The Wilderness Years

To cast out all thine enemies before thee, as the Lord hath sayd.

When thy sonne shall aske thee in time to come, saying, What meane these testimonies, and ordinances, and Lawes, which the Lord our God hath commanded you?

Then shalt thou say vnto thy sonne, We were Pharaohs bondmen in Egypt: but the Lord brought vs out of Egypt with a mightie hand.

And the Lord shewed signes and wonders great and euill vpon Egypt, vpon Pharaoh, and vpon all his housholde, before our eyes,

And brought vs out from thence, to bring vs in, and to giue vs the land which he sware vnto our fathers.

Therefore the Lord hath commanded vs, to doe all these ordinances, and to feare the Lord our God, that it may goe euer well with vs, and that he may preserue vs aliue as at this present.

Moreouer, this shall be our righteousnes before the Lord our God, if we take heede to keepe all these commandements, as he hath commanded vs.

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possesse it, and shall roote out many nations before thee: the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hiuites, and the Iebusites, seuen nations greater and mightier then thou,

And the Lord thy God shall giue them before thee, then thou shalt smite them: thou shalt vtterly destroy them: thou shalt make no couenant with them, nor haue compassion on them,

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them, neither giue thy daughter vnto his sonne, nor take his daughter vnto thy sonne.

For they wil cause thy sonne to turne away from me, and to serue other gods: then will the wrath of the Lord waxe hote against you and destroy thee suddenly.

But thus ye shall deale with them, Ye shall ouerthrowe their altars, and breake downe their pillars, and ye shall cut downe their groues, and burne their grauen images with fire.

For thou art an holy people vnto the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be a precious people vnto himselfe, aboue all people that are vpon the earth.

The Lord did not set his loue vpon you, nor chose you, because ye were more in number then any people: for ye were the fewest of all people:

But because the Lord loued you, and because hee would keepe the othe which hee had sworne vnto your fathers, the Lord hath brought you out by a mightie hand, and deliuered you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt,

That thou mayest knowe, that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithfull God which keepeth couenant and mercie vnto them that loue him and keepe his commandements, euen to a thousand generations,

And rewardeth them to their face that hate him, to bring them to destruction: he wil not deferre to reward him that hateth him, to his face.

Keepe thou therefore the commandements, and the ordinances, and the lawes, which I commaund thee this day to doe them.

For if ye hearken vnto these lawes, and obserue and doe them, then the Lord thy God shall keepe with thee the couenant, and the mercie which he sware vnto thy fathers.

And he wil loue thee, and blesse thee, and multiplie thee: he will also blesse the fruite of thy wombe, and the fruite of thy land, thy corne and thy wine, and thine oyle and the increase of thy kine, and the flockes of thy sheepe in the land, which he sware vnto thy fathers to giue thee.

Thou shalt be blessed aboue all people: there shall be neither male nor female barren among you, nor among your cattell.

Moreouer, the Lord will take away from thee all infirmities, and will put none of the euill diseases of Egypt (which thou knowest) vpon thee, but wil send them vpon all that hate thee.

Thou shalt therefore consume all people which the Lord thy God shall giue thee: thine eye shall not spare them, neither shalt thou serue their gods, for that shalbe thy destruction.

If thou say in thine heart, These nations are moe then I, how can I cast them out?

Thou shalt not feare them, but remember what the Lord thy God did vnto Pharaoh, and vnto all Egypt: