Regulations about Vows

30 Moses told the leaders of the Israelite tribes, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ² When a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to put himself under an obligation, he must not break his word; he must do whatever he has promised.^(A)

³ “When a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the Lord or puts herself under an obligation, ⁴ and her father hears about her vow or the obligation she put herself under, and he says nothing to her, all her vows and every obligation she put herself under are binding. ⁵ But if her father prohibits her on the day he hears about it, none of her vows and none of the obligations she put herself under are binding. The Lord will absolve her because her father has prohibited her.

⁶ “If a woman marries while her vows or the rash commitment she herself made are binding, ⁷ and her husband hears about it and says nothing to her when he finds out, her vows are binding, and the obligations she put herself under are binding. ⁸ But if her husband prohibits her when he hears about it, he will cancel her vow that is binding or the rash commitment she herself made, and the Lord will forgive her.

⁹ “Every vow a widow or divorced woman puts herself under is binding on her.

¹⁰ “If a woman in her husband’s house has made a vow or put herself under an obligation with an oath, ¹¹ and her husband hears about it, says nothing to her, and does not prohibit her, all her vows are binding, and every obligation she put herself under is binding. ¹² But if her husband cancels them on the day he hears about it, nothing that came from her lips, whether her vows or her obligation, is binding. Her husband has canceled them, and the Lord will absolve her. ¹³ Her husband may confirm or cancel any vow or any sworn obligation to deny herself. ¹⁴ If her husband says nothing at all to her from day to day, he confirms all her vows and obligations, which are binding. He has confirmed them because he said nothing to her when he heard about them. ¹⁵ But if he cancels them after he hears about them, he will be responsible for her^[a] commitment.”^[b]

¹⁶ These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the relationship between a man and his wife, or between a father and his daughter in his house during her youth.

War with Midian

31 The Lord spoke to Moses, ² “Execute vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

³ So Moses spoke to the people, “Equip some of your men for war. They will go against Midian to inflict the Lord’s vengeance^(B) on them. ⁴ Send 1,000 men to war from each Israelite tribe.” ⁵ So 1,000 were recruited from each Israelite tribe out of the thousands^[c] in Israel—12,000 equipped for war. ⁶ Moses sent 1,000 from each tribe to war. They went with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, in whose care were the holy objects and signal trumpets.

⁷ They waged war against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male. ⁸ Along with the others slain by them, they killed the Midianite kings—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian.^(C) They also killed Balaam son of Beor^(D) with the sword. ⁹ The Israelites took the Midianite women and their children captive, and they plundered all their cattle, flocks, and property.^{(E) 10} Then they burned all the cities where the Midianites lived, as well as all their encampments, ¹¹ and took away all the spoils of war and the captives, both man and beast. ¹² They brought the prisoners, animals, and spoils of war to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the Israelite community at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

¹³ Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ But Moses became furious with the officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, who were returning from the military campaign. ¹⁵ “Have^[d] you let every female live?” he asked them. ¹⁶ “Yet they are the ones who, at Balaam’s advice, incited the Israelites to unfaithfulness against the Lord in the Peor incident, so that the plague came against the Lord’s community.^{(F) 17} So now, kill all the male children and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man, ¹⁸ but keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not had sexual relations.

¹⁹ “You are to remain outside the camp for seven days. All of you and your prisoners who have killed a person or touched the dead are to purify yourselves on the third day and the seventh day. ²⁰ Also purify everything: garments, leather goods, things made of goat hair, and every article of wood.”^(G)

²¹ Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone to battle, “This is the legal statute the Lord commanded Moses: ²² Only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead— ²³ everything that can withstand fire—you are to pass through fire, and it will be clean. It must still be purified with the purification water.^(H) Anything that cannot withstand fire, pass through the water. ²⁴ On the seventh day wash your clothes, and you will be clean. After that you may enter the camp.”

²⁵ The Lord told Moses, ²⁶ “You, Eleazar the priest, and the family leaders of the community are to take a count of what was captured, man and beast. ²⁷ Then divide the captives between the troops who went out to war and the entire community. ²⁸ Set aside a tribute for the Lord from what belongs to the fighting men who went out to war: one out of every 500 humans, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats. ²⁹ Take the tribute from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to the Lord. ³⁰ From the Israelites’ half, take one out of every 50 from the people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats, all the livestock, and give them to the Levites who perform the duties of^[e] the Lord’s tabernacle.”

³¹ So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. ³² The captives remaining from the plunder the army had taken totaled:

³⁶ The half portion for those who went out to war numbered:

⁴¹ Moses gave the tribute to Eleazar the priest as a contribution for the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴² From the Israelites’ half, which Moses separated from the men who fought, ⁴³ the community’s half was:

⁴⁷ Moses took one out of every 50, selected from the people and the livestock of the Israelites’ half. He gave them to the Levites who perform the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle, as the Lord had commanded him.

⁴⁸ The officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, approached Moses ⁴⁹ and told him, “Your servants have taken a census of the fighting men under our command, and not one of us is missing. ⁵⁰ So we have presented to the Lord an offering of the gold articles each man found—armlets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”^(I)

⁵¹ Moses and Eleazar the priest received from them all the articles made out of gold. ⁵² All the gold of the contribution they offered to the Lord, from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, was 420 pounds.^{[f] 53} Each of the soldiers had taken plunder for himself. ⁵⁴ Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.

The Temptation of Jesus

4 Then Jesus^(A) returned from the Jordan,^(B) full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over,^[a] He was hungry. ³ The Devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴ But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone.”^[b](C)[c]

⁵ So he took Him up^[d] and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ The Devil said to Him, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me,^(D) and I can give it to anyone I want. ⁷ If You, then, will worship me,^[e] all will be Yours.”

⁸ And Jesus answered him,^[f] “It is written:

⁹ So he took Him to Jerusalem, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written:

¹² And Jesus answered him, “It is said: Do not test the Lord your God.”^(H)[j]

¹³ After the Devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him for a time.

Ministry in Galilee

¹⁴ Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,^(I) and news about Him spread throughout the entire vicinity.^{(J) 15} He was teaching in their synagogues,^(K) being acclaimed^[k] by everyone.

Rejection at Nazareth

¹⁶ He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.^(L) As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day^(M) and stood up to read.^{(N) 17} The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written:

²⁰ He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.^(P) And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

²² They were all speaking well of Him^[p] and were amazed by the gracious words that came from His mouth, yet they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”^(Q)

²³ Then He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb^[q] to Me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. So all we’ve heard that took place in Capernaum,^(R) do here in Your hometown also.’”

²⁴ He also said, “I assure you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown.^{(S) 25} But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days,^(T) when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them—but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷ And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had serious skin diseases, yet not one of them was healed^[r] —only Naaman the Syrian.”^(U)

²⁸ When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. ²⁹ They got up, drove Him out of town,^(V) and brought Him to the edge^[s] of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl Him over the cliff. ³⁰ But He passed right through the crowd and went on His way.^(W)

Psalm 63

Praise God Who Satisfies

A Davidic psalm. When he was in the Wilderness of Judah.^(A)