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¹ Heare O ye heauens, and I shal speake, and let the earth heare the wordes of my mouth.² My doctrine shal drop as doth the rayne: and my speache shall flowe as doth the deawe, as the shoure vpon the hearbes, and as the droppes vpon the grasse.³ For I wyll publishe the name of the Lord: Ascribe ye honour vnto our God.⁴ Perfect is the worke of the most mightie God, for all his wayes are iudgement: He is a God of trueth, without wickednesse, righteous and iust is he.⁵ Frowardly haue they done agaynst hym by their vices, not beyng his owne children, but a wicked and frowarde generation.⁶ Do ye so rewarde the Lord, O foolishe nation and vnwise? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he nat made thee, and ordeyned thee?

⁷ Remember the dayes of the worlde that is past, consider the yeres of so many generations: Aske thy father, and he wyll shewe thee, thy elders, and they wyll tell thee.⁸ When the most hyest deuided to the nations their inheritaunce, and when he seperated the sonnes of Adam, he put the borders of the nations accordyng to the number of the children of Israel:⁹ For the Lordes part is his people, and Iacob is the portion of his inheritauce.¹⁰ He founde hym in a desert lande, in a voyde grounde, and in a roaryng wildernesse: He led hym about, he gaue hym vnderstandyng, and kept hym as the apple of his eye.¹¹ As an Egle that stirreth vp her nest, and flittereth ouer her young, & spreadeth her wynges, taketh them, and beareth them on her wynges:¹² The Lorde alone was his guyde, and there was no straunge god with hym.¹³ He caryed hym vp to the hygh places of the earth, that he myght eate the encrease of the fieldes: And he fed hym with honye out of the rocke, and with oyle out of the most harde stone:¹⁴ With butter of kine, and mylke of the sheepe, with fat of the lambes, and fat of rammes and hee goates, with the fat of the most plenteous wheate, and that thou myghtest drynke the most pure blood of the grape.

¹⁵ But he that shoulde haue ben vpright, when he waxed fat, spurned with his heele: Thou art well fed, thou art growen thicke, thou art euen laden with fatnesse: And he forsoke God his maker, and regarded not the God of his saluation.¹⁶ They prouoked hym to anger with straunge gods, euen with abhominations prouoked they hym.¹⁷ They offered vnto deuils, and not to God: euen to gods whom they knewe not, to newe gods that came newly vp, whom their fathers feared not.¹⁸ Of God that begat thee thou art vnmyndfull, and hast forgotten God that made thee.

¹⁹ The Lorde therfore sawe it, and was angry: because of the prouokyng of his sonnes and his daughters.²⁰ And he sayde: I wyll hyde my face from them, and wil see what their ende shalbe: For they are a very frowarde generation, childre in whom is no faith.²¹ They haue angred me with that which is no god, and prouoked me with their vanities: And I also wyll prouoke them with those whiche are no people, I wyll anger them with a foolishe nation.²² For fire is kindled in my wrath, and burneth vnto the bottome of hell, and hath consumed the earth with her increase, and set a fire the botomes of the mountaynes.²³ I wyll heape mischiefes vpon them, & wyll destroy them with mine arrowes.²⁴ They shalbe burnt with hunger, and consumed with heate, and with bitter destruction: I wyll also sende the teeth of beastes vpon them, with the furiousnesse of serpentes in the dust.²⁵ Withoutforth shall the sworde robbe them of their children, and within in the chamber feare: both young men & young women, and the suckelynges, with the men of gray heades.

²⁶ I haue sayde, I wyll scatter them abrode, and make the remembraunce of them to ceasse from among men:²⁷ Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemie, lest their aduersaries should vtterly withdrawe the selues, and lest they shoulde say: our hye hande hath done all this, and not the Lorde.²⁸ For it is a nation voyde of counsayle, neither is there any vnderstandyng in them.²⁹ O that they were wyse, and vnderstoode this, that they woulde consider their latter ende.³⁰ Howe shoulde one chase a thousande, & two put ten thousand to flyght, except their maker had solde them, and except the Lorde had shut them vp?³¹ For their god is not as our God: our enemies also them selues are iudges.³² For their vine is of the vineyarde of Sodome, & of the fieldes of Gomorra: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters be bitter.³³ Their vine is the poyson of dragons, and the cruell gall of aspes.³⁴ Is not this layde in store with me, and sealed vp among my treasures?³⁵ Uengeaunce is myne, and I wyll rewarde, their feete shall slyde in due tyme: For the day of their destruction is at hande, and the thynges that shall come vpon them, make haste.³⁶ For the Lord shal iudge his people, and haue compassion on his seruautes, when he seeth that their power is gone, and that they be in a maner shut vp, or brought to naught and forsaken.³⁷ And he shall say: Where are their gods, their god in whom they trusted?³⁸ The fat of whose sacrifices they dyd eate, & dranke the wine of their drinke offerynges: let them ryse vp, and helpe you, and be your protection.

³⁹ See nowe howe that I, I am God, and there is none but I: I kyll, and wyll make alyue: I wounde, and wyll heale, neither is there any that can delyuer out of my hande.⁴⁰ For I wyll lift vp myne hande to heauen, and wyll say: I lyue euer.⁴¹ If I whet the edge of my sworde, and mine hande take holde to do iustice, I wyl recompence vengeaunce on mine enemies, and wyll rewarde them that hate me.⁴² I wyll make myne arrowes drunke with blood, and my sworde shal deuour fleshe, & that for the blood of the slayne, and for their captiuitie, sence the begynnyng of the wrath of the enemie.⁴³ Prayse ye heathen his people, for he wyll auenge the blood of his seruautes, and will auenge him of his aduersaries, and wyll be mercifull vnto his lande, and to his people.

⁴⁴ And Moyses came and spake all the wordes of this song in the eares of the people, he & Iosuah the sonne of Nun.⁴⁵ And Moyses spake all these wordes vnto the ende, to al the people of Israel,⁴⁶ And sayde vnto them: Set your heartes vnto all the wordes which I testifie vnto you this day, and ye shall commaunde them vnto your children, that they may obserue and do all the wordes of this lawe.⁴⁷ And let it not be a vayne worde vnto you: for in it is your lyfe, and through this worde ye shall prolong your dayes in the lande whyther ye go ouer Iordane to possesse it.⁴⁸ And the Lorde spake vnto Moyses the same day, saying:⁴⁹ Get thee vp into this mountayne Abarim, vnto mount Nebo, which is in the lande of Moab, ouer agaynst Iericho, and beholde the lande of Chanaan which I geue vnto the children of Israel to possesse:⁵⁰ And dye in the mount whiche thou goest vnto, and thou shalt be gathered vnto thy people, as Aaron thy brother dyed in mount Hor, and was gathered vnto his people:⁵¹ Because ye trespassed agaynst me among the children of Israel at the waters of stryfe at Cades in the wildernesse of Zin: for ye sanctified me not among the children of Israel.⁵² Thou shalt therfore see the lande before thee, and shalt not go thyther vnto the lande which I geue the children of Israel.