hath wrapped her up in its wings; they shall be put to shame because of their sacrifices‘.

                 Hear this, priests, & attention, House of Israel, & give-ear (listen), House of the King; to you pertains the judgment: ‘You have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread on Tabor. The revolters are gone-deep in making-slaughter; but I am a Rebuker of them all. I know Ephraim,  Israel is not hid from Me; Ephraim, yu have prostituted, Israel is defiled.  Their doings will not suffer them to turn to their God; the spirit of harlotry is within them; they know not the LORD. The pride of Israel testifies to his face: Israel & Ephraim  stumble in their iniquity; Judah shall stumble with them. They shall go with their flocks & with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find Him: He has withdrawn himself from them. They have dealt-treacherously against the LORD; for they have borne strange children: the new moon devours them with their fields. Blow the cornet in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah: sound-alarm at Beth-Aven; behind yu, Benjamin. Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known what shall surely be. The princes of Judah are like them who remove (change, alter) the landmark (boundary, border): I will pour out My Wrath on them like water. Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he was content to walk (after) – (command) (that is, contrary to the way, against-commands, against-instructions; after-vanity or idols). I am to Ephraim as a Moth,  to the House of Judah as Rottenness. When Ephraim saw his sickness, & Judah  his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, & sent to King Jareb (that is of the Assyrian King, its meaning is not clear; great, warrior, avenger; see chap.10; compare King of Syria in Isaiah 7, where 65 years is predicted of Ephraim’s demise; it does not appear to refer to Egypt): but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound. For I will be unto Ephraim as a Lion, as a Young Lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear & go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver. I will go & return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence, & seek My Face: in their affliction they will seek Me earnestly‘.

                Come, let us return to the LORD; for He hath torn, He will heal us; He has smitten, He will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: on the third day He will raise us up (resurrect us), we shall live before Him. Let us know, let us follow on to know the LORD: His going-forth is sure as the morning; He will come to us as the Rain, as the Latter Rain that waters the earth. ‘Ephraim, what shall I do to yu? Judah, what shall I do to yu? your goodness is as a morning cloud, & as the dew that goeth early away. I hewed (chopped) them by the prophets; I have slain them by the Words of My mouth: yur judgments are the light that goes-forth. I desire goodness, not sacrifice; the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings. But they like Adam (man, men or adam) have transgressed the Covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against Me. Gilead is a city of them who work iniquity; it is stained with blood. And as troops (gangs) of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem;  they committed lewdness. In the House of Israel I have seen a horrible-thing: there harlotry is in Ephraim, Israel is defiled.  Judah, there is a harvest appointed for yu, when I bring back the Captivity of My people.’

                 ‘When I would heal Israel, then is the iniquity of Ephraim uncovered, & the wickedness of Samaria; they commit falsehood, the thief enters in, the troop of robbers ravages outside. They consider not in their hearts that I remember their wickedness: now have their own doings beset them about; they are before My Face. They make the King glad with their wickedness, the princes with their lies. They are adulterers; they are as an oven heated by the baker; he ceases to stir from the kneading of the dough, until it be leavened. On the day of our King the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with scoffers. They made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait: their baker sleeps all the night; in the morning it burns as a flaming fire. They are hot as an oven, & devour their judges; their kings are fallen: there is none among them who calls to Me. Ephraim, mixes himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, he knows not: gray hairs are here & there upon him,   he knows not. The pride of Israel testifies to his face: they have not returned to the LORD their God, nor sought Him, for all this. Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. When they shall go, I will spread My net on them; I will bring them down as the birds of the heavens (skies); I will chastise (discipline) them, as their congregation  heard. Woe to them! they have wandered (strayed) from Me; destruction to them! they  trespassed against Me: I would redeem them, yet they spoke lies against Me. They have not cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds: they assemble themselves for grain & new wine; they rebel against Me. Though I have taught & strengthened their arms, yet do they devise mischief against Me. They return, not on high (the sense is difficult to determine, adding or inserting words does not help); they are like a deceitful bow; their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.’

                The Trumpet (Shophar, Ram’s-Horn) to your Mouth (Sound the Trumpet): As an Eagle against the LORD’s House: ‘They transgressed My Covenant, & trespassed My Law. They shall cry to Me, “My God, we Israel know Yu’. Israel has cast off what is good: the enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have made princes, & I knew it not: of their silver & their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. He has cast off yur calf, Samaria; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? From Israel is even this; the workman made it, and it is no ‘God’; the Calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. For they sow the wind, & they shall reap the whirlwind: he has no standing grain; the blade shall yield no meal; if it yield, strangers shall swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up: now are they among the nations as a vessel wherein none delights. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim has hired lovers. Though they hire among the nations (Gentiles), now will I gather them; & they begin to be diminished by reason of the burden of the King of princes (the King of Assyria). Because Ephraim multiplied altars for sinning, altars have been to him for sinning. I wrote for him 10,000 things of My Law; but they are counted as a strange thing. As for the sacrifices of mine offerings, they sacrifice flesh & eat it; but the LORD accepts them not: now will he remember their iniquity, & visit their sins; they shall return to Egypt. Israel has forgotten his Maker, & built palaces; & Judah has multiplied fortified cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, & it shall devour its castles.                       

                Rejoice not, Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for yu prostituted from yur God; yu loved hire (pay) on every grain-floor. The threshing-floor & the winepress shall not feed them, & the new wine shall fail her. They shall not dwell in Jehovah’s Land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. They shall not pour out wine-offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing to Him: their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners; all who eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into Jehovah’s House. What will ye do in the day of solemn-assembly, in the day of Jehovah’s Feast? They are gone-away from destruction; Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents. The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad (insane), for the abundance of thine iniquity (crimes), & because the enmity is great.  Ephraim a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowler’s (bird-hunter’s) snare is in all his ways,  enmity in the House of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: He will remember their iniquity, He will visit their sins. ‘I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-Peor, & consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing, & became abominable like that which they loved. As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception. Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a man shall be left: Woe to them when I depart from them! Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant-place: but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer’. Give them, LORD –what will yu give? give them a miscarrying womb & dry breasts. All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of My House; I will love them no more; their princes are revolters. Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: though they bring-forth, yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb. My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; & they shall be wanderers among the Gentiles.

                Israel is a luxuriant vine, that puts forth his fruit: according to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of their land they have made goodly pillars. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found guilty: He will smite their altars; He will destroy their pillars. They shall say, ‘We have no king; for we fear not the LORD; & the King, what can he do for us‘? They speak  words, swearing falsely in making covenants: therefore judgment springs up as hemlock (poison) in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-Aven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, & the priests thereof that rejoiced over it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. It also shall be carried to Assyria for a present to King Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, & Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. Samaria, her King is cut off, as foam upon the water. The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn & the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, ‘Cover us‘; & to the hills, ‘Fall on us‘. Israel, yu sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood; the battle against the children of iniquity does not overtake them in Gibeah. ‘When it is My desire, I will chastise (punish) them; and the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions. Ephraim is a heifer that is taught (trained), that loves to tread out; but I have passed over on her fair neck: I will set a rider on Ephraim; Judah shall plow, Jacob shall break his clods.’ Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness; break up your fallow ground; it is time to seek the LORD, till He come & rain righteousness on you. You plowed wickedness, you reaped iniquity (lawlessness); you ate the fruit of lies; for yu trusted in yur way, in the multitude (numbers) of yur mighty men.  A tumult will arise among yur people, all yur fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman (likely contract. of Shalmanezer, its unknown ) destroyed Beth-Arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces with her children. So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness: at daybreak shall the King of Israel be utterly cut off.

                 ‘When Israel was a child, then I loved him, & called My Son (of Israel as God’s Firstborn, then prophetically of Messiah) out of Egypt. The more  they were called, the more they went from them: they sacrificed to the Baalim & burned incense to graven-images (idols).  I taught Ephraim to walk (as a toddler); I took them in my arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man (adam), with bands of love; & I was to them as they that lift up the yoke on their jaws; & I laid food before them. They shall not return to the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be their King, because they refused to return. The sword shall fall on their cities, & shall consume their bars (gates, parts, branches, fortresses, borders), & devour, because of their own counsels.  My people are bent on backsliding from Me: though they call them to-on high, none at all will exalt (arise). How shall I give yu up, Ephraim? shall cast yu off, Israel? how shall I make yu as Admah? shall I set yu as Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me, My compassions are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not come in wrath. They shall walk after the LORD, who will roar like a Lion; for He will roar, & the children shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, & as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will make them to dwell in their houses, says the LORD. Ephraim compasses (surrounds) Me about with falsehood, the House of Israel with deceit; but Judah rules with God (‘El), & is faithful with the Holy One.’

                 Ephraim feeds on wind,  follows-after the east wind: continually multiplies lies & desolation; they make-covenant (treaty) with Assyria, & oil is carried (exported) to Egypt. The LORD has a controversy with Judah, & will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. (See Genesis 25-50 of the Generations of Isaac & Jacob to understand Hosea’s play on the name Jacob-Israel.) In the womb he-took-by-the-heel (`aqeb, heel, jacobed, cheated, tricked) his brother; & in his manhood he had power (sarah, sar, rule, power, contend) with God: he had power over the Angel (Messenger), & prevailed; he wept, & made supplication to him: he found him at Beth-El,  there He spoke with us, Jehovah (YHWH) God of Hosts (Elohiy HaTzeb’aoth); Jehovah His Memorial (Zakar, remember, mention, name-memorial). Therefore turn to yur God: keep kindness & justice, wait for yur God continually.  Trafficker (refers to Israel as Jacob), the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress. Ephraim said, ‘Surely I am become rich, I have found me wealth: in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that were sin’. I am the LORD yur God from the land of Egypt; I will  again make yu to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast. I have also spoken to the prophets, & I have multiplied visions; & by the ministry (hand) of the prophets I-used-similitudes (adammeh, adamah, damah {I. (damah: like, similar, compare) [In Gesen. Thes. all the occurrences in Niphal, except the last cited, are referred to No. II. (damah: silent, quiet, cease, end)]   Piel: (dimah): (1) to compare, to liken.  Hence to use parables, i.q. (mishshel, mashal). Hos. 12:11 (10), (beyadh hannebi’im ‘adammah) “through the prophets I have used parables” (it is better to take it thus as required by the context, than “I have destroyed,” i.e. announced destruction).}). Is Gilead iniquity? they are altogether false; in Gilgal they sacrifice bullocks; their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field.  Jacob fled into the field of Aram, & Israel served for a wife, & for a wife he kept (worked, herded). By a prophet (Moses) the LORD brought Israel up out of Egypt, by a prophet was he preserved (Moses or Joshua). Ephraim hath provoked to anger most bitterly: therefore shall his blood be left upon him, & his reproach shall his Lord return to him.

                 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. Now they sin more & more, & have made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, ‘Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves’. They shall be as the morning cloud, & as the dew that passes early away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing-floor, as the smoke out of the chimney. ‘I am the LORD yur God from the land of Egypt; yu must know no ‘god’ but Me, besides Me there is no Saviour. I did know yu in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten Me. I am to them as a Lion; as a Leopard will I watch by the way; I will meet them as a Bear that is bereaved of her whelps, & will rend the caul (very few babies are born with part of the amniotic sac still clinging to their face & head. It’s known as being born with a veil, or born with a caul) of their heart; and there will I devour them like a Lioness; the wild beast shall tear them. It is yur destruction, Israel, that against Me, against yur Help. Where now is yur King, that he may save yu in all yur cities? & yur judges, of whom yu said, ‘Give me a King & princes’? I have gave a King (Saul) in Mine Anger, & have taken him away in My Wrath. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come on him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the birthing of children. I will ransom them from the power of Sheol (hell, Hades, grave); I will redeem them from death: ‘death, where are yur plagues? Sheol (Hell), where is yur destruction? repentance shall be hid from Mine Eyes. Though he be fruitful among his brothers, an east wind shall come, the Breath of Jehovah coming up from the wilderness;  his spring shall become dry,  his fountain shall be dried up: he shall make spoil (loot, plunder) of the treasure of all goodly vessels. Samaria shall bear her guilt; she rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, & their women-with-child (pregnant-women) shall be ripped-up.’

                 Israel, return to the LORD yur God; yu have fallen by yur iniquity. Take with you words, & return to the LORD: say to Him, ‘Take away all iniquity, & accept what is good: so will we render bullocks (calves) of our lips’. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘our gods’; for in Yu the fatherless (orphans) finds mercy. ‘I will heal their backsliding (apostasy), I will love them freely; for Mine Anger is turned away from him. I will be as the Dew to Israel; he shall blossom as the lily, & cast-forth (spread) his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, & his beauty shall be as the olive-tree,  his smell as Lebanon. They who dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive the grain, & blossom as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim , ‘What have I to do any more with idols’? I have answered, and will regard him: I am like a Green Fir-tree; from Me is yur fruit found’. Who is wise, that he may understand these-things? prudent, that he may know them? for the Ways of Jehovah are right, & the just (righteous) shall walk in them; but transgressors shall fall therein.

                Before we move on the 2nd of 12 Minor Prophets we make these observations: We see by color coding the Divine Words spoken in Hosea that 2/3rds of the Book is in Red, & a few words & sentences of direct quotes of the People or the Prophet is in Blue; the rest of the Book in Black ink shows the Words of Hosea in is prophetic ministry. Hosea is fond of playing with words, names, examples as with the name of Jacob & Israel. Hosea’s ministry lasted some 40 years under 5 Kings, 4 Kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, & 1 King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. At the close of his ministry the demise & national annihilation of Israel came about at the hands of Assyria, leaving only Judah to await her Captivity 100 years later (700-600 B.C.). Hosea’s marriage & family became the prophetic illustration of the Lord’s relations with His people, the nation as a whole, & of the two kingdoms. We have said earlier in Daniel, that the first 3 of the 12 Minor Prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos, are to be viewed as an Appendix or Supplement to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Last, it is to be understood that the common order of the 12 Minor Prophets are not in chronological order, which would have been Joel, Amos, & Hosea, & Jonah coming between Joel & Amos. It goes without saying as Hosea is supportive of Isaiah, whose name means Jehovah-Salvation, Hosea means Salvation.

2. JOEL: Chapters 1-3.

                 Jehovah’s Word that came to Joel (Yo-El, Jehovah-God) Ben-Pethuel: ‘Hear you old men, & give ear, you inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell  your children, & your grand-children & their great-grand-children’s  generation. What the palmer-worm (gazam-locust) has left  the locust (‘arbeh-locust) ate; what the locust left the canker-worm (yeleq-locust) ate; what the canker-worm left the caterpillar (chasil-locust) ate. Awake,  drunkards, & weep;  wail, you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation (Assyria) is come up on My Land, strong, & without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, he has  the jaw-teeth of a lioness. He laid My Vine waste, & barked (striped) My fig-tree: he made it clean bare, & cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.’ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meal-offering & the drink-offering are cut off from Jehovah’s House; the priests, Jehovah’s ministers, mourn. The field is laid waste, the land mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes. Be confounded, you husbandmen, wail,  you  vinedressers, for the wheat & for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is withered, & the fig-tree languishes; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: joy is withered-away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves, lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God: for the meal-offering & the drink-offering are withholden from the House of your God. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the old-men, the inhabitants of the land, to the House of the LORD your God, cry to the LORD. Alas for the day! the Day of Jehovah is near,  as destruction from the Almighty (Shaddai) shall it come. Is not the food cut off before our eyes,  joy & gladness from the House of our God? The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate; the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep are made desolate.  ‘Jehovah, to Yu do I cry; for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,  the flame  burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field pant to Yu; for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness’.

