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Then the Lord sent abroad his flashes of lightnings, with the flames whereof much combustible matter was consumed.

XXII. 15 He sent out arrows.

He sent out his thunderbolts out of his clouds, as arrows from his bow.

XXII. 17 He drew me out of many waters.

He delivered me from many troubles and persecutions, which, as some deep and violent waters, would have drowned me.

XXII. 24 I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity.

I was sound and sincere in my intentions and carriages before him; and have, by his grace, kept myself free from giving full scope to those sins, whereto I am inclined.

XXII. 25 The LORD hath recompensed me according to my righ

teousness.

Therefore the Lord, who hath graciously wrought this sincerity in me, will crown his own work; and will deal with me according to my righteousness.

XXII. 26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, &c. O Lord, thou art such to men, as they do approve themselves to thee; with the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, &c.

XXII. 27 And with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavory. With those that are wicked and walk perversely in their evil ways, thou wilt deal severely; and by thy heavy judgments wilt let them feel the weight of thy displeasure.

XXII. 30 For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.

By thy power I have broken through the troops of my enemies, and have discomfited the Moabites, and Ammonites, and Philistines, and other my professed adversaries; and, when they have betaken themselves to their strong forts, by thy help I have scaled and won them.

XXII. 34 He maketh my feet like hinds' feet: and setteth me upon my high places.

Thou hast given me agility of body, and quickness of motion to surprise mine enemies unexpectedly, and hast by this means settled me in the possession of their strongest holds.

XXII. 46 Strangers shall fade away, and they shall be afraid out of their close places.

Those strangers, which, for fear, have dissembled their submission to me, are ready, upon every occasion, to fall off from me; but when they have thus revolted, they shall be stricken with fear of me, even in their most retired and defenced places.

XXIII. 3 The Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just.

He, that is the sure refuge and defence of Israel, hath said of me, to Samuel his prophet, that I, whom my God hath appointed to rule over Israel, should be upright and just in my government.

XXIII. 5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant.

Although I have not in every point been answerable to that, which God hath required of me, and foretold concerning me, yet, in his great mercy, he hath made an everlasting covenant with me.

XXIII. 17 Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?

Is not this water purchased with the extreme hazard of the blood and life of those men, which went to fetch it?

XXIV. 1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. See 1 Chron. xxi. 1.

After God was appeased for his former displeasure, and had taken away the famine from Israel, God was again moved to anger, by the sins of Israel; and thereupon he left David to himself; and gave power unto Satan, to suggest unto David thoughts of presumption, stirring him up to number the people of Israel and Jdah; that he might raise unto his own heart a proud confidence in his own strength.

XXIV. 16 The LORD repented him of the evil, &c.

The Lord did, as men do when they repent them of what they have done, inhibit any further proceedings of that plague. XXIV. 23 All these did Araunah, as a king give.

All these did Araunah, in a bountiful and royal manner, offer to give unto king David.

I. KINGS.

1. 11. That Adonijah doth reign.

That Adonijah hath plotted for the kingdom; and hath, in a sort, possessed himself of it.

I. 50 And Adonijah arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

And Adonijah, which had not the grace to consult with God in his challenge of the crown of Israel, now, through fear, had recourse to the altar of God; as thinking, under the protection thereof, to avoid that death, which by his usurpation he had de served.

II. 5 And shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

How, in a profession of peace, he did, after a hostile manner, shed the blood of two noble captains, Abner and Amasa; and put up his sword, all bloody, into his sheath; and walked with his feet distained with innocent blood, in a bold and careless fashion, thinking to bear out his hateful murder.

II. 9 Hold him not guiltless.

oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house.

If in a case of some great trespass against a man's life, good name, estate, there cannot be other evidences brought forth, so as the matter must necessarily be determined by the oath of the party accused; and that oath shall be solemnly required of him before thy presence, at thy holy altar.

VIII. 64 The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, &c. because the brazen altar was too little, &c.

And Solomon, by command and instinct from God, required the priests to sanctify the pavement of the outer court, which was called the Court of the Priests, to the use of the sacrifices; for that the brazen altar, how great soever it was, could not be capable of these many offerings.

VIII. 65 A great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

A great congregation of all the subjects of Solomon, from the eastern borders of his dominions, to the western that reach unto that arm of Nilus, which runs towards Palestine.

IX. 13 What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day. How mean and base are these towns, which thou hast given me, in lieu of those great things, wherewith I have furnished thee! And he called them, The displeasing land, to this day; being twenty cities in that upper Galilee, which was after called Galilee of the Gentiles.

