The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 5: Deuteronomy

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28:45. And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and
overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of
the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies
which he commanded thee.

28:46. And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed
for ever.

28:47. Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and
gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things:

28:48. Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in
hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he
shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee.

28:49. The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the
uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flyeth swiftly, whose
tongue thou canst not understand,

28:50. A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients,
nor have pity on the infant,

28:51. And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy
land: until thou be destroyed, and will leave thee no wheat, nor wine,
nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee.

28:52. And consume thee in all thy cities, and thy strong and high wall
be brought down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou shalt be
besieged within thy gates in all thy land which the Lord thy God will
give thee:

28:53. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy
sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in
the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.

28:54. The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his
own brother, and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,

28:55. So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which
he shall eat: because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want,
wherewith thy enemies shall distress thee within all thy gates.

28:56. The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground,
nor set down her foot for over much niceness and tenderness, will envy
her husband who lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her
daughter,

28:57. And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between
her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall
eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress,
wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.

28:58. If thou wilt not keep, and fulfil all the words of this law, that
are written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name:
that is, The Lord thy God:

28:59. The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed,
plagues great and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.

28:60. And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt,
which thou wast afraid of, and they shall stick fast to thee.

28:61. Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and
plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume
thee:

28:62. And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars
of heaven for multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord
thy God.

28:63. And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before doing good to you, and
multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to
nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt
go in to possess.

28:64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest
parts of the earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve
strange gods, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and
stone.

28:65. Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall
there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord will give thee
a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with
pensiveness:

28:66. And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt
fear night and day, neither shalt thou trust thy life.

28:67. In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? and at
evening: Who will grant me morning? for the fearfulness of thy heart,
wherewith thou shalt be terrified, and for those things which thou shalt
see with thy eyes.

28:68. The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way
whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt
thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man
shall buy you.

Deuteronomy Chapter 29

The covenant is solemnly confirmed between God and his people. Threats
against those that shall break it.

29:1. These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses
to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab: beside that
covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

29:2. And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all
the things that the Lord did before you in the land of Egypt to Pharao,
and to all his servants, and to his whole land.

29:3. The great temptations, which thy eyes have seen, those mighty
signs and wonders,

29:4. And the Lord hath not given you a heart to understand, and eyes to
see, and ears that may hear, unto this present day.

Hath not given you, etc... Through your own fault and because you
resisted his grace.

29:5. He hath brought you forty years through the desert: your garments
are not worn out, neither are the shoes of your feet consumed with age.

29:6. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink:
that you might know that I am the Lord your God.

29:7. And you came to this place: and Sehon king of Hesebon, and Og king
of Basan, came out against us to fight. And we slew them.

29:8. And took their land, and delivered it for a possession to Ruben
and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses.

29:9. Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and fulfil them: that
you may understand all that you do.

29:10. You all stand this day before the Lord your God, your princes,
and tribes, and ancients, and doctors, all the people of Israel,

29:11. Your children and your wives, and the stranger that abideth with
thee in the camp, besides the hewers of wood, and them that bring water:

29:12. That thou mayst pass in the covenant of the Lord thy God, and in
the oath which this day the Lord thy God maketh with thee.

29:13. That he may raise thee up a people to himself, and he may be thy
God as he hath spoken to thee, and as he swore to thy fathers Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.

29:14. Neither with you only do I make this covenant, and confirm these
oaths,

29:15. But with all that are present and that are absent.

29:16. For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we have
passed through the midst of nations, and passing through them,

29:17. You have seen their abominations and filth, that is to say, their
idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which they worshipped.

29:18. Lest perhaps there should be among you a man or a woman, a family
or a tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from the Lord our God,
to go and serve the gods of those nations: and there should be among you
a root bringing forth gall and bitterness.

29:19. And when he shall hear the words of this oath, he should bless
himself in his heart saying: I shall have peace, and will walk on in the
naughtiness of my heart: and the drunken may consume the thirsty,

The drunken, etc., absumat ebria sitientem... It is a proverbial
expression, which may either be understood, as spoken by the sinner,
blessing, that is, flattering himself in his sins with the imagination
of peace, and so great an abundance as may satisfy, and as it were,
consume all thirst and want: or it may be referred to the root of
bitterness, spoken of before, which being drunken with sin may attract,
and by that means consume, such as thirst after the like evils.

29:20. And the Lord should not forgive him: but his wrath and jealousy
against that man should be exceedingly enkindled at that time, and all
the curses that are written in this volume should light upon him: and
the Lord should blot out his name from under heaven,

29:21. And utterly destroy him out of all the tribes of Israel,
according to the curses that are contained in the book of this law and
covenant:

29:22. And the following generation shall say, and the children that
shall be born hereafter, and the strangers that shall come from afar,
seeing the plagues of that land and the evils wherewith the Lord hath
afflicted it,

29:23. Burning it with brimstone, and the heat of salt, so that it
cannot be sown any more, nor any green thing grow therein, after the
example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, Adama and Seboim,
which the Lord destroyed in his wrath and indignation:

29:24. And all the nations shall say: Why hath the Lord done thus to
this land? what meaneth this exceeding great heat of his wrath?

