Chap. I. ^note God shewed his especial loue towards the Iewes, in that he choise their progenitor Iacob, rather then Esau. 7. Priestes are reprehended, for not offering the best thinges in sacrifice. 10. The old sacrifices shal be reiected, and new farre more excellent shal be offered in al nations.

1   The burden of the word of our Lord to Israel in the hand of Malachie.

2   I haue loued you, sayth our Lord: & you haue sayd: Wherin hast thou loued vs? ^noteWas not Esau brother to Iacob, sayth our Lord, and I loued Iacob,

3   but hated Esau? and I layd his mountaines into a wildernes, & his inheritance vnto the dragons of the desert.

4   But if Idumea shal say: We are destroyed, but returning we wil build the thinges that are destroyed: thus sayth the Lord of hosts: These shal build, and I wil destroy: and they shal be called the borders of impietie, and the people with whom our Lord is angrie ^note for euer.

5   And your eyes shal see: and you shal say: Our Lord be magnified vpon the border of Israel.

6   The sonne honoureth the father, and the seruant his lord: if then I be the father, where is my honour? and if I be the Lord, where is my feare: sayth the Lord of hosts?

7   To you ô priests, that despise my name, & haue sayd: Wherin haue we despised thy name? ^noteYou offer vpon myne altar polluted bread: and you say: Wherin haue we polluted thee? In that you say: The table of our Lord is contemptible.

8   If you offer the blind to be immolated, is it not euil? and if you offer the lame and the feble is it not euil? offer it ^note to thy prince if it shal please him, or if he wil receiue thy face, sayth the Lord of hosts.

9   And now besech ye the face of God, that he may haue mercie on you (for by your hand hath this bene done) if by any meanes he wil receiue your faces, saith the Lord of hosts.

10   Who is there among you, that wil shut the doores, & wil kindle fire on my altar for naught? 09Q0323I haue no wil in you, sayth the Lord of hosts: and gift I wil not receiue of your hand.

11   For from the rising of the sunne euen to the going downe, great is my name among the Gentils, &09Q0324 in euerie place there is sacrificing, and there is offered to my name a cleane oblation: because my name is great among the Gentils, sayth the Lord of hosts.

12   And you haue polluted it in that you say: The table of our Lord is contaminated: and that which is layd therupon, is contemptible with the fyre, that deuoureth it.

13   And you haue sayd:

Loe of labour, and you puffed at it, sayth the Lord of hosts, and you brought in ^note of robberies ^note the lame, & the sicke, and brought in a gift: Why, shal I receiue it of your hand, sayth our Lord?

14   Cursed is the deceitful, that hath in his flocke a male, and making a vow immolateth the feeble to our Lord: because I am a great King, sayth the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the Gentils. ^{note note note} Chap. II. ^note Priestes are further reprehended because they discharged not wel their great office. 10. Both they and others offended in marying strangers. 14. They ought to loue, and not lightly dismisse their wiues.

1   And now to you this commandment ^note ô ye priests.

2   If you wil not heare, and if you wil not set it vpon the hart,

to geue glorie to my name, sayth the Lord of hosts: I ^note wil send vpon you pouertie, & wil curse your blessings, and I wil curse them: because you haue not set it vpon the hart.

3   Behold I wil cast forth to you the arme, and wil spinkle vpon your face the dung of your solemnities, and it shal take you with it.

4   And you shal know that I sent you this commandment, that my couenant might be with Leui, sayth the Lord of hosts.

5   My couenant was with him of life and peace: & I gaue him feare: and he feared me, and at the face of my name he was afrayd.

6   The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquitie was not found in his lippes in peace, and in equitie he walked with me, and turned away manie from iniquitie.

7   For ^note the lippes of the priest shal keepe knowlege, and the law they shal require of his mouth: because he is ^note the angel of the Lord of hosts.

8   But you haue departed out of the way, and haue scandalized manie in the law: you haue made voide the couenant of Leui, sayth the Lord of hosts.

9    ^noteFor which cause I also haue made you contemtible, and base to al peoples, as you haue not kept my wayes, and haue accepted face in the law.

10   Why, is there not one father of vs al? hath not one God created vs? why then doth euerie one of vs despise his brother, violating the couenant of our fathers?

