And this is the case in all Popish countries, subject to the see of Rome, where the word of God is not preached to the people, nor suffered so much as to be read by them and even in reformed churches, for the most part, only a little morality is preached, and not the Gospel of Christ so that here the people are perishing for lack of knowledge, ( Hosea 4:6 ) and when the witnesses will be slain, who now prophesy in sackcloth, there will he an entire stop put to prophesying or preaching for a while but, when they shall rise, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God, through the ministry of the word. So it was in the Gentile world, before the Gospel was brought into it, ( Acts 17:30 ) and so it now is in those places where the seven churches of Asia were and in all Asia, which once heard the word of the Lord, even all that large country and now it is not heard at all in it, but covered with Mahometan darkness. This was the case in the latter end of Eli's life, ( 1 Samuel 3:1 ) in Asa's times, and before, ( 2 Chronicles 15:3 ) in the Babylonish captivity, ( Ezekiel 7:26 ) ( Lamentations 2:9 ) in the times of Antiochus, ( Psalms 74:9 ) when John the Baptist and Christ first came preaching the word, ( Matthew 9:36 ) and now is the case of the Jews, and will be till the time of their conversion.

That is, 'no prophecy', as the Vulgate Latin version renders it and which is often the sense of the word, as the vision of Isaiah is the prophecy of Isaiah and, in the New Testament, prophesying is often put for preaching and here vision, or prophecy, signifies the public ministering of the word and ordinances, and want of persons to administer them no expounder, as the Septuagint version or interpreter, as the Arabic.

Without a vision the people perish