Balaam's First Oracle

23 And Balaam said to Balak, ^(A)“Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” ² Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam ^(B)offered on each altar a bull and a ram. ³ And Balaam said to Balak, ^(C)“Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come ^(D)to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, ^4 (E)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 ^(F)put 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 ^(G)took up his discourse and said,

¹¹ And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? ^(P)I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” ¹² And he answered and said, ^(Q)“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 fraction 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, ^(R)and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, ^(S)“Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord over there.” ¹⁶ And the Lord met Balaam and ^(T)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,

²⁵ And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” ²⁶ But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ^(AE)‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?” ²⁷ And Balak said to Balaam, ^(AF)“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 ^(AG)Peor, which overlooks ^(AH)the desert.^{[b] 29} And Balaam said to Balak, ^(AI)“Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” ^30 (AJ)And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam's Third Oracle

24 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at ^(AK)other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. ² And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel ^(AL)camping tribe by tribe. And ^(AM)the Spirit of God came upon him, ³ and he ^(AN)took up his discourse and said,

¹⁰ And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he ^(BA)struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, ^(BB)“I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. ¹¹ Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, ^(BC)‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.” ¹² And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, ^13 (BD)‘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 ^(BE)of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’? ¹⁴ And now, behold, I am going to my people. Come, ^(BF)I will let you know what this people will do to your people ^(BG)in the latter days.”

Balaam's Final Oracle

^15 (BH)And he took up his discourse and said,

²⁰ Then he looked on Amalek and ^(BQ)took up his discourse and said,

²¹ And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his discourse and said,

²³ And he took up his discourse and said,

²⁵ Then Balaam rose and ^(BV)went back to his place. And Balak also went his way.

Baal Worship at Peor

25 While Israel lived in ^(BW)Shittim, ^(BX)the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. ^2 (BY)These invited 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, ^(BZ)“Take all the chiefs of the people and ^(CA)hang^[f] them in the sun before the Lord, ^(CB)that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” ⁵ And Moses said to ^(CC)the judges of Israel, ^(CD)“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 ^(CE)weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. ^7 (CF)When Phinehas ^(CG)the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he 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 plague on the people of Israel was stopped. ⁹ Nevertheless, ^(CH)those 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 ^(CI)was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in ^(CJ)my jealousy. ¹² Therefore say, ^(CK)‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, ¹³ and it shall be to him and to ^(CL)his descendants after him the covenant of ^(CM)a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous 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 ^(CN)Zur, who was the tribal head of a father's house in Midian.

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^17 (CO)“Harass the Midianites and strike them down, ¹⁸ for they have harassed you with their ^(CP)wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of ^(CQ)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.”

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

^23 (A)And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him ^(B)as he was teaching, and said, ^(C)“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” ²⁴ Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵ The baptism of John, ^(D)from where did it come? ^(E)From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ^(F)‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From man,’ ^(G)we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was ^(H)a prophet.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

The Parable of the Two Sons

^28 (I)“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in ^(J)the vineyard today.’ ²⁹ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he ^(K)changed his mind and went. ³⁰ And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. ³¹ Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, ^(L)the tax collectors and ^(M)the prostitutes go into ^(N)the kingdom of God before you. ³² For John came to you ^(O)in the way of righteousness, and ^(P)you did not believe him, but ^(Q)the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward ^(R)change your minds and believe him.

The Parable of the Tenants

^33 (S)“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted ^(T)a vineyard ^(U)and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and ^(V)leased it to tenants, and ^(W)went into another country. ³⁴ When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants^[a] to the tenants ^(X)to get his fruit. ^35 (Y)And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and ^(Z)stoned another. ^36 (AA)Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. ³⁷ Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ^(AB)‘This is the heir. Come, ^(AC)let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹ And they took him and ^(AD)threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ^40 (AE)When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ They said to him, ^(AF)“He will put those wretches to a miserable death and ^(AG)let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, ^(AH)“Have you never read in the Scriptures:

⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God ^(AJ)will be taken away from you and given to a people ^(AK)producing its fruits. ⁴⁴ And ^(AL)the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and ^(AM)when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”^[c]

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ And ^(AN)although they were seeking to arrest him, ^(AO)they feared the crowds, because they held him to be ^(AP)a prophet.