Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066; Middle Ages -- Sources
§ 87. Listen ye likewise how the famous prophet Zephaniah debated also
in times past, concerning your revellers (for he spake of Jerusalem,
which is spiritually to be understood the church or the soul), saying,
"O the city that was beautiful and set at liberty, the confiding dove
hath not hearkened to the voice, nor yet entertained discipline, she
hath not trusted in our Lord, and to her God she hath not approached."
And he showeth the reason why, "Her princes have been like unto roaring
lions, her judges as wolves of Arabia did not leave towards the morning,
her prophets carrying the spirit of a contemptuous despising man; her
priests did profane what was holy, and dealt wickedly in the law, but
our Lord is upright in the midst of his people, and in the morning he
will not do injustice, in the morning will he give his judgment."
§ 88. But hear ye also blessed Zachariah the prophet, in the word of
God, admonishing you: "For thus saith our Almighty Lord, Judge ye
righteous judgment, and work ye every one towards his brother mercy and
pity, and hurt ye not through your power the widow, or orphan, or
stranger, or poor man, and let not any man remember in his heart the
malice of his brother; and they have been stubborn not to observe these,
and have yielded their backs to foolishness, and made heavy their ears
that they might not hearken, and framed their hearts not to be persuaded
that they might not listen to my law and words, which our Almighty Lord
hath sent in his Spirit, through the hands of his former prophets, and
mighty wrath hath been raised by our Almighty Lord." And again; "Because
they who have spoken, have spoken molestations, and diviners have
uttered false visions and deceitful dreams, and given vain consolations;
in respect hereof they are made as dry as sheep, and are afflicted
because no health was to be found; my wrath is heaped upon the
shepherds, and upon the lambs will I visit." And within a few words
after: "The voice of lamenting pastors, because their greatness is
become miserable. The voice of roaring lions, because the fall of Jordan
is become miserable: thus saith our Almighty Lord: They who possessed
have murdered, and yet hath it not repented them, and they who sold
them, have said, Our Lord is blessed and we have been enriched, and
their pastors have suffered nothing concerning them. For which I will
now bear no sparing hand over the inhabitants of the earth, saith our
Lord."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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