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[1]Then stoode vp Elias the prophete as a fyre, and his worde brent lyke a cresset.
[2]He brought an hunger vpon them, and in his zeale he made the fewe in number: for they might not away with the commaundementes of the Lorde.
[3]Through the worde of the Lorde he shut the heauen, & three times brought he the fire downe.
[4]O Elias, howe honorable art thou in thy wonderons deedes? who may make his hoast to be lyke thee?
[5]One that was dead thou raysedst vp from death, and in the worde of the hyest thou broughtest him out of the graue againe.
[6]Thou hast cast downe kinges and destroyed them, and the honorable from their seate.
[7]Upon the mount Sina thou heardest the iudgement, & vpon Horeb the iudgement of the vengeaunce.
[8]Which diddest annoynt kinges to recompence, and ordaynedst prophetes after thee.
[9]Thou wast taken vp in the storme of fire, in a charet of firie horses.
[10]Thou wast ordayned in the reproouinges in time, to pacifie the wrath of the Lorde before it raged, to turne the heartes of the fathers vnto the children, & to set vp the tribes of Iacob againe.
[11]Blessed were they that sawe thee, and were garnished in loue, for we lyue in lyfe: but after death we shall haue no such name.
[12]Elias was couered in the storme, but Elizeus was filled with his spirite: while he lyued he was afrayde of no prince, and no man might ouercome him.
[13]There coulde no worde deceaue him, and after his death his body prophecied.
[14]He did wonders in his lyfe, & in death were his workes maruaylous.
[15]For all this the people amended not, neither departed they from their sinnes, tyll they were caryed away prisoners out of the lande, and were scattered abrode in all countries, so that of them there remayned but a very litle people, and a prince vnto the house of Dauid.
[16]Howbeit some of them did right, and some heaped vp vngodlynes.
[17]Ezechias made his citie strong, conueyed water into it, digged through the stony rocke with iron, and made vp a wall by the water side.
[18]In his time came Sennacherib vp, and sent Rabsakes, lyft vp his hande against Sion, & defied them with great pride.
[19]Then trembled their heartes and handes, so that they sorowed lyke a woman trauayling with childe.
[20]So they called vpon the Lord which is mercifull, and lyft vp their handes before him, immediately the Lorde heard them out of heauen.
[21]He thought no more vpon their sinnes, nor gaue them ouer to their enemies: but deliuered them by the hande of Esaias.
[22]He smote the hoast of the Assyrians, and his angel destroyed them.
[23]For Ezechias had done the thing that pleased the Lorde, and remayned stedfastly in the way of Dauid his father, as Esaias the great & faithfull prophete in the sight of God had commaunded him.
[24]In his time the sunne went backward, and he lengthened the kinges lyfe.
[25]With a right spirite prophecied he what shoulde come to passe at the last: and to such as were sorowfull in Sion, he gaue consolation, wherewith they might comfort them selues for euermore.
[26]He shewed thinges that were for to come and secrete, or euer they come to passe.
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