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Numbers 23

    ²And Balak did as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram.

    ³And Balaam said to Balak, Stand by 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.

    ⁴God met Balaam, who said to Him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.

    ⁵And the Lord put a speech in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak and thus shall you speak.

    ⁶Balaam returned to Balak, who was standing by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the princes of Moab.

    ⁷Balaam took up his [figurative] speech and said: Balak, the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse Jacob for me; and come, violently denounce Israel.

    ⁸How can I curse those God has not cursed? Or how can I [violently] denounce those the Lord has not denounced?

    ⁹For from the top of the rocks I see Israel, and from the hills I behold him. Behold, the people [of Israel] shall ^[a]dwell alone and shall not be reckoned and esteemed among the nations.

    ¹⁰Who can count the dust (the descendants) of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous [those who are upright and in right standing with God], and let my last end be like theirs!^(A)

    ¹¹And Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and here you have [thoroughly] blessed them instead!

    ¹²And Balaam answered, Must I not be obedient and speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?

    ¹³Balak said to him, Come with me, I implore you, to another place from which you can see them, though you will see only the nearest and not all of them; and curse them for me from there.

    ¹⁴So he took Balaam into the field of Zophim to the top of [Mount] Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

    ¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering while I go to meet the Lord yonder.

    ¹⁶And the Lord met Balaam and put a speech in his mouth, and said, Go again to Balak and speak thus.

    ¹⁷And when he returned to Balak, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has the Lord said?

    ¹⁸Balaam took up his [figurative] discourse and said: Rise up, Balak, and hear; listen [closely] to me, son of Zippor.

    ¹⁹God is not a man, that He should tell or act a lie, neither the son of man, that He should feel repentance or compunction [for what He has promised]. Has He said and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?

    ²⁰You see, I have received His command to bless Israel. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse or qualify it.

    ²¹[God] has not beheld iniquity in Jacob [for he is forgiven], neither has He seen mischief or perverseness in Israel [for the same reason]. The Lord their God is with Israel, and the shout of praise to their King is among the people.^(B)

    ²²God brought them forth out of Egypt; they have as it were the strength of a wild ox.

    ²³Surely there is no enchantment with or against Jacob, neither is there any divination with or against Israel. [In due season and even] now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God wrought!

    ²⁴Behold, a people! They rise up as a lioness and lift themselves up as a lion; he shall not lie down until he devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain.

    ²⁵And Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all.

    ²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, Did I not say to you, All the Lord speaks, that I must do?

    ²⁷And Balak said to Balaam, Come, I implore you; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.

    ²⁸So Balak brought Balaam to the top of [Mount] Peor, that overlooks [the wilderness or desert] Jeshimon.

    ²⁹And Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.

    ³⁰And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Numbers 24

    ²And Balaam lifted up his eyes and he saw Israel abiding in their tents according to their tribes. And the Spirit of God came upon him

    ³And he took up his [figurative] discourse and said: Balaam son of Beor, the man whose eye is opened [at last, to see clearly the purposes and will of God],

    ⁴He [Balaam] who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but having his eyes open and uncovered, he says:

    ⁵How attractive and considerable are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel!

    ⁶As valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the riverside, as [rare spice] of lignaloes which the Lord has planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.^(C)

    ⁷[Israel] shall pour water out of his own buckets [have his own sources of rich blessing and plenty], and his offspring shall dwell by many waters, and his king shall be higher than ^[b]Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

    ⁸God brought [Israel] forth out of Egypt; [Israel] has strength like the wild ox; he shall eat up the nations, his enemies, crushing their bones and piercing them through with his arrows.

    ⁹He couched, he lay down as a lion; and as a lioness, who shall rouse him? Blessed [of God] is he who blesses you [who prays for and contributes to your welfare] and cursed [of God] is he who curses you [who in word, thought, or deed would bring harm upon you].^(D)

    ¹⁰Then Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have done nothing but bless them these three times.

    ¹¹Therefore now go back where you belong and do it in a hurry! I had intended to promote you to great honor, but behold, the Lord has held you back from honor.

    ¹²Balaam said to Balak, Did I not say to your messengers whom you sent to me,

    ¹³If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the command of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will, but what the Lord says, that will I speak?

    ¹⁴And now, behold, I am going to my people; come, I will tell you what this people [Israel] will do to your people [Moab] in the latter days.

    ¹⁵And he took up his [figurative] discourse, and said: Balaam son of Beor speaks, the man whose eye is opened speaks,

    ¹⁶He speaks, who heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but having his eyes open and uncovered:

    ¹⁷I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A ^[c]star (Star) shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter (Scepter) shall rise out of Israel and shall crush all the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth [Moab's sons of tumult].^(E)

    ¹⁸And Edom shall be [taken as] a possession, [Mount] Seir also shall be dispossessed, who were Israel's enemies, while Israel does valiantly.

    ¹⁹Out of Jacob shall one (One) come having dominion and shall destroy the remnant from the city.