                Blow the trumpet (Shophar, Ram’s-Horn) in Zion,  sound an alarm in My Holy Mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the Day of Jehovah comes, for it is near; a day of darkness & gloominess, a day of clouds & thick darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; a great people (Assyrians) & a strong; there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. A fire devours before them;  behind them a flame burns: the land is as the Garden of Eden before them,  behind them a desolate wilderness; none escaped them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; as horsemen, so do they run.  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. At their presence, the peoples are in anguish; all faces are waxed pale. They run like mighty men; they climb the wall like men of war;  they march everyone on his ways,  they break not their ranks. Neither does one thrust another; they march everyone in his path; and they burst through the weapons, & not break-rank. They leap on the city; they run on the wall; they climb up into the houses; they enter in at the windows like a thief. The earthquakes before them; the heavens tremble; the sun & the moon are darkened;  the stars withdraw their shining. The LORD utters His voice before His Army; His Camp is very great; He is strong Who executes His Word; for the Day of Jehovah is great & very terrible; who can survive it?  Now, says the LORD , turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting,  with weeping, with mourning: rend your heart, not your garments, turn to the LORD  your God; He is gracious & merciful, slow to anger, abundant in lovingkindness, & repents  of the evil (that is the judgment of doom, calamity, etc.). Who knows whether He will not turn & repent (change), & leave a blessing behind Him, a meal-offering & a drink-offering to the LORD  your God? Blow the trumpet (shophar) in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn-assembly; gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the old-men, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, & the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the Ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch & the altar, let them say, ‘Spare Yur People, LORD, give not Yur Heritage to reproach, that the nations (Gentiles) should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God’? Then was the LORD  jealous for His Land, & had pity on His People.  The LORD answered & said to His people, ‘Look, I will send you grain, & new wine, & oil,  you shall be satisfied therewith;  I will no more make you a reproach among the Gentiles;  I will remove far off from you the northern, & will drive it into a land barren & desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea (Persian Gulf), its hinder part into the western sea (Great Mediterranean Sea); its stench shall come up, its ill savor shall come up, because it (He) has done great-things’. Fear not,  Land (Ground, Soil), be glad & rejoice;  the LORD  has done great-things. Be not afraid, beasts of the field; the pastures of the wilderness (desert) do spring, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig-tree & the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, you Children of Zion, rejoice in the LORD  your God; for He gives you the former rain in just measure, & He causes to come down for you the rain, the former rain & the latter rain, in the first. ‘The floors shall be full of wheat, the vats shall overflow with new wine & oil.  I will restore to you the years that the locust ate, the canker-worm, the caterpillar, & the palmer-worm, My Great Army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty & be satisfied, & shall praise the Name of Jehovah your God, Who dealt wondrously with you;  My People shall never be put to shame. You shall know  I am in the midst of Israel, that I am the LORD  your God,  there is no other;  My People shall never be put to shame. Afterward, I will pour-out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons & your daughters shall prophesy, your old-men shall dream dreams, your young-men shall see visions: also on the servants & on the handmaids in those days will I pour-out My Spirit. I will show wonders in the heavens & in the earth: blood, fire, & pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned to darkness,  the moon to blood, before the great & terrible Day of Jehovah comes‘. And  whoever shall call on the Name of Jehovah shall be delivered; for in mount Zion & in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as Jehovah said, & among the Remnant, those whom the LORD  calls.

                 ‘In those days, & in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah & Jerusalem, I will gather all nations, & will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (`Emeq Yehoshaphat, Valley of Jehovah’s-Judgment; shaphat = judge, govern, decide); and I will execute judgment on them there for My People & My Heritage Israel, whom they  scattered among the Gentiles: & they have parted (partitioned, divided) My Land, & cast lots for My People, & gave a boy for a harlot (prostitute), & sold a girl for wine, that they may drink. What are you to Me, Tyre, & Sidon, & all the regions of Philistia? will you render Me a recompense? & if ye recompense Me, swiftly & speedily will I return your recompense on your own head. As you took My Silver & My Gold, & carried into your temples My goodly precious-things, & sold the children of Judah & the children of Jerusalem to the sons (children) of the Grecians, that you may remove them far from their border;  I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, & will return your recompense upon your own head  I will sell your sons & your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah,  they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for the LORD has spoken it. Proclaim  this among the Gentiles; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, ‘I am strong’. ‘Hurry, come, all   nations round about,  gather yourselves together’: ‘thither cause Yur mighty-ones to come down, LORD’. ‘Let the Gentiles stir themselves, & come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round-about. Put in the sickle; the harvest is ripe: come, tread; the winepress is full, the vats overflow; their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision (`Emeq Charutz; charutz = sharp, thresh, decide, cut, slaughter)! for the Day of Jehovah is near in the Valley of Decision. The sun & the moon are darkened, the stars withdraw their shining’. ‘The LORD will roar from Zion, & utter His Voice from Jerusalem; the heavens & the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be a Refuge to His People,  a Stronghold to the children of Israel’. ‘So shall you know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion My Holy Mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy,  no strangers pass through her anymore. In that day, the mountains shall drop down sweet wine,  the hills shall flow with milk, & the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters; a fountain shall come forth from Jehovah’s House, & shall water the Valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation, Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, they have shed innocent blood in their land. Judah shall abide forever,  Jerusalem from generation to generation.    I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwells in Zion’.

                Some observations: The Book itself says nothing of Joel for us to know when he lived & prophesied; his name means the same as Elijah, God-Jehovah, Jehovah is God, who prophesied during the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah & King Jehu of Israel, which suggest to some that Joel ministered during that time into the period of Elisha under King Joash of Judah. The conflict in 1st Kings 22 of the Kings of Israel & Judah against King of Syria at Ramoth-Gilead during the ministry of the Prophet Micaiah ben-Imlah is the background for Joel’s prophesy. Given the lack of info & details we turn to the meaning of the names to suggest the spiritual interpretation of this prophetic book. We also insist that in support of Isaiah, like Hosea, the predictive conflict with Assyria is the primary Divine concern, for Assyria would be the Hand of Judgment on the Northern Kingdom of Israel, & lead to the doom of Judah in the Babylonian Captivity, which both is the basis of Messiah’s time & ministry. The Divine speaking appears in Red & covers about 1/2 the Book.

3. AMOS: Chapters 1-9.

                Words (Visions) of Amos, who was among the Herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the Days of King Uzziah of Judah, & in the Days of King Jeroboam Ben-Joash of Israel, 2 Years before the Earthquake. He said, Jehovah will roar from Zion, & utter His Voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, the top of Carmel shall wither. The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions (Evils, Sins, Crimes, Violations; pesha`) of Damascus, I will not turn-away (return, reverse, avert, evert) its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: but I will send a fire into the House of Hazael, it shall devour the Palaces of Ben-Hadad.   I will break the bar of Damascus, cut off the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven, & him who holds the Sceptre from the House of Eden; the People of Syria shall go into Captivity to Kir, says the LORD’. The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions of Gaza, I will not turn-away its punishment; because they carried-away captive the whole people, to deliver them up to Edom:  I will send a fire on the Wall of Gaza, and it shall devour its palaces. I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, & him who holds the Sceptre from Ashkelon; I will turn My Hand against Ekron; the Remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord (‘Adonai) Jehovah’.  The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions of Tyre, I will not turn-away its punishment; because they delivered up the whole people to Edom, & remembered not the brotherly covenant: but I will send a fire on the Wall of Tyre, it shall devour its Palaces’. The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions of Edom, I will not turn-away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword, &  cast off all pity,  his anger did tear perpetually, he kept his wrath forever: I will send a fire on Teman, it shall devour the Palaces of Bozrah’. The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions of the Children of Ammon, I will not turn-away its punishment; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border. I will kindle a fire in the Wall of Rabbah, it shall devour its Palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; their King shall go into Captivity, he & his Princes together’, says Jehovah.

                The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions of Moab, I will not turn-away its punishment; because he burned the bones of the King of Edom into lime: but I will send a fire on Moab,  it shall devour the Palaces of Kerioth;  Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, with the sound of the trumpet (shophar, ram’s-horn); I will cut off the judge from its midst, & slay all his princes with him, says the LORD’. The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions of Judah, I will not turn-away its punishment; because they have rejected the Law of the LORD, & have not kept His statutes, their lies  caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk: I will send a fire on Judah, it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem’. The LORD says: ‘For 3 or 4 Transgressions of Israel, I will not turn-away its punishment; because they sold the righteous for silver, the needy for a pair of shoes (sandals) –they who pant-after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, & turn-aside the way of the meek: a man & his father go to (lay with, visit, fornicate) the maiden, to profane My Holy Name: they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge;  in the House of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined. I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, & he was strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit from above, & his roots from beneath. I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, led you 40 years in the wilderness (desert), to possess the land of the Amorite. I raised up of your sons for prophets,  of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, Children of Israel? says the LORD. You gave the Nazirites wine to drink, & commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Prophesy not’. I will (press-in-your-place), as a cart presses that is full of sheaves. Flight shall perish from the swift; and the strong shall not strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself; neither shall he stand that handles the bow; he that is swift of foot shall not deliver (escape); neither shall he that rides the horse deliver himself;  he who is courageous among the mighty shall flee-away naked in that day’, says the LORD.

                ‘Hear this Word that Jehovah spoke (dibber, dabar = word) against you, Children of Israel, against the whole Family which I brought up out of the Land of Egypt, saying, ‘You only have I known of all the Families of the earth:  I will visit on you all your iniquities’. Shall two walk together, except they agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare on the earth, where no gin (trap) is for him? shall a snare spring-up (sprung, triggered, set-off) from the ground, &  taken nothing at all? Shall the trumpet (shophar, ram’s-horn) be blown in a city,       & the people not be afraid? shall evil (ruin, calamity) befall a city, & the LORD has not done it? The Lord (‘Adonai) Jehovah will do nothing, except He reveal His Secret to His Servants the Prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah spoke (debir, dabar); who can but prophesy? ‘Publish in the Palaces at Ashdod, in the Palaces in the Land of Egypt,  say, Assemble yourselves on the Mountains of Samaria, what great tumults are therein, what oppressions in its midst. They know not to do right, says the LORD, who store up violence & robbery in their Palaces’. The Lord Jehovah says: ‘An adversary, round about the land;   he shall bring-down yur strength, yur Palaces shall be plundered’. The LORD says: ‘As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the Children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, on the silken cushions of a bed. Hear, & testify against the House of Jacob’, says the Lord Jehovah, the God of Hosts. ‘In the day that I shall visit the Transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the Altars of Beth-El; and the Horns of the Altar shall be cut off, & fall to the ground. I will strike the Winter-house with the Summer-house; and the Houses of Ivory shall perish, & the Great Houses shall have an end’, says the LORD.

                 Hear this Word, Kine (Bulls) of Bashan, that are in the Mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, crush the needy, say to their Lords, ‘Bring, and let us drink’. The Lord Jehovah swore by His Holiness, that, ‘the days shall come on you, that they shall take you away with hooks, & your residue with fish-hooks. You shall go out at the breaches, every one straight before her; you shall cast (thrown, tossed, driven, dragged) into Harmon’, says the LORD. ‘Come to Beth-el, & transgress; to Gilgal, multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every 3 days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of what is leavened,  proclaim freewill-offerings & publish them: for this pleases you, Children of Israel’, says the Lord Jehovah. ‘I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,  lack of bread in all your places; yet have you not returned to Me’, says the LORD. ‘I withheld the rain from you, when there were yet 3 months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, caused it not to rain on another city: one piece (part, area) was rained on, the piece whereon it rained not withered. So 2 or 3 cities wandered to one city to drink water, & were not satisfied: yet have you not returned to Me’, says the LORD. ‘I smote you with blasting & mildew: the multitude of your gardens & your vineyards & your fig-trees & your olive-trees has the palmer-worm (gazam-locust) devoured: yet have you not returned to Me’, says the LORD. ‘I sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, & have carried away your horses; I made the stench of your camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have you not returned to Me’, says the LORD. ‘I have overthrown among you, as when God overthrew Sodom & Gomorrah,  you were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned to Me’, says the LORD. ‘I will do to yu, Israel; I will do this to yu, prepare to meet yur God, Israel. For, He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, declares to man (adam) what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, & treads on the high-places of the Earth’ –Jehovah, the God of Hosts (‘Elohe-Tzba’oth), is His Name.

                Hear this Word which I take-up (lift-up, raise) for a Lamentation (dirge, elegy) over (against, about) you, House of Israel. The Virgin (Bethulah; unmarried virgin young woman or daughter) of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down upon her Land; there is none to raise her up. The Lord Jehovah says: ‘The city that went forth 1,000 shall have  100 left, what went forth 100 shall have 10 left, to the House of Israel. the LORD says to the House of Israel, ‘Seek Me, & you shall live; seek not Beth-El, nor enter into Gilgal, pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into Captivity, Beth-El shall come to nought’. Seek the LORD, &  live; lest He break out like Fire in the House of Joseph, & it devour, & there be none to quench it in Beth-El. You who turn justice to wormwood, & cast down righteousness to the earth, Who makes the Pleiades (Kimah) & Orion (Kesil), & He turns the shadow of death into the morning, & He makes the day dark with night; Who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth (Jehovah is His Name); Who brings sudden destruction upon the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. They hate him who reproves in the gate, they abhor him who speaks uprightly. ‘As you trample upon the poor, & take exactions from him of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink the wine thereof. I know how manifold are your transgressions, & how mighty are your sins –who afflict the just, take a bribe,  turn aside the needy in the gate. The prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an evil time’. ‘Seek good, & not evil, that you may live; & the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you’, as you say. ‘Hate the evil, & love the good, & establish justice in the gate: it may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the Remnant of Joseph.  The LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord (Adonai): Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ (Woe, Woe) & they shall call the husbandman (farmer, tiller) to mourning, & such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing. In all vineyards shall be wailing, I will pass through the midst of yu’, says the LORD. ‘Woe to you that desire the Day of Jehovah! Why would you have the Day of Jehovah? It is darkness, not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, & a bear met him; or went into the house & leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the Day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your feasts, I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer Me your burnt-offerings & meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from Me the noise of yur songs; for I will not hear the melody of yur viols. Let justice roll down as waters,   righteousness as a mighty stream. Did you bring to Me sacrifices & offerings in the wilderness 40 years, House of Israel? You have borne the Tabernacle of your King & the Shrine of your Images, the Star of your ‘God’ (‘elohim), which you made to yourselves. I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, the LORD, Whose Name is the God of Hosts (Elohe-Tsabaoth)’.

