The Wilderness Years

Nowe therefore hearken, O Israel, vnto the ordinances and to the lawes which I teache you to doe, that ye may liue and goe in, and possesse the lande, which the Lord God of your fathers giueth you.

Ye shall put nothing vnto the word which I command you, neither shall ye take ought there from, that ye may keepe the commandements of the Lord your God which I commande you.

Your eyes haue seene what the Lord did because of Baal-Peor, for al the men that folowed Baal-Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed euery one from among you.

But ye that did cleaue vnto the Lord your God, are aliue euery one of you this day.

Behold, I haue taught you ordinances, and lawes, as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should doe euen so within the land whither ye goe to possesse it.

Keepe them therefore, and doe them; for that is your wisdome, and your vnderstanding in the sight of the people, which shall heare all these ordinances, and shall say, Onely this people is wise, and of vnderstanding, and a great nation.

For what nation is so great, vnto whome the gods come so neere vnto them, as the Lord our God is neere vnto vs, in all that we call vnto him for?

And what nation is so great, that hath ordinances and lawes so righteous, as all this Lawe, which I set before you this day?

But take heede to thy selfe, and keepe thy soule diligently, that thou forget not the thinges which thine eyes haue seene, and that they depart not out of thine heart, all the dayes of thy life: but teach them thy sonnes, and thy sonnes sonnes:

Forget not the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said vnto me, Gather me the people together, and I wil cause them heare my wordes, that they may learne to feare me all the dayes that they shall liue vpon the earth, and that they may teache their children:

Then came you neere and stoode vnder the mountaine, and the mountaine burnt with fire vnto the mids of heauen, and there was darkenesse, cloudes and mist.

And the Lord spake vnto you out of the middes of the fire, and ye heard the voyce of the wordes, but sawe no similitude, saue a voyce.

Then hee declared vnto you his couenant which he commanded you to doe, euen the ten commandements, and wrote them vpon two tables of stone.

And the Lord commanded me that same time, that I should teach you ordinances and lawes, which ye should obserue in the lande, whither ye goe, to possesse it.

Take therefore good heede vnto your selues: for ye sawe no image in the day that the Lord spake vnto you in Horeb out of the middes of the fire:

That ye corrupt not your selues, and make you a grauen image or representation of any figure: whither it be the likenes of male or female,

The likenes of any beast that is on earth, or the likenesse of any fethered foule that flieth in the aire:

Or the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the earth, or the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth,

And lest thou lift vp thine eyes vnto heauen, and when thou seest the sunne and the moone and the starres with all the host of heauen, shouldest bee driuen to worship them and serue them, which the Lord thy God hath distributed to all people vnder the whole heauen.

But the Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the yron fornace: out of Egypt to be vnto him a people and inheritance, as appeareth this day.

And the Lord was angrie with me for your words, and sware that I should not goe ouer Iorden, and that I should not goe in vnto that good land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee for an inheritance.

For I must die in this land, and shall not go ouer Iorden: but ye shall goe ouer, and possesse that good land.

Take heede vnto your selues, least ye forget the couenant of the Lord your God which hee made with you, and least ye make you any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, as the Lord thy God hath charged thee.

For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, and a ielous God.

When thou shalt beget children and childrens children, and shalt haue remained long in the land, if ye corrupt your selues, and make any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, and worke euill in the sight of the Lord thy God, to prouoke him to anger,