⁴ “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.^(A)

²⁸ Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”^{(A) 29} Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!”^{(B) 30} But the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way?” And he said, “No.”^(C)

³¹ Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand, and he bowed down, falling on his face.^{(D) 32} The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I have come out as an adversary because your way is perverse^[a] before me.

¹³ But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me, and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. ¹⁴ Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”^(A)

¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.^(A)

Faith without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it?^{(B) 15} If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food^{(C) 16} and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?