                Woe to-them-who-are-at-ease (leisure-ones, arrogant-ones, care-free-ones) in Zion, who-are-secure (who-trust) in the mountain of Samaria (Shomron), the notable-men (distinguished, noble, elite) of the chief (first, head, beginning) of the nations (Gentiles, Goiyim), to whom the House of Israel come! Pass to Calneh, & see; from there go to Hamath the great (Rabbah); then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border? –you who put far away the evil day, & cause the seat of violence to come near; who lie upon beds of ivory, & stretch themselves on their couches, eat the lambs out of the flock, the calves out of the midst of the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the viol (nebel, harp, lute, guitar, etc.); that invent (design) for themselves instruments of music, like David; who drink wine in bowls, & anoint themselves with the chief (best) oils; but they are not grieved for the Affliction of Joseph. They shall go captive with the first that go captive; & the revelry of them who stretched themselves shall pass away. The Lord Jehovah swore by Himself, the LORD, the God of hosts: ‘I abhor the Excellency of Jacob, & hate his Palaces; I will deliver up the city with all that is therein. If there remain 10 men in one house,  they shall die. When a man’s uncle shall take him up, even he who burns him, to bring out the bones out of the house, & shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house’, ‘Is there any with yu’? and he shall say, ‘No‘; then shall he say, ‘Hold yur peace (Keep quiet); we must not make mention of the Name of Jehovah’. The LORD commands, & the Great House shall be smitten with breaches, & the Little House with clefts (cracks). Shall horses run on the rock? will one plow with oxen? that you have turned justice into gall, & the fruit of righteousness into wormwood; you who rejoice in a thing of nought, who say, ‘Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength’? ‘I will raise up against you a nation, House of Israel, says the LORD, the God of Hosts; & they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath (northern border of the Northern Kingdom near Syria) to the brook (stream, wady) of the Arabah (desert, wilderness, arid-plains; southern border of Israel, the Northern Kingdom)’.

                The Lord (‘Adonai) Jehovah (showed) me: He formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; & it was the latter growth after the King’s Mowings (Shearings). When they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, ‘Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech Yu: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small’. The LORD repented concerning this: ‘It shall not be’, says the LORD.  The Lord (‘Adonai) Jehovah (showed) me: He called to contend by fire;  it devoured the great deep, & would have eaten up the land. Then said I, ‘Lord Jehovah, cease, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small’. The LORD  repented concerning this: ‘this also shall not be’, says the Lord Jehovah. He showed me: the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in His hand. The LORD  said unto me, ‘Amos, what do yu see’? I said, ‘A plumb-line’. The Lord said, ‘I will set a plumb-line in the midst of My People Israel; I will not again pass by them anymore; the High Places of Isaac shall be desolate, the Sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; I will rise against the House of Jeroboam with the sword’. Then Amaziah the Priest of Beth-El sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos conspired against yu in the midst of the House of Israel: the Land is not able to bear all his words’. Amos says, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, & Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his Land’. Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Seer (Prophet), go, flee-away into the Land of Judah, there eat bread, & prophesy there: prophesy not again any more at Beth-El; for it is the King’s Sanctuary, it is a Royal House’. Amos replied to Amaziah, ‘I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees: & Jehovah took me from following the flock, & the LORD  said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My People Israel’. Now hear the Jehovah’s Word (Speaking, Message): ‘Yu say, ‘Prophesy not against Israel, & drop (dump, drip) not against the House of Isaac: yur Sons & yur Daughters shall fall by the sword, yur Land shall be divided by line; & yu will die in a land that is unclean, & Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his Land’.

                The Lord Jehovah showed me: A Basket of Summer Fruit. He said, ‘Amos, what do yu  see’? I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit’. He said to me, ‘The end is come on My People Israel; I will not again pass by them anymore. The Songs of the Temple shall be wailings in that day’, says the Lord Jehovah: the dead-bodies shall be many: in every place shall they cast them forth with silence. Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, & cause the Poor of the Land to fail, saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? & the sabbath, that we may set-forth wheat, making the ephah small, & the shekel great, & dealing falsely with balances of deceit; that we may buy the poor for silver, & the needy for a pair of shoes (sandals), & sell the refuse (straws, waste, chaff) of the wheat’? The LORD swore by the Excellency of Jacob, ‘Surely I will never forget any of their works’. Shall not the Land tremble for this,  every one mourn who dwells therein? It shall rise-up wholly like the River; and it shall be troubled & sink again, like the River of Egypt. ‘In that day’, says the Lord Jehovah, ‘I will cause the sun to go down at noon, & I will darken the earth in the clear day. I will turn your feasts into mourning, & all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins (waists), & baldness on every head; I will make it as the mourning for an only son, the end thereof as a bitter day. The days come’, says the Lord Jehovah, ‘I will send a famine in the Land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing Jehovah’s Words.  They shall wander from sea to sea,  from the north even to the east; they shall run to & fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, & shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst. They who swear by the Sin of Samaria, & say, ‘As yur ‘god’, Dan, lives; &, As the Way of Beer-Sheba lives; they shall fall, & never rise up again’.

                 I saw the Lord standing beside the Altar: & he said, ‘Smite the Capitals (Knobs) , that the thresholds (doorway, entrance) may shake; & break them in pieces on the head of all of them’;  I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee-away,  there shall not one of them escape. Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall My Hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search & take them out thence; & though they be hid from My Sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the Serpent, & it shall bite them. Though they go into Captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, & it shall slay them: I will set Mine Eyes on them for evil, & not for good’. The Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, He who touches the Land & it melts, & all who dwell therein shall mourn;  it shall rise up wholly like the River, & shall sink again, like the River of Egypt; He Who builds His Chambers in the Heavens, founded His Vault on the Earth; He Who calls for the Waters of the Sea, & pour them out on the Face of the Earth; Jehovah is His Name. ‘Are ye not as the Children of the Ethiopians to Me, Children of Israel’? says the LORD. ‘Have not I brought up Israel out of the Land of Egypt, & the Philistines from Caphtor, & the Syrians from Kir? The Eyes of the Lord Jehovah are on the Sinful Kingdom,  I will destroy it from off the Face of the Earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob’, says the LORD. ‘I will command, & I will sift the House of Israel among the Nations (Gentiles), like as  its sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth. All the Sinners of My People shall die by the sword, who say’, ‘The evil shall not overtake nor meet us’. ‘In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, & close up the Breaches thereof; I will raise up its Ruins,  I will build it as in the days of old; that they may possess the Remnant of Edom, & all the nations (Gentiles) who are called by My Name’, says the LORD Who does this. ‘The days come’, says the LORD, ‘the plowman shall overtake the reaper, the treader of grapes him who sows seed; & the mountains shall drop (drip. flow) sweet wine, all the hills shall melt. I will bring back the Captivity of My People Israel, & they shall build the waste cities, & inhabit them;  they shall plant vineyards,  drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, & eat the fruit of them. I will plant them in their Land, & they shall no more be plucked up out of their Land which I have given them’, says the LORD yur God.’

                We have completed the first 3 Minor Prophets, HoJoAm, Hojoam, Hosea, Joel, Amos as the first unit or set of the Minor Prophets as One Book. These 3 Prophets cover the period of 100 years, from King Jehu & Queen Athaliah after the death of King Jehoshaphat, & from the Prophets Elijah & Elisha, to the doom & Captivity of the 10 Tribes of Israel under King Hoshea & under King Hezekiah, with the Prophets Isaiah & Micah, with King Sargon of Assyria Conquest of Israel. Amos is not to be confused with Isaiah’s father. With this brief notice we pass on to the next 3 Minor Prophets, ObJoMi, Objomi.

4. OBADIAH: Chapter 1.    

            The Vision of Obadiah (Servant-Jehovah; `abad, `obed = serve, work). Thus says the Lord (‘Adonai) Jehovah concerning Edom:  ‘We have heard tidings (hearings, oracles, news; from shama`, shema = hear, listen, heed) from the LORD, an ambassador (representative) is sent among the  Nations (Gentiles), ‘Arise, let us rise up against her in battle’. I have made yu small among the Nations (Gentiles): yu are greatly  despised.  The pride of yur heart deceived yu, yu  who dwell in the  clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; who says in his heart, ‘Who shall  bring me down to the ground’?  Though yu mount on high as the eagle, & thy nest be set  among the stars, I will bring yu down from thence, says the LORD.  If thieves came to yu, if robbers by night (how yu are cut off!), would they not steal  till they had enough? if grape-gatherers came to  yu, would they not leave some gleaning grapes?  How Esau searched! how are his hidden treasures  sought-out!  All the men of yur confederacy have brought yu on yu way, even to  the border: the men who were at peace with yu have deceived yu, & prevailed against yu; yur bread lay a snare under yu: there  is no understanding in him. Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, destroy the wise-men out of  Edom, & understanding out of the Mount of Esau? Thy mighty-men, Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that  every one may be cut off from the Mount of Esau by slaughter.  The violence done to yur Brother Jacob, shame shall cover yu,  yu will be cut-off forever.  In the day that yu stood on the other side, in the day that  strangers carried away his substance, & foreigners entered into his gates,  and cast lots upon Jerusalem, yu was as one of them.  But look not on the day of yur Brother in the day of his disaster,   rejoice not over the Children of Judah in the day of their destruction;  neither speak proudly in the day of distress.  Enter not into the gate of My People in the day of their calamity; look not on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither lay on (loot, rob) their substance in the day of their calamity.  Stand not in the crossway, to cut off those of his who  escape; deliver not up those of his that remain in the day of distress.  For the Day of Jehovah is near upon all the Nations (Gentiles): as thou hast  done, it shall be done unto thee; thy dealing shall return upon yur own head.   For as you have drunk on My Holy Mountain, so shall all the Nations  drink continually; yea, they shall drink, & swallow down, & shall be as  though they had not been.   But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, it shall be  holy; and the House of Jacob shall possess their Possessions. The House of Jacob shall be a fire, and the House of Joseph a  flame, and the House of Esau for stubble, & they shall burn among them,  & devour them; & there shall not be any remaining to the House of Esau;  for the LORD has spoken it. They of the South shall possess the Mount of Esau, & they of  the Lowland the Philistines; & they shall possess the Field of Ephraim, & the Field of Samaria; & Benjamin, Gilead. The captives of  Host of the Children of Israel, that are the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; & the captives  of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, shall possess the Cities of the South. Saviours shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of  Esau; & the Kingdom shall be the LORD’s.

                The Book of Obadiah, the shortest book of the Old Testament, gives us no detail to determine anything about the Prophet Obadiah, & even his name maybe a title or play on the meaning the Lord’s Servant. Since no reference is made to the reign of a King the dating is dubious. From its content we know his ministry was to Judah & Jerusalem in relations to Edom or Esau, yet still quite related to Israel & Jacob as a whole. I for one turn to Jeremiah 49 & Lamentations 4 to settle the age in which he prophesied. The language, the words & sentences, is allied to Isaiah & Jeremiah rather than to Ezekiel (except the period referred to in Ezekiel 25-36 reinforce that the ministry of Obadiah is Judah not Israel, Jerusalem & not Samaria; thus he prophesied between Isaiah & Ezekiel) & Daniel. The history of the invasion & assault on Jerusalem as the Edomites ignored their need for help is the background for the Divine judgment issued. This points to the Assyrian & Egyptian & Arabians excursions into Judah & Jerusalem, especially to loot the Temple wealth & King’s riches. The Babylonian destruction & Captivity of the Jews does not fit.

5. JONAH: Chapters 1-4. 

            Jehovah’s Word to Jonah Ben-Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh (capital of Assyria, east of the Tigris River near Mosul in northern Iraq; 700 miles from Jerusalem; 500 miles from Baghdad; Jerusalem to Baghdad is 600 miles; Amman Jordan to Baghdad is 500 miles; Damascus to Nineveh or Mosul is 500 miles; Jerusalem to Sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberius or to Haifa is 100 miles; Jerusalem to Tel Aviv is 50 miles; Sea of Galilee or Tiberius to Tel Aviv is 80 miles; Great Mediterranean Sea is 2300 miles across from east to west; from north to south coasts varies greatly, with great portions from 300 to 500 miles across), that Great City, & cry (proclaim, shout) against it; for their  wickedness is come up before Me’. Jonah fled to Tarshish (unknown location, port, city; 3 popular & common places are held to be Jonah’s Tarshish, one on the east coast of the Great Sea of north Israel, Lebanon, & Syria; another on the west coast of Iberia or Spain; the third in the middle of the northern coasts) from the presence (face) of Jehovah;  and he went down to Joppa (now Tel Aviv; Tel Aviv to northern coasts of Israel, Lebanon, & Syria is some 150 miles by air; the ancient Phoenicians of Tyre & Sidon were great sea merchants of the Great Sea & sailed from coasts to coasts of the Great Sea, or from Iberia-Spain to Sidon & Tyre; with commerce with Asia or Near East, northern Africa, & Europe, as far as Spain then into the coasts north of western Spain, including the British Isles, & the western coasts of north Africa ), and found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid  the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from  the presence of the LORD.  The LORD sent out a great wind on the Sea (that is, the Great Sea), and there was a  mighty tempest on the Sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.  Then the mariners (sailors, shipmates, sea-merchants) were afraid, and cried (pleaded, prayed, begged) every man to his ‘god’; and  they cast forth the wares (cargo) that were in the ship into the Sea, to lighten it. But Jonah was in the innermost-parts (deepest-parts) of the ship; he  rested, & was fast asleep. The shipmaster came to him, & said to him, ‘What do yu mean, sleeper? arise, call on yur God, if so be that God will think on us, that we perish not’.  They said everyone to his fellow, ‘Come,  let us cast lots, that  we may know for whose cause this evil (calamity, disaster) is on us. So they cast lots, and the  lot fell upon Jonah.  They said to him, ‘Tell us, please, why is this  evil (tragedy) on us; what is yur occupation?  from where do yu come? what is  yur country? of what people are yu’?  He said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew; I fear Jehovah, the God of  Heaven, Who made the Sea & the dry-land (dry-ground)’.  Then were the men exceedingly afraid, & said to him, ‘What is  this yu have done’? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the  presence of the LORD, because he  told them.  They said to him, ‘What shall we do to yu, that the Sea  may be calm to us’? for the Sea grew more & more tempestuous.  He said to them, ‘Take me up, & cast me forth into the sea;  so shall the sea be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great  tempest is on you’.  The men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but  they could not: for the Sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. They cried to the LORD, & said, ‘We beseech (beg) Yu,  LORD, we beseech (beg) Yu, let us not perish for this man’s life, & lay not  on us innocent blood; for Yu, LORD, did as it pleased Yu.  So they took up Jonah, & cast him forth into the Sea; & the Sea  ceased from its raging. The men feared LORD exceedingly; they offered a  sacrifice to the LORD, & made vows.  The LORD prepared (appointed) a great-fish (whale, big-fish) (‘The Mediterranean is home to increasingly rare populations of cetaceans (marine-mammals). Here are the eight whale & dolphin species you can discover with Tethys Research Institute in the Ligurian Sea (south of Genoa)‘: Fin whale, Sperm whale, Striped dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Risso’s dolphin, Long-finned pilot whale, Short-beaked common dolphin, Cuvier’s beaked whale) to swallow up Jonah; & Jonah  was in the belly of the fish (whale, big-fish) three days & three nights (Hebrew days are reckoned from sunset to sunrise to sunset; a few hours of one day may represent the whole day, so 3 days & nights may literally be as low as 30 hours: 3 hours before sunset = 1 day, 12 + 12 ours the 2nd day, 3 hours before sunrise on the 3rd day = 30 hours, consisting of daylight, night to night, daylight; the first partial day & the 3rd partial day counting as whole days & nights).

