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Numbers 29

The Sacrifices at the Festival of Trumpets

(Leviticus 23.23-25)

The Sacrifices on the Great Day of Forgiveness

(Leviticus 23.26-32)

The Sacrifices during the Festival of Shelters

(Leviticus 23.33-44)

    ³⁵On the eighth day, you must once again rest from your work and come together for worship. ³⁶Bring to the altar one bull, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me. ³⁷You must also offer the proper grain sacrifices and drink offerings of wine with each animal. ³⁸And offer a goat ^[o] as the sacrifice to ask forgiveness for the people. These sacrifices are made in addition to the regular daily sacrifices. ^{[p] 39}You must offer all these sacrifices to me at the appointed times of worship, together with any offerings that are voluntarily given or given because of a promise.

    ⁴⁰Moses told the people of Israel everything the LORD had told him about the sacrifices.

Numbers 30

Making Promises to the LORD

    ²When one of you men makes a promise to the LORD, ^[q] you must keep your word. ³Suppose a young woman who is still living with her parents makes a promise to the LORD. ⁴If her father hears about it and says nothing, she must keep her promise. ⁵But if he hears about it and objects, then she no longer has to keep her promise. The LORD will forgive her, because her father did not agree with the promise.

    ^6-7Suppose a woman makes a promise to the LORD and then gets married. If her husband later hears about the promise but says nothing, she must do what she said, whether she meant it or not. ⁸But if her husband hears about the promise and objects, she no longer has to keep it, and the LORD will forgive her.

    ⁹Widows and divorced women must keep every promise they make to the LORD.

    ¹⁰Suppose a married woman makes a promise to the LORD. ¹¹If her husband hears about the promise and says nothing, she must do what she said. ¹²But if he hears about the promise and does object, she no longer has to keep it. The LORD will forgive her, because her husband would not allow her to keep the promise. ¹³Her husband has the final say about any promises she makes to the LORD. ¹⁴If her husband hears about a promise and says nothing about it for a whole day, she must do what she said--since he did not object, the promise must be kept. ¹⁵But if he waits until the next day to stop her from keeping her promise, he is the one who must be punished.

    ¹⁶These are the laws that the LORD gave Moses about husbands and wives, and about young daughters who still live at home.

Numbers 31

Israel's War against Midian

    ⁵Twelve thousand men were picked from the tribes of Israel, and after they were prepared for battle, ⁶Moses sent them off to war. Phinehas the son of Eleazar went with them and took along some things from the sacred tent ^[s] and the trumpets for sounding the battle signal. ⁷The Israelites fought against the Midianites, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. They killed all the men, ⁸including Balaam son of Beor and the five Midianite kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. ⁹The Israelites captured every woman and child, then led away the Midianites' cattle and sheep, and took everything else that belonged to them. ¹⁰They also burned down the Midianite towns and villages.

    ¹¹Israel's soldiers gathered together everything they had taken from the Midianites, including the captives and the animals. ^12-13Then they returned to their own camp in the hills of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho, where Moses, Eleazar, and the other Israelite leaders met the troops outside camp.

    ¹⁴Moses became angry with the army commanders ¹⁵and said, " I can't believe you let the women live! ¹⁶They are the ones who followed Balaam's advice and invited our people to worship the god Baal Peor. That's why the LORD punished us by killing so many of our people. ¹⁷You must put to death every boy and all the women who have ever had sex. ¹⁸But do not kill the young women who have never had sex. You may keep them for yourselves."

    ¹⁹Then Moses said to the soldiers, " If you killed anyone or touched a dead body, you are unclean and have to stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third and seventh days, you must go through a ceremony to make yourselves and your captives clean. ²⁰Then wash your clothes and anything made from animal skin, goat's hair, or wood."

    ^21-23Eleazar then explained, " If you need to purify something that won't burn, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead, you must first place it in a hot fire. After you take it out, sprinkle it with the water that purifies. Everything else should only be sprinkled with the water. Do all of this, just as the LORD commanded Moses. ²⁴Wash your clothes on the seventh day, and after that, you will be clean and may return to the camp."

Everything Taken from the Midianites Is Divided

    ^26-27Make a list of everything taken from the Midianites, including the captives and the animals. Then divide them between the soldiers and the rest of the people. Eleazar the priest and the family leaders will help you.