X. 5 There was no more spirit in her.

She was so astonished at the exceeding wisdom of Solomon, that she was even transported from herself with admiration.

X. 11 Great plenty of almug trees.

Great plenty of the trees of Heben wood; which, for the solidness and shining brightness, were fit for the use and ornament of his building, and for instruments.

X. 29 And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.

And Solomon, through the favour of his father-in-law, the king of Egypt, had the benefit of all the trade of Egypt, for chariots and horses (wherewith that country had wont to furnish the neighbour regions) to pass through the hands of his merchants, to his behoof; so as, if the kings of the Hittites or of Syria would have either chariots or horses, they must obtain them by the means of Solomon's merchants, at a set rate; their chariots must cost them six hundred shekels, their horses a hundred and fifty.

XI. 1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, &c.

But Solomon, after he had holily and happily reigned five or six and twenty years, at last gave himself over to his inordinate lusts; and added to the daughter of Pharaoh bis lawful wife, a number of women that were strangers, both in nation and religion.

XI. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, &c.

For Solomon gave way and countenance to the idolatry of his wives, whom he willingly admitted to build houses and altars to Ashtoreth.

XI. 7 Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem. Then did Solomon consent to the building of a high place for Chemosh, the abominable Idol of the Moabites; and that, in the very face of the Temple, on a hill over against Jerusalem.

XI. 36 That David my servant may have a light alway before me, &c.

That David my servant may have one of his seed, eminent in honour and authority, always &c.

XII. 10 My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins, The easiest impositions, that I shall lay upon you, shall be more grievous than the heaviest that you complain of, from my father. XII. 24 For this thing is from me.

I have ordered and contrived this business, for the just punishment of thy father's defection from me.

XII. 28 Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Behold, O Israel, the remembrances and representations of that God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: in and by these, mayest thou recal and worship that deity.

XII. 31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people.

Instead of God's Temple at Jerusalem, he set up houses of pretended devotion, wherein he appointed God to be worshipped in his own idolatrous fashion; and ordained priests accordingly, men that were of other tribes, besides the sacred tribe of Levi, and men of base condition, fit for the idols he had set up.

XII. 33 He offered, &c. on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised, &c.

And he appointed, of his own head, the Feast of Tabernacles, to be kept, not in the seventh month, as God had appointed, but in the eighth, which was October; that so the place, and time, and priests, and gods, might be all of his own devising.

XIII. 1 And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Not only did Jeroboam ordain base priests out, of undue tribes, to offer unto God, but himself also would be taking presumptuously upon him the execution of this sacred function; he stood therefore by the altar to burn incense.

oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house.

If in a case of some great trespass against a man's life, good name, estate, there cannot be other evidences brought forth, so as the matter must necessarily be determined by the oath of the party accused; and that oath shall be solemnly required of him before thy presence, at thy holy altar.

VIII. 64 The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, &c. because the brazen altar was too little, &c.

And Solomon, by command and instinct from God, required the priests to sanctify the pavement of the outer court, which was called the Court of the Priests, to the use of the sacrifices; for that the brazen altar, how great soever it was, could not be capable of these many offerings.

VIII. 65 A great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

A great congregation of all the subjects of Solomon, from the eastern borders of his dominions, to the western that reach unto that arm of Nilus, which runs towards Palestine.

IX. 13 What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day. How mean and base are these towns, which thou hast given me, in lieu of those great things, wherewith I have furnished thee! And he called them, The displeasing land, to this day; being twenty cities in that upper Galilee, which was after called Galilee of the Gentiles.

X. 5 There was no more spirit in her.

She was so astonished at the exceeding wisdom of Solomon, that she was even transported from herself with admiration.

X. 11 Great plenty of almug trees.

Great plenty of the trees of Heben wood; which, for the solidness and shining brightness, were fit for the use and ornament of his building, and for instruments.

X. 29 And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.

And Solomon, through the favour of his father-in-law, the king of Egypt, had the benefit of all the trade of Egypt, for chariots and horses (wherewith that country had wont to furnish the neighbour regions) to pass through the hands of his merchants, to his behoof; so as, if the kings of the Hittites or of Syria would have either chariots or horses, they must obtain them by the means of Solomon's merchants, at a set rate; their chariots must cost them six hundred shekels, their horses a hundred and fifty.

XI. 1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, &c.

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