11   Iuda hath transgressed, and abomination was done in Israel, and in Ierusalem: because Iudas hath contaminated the sanctification of our Lord, which he loued, and hath had the daughter of a strange god.

12   Our Lord wil destroy the man, that hath done this, the master, & the scholar out of the tabernacles of Iacob, & him that offereth gift to the Lord of hosts.

13   And this agayne haue you done, you couered the altar of the Lord with teares, with weeping, and howling, so that I haue respect no more to sacrifice, neither do I accept any placable thing at your hand.

14   And you haue sayd: For what cause? because the Lord hath testified betwen thee, and the wife of thy youth, whom thou hast despised: and she thy partaker, and the wife of thy couenant.

15   Did not one make, and the residue of the spirit is his? And what doth one seeke, but the seede of God? Keepe ye then your spirit, and the wife of thy youth despise thou not.

16   When thou shalt hate, dismisse, sayth our Lord the God of Israel: but iniquitie shal couer his garment, saith the Lord of hosts, keepe ye your spirit, and do not despise.

17   You haue in your wordes made our Lord to labour: and you sayd: Wherein haue we

made him to labour? In that you say: Euerie one that doth euil, is good in the sight of our Lord, and such please him: or certes where is the God of iudgement? Chap. III. ^note A precurser shal come before Christ. 3. The Priesthood, and Sacrifice of the new law are pure, 5. God who seeth al sinners wil punish them: 10. but if they amend, they shal receiue Gods benefites. 13. Not euil men, but the good please God.

1   Behold I send ^note myne Angel, and he shal prepare the way before my face. And ^note forthwith shal come to his temple the Dominatour, whom you seeke, and ^note the Angel of the testament, whom you desire. Behold he cometh, sayth the Lord of hosts:

2   and who shal be able to thinke the day of his aduent? and who shal stand to see him? For he as it were purging fyre, & as the herbe of fullers:

3   and he shal sit purging, and clensing the siluer, and he shal purge the sonnes of Leui, and wil streyne them as gold, and as siluer, and they shal be offering sacrifices to our Lord in iustice.

4   And the sacrifice of Iuda and Ierusalem shal please our Lord, as the dayes of the world, and as the yeares of old.

5   And ^note I wil come to you in iudgement, and ^note wil be a swift witnes to sorcerers, and aduouterers, and to the periured, and them that calumniate the hyre of the hyred man, the widowes, and pupils, and oppresse the stranger, nor haue feared me, sayth the Lord of hosts.

6   For I the Lord, and I am not changed: and ye sonnes of Iacob are not consumed.

7   For from the dayes of your fathers you haue departed from mine ordinances, and haue not kept them. Returne to me, and I wil returne to you, sayth the Lord of hosts. And you haue sayd: Wherin shal we returne?

8   Shal man fasten God, because you do fasten me? And you haue sayd: Wherein do we fasten thee? In tithes, and in first fruites.

9   And in penurie you are accursed, and you your whole nation fasten me.

10   Bring in ^note al the tithe into the barne: and let there be meate in my house, and proue me vpon this, sayth our Lord: if I open not vnto you the fludgates of heauen, and powre you out blessing euen to abundance,

11   and I wil rebuke for you the deuourer, and he shal not corrupt the fruite of your land: neither shal the vine in the filde be barren, sayth the Lord of hosts.

12   And al Nations shal cal you blessed: for you shal be a land worthie to be desired, sayth the Lord of hosts.

13   Your

wordes haue bene forcible vpon me, sayth the Lord.

14   And you sayd: What haue we spoken against thee? You haue sayd: ^note He is vayne that serueth God, and what profite is it that we haue kept his precepts, and that we haue walked sorowful before the Lord of host?

15   Therfore now we cal the arrogant blessed, for they that doe impietie are builded, and they haue tempted God and are made safe.

16   Then spake they that feared our Lord, euerie one with his neighbour: and our Lord attended, and heard: and a booke of monument was writen before him for them that feare our Lord, and thinke on his name.

17   And they shal be to me, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I doe to my peculiar and I wil spare them, as a man spareth his sonne seruing him.

18   And you shal conuert, and shal see what is betwen the iust, and the impious: and betwen him that serueth God, and serueth him not. Chap. IIII. ^note In the terrible day of iudgement, the wicked shal be condemned, and the iust eternally rewarded. 5. Before which time Elias shal returne, and conuert the Iewes to Christ.

