The Covenant in Moab

1These are the wordes of the couenaunt which the Lorde commaunded Moyses to make with the children of Israel in the lande of Moab, besyde the appoyntment which he made with them in Horeb.

2And Moyses called all Israel, & sayde vnto them: Ye haue seene all that the Lorde did before your eyes in the lande of Egypt, vnto Pharao and vnto all his seruauntes, and vnto all his lande, 3The great temptations which thine eyes haue seene, those great miracles and wonders: 4And yet the Lorde hath not geuen you an heart to perceaue, and eyes to see, and eares to heare, vnto this day. 5And I haue led you fourtie yeres in the wildernesse: and your clothes are not waxed olde vpon you, and thy shoe is not waxed olde vpon thy foote. 6Ye haue eaten no bread, nor drunke wine or strong drynke: that ye myght knowe howe that I am the Lorde your God. 7And ye came vnto this place, and Sehon the kyng of Hesbon, and Og the kyng of Basan came out agaynst vs vnto battayle, and we smote them, 8And toke their lande, and gaue it for an inheritaunce vnto the Rubenites and Gadites, and to the halfe tribe of Manasse. 9Kepe therfore the wordes of this couenaunt, and do them, that ye may vnderstande all that ye ought to do.

10Ye stande this day euery one of you before the Lorde your God: your captaynes, your tribes, your elders, your officers, and all the men of Israel: 11Your childre also, your wiues, and the straunger that is in thine hoast, from the hewer of thy wood, vnto the drawer of thy water: 12That thou shouldest go into the couenaunt of the Lorde thy God, and into his othe which the Lorde thy God maketh with thee this day: 13For to make thee a people vnto hym selfe, and that he may be vnto thee a God, as he hath sayde vnto thee, and as he hath sworne vnto thy fathers, Abraham, Isahac, and Iacob.

14I make not this bonde and this othe with you only: 15But both with hym that standeth here with vs this day before the Lorde our God, and also with hym that is not here with vs this day. 16For ye knowe howe we haue dwelt in the lande of Egypt, and howe we came through the myddes of the nations which ye passed by: 17And ye haue seene their abhominations, and their idols, wood and stone, siluer and golde, which were among them. 18Lest there be among you man or woman, kinrede or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lorde our God, to go and serue the gods of these nations: and lest there be among you some roote that beareth gall and wormewood. 19So that when he heareth the wordes of this othe, he blesse hym selfe in his heart, saying: I shall haue peace, I wyll walke in the meanyng of myne owne heart: to put the drunken to the thirstie. 20And so the Lorde wyll not consent to be mercifull vnto hym, but then the wrath of the Lorde and his gelousie shall smoke agaynst that man: and all the curses that are written in this booke shall lyght vpon hym, and the Lorde shal do out his name from vnder heaue. 21And the Lorde shall seperate hym vnto euyll, out of all the tribes of Israel, accordyng vnto all the curses of the couenaunt that are written in the booke of this lawe.

22So that the generatio to come of your children that shall ryse vp after you, and the straunger that shall come from a farre lande, shall say, when they see the plagues of that lande, and the diseases wherwith the Lorde hath smitten it: 23Howe all the lande is burnt vp with brimstone and salt, and that it is neither sowen, nor beareth, nor any grasse groweth therin, lyke as in the place of ye ouerthrowyng of Sodome, Gomor, Adama, and Zeboim, which the Lorde ouerthrewe in his wrath and anger. 24Euen then shal all nations say: Wherfore hath the Lord done on this fashion vnto this lande? O howe fierse is this great wrath? 25And men shall say: Because they haue forsaken the couenaunt of the Lorde God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the lande of Egypt. 26For they went and serued straunge gods, and worshipped them, gods which they knewe not, and which had geuen them nothyng. 27And the wrath of the Lorde waxed hot agaynst this lande, to bryng vpon it all the curses that are written in this booke. 28And the Lorde cast them out of their lande in anger, wrath, and great indignation, and cast them into a straunge lande, as this day beareth witnesse.

29The secretes of the Lorde our God are opened vnto vs, and to our children for euer, that we may do all the wordes of this lawe.