                  Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God out of the fish’s (whale’s) belly.  He said, ‘I called (pleaded) by reason of mine affliction to the LORD,  He  answered me; Out of the belly of Sheol (hell, hades, grave) cried I, Yu heard my voice. Yu tossed me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, the  flood was round-about me; All Yur waves & Yur billows passed over me.  I said, ‘I am cast out from before Yur eyes; I will look-again  toward Yur Holy Temple‘. The waters compassed me about, to the soul; The deep was  round about me; The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with its bars  on me forever: Yu brought up my life from the pit, LORD my God.  When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD;  my  prayer came to Yu, to Yur Holy Temple.  They who regard lying vanities Forsake their own mercy. I will sacrifice to Yu with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay  what I have vowed. Salvation is of Jehovah‘.  The LORD spoke to the fish (whale, big-fish), & it vomited-out Jonah on the  dry-land. (No whale, big-fish, large fish is known to be capable of swallowing a man; to survive in the stomach of a whale or large-fish without air is a problem; the gastric juices are a problem; an unknown species of a giant-fish with different a anatomy has not been found; ‘Ambergris – or ‘whale vomit’ – is a product of the sperm whale, as only the mammal makes a key component: ambrein’ is not favorable;   females of large-whales birth their calves which are much larger than a man; logistics of a large whale getting near shore; Nineveh has no shore lines connected to any sea. The possibility of a special creation or parabolic story is left us; and is challenging.)

                 Jehovah’s Word to Jonah the 2nd time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that Great City, & preach (call, proclaim, read) to it the  preaching (proclamation) that I bid (speak, dobir, dabar) yu’.  Jonah arose, & went to Nineveh (from Tyre & Sidon to Nineveh & Mosul is some 600 miles by land along trade routes, at 25 miles a day is about 1 month travel), according to Jehovah’s Word. Nineveh was an exceeding Great City, of 3 days’ journey (from the Tigris River to furthest east border of old Nineveh is some 15 to 20 miles; if the 1st & 3rd days a partial it is 3 days walking & preaching; the inner City of Nineveh was half the distance).  Jonah began to enter into the City a day’s journey, and he cried (preached),  & said, ‘Yet 40 days, & Nineveh shall be overthrown’.  The People of Nineveh believed God;  they proclaimed a fast,  put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.  The tidings (news) reached the King of Nineveh, he arose from his  Throne, laid his Robe (Royal Robe) from him, & covered himself with sackcloth, & sat in  ashes.  He made proclamation & published through Nineveh by the  Decree of the King and his Nobles, saying, ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor  flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man & beast, let  them cry mightily to God: let them turn everyone from his evil way, from the violence that is in his hands.  Who knows whether God will not turn & repent, & turn away  from His fierce Anger, that we perish not’?  God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; &  God repented of the evil which He said He would do unto them; and He did it  not. (40 days later:)

                 It displeased Jonah exceedingly, & he was angry.  He prayed (complained) to the LORD, & said, ‘please, LORD, was not  this my saying, when I was in my country? Therefore I hurried to flee to  Tarshish; for I knew that Yu are a gracious God, & merciful, slow to anger,  & abundant in lovingkindness, & repent of the evil (judgment, vengeance). LORD, take, I beseech (beg) Yu, my life from me; for it  is better for me to die than to live‘.  The LORD said, ‘Is it well to be angry’?  Jonah went out of the City, sat on the east side of the city,  &  there made him a booth, & sat under it in the shade, till he might see  what would become of the City.    Jehovah God prepared (appointed) a gourd, & made it to come up over  Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his evil case (attitude, feeling).  So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd.  But God prepared (appointed) a worm when the morning rose the next day, &  it  smote the gourd, that it withered. When the sun arose, that God prepared (appointed) a sultry (hot, humid)  east wind; & the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, &  requested for himself that he might die, & said, ‘It is better for me to die  than to live’.  God said to Jonah, ‘Do yu do well to be angry for the gourd’? He said, ‘I do well to be angry, even to death’. The LORD said, ‘Yu care for the gourd, for which yu  labored not, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, &  perished in a night:  & should not I care for Nineveh, that Great City, wherein are  more than 60,000 persons that cannot discern between their right  hand & their left hand; & also much cattle’?

                We will not consider the larger pitcher of this story in regards to the Divine Preparation or Appointments of the whale, gourd, worm, & wind to deal with the Prophet Jonah. Neither is it proper at this time to consider Jonah’s reason for his avoidance, reluctance, & disobedience against the Lord’s forgiveness & mercy toward Nineveh, but save that for our reflections.  What we might point out is that Jonah’s experience in the whale’s belly is clearly a death experience, whether in a coma or dying. It appears from the words of  Jonah’s prayer that his initial experience was of the sea, the belly of the sea, which in drowning he was entering death; his salvation began in the whale’s belly, in which both death & resurrection took place. The miracles, like all biblical miracles, are significant in what the mean, not merely their occurrence, & in the Bible they all are held together by Divine Power or they break, & all fall apart. Enough is given to give credence to the story as real & literal, & not of necessity religious fiction, or a Jewish Parable. Jonah ministered to a Gentile power which was an expanding imperial nation already a threat to the Middle East nations & peoples. In 50 years they would conquer Israel & Samaria, &  in 100 years Nahum would record their downfall at the hands of Babylon. In other words, Jonah’s ministry did not avert the Northern Kingdom fall & end by Assyria. Therefore we again insist that Jonah best supports Jeremiah rather than Isaiah or Ezekiel.

6. MICAH: Chapters 1-7.

                 Jehovah’s Word (Vision) to Micah the Morashtite in the Days  of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah, which he saw concerning  Samaria & Jerusalem (Micah was contemporary with Isaiah & Hosea; his ministry was directed to Samaria & Jerusalem; Isaiah directed to Judah & Hosea supporting that message with his own ministry adding King Jeroboam II.).  Hear, Peoples, all of you: listen, Earth, & all that therein is:  and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from His Holy  Temple. The LORD comes forth out of His Place, & will come  down, & tread on the High-Places of the Earth.  The mountains shall be melted under Him, the valleys shall be  cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.  The Transgression of Jacob is all this,  for the Sins of the House  of Israel. What is the Transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? what are  the High-places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?   ‘I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, as places for  planting vineyards; I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley,  and I will uncover the foundations thereof.  Her graven images shall be beaten to pieces,  her hires (prices)  shall be burned with fire,  her idols will I lay desolate; for of the hire (price) of a  harlot (prostitute, whore, by adultery & fornication) she gathered them, the hire (price) of a harlot shall they return.  For this will I lament & wail; I will go stripped & naked; I will make  a wailing like the jackals, & a lamentation like the ostriches. For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even to Judah; it  reaches to the gate of My people, even to Jerusalem.  Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all: at Beth-le-Aphrah have I rolled  Myself in the dust.  Pass away, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness & shame: the inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth; the wailing of Beth-Ezel shall take  from you its stay (standing, support, stability).  The inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because  evil is come down from the LORD to the Gate of Jerusalem.  Bind the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish: she was  the beginning of Sin to the Daughter of Zion; for the Transgressions of Israel  were found in yu.  Yu will give a parting gift to Moresheth-Gath: the  Houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the Kings of Israel.   I will yet bring to yu, inhabitant of Mareshah, him who shall  possess yu: the Glory of Israel shall come even to Adullam.  Make bald, cut off yur hair for the children of yur delight:  enlarge yur baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into Captivity from yu’.

                 Woe to them who devise iniquity & work evil on their beds! when  the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.  They covet fields, & seize them; & houses, & take them  away:  they oppress a man & his house, even a man and his heritage.  The LORD says: ‘Against this family do I devise  evil (ruin), from which you shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk  haughtily; for it is an evil time.  In that day shall they take up a parable against you, & lament with a  doleful lamentation, say, ‘We are utterly ruined’: he changes the portion of My People: how he removes from Me! to the rebellious he divides  our fields.  Yu shall have none that shall cast the line by lot in the  Assembly of the LORD.  Prophesy  not, they prophesy. They shall not prophesy to  these: reproaches shall not depart.  Shall it be said, ‘House of Jacob, Is the Spirit of the LORD straitened?  are these His doings? Do not My Words do good to him who walks uprightly?   But of late My People is risen up as an enemy: you strip the robe from  off the garment from them who pass by securely,  averse from war.  The women of My People you cast out from their pleasant houses;  from their young children you take away My Glory forever.  Arise, depart; for this is not your resting-place; because of  uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction.   If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood do lie: ‘I will  prophesy to yu of wine & of strong drink’; he shall even be the Prophet  of this People.  I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of yu; I will surely gather the  Remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in  the midst of their pasture; they shall make great noise by reason of  men.  The breaker is gone up before them: they have broken forth & passed on to the gate, & are gone out thereat; & their King is passed on  before them, & the LORD at the head of them.

                 I said, ‘Listen please, Heads of Jacob, & Rulers of the House  of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?  you who hate the good, & love the evil; who pluck off their skin from  off them, & their flesh from off their bones;  who also eat the flesh of My People, & flay their skin from off them,  & break their bones, & chop them in pieces, for the pot, & flesh  within the caldron’. Then shall they cry to the LORD, but He will not answer them; He  will hide His face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil  in their doings.  the LORD says concerning the Prophets that make My People to  err; that bite with their teeth, & cry, Peace; & whoso puts not into  their mouths, they even prepare war against him:  ‘It shall be night to you, that you shall have no Vision;  it shall be dark to you, that ye shall not divine (predict); & the sun shall go down  upon the Prophets, & the day shall be black over them.  The seers shall be put to shame, the diviners (predictors) confounded; they shall all cover their lips; for there is no Answer of God’.  As for me, I am full of Power by Jehovah’s Spirit, of  judgment, & might, to declare to Jacob his Transgression,  to Israel  his Sin.  Listen please, Heads of the House of Jacob,   Rulers of the  House of Israel, who abhor justice, & pervert all equity.  They build up Zion with blood, & Jerusalem with iniquity. The Heads thereof judge for reward, & the Priests thereof teach for  hire, & the Prophets thereof divine (predict) for money: they lean on the LORD, & say, ‘Is not the LORD  in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us‘.   Zion will for your sake be plowed as a field, & Jerusalem  shall become heaps,  the Mountain of the House as the high-places of a  forest.

                In the Latter Days, the Mountain of  the LORD’s House shall be established on the top of the mountains, & it shall  be exalted above the hills; & peoples shall flow to it.  Many nations (Gentiles) shall go & say, ‘Come, let us go up to the  Mountain of the LORD, to the House of the God of Jacob; He will teach  us of His ways, we will walk in His paths‘. ‘For out of Zion shall go forth the  Law, the Word of the LORD  from Jerusalem; He will judge between Many peoples, & decide concerning  strong nations afar off: they shall beat their swords into plowshares,  their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,  neither shall they learn war anymore.  But they shall sit every man under his vine & under his fig-tree; and  none shall make them afraid’: for the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk everyone in the name of his ‘god’; and we will  walk in the Name of the LORD our God for ever & ever. ‘In that day’, says the LORD, ‘will I assemble what is lame,  I will  gather   is driven-away, & what I have afflicted; I will make what was lame a Remnant, & what was  cast far off a strong nation’: the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion  from henceforth even forever.  And yu, Tower of the Flock, the Hill of the Daughter of Zion, to  yu shall it come, the former Dominion shall come, the Kingdom of the  Daughter of Jerusalem.  Why do yu cry out aloud? Is there no King in yu, is yur  counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of yu as of a woman in  travail (pregnancy, labor)?  Be in pain, & labor to birth, Daughter of Zion, like a woman  in travail; for now shall yu go forth out of the City, & shall dwell in the  field, & shall come even to Babylon: there shall yu be rescued; there  will the LORD  redeem yu from the hand of yur enemies.  Many nations are assembled against yu, who say, ‘Let her  be defiled, let our eye look on Zion’. They know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they  His counsel; for He gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor.  ‘Arise and thresh, Daughter of Zion; for I will make yur horn iron, I will make yur hoofs brass;   yu  shall beat in pieces many peoples:  & I will devote their gain to the LORD, their substance to the Lord of  the Whole Earth’.

                 Yu shall gather in troops, Daughter of Troops: he (the enemy, invader)  hath laid siege against us; they shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon  the cheek. ‘Beth-Lehem Ephrathah, who are least among the  1,000s of Judah, out of yu shall One Come-forth to Me Who is to be  Ruler in Israel; Whose goings-forth are from of old, from Everlasting (Eternity). He will give them up, till the time that she who travails  has given-birth: then the residue (rest, remnant) of his brothers shall return to the Children of Israel. He (Messiah) shall stand,  feed (shepherd, tend)   in the Strength of  the LORD, in the Majesty of the Name of Jehovah His (Messiah’s)  God: and they (Israel) shall abide (continue, survive);  for now shall He (Messiah)  be Great to the Ends of the Earth. And He (Messiah) shall be Peace (Shalom, Safety, Salvation). When the Assyrian shall come  into our Land (northern Israel),  when he (Assyria) shall tread in our Palaces (in Samaria), then shall we raise  against him (Assyria) 7 Shepherds, & 8 Principal Men (these from the Nations against Assyria like Babylon, Medes, Persians, etc.). They shall waste the Land of Assyria with the sword, & the Land  of Nimrod in its entrances: he (Cyrus the Persian King of Babylon) shall deliver us from the Assyrian,  when he comes into our Land, and when he treads within our Border.  The Remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many Peoples as  dew from the LORD, as showers on the grass, that wait not for man, nor  wait for the sons of men. The Remnant of Jacob shall be among the Nations (Gentiles, in Assyria, Babylon, Persia, etc.), in the midst of  many Peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among  the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through, treads down and tears in  pieces, & there is none to deliver.  Let yur hand be lifted up above yur adversaries,  let all yur  enemies be cut off.  In that day, says the LORD, that I will cut off  yur horses out of the midst of yu, & will destroy yur chariots:  I will cut off the cities of yur Land, & will throw down all yur  strongholds.  I will cut off witchcrafts from yur hand;  yu shall have no soothsayers: I will cut off yur graven images & yur pillars out of the midst of  yu; yu shall no more worship the work of yur hands;  I will pluck up yur Asherim out of the midst of yu; I will  destroy yur Cities.  I will execute Vengeance in Anger & Wrath on the Nations (Gentiles)  who listened not’.

