The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 114

6:24. And the Lord commanded that we should do all these ordinances, and should fear the Lord our G.o.d, that it might be well with us all the days of our life, as it is at this day.

6:25. And he will be merciful to us, if we keep and do all his precepts before the Lord our G.o.d, as he hath commanded us.

Deuteronomy Chapter 7

No league nor fellows.h.i.+p to be made with the Chanaanites: G.o.d promiseth his people his blessing and a.s.sistance, if they keep his comandments.

7:1. When the Lord thy G.o.d shall have brought thee into the land, which thou art going in to possess, and shall have destroyed many nations before thee, the Hethite, and the Gergezite, and the Amorrhite, and the Chanaanite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, seven nations much more numerous than thou art, and stronger than thou:

7:2. And the Lord thy G.o.d shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no league with them, nor shew mercy to them:

7:3. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for thy son:

7:4. For she will turn away thy son from following me, that he may rather serve strange G.o.ds, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled, and will quickly destroy thee.

7:5. But thus rather shall you deal with them: Destroy their altars, and break their statues, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven things.

7:6. Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy G.o.d. The Lord thy G.o.d hath chosen thee, to be his peculiar people of all peoples that are upon the earth.

7:7. Not because you surpa.s.s all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you, and hath chosen you, for you are the fewest of any people:

7:8. But because the Lord hath loved you, and hath kept his oath, which he swore to your fathers: and hath brought you out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharao the king of Egypt.

7:9. And thou shalt know that the Lord thy G.o.d, he is a strong and faithful G.o.d, keeping his covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments, unto a thousand generations:

7:10. And repaying forthwith them that hate him, so as to destroy them, without further delay immediately rendering to them what they deserve.

7:11. Keep therefore the precepts and ceremonies and judgments, which I command thee this day to do.

7:12. If after thou hast heard these judgments, thou keep and do them, the Lord thy G.o.d will also keep his covenant to thee, and the mercy which he swore to thy fathers:

7:13. And he will love thee and multiply thee, and will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy vintage, thy oil, and thy herds, and the flocks of thy sheep upon the land, for which he swore to thy fathers that he would give it thee.

7:14. Blessed shalt thou be among all people. No one shall be barren among you of either s.e.x, neither of men nor cattle.

7:15. The Lord will take away from thee all sickness: and the grievous infirmities of Egypt, which thou knowest, he will not bring upon thee, but upon thy enemies.

7:16. Thou shalt consume all the people, which the Lord thy G.o.d will deliver to thee. Thy eye shall not spare them, neither shalt thou serve their G.o.ds, lest they be thy ruin.

7:17. If thou say in thy heart: These nations are more than I, how shall I be able to destroy them?

7:18. Fear not, but remember what the Lord thy G.o.d did to Pharao and to all the Egyptians,

7:19. The exceeding great plagues, which thy eyes saw, and the signs and wonders, and the strong hand, and the stretched out arm, with which the Lord thy G.o.d brought thee out: so will he do to all the people, whom thou fearest.

7:20. Moreover the Lord thy G.o.d will send also hornets among them, until he destroy and consume all that have escaped thee, and could hide themselves.

7:21. Thou shalt not fear them, because the Lord thy G.o.d is in the midst of thee, a G.o.d mighty and terrible:

7:22. He will consume these nations in thy sight by little and little and by degrees. Thou wilt not be able to destroy them altogether: lest perhaps the beasts of the earth should increase upon thee.

7:23. But the Lord thy G.o.d shall deliver them in thy sight: and shall slay them until they be utterly destroyed.

7:24. And he shall deliver their kings into thy hands, and thou shalt destroy their names from under Heaven: no man shall be able to resist thee, until thou destroy them.

7:25. Their graven things thou shalt burn with fire: thou shalt not covet the silver and gold of which they are made, neither shalt thou take to thee any thing thereof, lest thou offend, because it is an abomination to the Lord thy G.o.d.

Graven things... Idols, so called by contempt.

7:26. Neither shalt thou bring any thing of the idol into thy house, lest thou become an anathema, like it. Thou shalt detest it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is an anathema.

Deuteronomy Chapter 8

The people is put in mind of G.o.d's dealings with them, to the end that they may love him and serve him.

8:1. All the commandments, that I command thee this day, take great care to observe: that you may live, and be multiplied, and going in may possess the land, for which the Lord swore to your fathers.

8:2. And thou shalt remember all the way through which the Lord thy G.o.d hath brought thee for forty years through the desert, to afflict thee and to prove thee, and that the things that were known in thy heart might be made known, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no.

8:3. He afflicted thee with want, and gave thee manna for thy food, which neither thou nor thy fathers knew: to shew that not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of G.o.d.

Not in bread alone, etc... That is, that G.o.d is able to make food of what he pleases for the support of man.

8:4. Thy raiment, with which thou wast covered, hath not decayed for age, and thy foot is not worn, lo this is the fortieth year,

8:5. That thou mayst consider in thy heart, that as a man traineth up his son, so the Lord thy G.o.d hath trained thee up.

8:6. That thou shouldst keep the commandments of the Lord thy G.o.d, and walk in his ways, and fear him.

8:7. For the Lord thy G.o.d will bring thee into a good land, of brooks and of waters, and of fountains: in the plains of which and the hills deep rivers break out:

8:8. A land of wheat, and barley, and vineyards, wherein fig trees and pomegranates, and oliveyards grow: a land of oil and honey.

8:9. Where without any want thou shalt eat thy bread, and enjoy abundance of all things: where the stones are iron, and out of its hills are dug mines of bra.s.s:

8:10. That when thou hast eaten, and art full, thou mayst bless the Lord thy G.o.d for the excellent land which he hath given thee.

8:11. Take heed, and beware lest at any time thou forget the Lord thy G.o.d, and neglect his commandments and judgments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day:

8:12. Lest after thou hast eaten and art filled, hast built goodly houses, and dwelt in them,

8:13. And shalt have herds of oxen and flocks of sheep, and plenty of gold and of silver, and of all things,

8:14. Thy heart be lifted up, and thou remember not the Lord thy G.o.d, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:

8:15. And was thy leader in the great and terrible wilderness, wherein there was the serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion and the dipsas, and no waters at all: who brought forth streams out of the hardest rock,

The Dipsas... A serpent whose bite causeth a violent thirst; from whence it has its name, for in Greek dipsa signifies thirst.