29:25. And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the
Lord, which he made with their fathers, when he brought them out of the
land of Egypt:

29:26. And they have served strange gods, and adored them, whom they
knew not, and for whom they had not been assigned:

29:27. Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against this land, to
bring upon it all the curses that are written in this volume:

29:28. And he hath cast them out of their land, in anger and in wrath,
and in very great indignation, and hath thrown them into a strange land,
as it is seen this day.

29:29. Secret things to the Lord our God: things that are manifest, to
us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this
law.

Secret things, etc... As much as to say, secret things belong to, and
are known to, God alone; our business must be to observe what he has
revealed and manifested to us, and to direct our lives accordingly.

Deuteronomy Chapter 30

Great mercies are promised to the penitent: God's commandment is
feasible. Life and death are set before them.

30:1. Now when all these things shall be come upon thee, the blessing or
the curse, which I have set forth before thee, and thou shalt be touched
with repentance of thy heart among all the nations, into which the Lord
thy God shall have scattered thee,

30:2. And shalt return to him, and obey his commandments, as I command
thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul:

30:3. The Lord thy God will bring back again thy captivity, and will
have mercy on thee, and gather thee again out of all the nations, into
which he scattered thee before.

30:4. If thou be driven as far as the poles of heaven, the Lord thy God
will fetch thee back from hence,

30:5. And will take thee to himself, and bring thee into the land which
thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and blessing thee, he
will make thee more numerous than were thy fathers.

30:6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy
seed: that thou mayst love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with
all thy soul, that thou mayst live.

30:7. And he will turn all these curses upon thy enemies, and upon them
that hate and persecute thee.

30:8. But thou shalt return, and hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and
shalt do all the commandments which I command thee this day:

30:9. And the Lord thy God will make thee abound in all the works of thy
hands, in the fruit of thy womb, and in the fruit of thy cattle, in the
fruitfulness of thy land, and in the plenty of all things. For the Lord
will return to rejoice over thee in all good things, as he rejoiced in
thy fathers:

30:10. Yet so if thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep his
precepts and ceremonies, which are written in this law: and return to
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

30:11. This commandment, that I command thee this day is not above thee,
nor far off from thee:

30:12. Nor is it in heaven, that thou shouldst say: Which of us can go
up to heaven to bring it unto us, and we may hear and fulfil it in work?

30:13. Nor is it beyond the sea: that thou mayst excuse thyself, and
say: Which of us can cross the sea, and bring it unto us: that we may
hear, and do that which is commanded?

30:14. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that thou mayst do it.

30:15. Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and
on the other hand death and evil:

30:16. That thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and
keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and bless thee in
the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

30:17. But if thy heart be turned away, so that thou wilt not hear, and
being deceived with error thou adore strange gods, and serve them:

30:18. I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain
but a short time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan,
and shalt go in to possess it.

30:19. I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set
before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life,
that both thou and thy seed may live:

30:20. And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice,
and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days,) that
thou mayst dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give it them.

Deuteronomy Chapter 31

Moses encourageth the people, and Josue, who is appointed to succeed
him. He delivereth the law to the priests. God foretelleth that the
people will often forsake him, and that he will punish them. He
commandeth Moses to write a canticle, as a constant remembrancer of the
law.

31:1. And Moses went, and spoke all these words to all Israel,

31:2. And he said to them: I am this day a hundred and twenty years old,
I can no longer go out and come in, especially as the Lord also hath
said to me: Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan.

31:3. The Lord thy God then will pass over before thee: he will destroy
all these nations in thy sight, and thou shalt possess them: and this
Josue shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath spoken.

31:4. And the Lord shall do to them as he did to Sehon and Og the kings
of the Amorrhites, and to their land, and shall destroy them.

31:5. Therefore when the Lord shall have delivered these also to you,
you shall do in like manner to them as I have commmanded you.

31:6. Do manfully and be of good heart: fear not, nor be ye dismayed at
their sight: for the Lord thy God he himself is thy leader, and will not
leave thee nor forsake thee.

31:7. And Moses called Josue, and said to him before all Israel: Take
courage, and be valiant: for thou shalt bring this people into the land
which the Lord swore he would give to their fathers, and thou shalt
divide it by lot.

31:8. And the Lord who is your leader, he himself will be with thee: he
will not leave thee, nor forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

31:9. And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons
of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the
ancients of Israel.

31:10. And he commanded them, saying: After seven years, in the year of
remission, in the feast of tabernacles,

31:11. When all Israel come together, to appear in the sight of the Lord
thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou shalt read the
words of this law before all Israel, in their hearing.

31:12. And the people being all assembled together, both men and women,
children and strangers, that are within thy gates: that hearing they may
learn, and fear the Lord your God, and keep, and fulfil all the words of
this law:

31:13. That their children also, who now are ignorant, may hear, and
fear the Lord their God, all the days that they live in the land whither
you are going over the Jordan to possess it.