                 Hear what Jehovah says: ‘Arise, contend  before the  mountains,  let the hills hear yur voice.  Hear, mountains, Jehovah’s Controversy, you enduring  foundations of the earth’; for the LORD has a controversy with His people, He will contend with Israel.  ‘My People, what have I done to yu? Wherein have I wearied  yu? testify against Me.  I brought yu up out of the Land of Egypt, redeemed yu out  of the House of Bondage;  I sent leading yu Moses, Aaron, & Miriam. My People, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam ben-Beor answered him; from Shittim to  Gilgal, that you may know the Righteous-acts of the LORD.’ Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the  High God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with 1,000s of rams, with 10,000s of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the  fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He has showed yu, man (adam), what is good; and what doth the LORD  require of yu, to do justly,  to love kindness, to walk humbly  with yur God? The Voice of the LORD cries to the city, & Wisdom  will see yur name: hear the Rod, & who has appointed it. Are there treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, & a scant measure that is abominable? Shall I be pure with wicked balances, & with a bag of deceitful  weights?  Its rich-men are full of violence, its inhabitants spoke lies,  their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.  ‘I have struck yu with a grievous wound; I have  made yu desolate because of yur sins. Yu shall eat, but not be satisfied;   yur humiliation shall be in  yur midst:  thou shall put-away, but shall not save; what yu save will I give up to the sword.  Yu shall sow, but shall not reap; yu shalt tread the olives, but  shalt not anoint with oil; the vintage, but shall not drink the wine.  The Statutes of Omri are kept, & all the Works of the House of  Ahab, & you walk in their counsels; that I may make yu a desolation,  its inhabitants  a hissing:  you shall bear the Reproach of My People’ (Jehu ben Jehoshaphat ben-Nimshi, who became King, destroyed the House of Ahab & Omri & Zimri, according to the prophecies of the Prophet Jehu ben-Hanani & of Elijah & Elisha; this also in relations to the Field of Naboth the Jezreelite in the Valley of Jezreel where Jehu ended the House of Ahab & Jezebel & killed King Ahaziah of Judah terminating the alliance between both Kingdoms & Houses; as a precursor to the Assyrian destruction & dispersion).

                Woe is me! I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as  the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desires  the first-ripe fig.  The godly man is perished out of the earth,  there is none upright  among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother  with a net.  Their hands are on what is evil to do it diligently; the prince asks, & the judge for a reward; the great man, he utters  the evil desire of his soul: they weave it together.  The best of them is as a brier; the most upright  than a  thorn hedge: the day of yur watchmen, even yur visitation, is come; now shall  be their perplexity.  Trust not in a neighbor; put ye not confidence in a friend; keep the  doors of thy mouth from her that lies in yur bosom.  The son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her  mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are  the men of his own house. As for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my  Salvation: my God will hear me.  Rejoice not against me, mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I  sit in darkness, the LORD will be a Light to me.  I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against  him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me  forth to the light, shall watch His Righteousness.  Then mine enemy shall see it,  shame shall cover her who said  to me, ‘Where is the LORD yur God’? Mine eyes shall see  on  her; she shall be trodden down as the mire of the streets.  A day for building yur walls! in that day shall the decree be far  removed.  In that day shall they come to yu from Assyria & the Cities of  Egypt, & from Egypt even to the River, & from sea to sea,  mountain to mountain.  Yet shall the land be desolate because of them who dwell therein, & the fruit of their doings.  ‘Feed yur people with yur rod, the Flock of yur Heritage, which dwell  solitarily, in the forest in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan & Gilead, as in the days of old.  As in the days of yur Exodus from the land of Egypt will I  show to them marvellous-things’.   The Nations (Gentiles) shall see & be ashamed of all their might; they shall  lay their hand on their mouth; their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the  earth they shall come trembling out of their close places; they shall come with  fear to the LORD our God, & shall be afraid because of yu.  Who is a God like to Yu, Who pardons iniquity, & passes  over the Transgression of the Remnant of His Heritage? He retains not His  Anger forever, because He delights in Lovingkindness (Mercy).  He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities  under foot; & ‘Yu will cast all their Sins into the depths of the sea. Yu will perform the Truth to Jacob, the lovingkindness to  Abraham, which Yu swore to our Fathers from the days of old‘.

                We have now analyzed & digested the 2nd set of the Minor Prophets, we move on to the 3rd set: NaHaZe, Nahaze, Nahum, Habakkuk, & Zephaniah which will be supportive of the Book of Ezekiel. But before we move on, we should remark that in Micah you have the prophetic experience similar to Isaiah & Jeremiah where the Prophet becomes typical of Messiah, & at times difficult to discern who is speaking. We will consider more of this in greater details in our future reflections after Malachi.

7. NAHUM: Chapters 1-3.

                The Burden of Nineveh. The Book of the Vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. Jehovah is a Jealous God & avenges; the LORD avenges & is full of wrath; the LORD takes vengeance on His Adversaries; he reserves for His Enemies. The LORD  is slow to anger, great in power,  will by no means clear: The LORD has His Way in the whirlwind & in the storm, & the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea, makes it dry, & dries up all the rivers: Bashan languishes, & Carmel; the Flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains quake at Him, the hills melt; the earth is upheaved at His Presence, the world, & all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His Indignation? who can abide in the fierceness of His Anger? His Wrath is poured out like fire, the rocks are broken-asunder by Him. The LORD is good, a Stronghold in the day of trouble;  He knows them who take refuge in Him. But with an over-running flood He will make a full end of her place, & will pursue His Enemies into darkness. What do you devise against the LORD? He will make a full end; affliction shall not rise up the 2nd time. For entangled like thorns, drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble. There is one gone forth out of thee, who devises evil against the LORD, who counsels wickedness. The LORD says: ‘Though they be in full strength, & likewise many, they shall be cut down, He shall pass-away. I have afflicted yu, I will afflict yu no more. & now will I break his yoke from off yu, & will burst yur bonds in sunder’. The LORD gave commandment concerning yu, no more of yur name be sown: ‘out of the House of yur ‘Gods’ will I cut off the Graven Image & the Molten Image; I will make yur grave; for yu are vile.’ On the mountains the feet of him who bringeth good-news, who publishes peace! Keep yur feasts, Judah, perform yur vows; the wicked-one shall no more pass-through yu; he is utterly cut off’.

                He who dashes in pieces is come up against yu: guard the fortress, watch the way, make yur waist strong, fortify yur power mightily. The LORD  restores the Excellency of Jacob, as the Excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, & destroyed their vine-branches. The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, the cypress (fir, fig, for spears or shafts) are brandished (wave, stagger, quake). The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to & fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings. He remembers his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to its wall, & the mantelet (cloak, shoulder-vest) is prepared. The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts. Nineveh hath been from of old like a pool of water: yet they flee away. Stand, stand,  but none looks back. Take the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture. She is empty, & void, & waste; the heart melts, the knees smite together, anguish is in all waists, the faces of them became pale. Where is the den of the lions, & the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion  the lioness walked, the lion’s whelp (cubs), and none made them afraid? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps (cubs) & strangled for his lionesses, & filled his caves with prey, his dens with ravin (plunder). I am against yu, says the LORD  of Hosts, I will burn her chariots in the smoke,  the sword shall devour yur young lions;  I will cut off yur prey from the earth, & the voice of yur messengers (angels, malaks) shall no more be heard.

                Woe to the Bloody City! it is all full of lies & rapine (plunder, robbery); the prey departs not. The noise of the whip,  the noise of the rattling of wheels, & prancing horses, & bounding chariots, the horseman mounting, the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, & a great heap of corpses, there is no end of the bodies; they stumble on their bodies; –because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, who sells Nations through her whoredoms, families through her witchcrafts. I am against yu says the LORD of hosts,  ‘I will uncover yur skirts on yur face;  I will show the Nations (Gentiles) yur nakedness, and the Kingdoms yur shame. I will cast abominable filth on yu, & make yu vile, & will set thee as a gazing-stock. They who look on yu shall flee from yu, & say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her’? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?’  Are yu better than No-Amon (Thebes (Luxor) of Egypt near the Nile River; conquered by Assyria in the 7th century), that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the Sea (Great Sea),  her wall was of the Sea (Great Sea)? Ethiopia & Egypt were her strength, it was infinite; Put & Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried-away, she went into Captivity; her young children  were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets;  they cast lots for her honorable men, all her great men were bound in chains. Yu shall be drunken; yu shall be hid; yu  shall seek a stronghold because of the enemy. Yur fortresses shall be fig-trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. Yur people in the midst  are women; the gates of yur land are set wide open to yur enemies: the fire devoured yur bars. Draw  water for the siege; strengthen yur fortresses; go into the clay, tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln. There shall the fire devour yu; the sword shall cut yu off; it shall devour yu like the canker-worm (yeleq-locust): make yurself many as the canker-worm (yeleq-locust); make thyself many as the locust (arbeh-locust, swarm-locust). Yu multiplied yur merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm (yeleq-locust)  ravages, & flees-away. Thy Princes are as the locusts, & thy Marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. Thy shepherds slumber, King of Assyria; yur Nobles are at rest; yur People are scattered upon the mountains,  there is none to gather them. There is no assuaging of yur hurt: yur wound is grievous: all who hear the report clap their hands over yu; for upon whom hath not yur wickedness passed continually?

                After 100 years the Prophet’s desire on Nineveh was fulfilled, & the course of history as well the dispensation was changing in preparation of Messiah.

8. HABAKKUK: Chapters 1-3.

                The Burden (Vision) which Habakkuk the Prophet did see. ‘LORD, how long shall I cry, & Yu not hear? I cry out to Yu of violence, & Yu will not save. Why do Yu show me iniquity, & look on perverseness? destruction & violence are before me; & there is strife, and contention rises up. The law is slacked, justice never goes forth; the wicked compass about the righteous; justice goes forth perverted’. ‘You among the nations, look, & wonder marvellously; for I am working a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told you. I raise up the Chaldeans (Chaldean of Chaldea or Babylon beginning with Nebuchadnezzar conquered Assyria), that bitter & hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs. They are terrible & dreadful; their judgment & their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards, are more fierce than the evening wolves;  their horsemen press proudly on: their horsemen come from far; they fly as an eagle that hastes to devour. They come all of them for violence; the set of their faces is forwards;  they gather captives as the sand. He scoffs at Kings, Princes are a derision to him; he derides every stronghold; he heaps up dust, & takes it. Then shall he sweep by a wind, & shall pass-over, & be guilty, he whose might is his ‘God’ (‘Eloah)’. ‘Are Yu not from everlasting (eternity), LORD my God (‘Elohim), my Holy One? we shall not die. LORD, Yu ordained him (Babylon, Chaldea) for judgment; & Yu, Rock (Tzur), established him (Babylon, Chaldea) for correction. Yu are of purer eyes than to watch evil, & cannot look on perverseness, why do Yu look upon them who deal treacherously, & hold-Yur-peace (& silent) when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he; & make men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping-things (crawlers) that have no ruler over them? He (wicked, Assyrian) takes up all of them with the angle (fish-hook), he catches them in his net, & gathers them in his drag (drag-net):  he (wicked, Babylonian, Chaldean) rejoices & is glad. He (wicked, Babylonian, Chaldean’s) sacrifices to his Net, burns incense to his Drag; because by them his portion is fat, his food plenteous. He (wicked, Babylonian, Chaldean) will empty his net, & spare not to slay the nations continually’?

                I will stand on my watch, & set me on the tower, & will look forth to see what He will speak with me, & what I shall answer concerning my complaint. The LORD answered me, ‘Write the Vision, and make it plain on tablets (clay-tablets), that he may run that reads it. The Vision is for the appointed time,  it rushes toward the end, & shall not lie: though it delay, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay’. ‘His soul is puffed up; it is not upright in him; but the righteous shall live by his Faith. Wine is treacherous, a Haughty Man, who keeps not at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol (hell, Hades, grave), he is as death, & cannot be satisfied, but gathers to him Nations, & heaps to him Peoples. Shall not all these take up a Parable against him, & a taunting Proverb against him, & say’, ‘Woe to him who increases (gains, appropriates) what is not his! how long? who loads (enlarges) himself with pledges (promises, securities)! Shall they not rise up suddenly who shall bite yu,  awake who shall vex yu,  yu shall be booty to them?  Yu plundered many Nations, the Remnant of the Peoples shall plunder yu, because of men’s blood, & for the violence done to the Land, to the City & to all that dwell therein. Woe to him who gets an evil gain (batza` betza`, gaining-gain, foreclosure, repossession) for his house, that he may set his nest (nest-egg, profits, savings) on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil (i.e., his own ruin)! Yu devised shame to yur house, by cutting off (robbing) many Peoples, & sinned against yur soul. The stone shall cry out of the wall, the beam out of the timber shall answer it. Woe to him who builds a town with blood,  establishes a city by iniquity! Is it not of the LORD  of hosts that the Peoples labor for the fire, the Nations weary themselves for vanity? The earth shall be filled with the Knowledge of the Glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink (liquor), that adds yur venom, & make him drunk, that thou may look on their nakedness (shame, vulnerability)! Yu are filled with Shame,  not Glory: drink also, & be as one uncircumcised (i.e., Gentiles outside the Covenant); the Cup of the LORD’s Right-Hand shall come-round to yu, & Foul-Shame shall be on yur Glory. The violence done to Lebanon shall cover yu, & the Destruction of the Beasts, which made them afraid; because of Men’s Blood, & the Violence done to the Land, to the City & to all that dwell therein. What profits the Graven-Image, that its maker has graven it; the Molten-Image, even the Teacher of Lies, that he who fashions its form trusts therein, to make Dumb Idols? Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake’; to the dumb stone, ‘Arise’! Shall this teach?  It is overlaid with gold & silver, there is no breath (spirit, life) at all in the midst of it’. The LORD is in His Holy Temple: let all the Earth keep silence before Him.

                 Prophet Habakkuk’s Prayer, (on Shigionoth). ‘Jehovah, I have heard the report of Yu, & am afraid: LORD, revive Yur work in the midst of the years; In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy. God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran’. Selah. ‘His Glory covered the Heavens; the Earth was full of His Praise. Brightness was as the light; He had rays from His Hand; There was the hiding of His Power.  Before Him went the pestilence,  fiery bolts went forth at His Feet. He stood, & measured the Earth; He looked, & drove asunder the Nations (Gentiles);  the Eternal Mountains were scattered; the Everlasting Hills did bow; His goings were of old. I saw the Tents of Cushan in affliction; the Curtains of the Land of Midian did tremble’. ‘Was LORD displeased with the Rivers? Was Yur Anger against the Rivers, Or Yur Wrath against the Sea, That Yu rode on Yur Horses, on Yur Chariots of Salvation? Yur Bow was made quite bare; The Oaths to the Tribes were a Word (Sayings. Utterances)’. Selah. ‘Yu cleaved the Earth with Rivers. The Mountains saw, & were afraid; The Tempest of Waters passed by; The Deep uttered its Voice, & lifted up its Hands on High. The Sun & moon stood still in their Habitation, At the Light of Yur Arrows as they went, At the Shining of Yur Glittering Spear. Yu marched through the Land in Indignation; Yu threshed the Nations in Anger. Yu went forth for the Salvation of Yur People, For the Salvation of Yur Anointed; Yu wounded the head out of the House of the Wicked Man, Laying bare the Foundation even to the Neck’. Selah. ‘Yu pierced with his own Staves the Head of his Warriors: They came as a Whirlwind to scatter me; Their Rejoicing was as to devour the Poor secretly. Yu tread the sea with Yur Horses, The heap of Mighty Waters. I heard,  my Body trembled, My Lips quivered at the Voice; Rottenness enters into my Bones, I tremble in my Place; I must wait quietly for the Day of Trouble, For the coming up of the People who invades us (i.e., Babylonian Chaldeans)’. ‘Though the Fig-tree shall not flourish, Neither shall Fruit be in the Vines; The Labor of the Olive shall fail,  the Fields shall yield no Food; The Flock shall be cut off from the Fold,  there shall be no Herd in the Stalls:  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my Salvation. Jehovah Adonai is my Strength; He makes my Feet like Hinds’, & will make me to walk upon my High Places’.