1   For behold ^note the day shal come kindled as a furnace: and al the proude, and al that doe impietie shal be stubble: and the day coming shal inflame them, sayth the Lord of hosts, which shal not leaue them roote, and spring.

2   And there shal rise to you that feare my name the Sunne of iustice, and health in his winges: and you shal goe forth, and shal leape as calues of the heard.

3   And you shal treade the impious, when they shal be ashes vnder the sole of your feete in the day, that I doe, sayth the Lord of hosts.

4   Remember ye the law of Moyses my seruant, which I commanded him in Horeb to al Israel precepts, & iudgements.

5   Behold I wil send you ^note Elias the prophete, before the day of our Lord come great, and ^note dreadful.

6   And he shal conuert the hart of the fathers to the children & the hart of the children to their fathers: lest perhaps I come, and strike the earth with ^note anathema. The end of the Prophetical Bookes.

PERTEYNING TO THE HISTORICAL PART OF THE old Testament. ^note The argument of the bookes of Machabees, with other proœmial Annotations.

Before we declare the contents, the reader perhaps wil require to know, why they are called the Bookes of Machabees: how manie they be; who writ them; in what language; & especially whether al, or anie, or which of them are Canonical Scripture? ^note For satisfaction of al which demandes, distinguishing betwen certaine and vncertaine, we shal briefly shew that which semeth more probable in the doubtful pointes; and the assured certaintie of that which is decided by the Catholique Church of Christ. Concerning therefore the name and inscription. S. Ierom, very probably supposeth that these Bookes haue their title of Iudas Machabevs; the narration of whose heroical vertues, and noble Actes occupieth the greatest part of this whole historie. ^note And this surname Machabeus signifying valient of streingth (or by an vsual hebrew contraction, Mobi, more explicated, Milchamach Coach bihuda, that is, Force of battel, or Streingth in Iuda) was geuen him by his father Mathathias, when before his death disposing of his sonnes & exhorting them, he sayd to them al: You my sonnes take corege, and doe manfully in the law, because in it you shal be glorious. And behold Simon your brother I know that he is a man of counsel: heare ye him alwayes, and he shal be father to you. Next he addeth: And Iudas Machabeus, valient of streingth from his youth, let him be to you the prince of warfayre, and he shal manage the battel of the people. And from him this name was also ascribed to his bretheren, and to al the rest that ioyned with them either in the holie warres, or otherwise shewed their valure, professing Gods law in spiritual combate euen to death. ^note As Nicetas writeth in Orat. 22. S. Greg. Nazian. VVherupon old Eleazarus and the seuen young bretheren, with their mother are also called Machabees.

There be in al, foure bookes called Machabees. ^note The first S. Ierom found in Hebrew, the second in Greke, as he testifieth Epist. 106. The third

is also extant in Greke, and Latin in Biblijs Complutensibus. ^note The fourth semeth to be that which is mentioned in the end of the first booke. And either the same, or an other vnder that title, is also extant in Greke, as testifieth Sixtus Senensis, li. 1. Bibliotheca. VVho writte them is more vncertaine: but most probable euerie one had a diuers auctor. Neither are the two last approued for Canonical by anie authentical auctoritie.

It resteth therfore to speake of the two first, which the Iewes and Protestants denie, because they are not in the Hebrew Canon. ^note The Protestants further alleaging that they are not in the former Canon of the Church, before S. Ieroms time. Moreouer obiecting certaine places of these bookes, which they say, are contrarie to sound doctrine, & to the truth of other authentical histories, or contradictorie in themselues. None of which thinges can procede from the Holie Ghost, the principal auctor of al Diuine Scriptures. Al which textes we shal more conueniently explicate, according to their true sense, in ^note their proper places. ^note As for the exception, that these bookes are not in the Canon of the Iewes, it is answered already (Præf. Tobiæ.) that the Canon of the Christian Catholique Church is of souereigne auctoritie, though the Iewes Canon haue them not. Finally wheras these bookes were not canonized in the former General Councels, it sufficeth that they are since declared to be Canonical, & Diuine Scripture, as some other partes haue likewise bene, which English Protestants do not denie. As the Epistle of S. Iames, the second of S. Peter, the second and third of S. Iohn, and S. Iudes epistle: of al which Eusebius, and S. Ierom testifie, that some lerned Fathers doubted sometimes, whether they were Apostolical or no. But afterwards the same, with these two bookes of Machabees, and others were expresly declared to be Diuine Scripture, by the third Councel of Carthage, can. 47. ^note By the Councel of seuentie Bishops vnder Gelasius, though by the name of one booke, as also Esdras and Nehemias as but one booke. Lastly by the Councels of Florence, and Trent.