    ^28-29From the half that belongs to the soldiers, set aside for the LORD one out of every five hundred people or animals and give these to Eleazar.

    ³⁰From the half that belongs to the people, set aside one out of every fifty and give these to the Levites in charge of the sacred tent.

    ³¹Moses and Eleazar followed the LORD's instructions ^32-35and listed everything that had been taken from the Midianites. The list included 675,000 sheep and goats, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 young women who had never had sex.

    ^36-47Each half included 337,500 sheep and goats, 36,000 cattle, 30,500 donkeys, and 16,000 young women. From the half that belonged to the soldiers, Moses counted out 675 sheep and goats, 72 cattle, 61 donkeys, and 32 women and gave them to Eleazar to be dedicated to the LORD. Then from the half that belonged to the people, Moses set aside one out of every fifty animals and women, as the LORD had said, and gave them to the Levites.

    ⁴⁸The army commanders went to Moses ⁴⁹and said, " Sir, we have counted our troops, and not one soldier is missing. ⁵⁰So we want to give the LORD all the gold jewelry we took from the Midianites. It's our gift to him for watching over us and our troops."

    ⁵¹Moses and Eleazar accepted the jewelry from the commanders, ⁵²and its total weight was over four hundred pounds. ⁵³This did not include the things that the soldiers had kept for themselves. ⁵⁴So Moses and Eleazar placed the gold in the LORD's sacred tent to remind Israel of what had happened. ^[t]

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Mark 9

The True Glory of Jesus

(Matthew 17.1-13; Luke 9.28-36)

    ⁵Peter said to Jesus, "Teacher, it is good for us to be here! Let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." ⁶But Peter and the others were terribly frightened, and he did not know what he was talking about.

    ⁷The shadow of a cloud passed over and covered them. From the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, and I love him. Listen to what he says!" ⁸At once the disciples looked around, but they saw only Jesus.

    ⁹As Jesus and his disciples were coming down the mountain, he told them not to say a word about what they had seen, until the Son of Man had been raised from death. ¹⁰So they kept it to themselves. But they wondered what he meant by the words "raised from death."

    ¹¹The disciples asked Jesus, "Don't the teachers of the Law of Moses say that Elijah must come before the Messiah does?"

    ¹²Jesus answered:

   Elijah certainly will come ^[a] to get everything ready. But don't the Scriptures also say that the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected? ¹³I can assure you that Elijah has already come. And people treated him just as they wanted to, as the Scriptures say they would.

Jesus Heals a Boy

(Matthew 17.14-20; Luke 9.37-43a)

    ¹⁵The crowd was really surprised to see Jesus, and everyone hurried over to greet him.

    ¹⁶Jesus asked, "What are you arguing about?"

    ¹⁷Someone from the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought my son to you. A demon keeps him from talking. ¹⁸Whenever the demon attacks my son, it throws him to the ground and makes him foam at the mouth and grit his teeth in pain. Then he becomes stiff. I asked your disciples to force out the demon, but they couldn't do it."

    ¹⁹Jesus said, "You people don't have any faith! How much longer must I be with you? Why do I have to put up with you? Bring the boy to me."

    ²⁰They brought the boy, and as soon as the demon saw Jesus, it made the boy shake all over. He fell down and began rolling on the ground and foaming at the mouth.

    ²¹Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"

   The man answered, "Ever since he was a child. ²²The demon has often tried to kill him by throwing him into a fire or into water. Please have pity and help us if you can!"

    ²³Jesus replied, "Why do you say `if you can'? Anything is possible for someone who has faith!"

    ²⁴Right away the boy's father shouted, "I do have faith! Please help me to have even more."

    ²⁵When Jesus saw that a crowd was gathering fast, he spoke sternly to the evil spirit that had kept the boy from speaking or hearing. He said, "I order you to come out of the boy! Don't ever bother him again."

    ²⁶The spirit screamed and made the boy shake all over. Then it went out of him. The boy looked dead, and almost everyone said he was. ²⁷But Jesus took hold of his hand and helped him stand up.

    ²⁸After Jesus and the disciples had gone back home and were alone, they asked him, "Why couldn't we force out that demon?"

    ²⁹Jesus answered, "Only prayer can force out that kind of demon."