                We see in Habakkuk that the principal enemy is Chaldea & not Assyria. The spiritual types of the true Enemy is seen in both Gentile Powers. The Messianic spirit is quite pronounced.

9. ZEPHANIAH: Chapters 1-3.

                Jehovah’s-Word which came to Zephaniah Ben-Cushi, Ben-Gedaliah, Ben-Amariah, Ben-Hezekiah, in the Days of Josiah Ben-Amon, King of Judah. ‘I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, the LORD. I will consume man & beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, & the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the face of the ground, says the LORD. I will stretch out My Hand on Judah, on all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem;  I will cut off the Remnant of Baal from this place, the name of the Chemarim with the Priests;  them who worship the Host of Heaven on the housetops;  them who worship, who swear to the LORD  the swear by Malcam; them who are turned back from following the LORD; those who have not sought the LORD, nor inquired after him’. Hold yur peace at the presence of the Lord Jehovah; the Day of the LORD  is at hand: The LORD prepared a Sacrifice; He consecrated His Guests. ‘In the Day of Jehovah’s sacrifice, I will punish the Princes, & the King’s Sons, & all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. In that Day I will punish those who leap over the threshold (entrance, doorway), who fill their master’s house with violence & deceit’. ‘In that Day’, says the LORD , ‘there shall be the noise of a cry from the Fish Gate, a wailing from the 2nd Quarter, a great crashing from the hills. Wail, Inhabitants of Maktesh; the People of Canaan are undone; they who were laden with silver are cut off. At that time, that I will search Jerusalem with Lamps; I will punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, ‘the LORD  will not do good, neither will he do evil’. Their wealth shall become a spoil, their houses a desolation: they shall build houses, but shall not inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink its wine. The great Day of the LORD  is near, it is near & hurries greatly, the Voice of the Day of the LORD; the mighty man cries there bitterly. That Day is a Day of Wrath, a Day of Trouble & Distress, a Day of Wasteness & Desolation, a Day of Darkness & Gloominess, a Day of Clouds & thick Darkness a Day of the Trumpet & Alarm, against the Fortified Cities,  against the High Battlements. ‘I will bring distress on men, they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out as dust, their flesh as dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the Day of the LORD’s Wrath; but the whole Land shall be devoured by the Fire of His Jealousy’: for He will make an End, a terrible End, of all them who dwell in the Land’.

                Gather together, & assemble, Nation that hath no shame; before the decree bring forth, & the day pass as the chaff before the fierce anger of the LORD come on you before the Day of the LORD’s anger come on you. Seek the LORD , you meek of the earth, who have kept His ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be you will be hid in the Day of the LORD’s Anger. Gaza shall be forsaken, Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe to the Inhabitants of the Sea-Coast, the Nation of the Cherethites (as in Ezek. 25 the Philistines on the coast)! The Word of the LORD is against you, Canaan, the Land (i.e., inland territory of the Philistines) of the Philistines; ‘I will destroy yu, that there shall be no Inhabitant. The Sea-Coast shall be Pastures, with Cottages for Shepherds & Folds for Flocks. The Coast shall be for the Remnant of the House of Judah; they shall feed thereon; in the Houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening; for the LORD  their God will visit them, & bring back their Captivity. I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the reviling of the Children of Ammon, wherewith they have reproached My People, & magnified themselves against their Border. As I live, says the LORD  of Hosts (Jehovah Tzebaoth), the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, & salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation: the Residue of My People shall make a prey of them, & the Remnant of My Nation shall inherit them. This shall they have for their pride because they have reproached & magnified themselves against the People of the LORD  of Hosts’. The LORD will be terrible (terrifying) to them; for He will famish all the ‘Gods’ (Elohim) of the Earth;   men shall worship Him, everyone from his place, even all the Isles of the Nations (Gentiles). You Ethiopians also, you shall be slain by My Sword. He will stretch out His hand against the North (i.e., north & north-east of Israel), & destroy Assyria, & will make Nineveh a desolation, & dry like the wilderness. Herds shall lie down in the midst of her, the beasts (animals, wild-life) of the Nations: both the pelican & the porcupine shall lodge in the capitals (tops, knobs) thereof; voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds (entrances): for He hath laid bare the cedar-work.  This is the joyous City that dwelt carelessly, who said in her heart, I am, & there is none besides me: how is she become a Desolation, a Place for Beasts to lie down in! everyone who passes by her shall hiss, & wag his hand.

                Woe to her who is rebellious & polluted! to the oppressing City! She obeyed not the Voice; she received not Correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God. Her Princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her Judges are evening wolves; they leave nothing till the morrow. Her Prophets are light & treacherous persons; her Priests have profaned the Sanctuary; they have done violence to the Law.  The LORD  in the midst of her is righteous; He will not do iniquity; every morning doth He bring His Justice to light, He fails not; but the unjust knows no shame. ‘I have cut off Nations; their battlements are desolate; I have made their streets waste, so that none passes by; their Cities are destroyed, so that there is no Man, so that there is no Inhabitant.  I said, ‘Only fear Me; receive correction’; so her dwelling shall not be cut off,  all that I have appointed concerning her: but they rose early & corrupted all their doings’. ‘Wait ye for Me’, saith Jehovah, ‘until the day that I rise up to the prey; for My Determination is to gather the Nations (Gentiles), that I may assemble the Kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine Indignation, even all My fierce Anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My Jealousy. Then will I turn to the Peoples of a pure Language, that they may all call on the Name of the LORD , to serve Him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My Suppliants, the Daughter of My Dispersed, shall bring Mine Offering. In that day shall yu not be put to shame for all yur doings, wherein yu  transgressed against Me; then I will take away out of the midst of yu yur proudly exulting ones, yu shall no more be haughty in My Holy Mountain. But I will leave in the midst of yu an afflicted & poor People, they shall take refuge in the Name of the LORD . ‘The Remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed & lie down, none shall make them afraid. Sing, Daughter of Zion; shout, Israel; be glad & rejoice with all the heart, Daughter of Jerusalem. The LORD  has taken away yur judgments, He has cast out yur enemy: the King of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of yu; yu shall not fear evil anymore. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, ‘Fear not; Zion, let not yur hands be slack. The LORD  yur God is in the midst of yu, a Mighty One Who will save; He will rejoice over yu with joy; He will rest in His Love; He will joy over yu with singing’. I will gather them who sorrow for the solemn assembly, who were of yu; the burden upon her was a reproach. At that time I will deal with all them who afflict yu; and I will save what is lame, & gather what was driven away; I will make them a Praise & a Name, whose shame hath been in all the earth. At that time will I bring you in, & at that time will I gather you; I will make you a Name and a Praise among the Peoples of the Earth, when I bring back your Captivity before your eyes, says the LORD.

                Nahaze completes the 3rd set of the Minor Prophets which compliments Ezekiel & the experience of the Captivity, & the Return to the Homeland still in the future as a promise & hope. The period is less than 100 years for the 3 Prophets. The Messianic appearances in type & inferences become more prominent. We turn to the last 3 Books of Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi or as an acronym HaZeMa or Hazema, the 4th set,  which compliments the Book of Daniel. This set covers about 100 years from the post-Captivity under the reign of King Darius the Mede, following King Cyrus the Persian to the rise of the Greek power. This period closes the Old Testament & the universal accepted date of about 400 B.C. Daniel had died, the City & Walls of Jerusalem rebuilt, & the end of the Prophetical Ministry & Dispensation till we come to the New Testament.

10. HAGGAI: Chapters 1-2.

                In the 2nd Year of King Darius, in the 6th Month, in the 1st Day of the Month,  Jehovah’s Word (Speaking) came by Prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel Ben-Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua Ben-Jehozadak, the High Priest, saying, Thus speaks Jehovah of Hosts, saying, ‘This people say, ‘The time is not come, the time for the LORD’s House to be built’. Then came the LORD’s Word (Speaking) by the Prophet Haggai, saying, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lies waste’? The LORD of Hosts says: ‘Consider your ways. You have sown much, & bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe, but there is none warm; and he who earns wages earns wages for a bag with holes’. The LORD of Hosts says: ‘Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, bring wood, & build the House; & I will take pleasure in it, I will be glorified, says the LORD. You looked for much, & it came to little; when you brought it home, I did blow on it. Why’? The LORD of Hosts says. ‘Because of My House that lies waste, while you run every man to his own house. Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, & the earth withholds its fruit. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground bringeth forth, on men, on cattle, on all the labor of the hands’. Then Zerubbabel the Ben-Shealtiel, & Joshua Ben-Jehozadak, the High Priest, with all the Remnant of the People, obeyed the Voice of the LORD their God, the Words of the Prophet Haggai, as the LORD their God had sent him; & the People did fear before the LORD. Then spake Haggai Jehovah’s Messenger (Angel) in Jehovah’s Message to the People, saying, ‘I am with you’, says the LORD. The LORD  stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel Ben-Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, & the spirit of Joshua Ben-Jehozadak, the High Priest, & the spirit of all the Remnant of the People; they came & did work on the House of the LORD  of Hosts, their God, in the 24th day of the month, on the 6th, in the 2nd year of Darius the King.

                In the 7th, in the 20th of the month, came the LORD’s Word  by the Prophet Haggai, saying, ‘Speak now to Zerubbabel the Ben-Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, & to Joshua Ben-Jehozadak, the High Priest, & to the Remnant of the People, saying, ‘Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel‘, says the LORD; ‘be strong, Joshua, Ben-Jehozadak, the High Priest; be strong, People of the Land, says the LORD, & work: for I am with you‘, says the LORD  of Hosts, ‘the Word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, & My Spirit abode among you: fear not‘. The LORD of Hosts says: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, & the earth, the sea, & the dry land; I will shake Nations;  the precious things of Gentiles shall come; I will fill this House with Glory’, says the LORD of Hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, the gold is Mine’, says the LORD  of Hosts. ‘The latter Glory of this House shall be greater than the former’, says the LORD of Hosts; ‘in this Place will I give Peace’, says the LORD  of Hosts.                In the 24th of the 9th, in the 2nd year of Darius, came the word of the LORD  by the Prophet Haggai, saying, The LORD of Hosts says: ‘Ask now the Priests concerning the Law, saying, If one bear (carry) holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, & with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it become holy’? And the Priests answered & said, ‘No’. Then said Haggai, ‘If one that is unclean by reason of a dead-body touch any of these, shall it be unclean’? And the Priests answered, ‘It shall be unclean’. Then answered Haggai & said, ‘So is this people,  so is this Nation before Me’, says the LORD of Hosts; & so is every work of their hands; that which they offer there is unclean’. ‘Please consider from this day & backward before a stone was laid on a stone in the LORD’s Temple. Through all that time, when one came to a heap (measure, amount, sum) of 20, there were but 10; when one came to the winevat to draw out 50, there were but 20. I struck you with blasting,  with mildew, with hail in all the work of your hands; yet  not to Me’, says the LORD.  ‘Consider, please, from this day and backward, from the 24th of the 9th, since the day that the Foundation of the LORD’s Temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? the vine, & the fig-tree, & the pomegranate, & the olive-tree have not brought forth; from this day will I bless’. The LORD’s Word came the 2nd  time to Haggai in the 24th of the month, saying, ‘Speak to Zerubbabel, Governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens & the earth; I will overthrow the Throne of Kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Kingdoms of the Nations; I will overthrow the chariots, & those who ride in them;  the horses & their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In that day’, saith the LORD  of Hosts, ‘will I take yu, Zerubbabel, My Servant, Ben-Shealtiel, says the LORD, & will make yu as a Signet; for I have chosen yu, says the LORD  of Hosts’.

                The consideration in the Book of Haggai is the Rebuilding of the House of God, the Lord’s Temple. that the Nation of Israel in the representation dispensationally in the Jewish Remnant of the Returned Exiles, so that in the united power they would survive till the Days of Messiah. Both Zerubbabel & Joshua prefiguring Messiah as Prince & Priest. The slow process of Re-establishing the National unity & life in the Rebuilding of the Temple & Repair of the City & the Wall of Jerusalem was witness of how the Captivity had almost extinguished national pride & vitality. Israel was now Jewish; & the Jew was all that was left to await Messiah & His Kingdom.

11. ZECHARIAH: Chapters 1-14.

                In the 8th Month, in the 2nd Year of Darius, Jehovah’s Word came to Zechariah Ben-Berechiah, Ben-Iddo, the Prophet, saying, the LORD was sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say to them, the LORD  of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me’, says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will return to you’, says the LORD  of Hosts. ‘Be ye not as your fathers, to whom the Former Prophets cried (preached, proclaimed), saying, ‘The LORD  of Hosts says, ‘Return from your evil ways, & from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor listen to Me, says the LORD. Your Fathers, where are they? & the Prophets, do they live forever? But My Words & My Statutes, which I commanded My Servants the Prophets, did they not overtake your Fathers? they turned & said, ‘Like as the LORD of Hosts thought to do to us, according to our ways, & according to our doings, so has He dealt with us’.         On the 24th day of the 11th month, Shebat, in the 2nd year of Darius, Jehovah’s Word came to Zechariah Ben-Berechiah, Ben-Iddo, the Prophet, saying, I saw in the night, a Man Riding on a Red Horse, he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in-the-bottom (shady-place, depths, lower or beneath);  behind him were horses, red, sorrel (brown, hazel), & white. ‘I asked, my Lord, what are these’? And the Angel (Messenger) that talked with me said, ‘I will show yu what these are’. The Man who stood among the myrtle-trees answered, ‘These are they whom the LORD sent to walk to & fro through the Earth (Land)’. They answered the LORD’s Angel  who stood among the myrtle-trees, & said, ‘We have walked to & fro through the Earth (Land), & the Earth sits still, & is at rest‘. Then the LORD’s Angel answered, ‘LORD of Hosts, how long will Yu have No Mercy on Jerusalem & on the Cities of Judah, against which Yu had indignation these 70  years’?  the LORD answered the Angel who talked with me with Good Words, Comfortable Words. The Angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry (Preach, Proclaim), saying, ‘The LORD of hosts says: ‘I am jealous for Jerusalem & for Zion with a Great Jealousy. I am very sore Displeased with the Nations that are at ease; for I was but a little Displeased, & they helped forward the Affliction’. The LORD says: ‘I am returned to Jerusalem with Mercies; My House shall be built in it’, says the LORD of Hosts, ‘a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem’. Cry yet again, saying, The LORD of Hosts says: ‘My Cities shall overflow with prosperity’; the LORD shall comfort Zion, &  shall choose Jerusalem. I lifted up Mine eyes, & saw, 4 Horns.  I said to the Angel who talked with me, ‘What are these’? He answered me, ‘These are the Horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, & Jerusalem’. The LORD showed me 4 Smiths. Then said I, ‘What come these to do’? & he spake, saying, ‘These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to cast down the Horns of the Nations, which lifted up their Horn against the Land of Judah to scatter it’.

