1   Heare Israel: Thou shalt goe ouer Iordan this day; to possesse verie greate nations and stronger then thy selfe, huge cities, and walled ^note euen vnto heauen,

2   a great people and tal, the sonnes of the Enacims, whom thou hast seene, and heard, against whom no man is able to resist.

3   Thou shalt know therfore this day that the Lord thy God him selfe wil passe ouer before thee, a deuouring and consuming fyre, who shal destroy and abolish and bring them to nothing before thy face quickly, as he hath spoken to thee.

4   Say not in thy hart, when the Lord thy God shal haue destroyed them in thy sight: For my iustice hath our Lord brought me in to possesse this land, wheras these nations were destroyed for their impieties.

5   For not because of thy iustices, and equitie of thy hart doest thou enter in to possesse their landes: but because they haue done impiously, at thy

Precepts and Iudgements. entring in they are destroyed: and that our Lord might accomplish his word, which by oath he promised to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob.

6   Know therfore that not for thy iustices hath the Lord thy God geuen thee this excellent land in possession, wheras thou art a verie stiffe necked people.

7   Remember, and forget not how thou didst prouoke the Lord thy God to wrath in the wildernesse. From the same day, that thou camest out of Ægypt vnto this place, thou hast alwayes contended against our Lord.

8   For in Horeb also thou didst prouoke him, and being wrath he would haue destroyed thee,

9   when I went vp into the mounte, to receiue the tables of stone, of the couenant which our Lord made with you: and I continewed in the mounte fourtie daies and nightes, not eating bread, nor drinking water.

10   And our Lord gaue me two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and conteyning al the wordes that he spake to you in the mounte from the middes of the fyre, when the assemblie of the people was gathered.

11   And when fourtie dayes were passed, and as manie nightes, our Lord gaue me the two tables of stone, the tables of couenant,

12   and he said to me, Arise, and goe downe from hence quickly: for thy people, which thou didst bring out of Ægypt, haue quickly forsaken the way, that thou hast shewed them, and haue made them ^note a molten idol.

13   And againe our Lord said to me: I see that this people is stiffe necked:

14   suffer me that I may destroy them, and abolish their name from vnder heauen, and may set thee ouer a Nation, that is greater and stronger then this.

15   And when I came downe from the burning mounte, and held the two tables of couenant with both handes,

16   and saw that you had sinned to the Lord your God, and had made you a molten calfe, and had quickly forsaken his way, which he had shewed you:

17   I cast the tables out of my handes, and brake them in your sight.

18   And I fel downe before our Lord as before, fourtie dayes and nightes not eating bread, nor drinking water, for al your sinnes, which you committed against our Lord, and prouoked him to wrath:

19   for I feared his indignation and anger, wherwith being moued agaynst you, he would haue destroyed you. And our Lord heard me this time also.

20   Against Aaron also being exceeding angrie, he would haue destroyed him, and for him, in like maner did I

Precepts and Iudgements. pray.

21   And your sinne that you had committed, that is, the calfe, I tooke, and burnt it with fyre, and breaking it into peeces, and bringing it wholy into dust, I threw it into the torrent, that descendeth from the mount.

22   In the burning also and in the tentation, and in the Sepulchres of concupiscence you prouoked our Lord:

23   and when he sent you from Cadesbarne, saying. Goe vp, and possesse the Land, that I haue geuen you, and you contemned the commandement of your Lord God, and did not beleue him, neither would you heare his voice:

24   but were alwaies rebellious from the day that I beganne to know you.

25   And I lay before our Lord fourtie dayes and nightes, in the which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you as he had threatened:

26   and praying I said: Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thyne inheritance, which thou hast redemed in thy greatnes, whom thou didst bring out of Ægypt in a strong hand.

27   Remember thy seruantes Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob: regard not the stubbournes of this people, and his impietie and sinne:

28   lest perhappes the inhabitantes of the land, out of which thou hast brought vs, say; The Lord could not bring them in vnto the Land, that he promised them, and he hated them: therfore did he bring them forth, that he might kil them in the wildernes.

29   Which are thy people and thyne inheritance, whom thou didst bring forth in thy great strength, and in thy stretched out arme.

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