14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.

16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

18 Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.

19 The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Chapter 5

1 God's judgments against the priests, the people, and the princes of Israel, for their manifold sins, 15 until they repent.

YEAR ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and

give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.

4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.

5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them. 6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from

them.

7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin.

9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

the tribes

10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.

Revised Version, "Her rulers dearly love shame."

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HOSEA VI—REPENTANCE COMMANDED

12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

15 ¶ I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

Chapter 6

1 An exhortation to repentance. 4 A complaint of their untowardness and iniquity.

OME, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will

raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

4 ¶O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets: I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

8 Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

10 I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

11 Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

Chapter 7

1 A reproof of manifold sins. 11 God's wrath against them for their hypocrisy

HEN I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of

robbers spoileth without.

Malachi Pleads With the Heedless.

FROM A RARE FRENCH PRINT OF THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.
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"I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein

hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob."-Malachi, 1, 2.

ALACHI the last of the prophets in the arrange

M

ment of the Old Testament, and also, with the possible exception of Joel, the last in time, is a figure only dimly visible. He is himself a shadowy spiritual messenger such as his book promises shall be sent from God. His very name is in dispute, for "Malachi" is perhaps but a general word meaning "messenger." The writer of the book was a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, preaching somewhere about the year 450 B. C. He is more modern in tone than the other prophets, and more logical. He introduces dialectic methods, arguing with his people by means of question and response. Most of his brief book is devoted to matters of ritual observance, the priestly laws of the priestly government which ruled the Jerusalem of his day.

Yet despite these characteristics Malachi is not less spiritual than his predecessors, not less prophetic of vision, nor less high of faith. He lived in an age of discouragement. The returned exiles had lost confidence in God; for they found that the ills of life continued to encompass them, the millenium which they had expected was still delayed. Malachi argues with them by contrasting their condition with that of Edom or Esau, endeavoring to convince them that God has dealt very kindly toward them, despite their many faults.