                 I lifted up mine eyes, & saw, a Man with a Measuring Line in his Hand. Then said I, ‘Where are yu going? He said to me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to see what its breadth, & its length is. The Angel who talked with me went forth, & another Angel went out to meet him, & said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude of men & cattle therein. The LORD says, ‘I will be to her a Wall of Fire round about, & I will be the Glory in the midst of her. Flee from the Land of the North, says the LORD; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens’, says the LORD. Zion, escape, yu who dwell with the Daughter of Babylon. The LORD  of Hosts says: ‘After Glory has He sent Me to the Nations (Gentiles) which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the Apple of His Eye. I will shake My Hand over them, & they shall be a spoil to those that served them; & you shall know that the LORD  of Hosts has sent Me. Sing & rejoice, Daughter of Zion; I come, & I will dwell in the midst of yu, says  the LORD. Many Nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, & shall be My People;  I will dwell in the midst of yu, & yu shall know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me to yu’. The LORD  shall inherit Judah as His Portion in the Holy Land, & shall choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD ; for He is waked up out of his Holy Habitation.

                He showed me Joshua the High Priest standing before the LORD’s Angel, & Satan (Adversary)standing at his right-hand to be his Adversary. The LORD  said to Satan, ‘Jehovah rebuke yu, Satan; Jehovah Who chose Jerusalem rebuke yu’: is not this a Brand plucked out of the fire? Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, & was standing before the Angel. He spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, ‘Take the filthy garments from off him’. & to him he said, ‘I have caused yur iniquity to pass from yu, I will clothe yu with rich apparel’. I (Messiah or Zephaniah) said, ‘Let them set a clean mitre (turban, crown) upon his head’. So they set a clean mitre upon his head, & clothed him with garments; & the LORD’s Angel was standing by. The LORD’s Angel protested to Joshua, saying, the LORD  of Hosts says: ‘If yu will walk in My Ways, if yu wilt keep My Charge, then yu shall judge My House, & shall also keep My Courts, & I will give yu a place-of-access (settlement, court, lot) among these that stand by’. ‘Hear, O Joshua the High Priest, yu & yur fellows (companions, friends, peers) who sit before yu; for they are men who are a Sign:  I will bring-forth My Servant the Branch (Sprout, Growth, Seedling; Tzemach, not Netzer). The Stone that I have set before Joshua; on One Stone are 7 Eyes: I will engrave its graving’, says the LORD  of Hosts,  ‘I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day’, says Jehovah of Hosts, ‘shall yu invite every man his neighbor under the vine & under the fig-tree’.

                The Angel who talked with me came again, & woke me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. He said to me, ‘What do yu see’? I said, ‘I have seen, a Golden Candlestick (Lampstand, Menorah), with its Bowl on the top of it, & its 7 Lamps thereon; there are 7 Pipes (Branches, Arms)to each of the Lamps, which are on its top; & 2 Olive-trees by it, one on the right-side of the Bowl, & the other on its left-side’.  I answered the Angel who talked with me, saying, ‘What are these, my Lord’? Then the Angel who talked with me replied to me, ‘Do yu no know what these are’? I said, ‘No, my Lord’. He answered me, saying, ‘This is the LORD’s Word to Zerubbabel’, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit’, says the LORD  of Hosts. ‘Who are yu, Great Mountain? before Zerubbabel, a plain; & he shall bring forth the Top Stone with shouting of Grace, Grace, to it’. The LORD’s Word came to me, saying, ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the Foundation of this House; his hands shall also finish it; and yu shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. Who has despised the Day of Small-things? these 7 shall rejoice, & shall see the Plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel;  the Eyes of the LORD, which run to & fro through the Earth’. Then answered I to him, ‘What are these 2 Olive-trees on the right-side of the Candlestick (Lampstand, Menorah) & on its left- side’? I answered the 2nd time, & said unto him, ‘What are these 2 Olive-branches, which are beside the 2 Golden Spouts, that empty the Golden out of themselves’? He answered me, Do yu no know what these are? And I said, ‘No, my Lord’. He replied, ‘These are the 2 Anointed- ones, who stand by the Lord of the Earth’.

                Again I lifted up mine eyes, & saw a Flying Roll. & he said to me, ‘What do yu see? I answered, ‘I see a Flying Roll; its length is 20 cubits (30 feet), & its width 10 cubits (15 feet)’. Then said he to me, ‘This is the curse that goes-forth over the face of the whole Land: everyone who steals shall be cut-off on the one side according to it;  everyone who swears shall be cut-off on the other side according to it. I will cause it to go-forth,’ says the LORD of hosts, & ‘it shall enter into the house of the thief, & into the house of him that swears falsely by My Name; & it shall abide in the midst of his house, & shall consume it with its timber & its stones’. The Angel who talked with me went-forth, & said to me, ‘Lift up now thine eyes, & see what is this that goes-forth’. I said, ‘What is it’? & he said, ‘This is the Ephah that goeth forth’. He said then, ‘This is their appearance in the Land (& there was lifted up a Talent of Lead); & this is a Woman sitting in the midst of the Ephah. & he said, This is Wickedness’: and he cast her down into the midst of the Ephah; he cast the Weight of Lead on its Mouth (Entrance). Then lifted I up mine eyes, & saw, there came forth Two Women, & the Wind was in their Wings;  they had Wings like the wings of a stork; they lifted up the Ephah between Earth & Heaven. Then said I to the Angel who talked with me, ‘Where do these carry the Ephah’? He replied, ‘To build her a House in the Land of Shinar: & when it is prepared, she shall be set there in her own place’.

                Again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, There came Four Chariots out from between 2  Mountains; & the Mountains were Mountains of Brass. With the 1st Chariot were Red Horses; with the 2nd Chariot Black Horses; with the 3rd Chariot White Horses; with the 4th Chariot Grizzled (Greyish, Speckled, Mixed-color) Strong Horses. Then I asked the Angel who talked with me, ‘What are these, my Lord’?  The Angel answered & said to me, ‘These are the 4 Winds of Heaven, which go forth from standing before the Lord of the Earth;  wherein are the Black Horses goes forth toward the North Country; & the White went forth after them (i.e., Westward); & the Grizzled (Greyish, Speckled, Mixed-color)  went forth toward the South Country. The Strong went forth, & sought to go that they might walk to & fro through the Earth’: & he said, ‘Go, walk to & fro through the earth’. So they walked to & fro through the Earth. Then he shouted to me, saying, ‘They that go toward the North Country have quieted My Spirit in the North Country’.  The LORD’s Word came to me, saying, ‘Take of them of the Captivity, Heldai, Tobijah, & Jedaiah; & come the same day, &  go into the House of Josiah Ben-Zephaniah, where they are come from Babylon;  take silver & gold, make crowns, & set them upon the Head of Joshua Ben-Jehozadak, the High Priest;  speak to him, saying,’ ‘the LORD  of Hosts says, ‘The Man whose Name is the Branch (Tzemach): He shall grow up out of His place; He shall build the Temple of the LORD;  He shall build the LORD’s  Temple;  He shall bear the Glory, & shall sit & rule on His Throne;  He shall be a Priest on His Throne; the Counsel of Peace shall be between them both. The Crowns shall be for Helem, Tobijah,  Jedaiah, & Hen Ben-Zephaniah, for a Memorial in the LORD’s  Temple. They that are far off shall come & build in the LORD’s  Temple; & you shall know that the LORD  of Hosts has sent me to you. & if you will diligently obey the Voice of the LORD your God.

                The 4th year of King Darius, LORD’s Word came to Zechariah in the 4th of the 9th month, in Chislev. Now Beth-El had sent Sharezer & Regem-melech, & their men, to entreat the favor of the LORD, speak to the Priests of the House of the LORD of Hosts, & to the Prophets, saying, ‘Should I weep in the 5th month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years’? Then came the Word of the LORD of Hosts to me, saying, ‘Speak to all the People of the Land, & to the Priests, saying, ‘When you fasted & mourned in the 5th & in the 7th, these 70 years, did you at fast to me? When you eat, & drink, do not you eat for yourselves, & drink for yourselves? & not  the Words which the LORD cried by the Former Prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited & in prosperity, & its Cities round about her, & the South & the lowland were inhabited?’ The Word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, the LORD of hosts spoke, ‘Execute true judgment, & show kindness & compassion every man to his brother; oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; & let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to listen, & pulled away the shoulder, & stopped their ears, that they might not hear. They made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the Law, and the Words which the LORD of hosts sent by His Spirit by the Former Prophets: there came great Wrath from the LORD of hosts. As he cried, & they would not hear, so they shall cry, and I will not hear, said the LORD of hosts; but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the Nations (Gentiles) which they have not known’. The Land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant Land desolate.

                The word of the LORD of Hosts came, saying, The LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am Jealous for Zion with Great Jealousy, and I am Jealous for her with Great Wrath’. The LORD says: ‘I am returned to Zion, & will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: & Jerusalem shall be called The City of Truth; & the Mountain of the LORD of hosts, The Holy Mountain’. The LORD of Hosts says: ‘There shall old men & old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. The streets of the City shall be full of boys & girls playing in its streets’. The LORD of hosts says: ‘If it be marvellous in the eyes of the Remnant of this People in those days, should it also be marvellous in Mine Eyes’? says the LORD  of Hosts. The LORD of Hosts says: ‘I will save My People from the East Country, & from the West Country; I will bring them,  they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; they shall be My People, I will be their God, in truth & in righteousness’. The LORD of Hosts says: ‘Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these Words from the mouth of the Prophets that were in the day that the Foundation of the House of the LORD of Hosts was laid, the Temple, that it might be built. Before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in, because of the Adversary: for I set all men every one against his neighbor. But now I will not be to the Remnant of this people as in the former days’, says the LORD of Hosts. ‘For the seed of peace; the vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the Remnant of this people to inherit all these things. As you were a curse among the Nations, House of Judah & House of Israel, so will I save you, & ye shall be a blessing. Fear not, let your hands be strong. The LORD of Hosts says: As I thought to do evil to you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says Jehovah of Hosts, & ‘I repented not; so again have I thought in these days to do good to Jerusalem & to the House of Judah: fear you not.   These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates; let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD. The Word of the LORD  of hosts came to me, saying, The LORD of Hosts says: ‘The Fast of the 4th, & the Fast of the 5th, & the Fast of the 7th, & the Fast of the 10th, shall be to the House of Judah joy & gladness, & cheerful Feasts; therefore love truth & peace’. The LORD of Hosts says: ‘There shall come Peoples, and the Inhabitants of many Cities; the inhabitants of one shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go speedily to entreat the Favor (Grace) of the LORD,  to seek the LORD  of Hosts: ‘I will go also’. ‘Many peoples & strong nations shall come to seek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the Favor (Grace) of the LORD’. The LORD of Hosts says: ‘In those days  10 men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the Gentiles, they shall take hold of the skirt of  a Jew, saying, ‘We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’.

                The Burden of Jehovah’s Word on the Land of Hadrach, & Damascus  its resting-place (for the eye of man & of all the Tribes of Israel is toward the LORD); Hamath, also, which borders thereon; Tyre & Sidon, because they are very wise. Tyre did build herself a stronghold, & heaped up silver as the dust, & fine gold as the mire of the streets. The Lord will dispossess her, He will smite her power in the sea; she shall be devoured with fire.  Ashkelon shall see it, & fear; Gaza also, & shall be sore pained; & Ekron, for her expectation shall be put to shame; the King shall perish from Gaza, Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.  ‘A bastard (i.e., by illegitimate-birth, rape,  or by incest) shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the Pride of the Philistines. I will take away his blood out of his mouth, his abominations from between his teeth; he also shall be a Remnant for our God; he shall be as a Chieftain (Elder) in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.  I will encamp about My House against the army, that none pass through or return;  no oppressor shall pass through them anymore: I have seen with Mine Eyes. Rejoice greatly, Daughter of Zion; shout, Daughter of Jerusalem: Yur King comes to yu; He is Just, & having Salvation; Lowly, Riding on donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,  the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off; & He shall speak peace to the Gentiles:  His Dominion shall be from sea to sea,  from the River to the Ends of the Earth. As for yu, because of the Blood of yur Covenant I have set free yur prisoners from the pit wherein is no water. Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope: even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto yu. I have bent Judah for Me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; I will stir up yur sons, Zion, against yur sons, Greece, & will make yu as the sword of a mighty man. The LORD shall be seen over them;  His arrow shall go forth as the lightning;  the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpet, & will go with whirlwinds of the south.  The LORD of Hosts will defend them; they shall devour, & shall tread down the sling-stones;  they shall drink, & make a noise as through wine;  they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar. The LORD their God will save them in that day as the Flock of His People; for the Stones of a Crown, lifted on high over His Land. How great is His goodness, how great is His beauty! grain shall make the young men flourish, & new wine the virgins.’

                Ask of Jehovah Rain in the time of the Latter Rain, the LORD Who makes lightnings;   He will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. The Teraphim (Idol, Image) have spoken vanity, the diviners have seen a lie; they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, because there is no shepherd. ‘Mine Anger is kindled against the Shepherds, I will punish the He-goats’; for the LORD of Hosts  visited His Flock, the House of Judah, & will make them as His goodly (splendid, majestic) Horse in the battle.  From Him shall come forth the corner-stone, from Him the nail, from Him the battle bow, from Him every Ruler together. They shall be as mighty men, treading down  in the mire of the streets in the battle; they shall fight, because the LORD is with them;   the riders on horses shall be confounded. ‘I will strengthen the House of Judah, I will save the House of Joseph, I will bring them back; for I have mercy on them; they shall be as though I had not cast them off: I am the LORD their God, I will hear them. Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, their heart shall rejoice as through wine; their children shall see it, & rejoice; their heart shall be glad in the LORD. I will hiss for them, & gather them; for I have redeemed them;  they shall increase as they have increased. I will sow them among the Peoples; they shall remember Me in far Countries;  they shall live with their children, & shall return. I will bring them again also out of the Land of Egypt,  gather them out of Assyria;  I will bring them into the Land of Gilead & Lebanon; & nothing shall be found for them. He will pass through the sea of affliction, & will smite the waves in the sea, & all the depths of the Nile shall dry up; & the Pride of Assyria shall be brought down, the Sceptre of Egypt shall depart. I will strengthen them in the LORD; they shall walk up & down in His Name’, says the LORD.

                Open yur doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour yur cedars. Wail, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the goodly ones are destroyed: wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest is come down. A voice of the wailing of the shepherds! for their glory is destroyed: a voice of the roaring of young lions! for the pride of the Jordan is laid waste. The LORD My God says: ‘Feed the flock of slaughter; whose possessors slay them, & hold themselves not guilty; they who sell them say’, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich’;  ‘their own Shepherds pity them not. I will no more pity the Inhabitants of the Land, says the LORD; ‘I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, & into the hand of his King; they shall strike the Land, out of their hand I will not deliver them’. So I fed the Flock of slaughter, the poor of the Flock. I took to Me two staffs; the one I called Beauty, the other I called Bands; I fed the Flock. I cut off the 3 Shepherds in 1 month; for My soul was weary of them, & their soul also loathed Me. Then said I, I will not feed you: that which dies, let it die; & what is to be cut off, let it be cut off;  let them who are left eat every one the flesh of another.  I took My Staff Beauty, & cut it asunder, that I might break My Covenant which I made with all the Peoples.’ It was broken in that day; & thus the poor of the Flock that gave heed to Me knew that it was the Word of the LORD. I said to them, ‘If you think good, give me my hire; & if not, forbear’. So they weighed for my hire 30 silver-pieces. The LORD said to me, ‘Cast it unto the Potter’, the goodly-price (value, price, cost, i.e., the average price for a field-slave) that I was prized at by them. I took the 30 silver-pieces, & cast them to the Potter, in the House of the LORD. Then I cut asunder mine other Staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah & Israel.  the LORD said to me, ‘Take again the instruments of a Foolish Shepherd. I will raise up a Shepherd in the Land, who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor feed what is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat-ones, & will tear their hoofs in pieces.  Woe to the Worthless Shepherd who leaves (abandons, deserts) the Flock! the sword shall be on his arm, & on his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, & his right eye shall be utterly darkened’.

