¹¹ Now get out of here! Go back home! I promised to reward you richly, but the Lord has kept you from your reward.”

²⁶ And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?^[a] Is anything worth more than your soul?

⁷ so he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted.

⁸ Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

⁹ Then Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs, said, “Haman has set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet^[a] tall in his own courtyard. He intended to use it to impale Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination.”

“Then impale Haman on it!” the king ordered.

¹¹ and boasted to them about his great wealth and his many children. He bragged about the honors the king had given him and how he had been promoted over all the other nobles and officials.

The Festival of Harvest

⁹ “Count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest.

²⁹ Balaam again told Balak, “Build me seven altars, and prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for me to sacrifice.” ³⁰ So Balak did as Balaam ordered and offered a young bull and a ram on each altar.

² Balak followed his instructions, and the two of them sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar.

³ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offerings, and I will go to see if the Lord will respond to me. Then I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” So Balaam went alone to the top of a bare hill,