    ²⁰[Balaam] looked at Amalek and took up his [prophetic] utterance, and said: Amalek is the foremost of the [neighboring] nations, but in his latter end he shall ^[d]come to destruction.

    ²¹And he looked at the Kenites and took up his [prophetic] utterance, and said: Strong is your dwelling place, and you set your nest in the rock.

    ²²Nevertheless the Kenites shall be wasted. How long shall Asshur (Assyria) take you away captive?

    ²³And he took up his [prophetic] speech, and said: Alas, who shall live when God does this and establishes [Assyria]?

    ²⁴But ships shall come from Kittim [Cyprus and the greater part of the Mediterranean's east coast] and shall afflict Assyria and Eber [the Hebrews, certain Arabs, and descendants of Nahor], and he [the victor] also shall come to destruction.

    ²⁵And Balaam rose up, returned to his place, and Balak also went his way.

Numbers 25

    ²Who invited the [Israelites] to the sacrifices of their gods, and [they] ate and bowed down to Moab's gods.

    ³So Israel joined himself to [the god] Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

    ⁴And the Lord said to Moses, Take all the leaders or chiefs of the people, and hang them before the Lord in the sun [after killing them], that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.

    ⁵And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each one of you slay his men who joined themselves to Baal of Peor.

    ⁶And behold, one of the Israelites came and brought to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and of all the congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting [over the divine judgment and the punishment].

    ⁷And when Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand

    ⁸And went after the man of Israel into the inner room and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her body. Then the [smiting] plague was stayed from the Israelites.

    ⁹Nevertheless those who died in the [smiting] plague were 24,000.

    ¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses,

    ¹¹Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the Israelites, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My jealousy.

    ¹²Therefore say, Behold, I give to Phinehas the priest My covenant of peace.

    ¹³And he shall have it, and his descendants after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.^(F)

    ¹⁴Now the man of Israel who was slain with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, a head of a father's house among the Simeonites.

    ¹⁵And the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi daughter of Zur; he was head of a father's house in Midian.

    ¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses,

    ¹⁷Provoke hostilities with the Midianites and attack them,

    ¹⁸For they harass you with their wiles with which they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.

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¹⁴And He called the people to [Him] again and said to them, Listen to Me, all of you, and understand [what I say].

    ¹⁵There is not [even] one thing outside a man which by going into him can pollute and defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him and make him unhallowed and unclean.

    ^16[a]If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening [and let him ^[b]perceive and comprehend by hearing].

    ¹⁷And when He had left the crowd and had gone into the house, His disciples began asking Him about the parable.

    ¹⁸And He said to them, Then are you also unintelligent and dull and without understanding? Do you not discern and see that whatever goes into a man from the outside cannot make him unhallowed or unclean,

    ¹⁹Since it does not reach and enter his heart but [only his] digestive tract, and so passes on [into the place designed to receive waste]? Thus He was making and declaring all foods [ceremonially] clean [that is, ^[c]abolishing the ceremonial distinctions of the Levitical Law].

    ²⁰And He said, What comes out of a man is what makes a man unclean and renders [him] unhallowed.

    ²¹For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery,

    ²²Coveting (a greedy desire to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; ^[d]unrestrained (indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride (^[e]the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense, recklessness, thoughtlessness).

    ²³All these evil [purposes and desires] come from within, and they make the man unclean and render him unhallowed.

    ²⁴And Jesus arose and went away from there to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He went into a house and did not want anyone to know [that He was there]; but it was not possible for Him to be hidden [from public notice].

    ²⁵Instead, at once, a woman whose little daughter had (was under the control of) an unclean spirit heard about Him and came and flung herself down at His feet.

    ²⁶Now the woman was a Greek (Gentile), a Syrophoenician by nationality. And she kept begging Him to drive the demon out of her little daughter.

    ²⁷And He said to her, First let the children be fed, for it is not becoming or proper or right to take the children's bread and throw it to the [little house] dogs.

    ²⁸But she answered Him, Yes, Lord, yet even the small pups under the table eat the little children's scraps of food.

    ²⁹And He said to her, Because of this saying, you may go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter [permanently].

    ³⁰And she went home and found the child thrown on the couch, and the demon departed.

    ³¹Soon after this, Jesus, coming back from the region of Tyre, passed through Sidon on to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of Decapolis [the ten cities].

    ³²And they brought to Him a man who was deaf and had difficulty in speaking, and they begged Jesus to place His hand upon him.

    ³³And taking him aside from the crowd [privately], He thrust His fingers into the man's ears and spat and touched his tongue;

    ³⁴And looking up to heaven, He sighed as He said, Ephphatha, which means, Be opened!

    ³⁵And his ears were opened, his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak distinctly and as he should.

    ³⁶And Jesus [^[f]in His own interest] admonished and ordered them sternly and expressly to tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

    ³⁷And they were overwhelmingly astonished, saying, He has done everything excellently (commendably and nobly)! He even makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!