                The Burden of the Jehovah’s Word concerning Israel. The LORD says, Who stretches forth the heavens, & lays the Foundation of the Earth, forms the spirit of man within him: ‘I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to the Peoples round-about, on Judah also shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem. In that day, I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for the Peoples; all that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded; & the Nations of the Earth shall be gathered-together against it’. In that day, says the LORD, ‘I will smite every horse with terror, & his rider with madness (insanity, craziness);  I will open Mine Eyes on the House of Judah, & will smite every horse of the peoples with blindness. & the chieftains (elders, leaders) of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The Inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the LORD of Hosts their God. ‘In that day will I make the chieftains (elders, leaders) of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves; they shall devour all the peoples round about, on the right hand & on the left; & Jerusalem shall yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem.’ The LORD also shall save the Tents of Judah first, that the Glory of the House of David & the Glory of the Inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified above Judah. In that day shall the LORD defend the Inhabitants of Jerusalem: he who is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; the House of David shall be as God, as the Angel (Messenger) of the LORD before them.  ‘In that day, I will seek to destroy all the Nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour on the House of David, & on the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace & of Supplication; & they shall look to (on) Me Whom they have Pierced (Wounded, Crucified)’; ‘they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his Only Son, & shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his First-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the Valley of Megiddon. The Land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the House of David apart,   their wives apart; the family of the House of Nathan apart, their wives apart; the family of the House of Levi apart, their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart,  their wives apart; the families that remain, every family apart, their wives apart’.                            

                In that Day (i.e., Last Days or End Times, & so almost always in the Minor Prophets especially the later Minor Prophets) there shall be a Fountain opened to the House of David & to the Inhabitants (Citizens) of Jerusalem, for sin & for uncleanness. In that Day, says the LORD  of Hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols out of the Land, they shall no more be remembered; I will cause the Prophets & the Unclean Spirit to pass out of the Land. When any shall prophesy, then his father & his mother that birthed him shall say to him, ‘Yu must not live; for yu spoke lies in the LORD’s Name; his father and his mother that birthed him shall thrust him through when he prophesies. In that Day, that the Prophets shall be ashamed every one of his Vision, when he prophesies; neither shall they wear a hairy mantle to deceive (i.e., imitating Elijah): he shall say, ‘I am no Prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondman (slave, servant) from my youth’. & one shall say to him, ‘What are these wounds between thine arms’? Then he shall answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the House of my Friends’. ‘Awake, Sword, against My Shepherd,  against the Man that is My Fellow (Companion, Friend)’, says the LORD  of Hosts: ‘strike the Shepherd, & the Sheep shall be scattered; I will turn My Hand on the Little-ones (Children, Followers, Disciples)’. ‘& in the Land’, says the LORD, ‘2 parts therein shall be cut off & die; but the 3rd shall be left therein. I will bring the 3rd part into the fire, & will refine them as silver is refined, & will try (purify) them as gold is tried (purified). They shall call on My Name, & I will hear them: I will say’, ‘It is My People‘;  they shall say, ‘the LORD  is my God‘.

                 Jehovah’s Day comes, when yur Spoil shall be Divided in the midst of yu. ‘I will gather Nations (Gentiles) against Jerusalem to Battle;  the City shall be taken, the Houses rifled,  the Women ravished (raped); half of the City shall go forth into Captivity,  the Residue (Remnant. Rest) of the People shall not be cut off from the City’. Then shall the LORD  go forth, & fight against those Nations, as when he fought in the Day of Battle. His Feet shall stand in that Day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the east & toward the west, a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, & half of it toward the south.  You shall flee by the Valley of My Mountains; the Valley of the Mountains shall reach to Azel; you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah;  the LORD  my God shall come, & all-Holy-ones (Angels or Saints) with (to, for) yu. In that Day, that there shall not be light; the bright-ones (stars) shall withdraw themselves: but it shall be one day which is known to the LORD; not day,  not night;  at evening time there shall be light. In that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, half of them toward the western sea: in summer & in winter shall it be. The LORD  shall be King over all the Earth: in that day shall the LORD be One & His Name One. The Land shall be made like the Arabah (Wilderness, Desert), from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; she shall be lifted up, & shall dwell in her place, from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, & from the Tower of Hananel to the King’s wine-presses. Men shall dwell therein, there shall be no more curse; but Jerusalem shall dwell safely. This shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will strike all the Peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. In that Day, a great tumult from the LORD  shall be among them;  they shall lay hold everyone on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor. Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the Nations (Gentiles) round about shall be gathered together, gold,  silver, & apparel, in great abundance. So shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel,  of the donkey, & of the beasts that shall be in those camps, as that plague. Everyone who is left of all the Nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD  of hosts, & to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. & whoso of the families of the Earth goes not up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD  of hosts, on them there shall be no rain. If the family of Egypt go not up, & come not, no-rain  on them; there shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will strike the Nations that go not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, & the punishment of the Nations that go not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. In that Day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, ‘Holy to Jehovah‘; the pots in the LORD’s  House shall be like the bowls before the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem & in Judah shall be Holy to the LORD  of Hosts;  they who sacrifice shall come & take of them, & boil therein: in that Day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the House of the LORD  of Hosts.

                If Daniel was not one of the Major Prophets, though a small Book, then Zechariah might reason to claim equal status as Last Key Book of the Old Testament. But Daniel is greater than Zechariah in the universal prophetic presentation of the entire Gentile Dispensation, whereas Zechariah on certain , periods, aspects, & conditions of the dispensation. In Zechariah, the Last Days or End Times establishes the Jewish Eschatology which would develop & dominate for the next 400 years; & of course established on the Book of Daniel. The interplay between the Lord & Angels & People & Prophet is very noticeable. Insights on the interpretation, or hermeneutical study, of the nature & scope of prophecy, in particular eschatology, or the End Times are many, but we must leave that to our Reflections in its proper place. But as noted in the Text Analysis of chapter 13, the use of Day in its many relations as ‘that Day, the Day, etc.’, is deliberate & emphatic.

12. MALACHI: Chapters 1-4.

                The Burden of Jehovah’s Word to Israel by Malachi (My Messenger, Angel). ‘I loved you’, says the LORD. Yet you say, ‘Wherein have Yu loved us’? ‘Was not Esau Jacob’s brother’, says the LORD: ‘yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, & made his mountains a desolation, & his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness (desert)’. Whereas Edom saith, ‘We are beaten down, but we will return rebuild the waste places’; the LORD of Hosts says, ‘They shall build, but I will throw down; & men shall call them ‘The Border of Wickedness’, & ‘The People against whom the LORD has Indignation for-ever’. Your eyes shall see, & ye shall say, ‘the LORD be magnified beyond the Border of Israel’. ‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a Father, where is Mine Honor?   If I am a Master, where is My Fear’? says the LORD of Hosts to you, ‘Priests, who despise My Name’. You say, ‘Wherein have we despised Yur Name’? ‘You offer Polluted Bread on Mine Altar. & you say, ‘Wherein have we polluted Yu? In that you say, ‘The Table of the LORD is contemptible’. ‘When you offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! when you offer the lame & sick, it is no evil! Present it to yur Governor; will he be pleased with yu? or will he accept yur person’? says the LORD of hosts. ‘Please entreat the Favor (Grace) of God, that He may be gracious to us’: ‘this has been by your means: will He accept any of your persons’? says the LORD of Hosts. ‘Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle (burn)  Mine Altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you’, says the LORD of Hosts, ‘neither will I accept an offering at your hand. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same My Name is Great among the Gentiles; in every place incense is offered to My Name, a pure offering: My Name Great among the Gentiles’, says the LORD of Hosts. ‘You profane it’, in that you say, ‘The Table of the LORD is polluted, & its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’ You say also, ‘What a weariness is it’!  ‘You  snuffed at it’, says the LORD of Hosts; ‘you have brought what was taken by violence, & the lame, & the sick; thus you bring the offering: should I accept this at your hand’? says the LORD. ‘But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, & vows, & sacrifices to the Lord a blemished-thing;  I am a Great King, says the LORD of hosts, & My Name is terrible (terrifying, awesome) among the Gentiles‘.

                 You Priests, this Commandment (Mitzwah) is for you. ‘If you will not hear,  if you will not lay it to heart, to give Glory to My Name, says the LORD of Hosts, I will send the Curse on you, I will Curse your Blessings; I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart. I will rebuke your seed, will spread dung (manure, feces) on your faces, the Dung (Manure, Feces)  of your Feasts; you shall be taken away with it. You shall know that I have sent this Commandment to you, that My Covenant may be with Levi’, says the LORD of hosts. ‘My Covenant (Berith) was with him of Life & Peace;  I gave them to him that he might fear; & he feared Me, & stood in awe of My Name. The Law of Truth was in His mouth, unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he walked with Me in peace & uprightness, turned many away from iniquity’. The Priest’s lips should keep knowledge,  they should seek the Law (Thorah Torah) at his mouth; for he is the Messenger (Malak, Angel) of the LORD of hosts. ‘You are turned aside out of the way; you caused many to stumble in the Law; ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi’, saith the LORD of hosts. ‘I also made you contemptible & base before all the People, according as ye have not kept My Ways, but have had respect of persons in the Law’. Have we not all One Father? has not One God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the Covenant of our Fathers? Judah  dealt treacherously, & an abomination is committed in Israel & in Jerusalem; for Judah profaned the Holiness of the LORD which he loves, &  married the Daughter of a Foreign ‘God’. The LORD will cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes & him who answers, out of the Tents of Jacob,  him who offers an offering to the LORD of Hosts. You cover the Altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, with sighing, that He regards not the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, ‘Wherefore’? Because Jehovah hath been witness between yu & the wife of yur youth, against whom yu  dealt treacherously, though she is yur Companion, & the Wife of yur Covenant. Did he not make one, although he had the Residue of the Spirit? Wherefore one? He sought a godly seed. Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.  I hate putting-away (separation, divorce), says the LORD, the God of Israel, & him who covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of Hosts: take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. You wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, ‘Wherein have we wearied Him’? In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, & He delights in them’; or ‘where is the God of justice’?

                ‘Look, , I send My Messenger (Malachi, Malaki, My Angel) (John the Baptist for Messiah the Son, Son for the Father; both Advents),  He shall Prepare the Way before Me: & the Lord, Whom you seek, will suddenly come to his Temple; & the  Messenger (Angel) of the Covenant’, Whom you desire, ‘He comes’, says the LORD of Hosts. ‘Who can abide the Day of His Coming (Advent, Appearance)? and who shall stand when He appears? for He is like a Refiner’s Fire, & like Fuller’s Soap (Washing Soap in processing cloth as wool, linen, etc):  He will sit as a Refiner & Purifier of silver, He will purify the sons of Levi (Levites), and refine them as gold & silver; they shall offer to the LORD  offerings in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah & Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord as in the days of old, as in ancient years’. ‘I will come near to you to judgment;  I will be a Swift Witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers,  against the false swearers, against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, & the fatherless (orphans, parentless), who turn aside the sojourner (foreigner, visitor, traveler, immigrant, alien), & fear not Me, says the Lord of Hosts.  For I, the LORD, change not; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned-aside from Mine ordinances, & have not kept them. Return to Me, &  I will return to you’, says the LORD  of hosts. But you say, ‘Wherein shall we return’? ‘Will a man rob God? yet you rob Me. But you say’, ‘Wherein have we robbed Yu’? ‘In tithes (i.e., giving of 10 %; often wrongly applied to those who rob God by applying & arrogating this to themselves as if they & their houses were God’s) & offerings. You are cursed with the Curse; for you rob Me, even this whole Nation. Bring the whole tithe into the store-house (places & storages of the Levitical Tithes & Offerings of the Law for God’s House), that there may be Food (i.e., not money) in My House,  prove (test) Me by this, says the LORD  of Hosts, if I will not open you the Windows of Heaven, & pour you out a Blessing, that there shall not be room enough. I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field’, says the LORD  of Hosts. ‘All Nations shall call you Happy (Blessed, Favored, Chosen); for you shall be a Delightsome (Pleasing, Attractive) Land’, says the LORD  of Hosts. ‘Your words have been stout (bold, proud, arrogant) against Me’, says the LORD. Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against Yu’? ‘You said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His Charge (Demands, Commands, Orders), that we have walked mournfully before the LORD  of Hosts’? Now we call the proud happy;  they who work wickedness are built up; they who tempt (test,  prove) God, & escape. Then they who feared the LORD spake one with another; & the LORD listened, & heard, & a Book of Remembrance (Memorial) was written before Him, for them who feared the LORD, who thought on His Name. ‘They shall be Mine’, says the LORD of Hosts, ‘Mine own Possession, in the day that I make (create, accomplish); I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him. Then shall you return & discern between the righteous & the wicked, between him who serves God & him who serves Him not’.

                ‘The Day comes, it burns as a Furnace; all the proud, & all who work wickedness, shall be Stubble; the Day that comes shall burn them up’, says the LORD of Hosts, ‘it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who Fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with Healing in its (His) Wings;  you shall go forth, & gambol (play, run, jump, skip) as calves of the stall. You shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the Day that I make (create, accomplish)‘, says the LORD  of Hosts. ‘Remember the Law (Torah) of Moses My Servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb (i.e., Sinai) for all Israel, even Statutes & Ordinances. I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the great & terrible day of the LORD  come. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, & the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come & strike the Earth with a Curse.’

                We have now completed the final set of the Text Analysis of the 12 Minor Prophets, Hazema, & with this also the Minor Prophets (Hojoam Objomi Nahaze Hazema) along with the Anchor Book of Daniel the Prophet. We close the Prophetic Books of the Old Testament or the Prophets of the Tanakh. We must still add to the Minor Prophets the Selections & then the Reflections of both the Minor Prophets in relations to the Major Prophets, but also survey the Apocrypha of the Intertestamental period before the New Testament of Messiah. As with Zechariah the Book of Malachi looks forward the future times, the End Times or Last Days of the 2 Advents of Messiah. We are left with very clear & strong prophetic words of a Messianic Kingdom of which many things are not known & not revealed. The Books of Esther & Ezra-Nehemiah were nearly completed, 50 years or 2 generations had passed since Haggai & Zechariah; the state of the Jewish Nation as the Remnant with the completion of the Repairs & Rebuilding, was still in a degenerative condition, and dispensationally under complete dominion of the Gentiles. See Summary at the end of the work. (In the final edition, if & when allowed to complete, this section will also be enlarged & completed.)