1   VVhen the Lord thy God shal haue brought thee into the land, which thou doest enter in to possesse, and shal haue destroyed manie Nations before thee, the Hetheite, and the Gergezeite, and the Amorrheite, and the Chananeite, and the Pherezeite, and the Heueite, and the Iebuseite, seuen nations of much greater number then thou art, and stronger then thou:

2   and the Lord thy God shal haue deliuered them to thee, thou shalt strike them vnto vtter destruction. Thou shalt not make league with them, nor pitie them,

3   nor make mariages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not geue to his sonne, nor take his daughter for thy sonne:

4   for he wil seduce thy sonne, that he folow not me, and that he rather serue strange goddes, and the furie of our Lord wil be wrath, and shal quickly destroy thee.

5   But these thinges rather you shal doe to them: Ouerthrow their altares, and breake their statuees, and cutte downe their groues, and burne their sculptiles.

6   Because thou art a holie people to the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be his peculiar people of al peoples, that are vpon the earth.

7   Not because you passed al nations in number, is our Lord ioyned vnto you, and hath chosen you, wheras you are fewer then al peoples:

8   but because our Lord hath loued you, and hath kept the oath, which he sware to your fathers: and hath brought you forth in a strong hand, and redemed you from the house of seruitude, out of the hand of Pharao the king of Ægypt.

9   And thou shalt know that the Lord thy God, he is a strong and faithful God, keping his couenant and mercie to them that loue him, and to them that keepe his preceptes, vnto a thousand generations:

10   and rendring forthwith to them that hate him, so that he destroyeth them, and differreth no longer, ^note immediatly rendering to them that they deserue.

11   Keepe therfore the preceptes and ceremonies and iudgementes, which I command

Preceptes and Iudgementes. thee this day to doe them.

12    ^noteIf after thou hast heard these iudgementes, thou keepe and doe them, the Lord also thy God wil keepe the couenant vnto thee, and the mercie which he sware to thy fathers:

13   and he wil loue and multiplie thee, and wil blesse the fruite of thy wombe, and the fruite of thy land, thy corne, and vintage, oile, and heardes, the flockes of thy sheepe vpon the Land, for the which he sware to thy fathers that he would geue it thee.

14   Blessed shalt thou be among al peoples. There shal be none barren with thee of neither sexe, as wel in men as in thy flockes.

15   Our Lord wil take away from thee al disease: and the sore infirmities of Ægypt, which thou knowest, he wil not bring vpon thee, but vpon al thyne enemies.

16   Thou shalt deuoure al the peoples, which the Lord thy God wil gene thee. Thyn eye shal not spare them, neither shalt thou serue their goddes, lest they be the ruine of thee.

17   If thou say in thy hart: These nations are moe then I, how shal I be able to destroy them?

18   Feare not, but remember what the Lord thy God did to Pharao and to al the Ægyptians,

19   the exceding great plagues, which thyne eies saw, and the signes and wonders, and the strong hand, and the stretched out arme, that the Lord thy God might bring thee forth: so wil he doe to al peoples, whom thou fearest.

20   Moreouer hornettes also wil the Lord thy God send vpon them, vntil he destroy and consume al that escaped thee, and can hide themselues.

21   Thou shalt not feare them, because the Lord thy God is in the middes of thee, a mightie God and terrible:

22   he wil consume these nations in thy sight by litle and litle and by partes. Thou mayest not destroy them al together: lest perhappes the beastes of the earth multiplie against thee.

23   And the Lord thy God wil geue them in thy sight: and wil kil them vntil they be vtterly destroyed.

24   And he wil deliuer their kinges into thy handes, and thou shalt destroy their names vnder heauen: no man shal be able to resist thee, vntil thou destroy them.

25   Their sculptiles thou shalt burne with fyre: thou shalt not couet the siluer and gold, wherof they were made, neither shalt thou take to thee any thing therof, lest thou offend, because it is the abomination of the Lord thy God.

26   Neither shalt thou bring in ought of the Idol into thy house, lest thou become anathema, as also that is. As filthines thou shalt detest it, and as vncleannes and filth thou shalt account it abominable, because it is anathema.

Precepts and Iudgementes.

Previous section

Next section