His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
His mouth, out of which proceed innumerable blessings and comfortable promises, is to my soul even sweetness itself; yea, what speak I of any one part? as you have heard in these particulars, he is all sweets: there is nothing but comfort in him, and there is no comfort but in him: and this, if ye would know, is my well-beloved; of so incomparable glory and worthiness, that ye may easily discern him from all others. FOREIGN CONGREGATIONS.
Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
But though the Lord will take this just vengeance on his rebellious enemies, yet will he be ever gracious to his own flock; and shall cause the lambs thereof to feed comfortably, in their wonted pastures; and those places, which the insolent enemies had wasted, shall be again possessed by his people, whom their long captivity hath made strangers to their own land.
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
Woe be to them, that are so set upon wickedness, as that they use all possible persuasions and provocations to draw themselves to a lawless commission of sin, and continuance in it;
That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
That make light of the threatened judgments, and, in a scornful distrust, dare say, Why doth not God hasten these menaced plagues? fain would we see the performance of these terrible threats: let not God say, but do: let that, which God professeth to have determined against us, be speedily effected.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.
Woe be unto them, that colour wickedness with fair pretences, and cry down goodness with slanderous calumniations, &c.
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink.
Woe be to them, that improve their strength to excess, glorying that they are able to pour in and to bear much wine; and affect to be thought and approved strong and mighty drinkers.
So their root shall be rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust.
So they shall be utterly destroyed; and shall be as a tree, whose root is rotten, and whose blossom flies away like dust, &c.
And the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
The neighbour hills did tremble with the noise and fury of that siege; and their carcasses lay torn and mangled in the midst of the streets; yet all this cannot be warning enough to this stubborn people, to turn from their sins, &c.