Study Desk

I sayde vnto them: O feare me, and be cotent to be refourmed. That their dwellinge shulde not be destroyed, and that there shulde happen vnto them none of these thinges, wherwith I shal vyset the. But neuertheles they stonde vp early, to folowe the filthynes of their owne ymaginacions.

ye sowe moch, but ye bringe litle in: Ye eate, but ye haue not ynough: ye drinke, but ye are not fylled: ye decke youre selues, but ye are not warme: & he yt earneth eny wage, putteth it in a broken purse.

Who is left amoge you, that sawe this house in hir first beuty? But what thinke ye now by it? Is it not in youre eyes, eue as though it were nothinge?

Is not the sede yet in the barne? haue not the vynes, the fygetrees, the pomgranates and olyue trees bene yet vnfrutefull? but fro this daye forth, I shal make them to prospere.

Be not ye like youre forefathers, vnto whom the prophetes cried a fore tyme, sayege: Thus saieth the LORDE God of hoostes: Turne you from youre euell wayes, & from youre wicked ymaginacions. But they wolde not heare, ner regarde me, saieth the LORDE.

But dyd not my wordes & statutes (which I comaunded by my seruauntes ye prophetes) touch yor forefathers? Vpo this, they gaue answere & sayde: like as ye LORDE of hoostes deuysed to do vnto vs, acordinge to or owne wayes & ymaginacions, euen so hath he dealte with vs.

and sore displeased at the carelesse Heithen: for where as I was but a litle angrie, they dyd their best that I might destroye them

Then sayde I: what wil these do? He answered, & sayde: Those are the hornes, which haue so strowed Iuda abrode, that no man durst lift vp his heade: But these are come to fraye them awaye, and to cast out ye hornes of the Gentiles, which lift vp their horne ouer the londe of Iuda, to scatre it abrode.

He answered, & sayde vnto me: This is the worde of the LORDE vnto Zorobabel, sayenge: Nether thorow an hoost of men, ner thorow stregth, but thorow my sprete, saieth ye LORDE of hoostes.

Neuertheles they wolde not take hede, but turned their backes, and stopped their eares, that they shulde not heare.

but scatered them amonge all Gentiles, whom they knewe not. Thus the londe was made so desolate, yt there traualed no man in it nether to ner fro, for that pleasaunt londe was vtterly layed waist.

For why? before these dayes nether men ner catel coude wynne eny thinge, nether might eny man come in and out in rest, for trouble: but I let euery man go agaynst his neghboure.

but they shalbe a sede of peace. The vynyarde shal geue hir frute, the grounde shal geue hir increase, and the heauens shal geue their dew: and I shal cause the remnaunt of this people, to haue all these in possession.

And it shall come to passe, that like as ye were a curse amonge the Heithen (O ye house of Iuda and ye house of Israel) Euen so wil I delyuer you, that ye shalbe a blessynge: feare not, but let youre hodes be stronge.

For vayne is the answere of Idols. The soythsayers se lyes, and tell but vayne dreames: the comforth that they geue, is nothynge worth. Therfore go they astraye like a flocke of shepe, ad are troubled, because they haue no shepherde.

which shalbe slayne of those that possesse them: yet they take it for no synne, but they yt sell the, saye: The LORDE be thanked, I am rich: Yee their owne shepherdes spare them not.

Therfore wil I nomore spare those that dwell in the londe (sayeth the LORDE) but lo, I will delyuer the people, euery man in to his neghbours honde, and in to the hode of his kynge: that they maye smyte the londe, and out off their hondes wil not I delyuer them.

for lo, I will rayse vp a shepherde in the londe, which shall not seke after the thinges that be lost, ner care for soch as go astraye: he shall not heale the wounded, he shal not norish the thinge that is whole: but he shall eate the flesh off soch as be fat, and teare their clawes in peces.

The LORDE shall preserue the tentes off Iuda like as afore tyme: so that the glory of the house of Dauid and the glory of the cytesyns of Ierusalem, shalbe but litle regarded, in comparison off the glory off Iuda.

But he shall be fayne to saye: I am no prophet: I am an husbonde man, for so am I taught by Adam fro my youth vp.