If anie further require the iudgement of more ancient Fathers, diuers doe alleage these bookes as Diuine Scriptures. ^note S. Dyonise, c. 2. celest. Hierar. S. Clemens Alexan. li. 1. Stromat. S. Cyprian li. 1. Epist. ep. 3. ad Cornelium. li. 4. ep. 1. & de exhort. ad Martyrium. c. 11. Isidorus li. 16. c. 1. Etym. S. Gregorie Nazianzen hath a whole Oration of the seuen Machabees Martyrs, and their mother. S. Ambrose li. 1. c. 41. Offic. But to omite others, albeit S. Ierom vrged not these bookes against the Iewes, yet he much estemed them, as appeareth in his commentaries vpon Daniel. c. 1. 11. & 12. S. Augustin most clerly auoucheth li. 2. c. 8. de doct. christ. & li. 18. c. 36. de ciuit. that notwithstanding the Iewes denie these bookes, the Church holdeth them Canonical. And wheras one Gaudentius an heretike alleaged for defense of his hæresie the example of Razias, who slew him self. 2. Mao. 14. S. Augustin denieth not the auctoritie of the booke, but discu&esset;eth the

fact, and admonisheth that it is not vnprofitably receiued by the Church; si sobrie legatur, vel audiatur: if it be read, or heard soberly. VVhich was a nece&esset;arie admonition to those Donatistes: who not vnderstanding the holie Scriptures, depraued them (as S. Peter speaketh of like heretikes, ep. 2. c. 3.) to their owne perdition.

Now touching the contentes, a great part of the same historie, which is written in the former booke, is repeted in the second, with such varietie of some thinges added, some omitted, as in the bookes of Kinges and Paralipomenon: and as the Gospel is written by the foure Euangelistes. ^{note note} Ioyning therfore these two bookes together, the Concordance therof conteyneth foure principal partes. The Preface; the Historie: an Appendix, & the Conclusion. But the three former partes are very extraordinarily disposed. ^note For the writer of the second booke (who doubtles was a distinct person from him that writte the former) first of al added an Appendix to the historie (written before) making mention of two Epistles, and reciting the summe of one of them, in the first chapter and part of the second, as though he meant to haue writte no more of the same matter. But then, as it may seme vpon new resolution, intending to abridge the historical bookes of Iason, maketh a preface to his worke, in the rest of that second chapter. And so prosecuteth his purpose: and finally maketh a briefe conclusion in the three last verses of the same second booke. The mayne historie conteyneth two special partes. ^note The first sheweth the state of Gods peculiar people, the Iewish nation, from the beginning of the Grecian Monarchie, parted after the death of Alexander amongst his folowers: of which some did exceedingly persecute the Iewes, by diuers both suttle and cruel meanes, to the ruine of manie, and euen to death and martyrdom of some most constant obseruers of Gods Lawes, and true Religion, til the warres of the Machabees, in the first chapter of the first booke, and in the 3. 4 5. 6. and 7. chapters of the second booke. In the other fiftene chapters of the former booke, and other eight of the second, are described the battles, victories, & triumphes of the valient Machabees. Of which holie warres Mathathias was the beginner and first captaine: Iudas the second: the third Ionathas: and Simon the fourth: after whose death his sonne Iohn Hyrcanus succeded Duke and Hieghpriest.

But because these bookes are intermixed the one with the other, whosoeuer please to read them in order of the historie, may folow the direction of the Alphabet letters, set in the inner margen, beginning with A. at the twentith verse of the second chapter of the second booke, to the end of the same chapter. ^note Thence procede as the signe of a starre directeth to the next letter B. which is at the beginning of the first booke, the first chapter first verse. And so in the rest. And when the capital letters are ended, the smaller wil direct you.

Previous section

Next section