Balaam’s First Oracle
1 And Balaam said to Balak, l“Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here mseven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4 and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5 And the Lord nput a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. 7 And Balaam otook up his discourse and said,
“From Aram Balak has brought me,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
and come, denounce Israel!’
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
9 For from the top of the crags I see him,
from the hills I behold him;
behold, a people dwelling palone,
and qnot counting itself among the nations!
10 Who can count the rdust of Jacob
or number the fourth part1 of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and let my end be like his!”
11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? sI took you to curse my enemies, and behold, tyou have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Balaam’s Second Oracle
13 And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a ufraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” 14 And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord over there.” 16 And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17 And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” 18 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,
“Rise, Balak, and hear;
give ear to me, O son of Zippor:
19 vGod is not man, that he should wlie,
or a son of man, that he should xchange his mind.
yHas he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
20 Behold, I received a command to bless:
he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
21 He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The Lord their God is zwith them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
22 aGod brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no bdivination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘What has God wrought!’
24 Behold, a people! cAs a lioness it rises up
and as a lion it lifts itself;
it does not lie down until it has ddevoured the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.”
25 And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” 26 But Balaam answered Balak, e“Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?” 27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert.2 29 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Balaam’s Third Oracle
1 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to fbless Israel, he did not go, gas at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel hcamping tribe by tribe. And ithe Spirit of God came upon him, 3 jand he ktook up his discourse and said,
l“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,3
4 the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,
your encampments, O Israel!
6 Like palm groves4 that stretch afar,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes that the Lord has mplanted,
like cedar trees nbeside the waters.
7 Water shall flow from his buckets,
and his seed shall be in many waters;
his king shall be higher than oAgag,
and his kingdom shall be pexalted.
8 qGod brings him out of Egypt
and is for him like the horns of the wild ox;
he shall reat up the nations, his adversaries,
and shall break their bones in pieces
and pierce them through with his sarrows.
9 He crouched, he lay down tlike a lion
and like a lioness; who will rouse him up?
uBlessed are those who bless you,
and cursed are those who curse you.”
10 And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, v“I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, wyou have blessed them these three times. 11 Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, x‘I will certainly yhonor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.” 12 And Balaam said to Balak, z“Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, 13 ‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’? 14 And now, behold, I am going to my people. aCome, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days.”
Balaam’s Final Oracle
15 And he took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
16 the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
and knows the knowledge of the Most High,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
17 bI see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a cstar shall come out of Jacob,
and a dscepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the eforehead5 of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
18 fEdom shall be dispossessed;
gSeir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed.
Israel is hdoing valiantly.
19 And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion
and destroy the survivors of cities!”
20 Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said,
“Amalek was the first among the nations,
but iits end is utter destruction.”
21 And he looked on the jKenite, and took up his discourse and said,
“Enduring is your dwelling place,
and your nest is set in the rock.
22 Nevertheless, Kain shall be burned
when Asshur takes you away captive.”
23 And he took up his discourse and said,
“Alas, who shall live when God does this?
24 But ships shall come from kKittim
and shall afflict Asshur and Eber;
and he too shall come to utter destruction.”
25 Then Balaam rose and went back to his place. And Balak also went his way.
Baal Worship at Peor
1 lWhile Israel lived in mShittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 These ninvited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and ohang6 them in the sun before the Lord, pthat the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, q“Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”
6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When rPhinehas the son of sEleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, the rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the uplague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, vthose who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
The Zeal of Phinehas
10 And the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my wcovenant of xpeace, 13 and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a yperpetual priesthood, because he was zjealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”
14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father’s house belonging to the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of aZur, who was the tribal head of a father’s house in Midian.
16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Harass the Midianites and strike them down, 18 for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.”
What Defiles a Person
14 hAnd he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 iThere is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, jbut the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”1 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, k“Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”2 (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 lFor from within, out of the mheart of man, come evil thoughts, nsexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith
24 oAnd pfrom there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.3 And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed qfirst, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and rthrow it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scrumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 And ttaking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after uspitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he vsighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And his ears were opened, his wtongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And Jesus4 xcharged them to tell no one. yBut the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished zbeyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the adeaf hear and the mute speak.”
