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

²⁸ Then the Lord ^(A)opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” ²⁹ And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” ³⁰ And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”

³¹ Then the Lord ^(B)opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. ³² And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out ^(C)to oppose you 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 nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die. ¹⁴ Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord ^(A)in Seir.”

¹³ For ^(A)judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith ^(B)but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ^15 (C)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ^16 (D)and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^[a] is that?

¹⁷ But ^(A)if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet ^(B)closes his heart against him, ^(C)how does God's love abide in him?

Jesus' Side Is Pierced

³¹ Since it was ^(A)the day of Preparation, and ^(B)so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was ^(C)a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other ^(D)who had been crucified with him.

¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

⁷ And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off ^(A)used to pick up scraps under my table. ^(B)As I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.