31:14. And the Lord said to Moses: Behold the days of thy death are
nigh: call Josue, and stand ye in the tabernacle of the testimony, that
I may give him a charge. So Moses and Josue went and stood in the
tabernacle of the testimony:

31:15. And the Lord appeared there in the pillar of a cloud, which stood
in the entry of the tabernacle.

31:16. And the Lord said to Moses: Behold thou shalt sleep with thy
fathers, and this people rising up will go a fornicating after strange
gods in the land, to which it goeth in to dwell: there will they forsake
me, and will make void the covenant, which I have made with them,

31:17. And my wrath shall be kindled against them in that day: and I
will forsake them, and will hide my face from them, and they shall be
devoured: all evils and afflictions shall find them, so that they shall
say in that day: In truth it is because God is not with me, that these
evils have found me.

31:18. But I will hide, and cover my face in that day, for all the evils
which they have done, because they have followed strange gods.

31:19. Now therefore write you this canticle, and teach the children of
Israel: that they may know it by heart, and sing it by mouth, and this
song may be unto me for a testimony among the children of Israel.

31:20. For I will bring them into the land, for which I swore to their
fathers, that floweth with milk and honey. And when they have eaten, and
are full and fat, they will turn away after strange gods, and will serve
them: and will despise me, and make void my covenant.

31:21. And after many evils and afflictions shall have come upon them,
this canticle shall answer them for a testimony, which no oblivion shall
take away out of the mouth of their seed. For I know their thoughts, and
what they are about to do this day, before that I bring them into the
land which I have promised them.

31:22. Moses therefore wrote the canticle, and taught it to the children
of Israel.

31:23. And the Lord commanded Josue the son of Nun, and said: Take
courage, and be valiant: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel
into the land which I have promised, and I will be with thee.

31:24. Therefore after Moses had wrote the words of this law in a
volume, and finished it:

31:25. He commanded the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of
the Lord, saying:

31:26. Take this book, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant
of the Lord your God: that it may be there for a testimony against thee.

31:27. For I know thy obstinacy, and thy most stiff neck. While I am yet
living, and going in with you, you have always been rebellious against
the Lord: how much more when I shall be dead?

31:28. Gather unto me all the ancients of your tribes, and your doctors,
and I will speak these words in their hearing, and will call heaven and
earth to witness against them.

31:29. For I know that, after my death, you will do wickedly, and will
quickly turn aside form the way that I have commanded you: and evils
shall come upon you in the latter times, when you shall do evil in the
sight of the Lord, to provoke him by the works of your hands.

31:30. Moses therefore spoke, in the hearing of the whole assembly of
Israel, the words of this canticle, and finished it even to the end.

Deuteronomy Chapter 32

A canticle for the remembrance of the law. Moses is commanded to go up
into a mountain, from whence he shall see the promised land but not
enter into it.

32:1. Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to
the words of my mouth.

32:2. Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the
dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass.

32:3. Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence
to our God.

32:4. The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God
is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.

32:5. They have sinned against him, and are none of his children in
their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.

32:6. Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and
senseless people? Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and
made thee, and created thee?

32:7. Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy
father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee.

32:8. When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons
of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of
the children of Israel.

32:9. But the Lord's portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his
inheritance.

32:10. He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast
wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the
apple of his eye.

32:11. As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them,
he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his
shoulders.

32:12. The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with
him.

32:13. He set him upon high land: that he might eat the fruits of the
fields, that he might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the
hardest stone,

32:14. Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep with the fat of lambs,
and of the rams of the breed of Basan: and goats with the marrow of
wheat, and might drink the purest blood of the grape.

32:15. The beloved grew fat, and kicked: he grew fat, and thick and
gross, he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his saviour.

32:16. They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger,
with their abominations.

32:17. They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew
not: that were newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not.

32:18. Thou hast forsaken the God that begot thee, and hast forgotten
the Lord that created thee.

32:19. The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and
daughters provoked him.

32:20. And he said: I will hide my face from them, and will consider
what their last end shall be: for it is a perverse generation, and
unfaithful children.

32:21. They have provoked me with that which was no god, and have
angered me with their vanities: and I will provoke them with that which
is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation.

32:22. A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest
hell: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the
foundations of the mountains.

32:23. I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.

32:24. They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them
with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with
the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.

32:25. Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both
the young man and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years.

32:26. I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease
from among men.

32:27. But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps
their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not
the Lord, hath done all these things.

32:28. They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.

32:29. O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide
for their last end.

32:30. How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten
thousand? Was it not, because their God had sold them, and the Lord had
shut them up?

32:31. For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are
judges.

32:32. Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of
Gomorrha: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most
bitter.

32:33. Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which
is incurable.

32:34. Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my
treasures?

32:35. Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their
foot may slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes
haste to come.

32:36. The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his
servants: he shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who
were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed.

32:37. And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?

32:38. Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their
drink offerings: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your
distress.

32:39. See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I
will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and
there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

32:40. I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for
ever.

32:41. If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold
on judgment: I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that
hate me.

32:42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour
flesh, of the blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head
of the enemies.

32:43. Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of
his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be
merciful to the land of his people.

32:44. So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the
ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun.

32:45. And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.

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