An Exhortation to Obedience
(Deuteronomy 11:1–7)

1Nowe therfore harken O Israel, vnto the ordinaunces and lawes which I teache you, for to do them, that so ye may lyue, and go in, & possesse the lande which the Lorde God of your fathers geueth you. 2Ye shall put nothyng vnto the word which I commaunde you, neither shall you take ought from it, that ye may kepe the comaundementes of the Lord your God which I commaunde you. 3Your eyes haue seene what ye Lorde dyd agaynst Baal Peor: for all the men that folowed Baall Peor, the Lorde thy God hath destroyed from among you. 4But ye that cleaue vnto the Lord your god, are aliue euery one of you this day.

5Beholde I haue taught you ordinaunces and lawes, such as the Lorde my God comaunded me, that ye should do euen so in the lande whither ye go to possesse it. 6Kepe them therfore and do them, for that is your wisdome and vnderstandyng in the syght of the people, that they may heare all these ordinaunces, and say: Surely it is a wise and vnderstandyng people, it is a great nation. 7For what other nation is so great that gods come so nye vnto, as the Lorde our God is nye vnto vs in all thinges as oft as we call vnto hym? 8Yea, and what nation is so great, that hath ordinaunces & lawes so righteous, as all this lawe which I set before you this day?

9Take heede to thy selfe therefore, and kepe thy soule diligently, that thou forget not the thynges which thyne eyes haue seene, and that they depart not out of thy heart all the dayes of thy life: but teache them thy sonnes, & thy sonnes sonnes. 10Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lorde thy God in Horeb, when the Lorde sayd vnto me: Gather me the people together, & I wyll make them heare my wordes, that they may learne to feare me all the dayes that they shall lyue vpon the earth, and that they may teache their children. 11Ye came and stoode also vnder the mountayne, and the mountayne burnt with fire euen vnto the middes of heauen, and there was darknesse, cloudes, and mist. 12And the Lorde spake vnto you out of the middes of the fire, and ye hearde the voyce of the wordes: but sawe no similitude, saue hearde a voyce only. 13And he declared vnto you his couenaunt which he commaunded you to do euen ten commaundementes, which he wrote vpon two tables of stone. 14And the Lorde commaunded me that same season that I shoulde teache you ordinaunces & lawes, which ye ought to do in the lande whyther ye go to possesse it.

A Warning against Idolatry
(Deuteronomy 12:29–32; Ezekiel 6:1–7)

15Take therfore good heede vnto your selues as pertaynyng vnto your soules, (for ye sawe no maner of image in the day that the Lorde spake vnto you in Horeb, out of the middes of fire) 16Lest ye marre your selues, & make you a grauen image, & picture of any maner of figure, whether it be the likenesse of man or woman. 17The likenesse of any maner of beast that is on the earth, or the likenesse of any maner fethered foule that fleeth in the ayre, 18Or the likenesse of any maner worme that creepeth on the earth, or the likenesse of any maner fishe that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19Yea, and lest thou lift vp thyne eyes vnto heauen, and when thou seest the sunne, the moone, and the starres, with all the hoast of heauen, shouldest be driuen to worship them, & serue them, and shouldest worship and serue the thynges, which the Lorde thy God hath made to serue all nations vnder the whole heauen. 20But the Lorde hath taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, euen out of Egypt, to be vnto hym a people & inheritaunce, as ye be this day.

21Furthermore, the Lorde was angry with me for your wordes, and sware that I shoulde not go ouer Iordane, and that I shoulde not go in vnto that good lande which the Lorde thy God geueth thee to inheritaunce. 22But I must dye in this lande, and shal not go ouer Iordane: But ye shall go ouer, and possesse that good lande. 23Take heede vnto your selues, that ye forget not ye appoyntment of the Lorde your God which he made with you, & that ye make you no grauen image or likenesse that the Lorde thy God hath forbidden thee. 24For the Lorde thy God, is a consumyng fire, and a ielous God.

25When thou shalt beget children, and thy children beget children, and shalt haue remayned long in the lande, ye do wickedly, & make any maner of grauen image, and worke euyll in the sight of the Lorde thy God, to prouoke hym to anger: 26I call heauen and earth to recorde agaynst you this day, that ye shall shortly perishe from of ye lande whervnto you go ouer Iordane to possesse it: Ye shall not prolong your dayes therin, but shall vtterly be destroyed: 27And the Lord shall scatter you among the people, and ye shalbe left fewe in number among the nations whyther the Lorde shall bryng you. 28And there ye shall serue gods which are the worke of mans hande, wood and stone, which neither see, nor heare, nor eate, nor smell. 29If from thence thou shalt seke the Lorde thy God, thou shalt finde hym, if thou seke hym with all thy heart, and with all thy soule. 30When thou art in tribulation, & when all these thynges that be here spoken of, are come vpon thee, euen in the latter dayes yf thou turne to the Lorde thy God, & shalt be obedient vnto his voyce: 31(For the Lorde thy God is a mercifull God) he wyll not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the appoyntment of thy fathers, which he sware vnto them.

The LORD Alone Is God

32For aske of the dayes that are past, which were before & since the day that God created man vpon the earth, and aske from the one side of heauen vnto the other, if euer there came to passe such a great thyng, or whether any such lyke thyng hath ben hearde as this. 33Dyd euer any people heare the voyce of God speakyng out of the middes of a fire, as thou hast hearde, and yet lyued? 34Or hath God assayed to go and take hym a people from among nations, by temptations, by signes, by wonders, by warre, by a mightie hand, by a stretched out arme, & by great sightes, accordyng vnto all that the Lorde your God dyd vnto you in Egypt before your eyes? 35Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest knowe that the Lord is God, and that there is none other but he. 36Out of heauen he made thee heare his voyce, that he might instruct thee: & vpon earth he shewed thee his great fire, and thou heardest his worde out of the middes of the fire. 37And because he loued thy fathers, he chose their seede after them, & brought thee out in his sight with his mightie power out of Egypt, 38To thrust out nations great and mightier then thou before thee, and to bryng thee in, and to geue thee their lande to inheritaunce, as it is come to passe this day. 39Understande therfore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lorde he is God in heauen aboue, and vpon the earth beneath, neither is there any other. 40Thou shalt kepe therefore his ordinaunces and his commaundementes which I commaunde thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy dayes vpon ye earth, which the Lorde thy God geueth thee for euer.

Cities of Refuge
(Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 19:1–14; Joshua 20:1–9)

41Then Moyses seuered three cities on the other side Iordane towarde the sunne rysyng: 42That he shoulde flee thyther which had kylled his neyghbour vnwares, & hated hym not in tyme past, and therfore shoulde flee vnto one of the same cities, and lyue: 43Namely Bezer in the wildernesse, euen in the playne countrey of the tribe of Ruben, and Ramoth in Gilead, of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Basan, of the tribe of Manasse.

Introduction to the Law

44And so this is the lawe which Moyses set before the children of Israel: 45These are the witnesse, statutes, and ordinaunces, which Moyses tolde the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, 46On the other side Iordane, in the valley ouer agaynst the house of Peor, in the lande of Sehon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Hesbon, whom Moyses & the children of Israel smote, after they were come out of Egypt, 47And possessed his lande, and the lande of Og kyng of Basan, two kynges of the Amorites, which were on the other side Iordane towarde the sunne rising, 48From Aroer which is by the bancke of the riuer Arnon, vnto mount Sion which is Hermon, 49And all the playne on the other side Iordane eastwarde, euen vnto the sea which is in the playne vnder ye springes of the hyll.