The Daily Audio Bible

30 ^(29:40) Moshe told the people of Isra’el everything, just as Adonai had ordered Moshe.

Haftarah Pinchas: M’lakhim Alef (1 Kings) 18:46–19:21

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Pinchas: Mattityahu (Matthew) 26:1–30; Mark 14:1–26; Luke 22:1–20; Yochanan (John) 2:13–22; 7:1–13, 37–39; 11:55–12:1; 13:1; 18:28, 39; 19:14; Acts 2:1–21; 12:3–4; 20:5–6, 16; 27:9–11; 1 Corinthians 5:6 – 8; 16:8; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 11:28

Parashah 42: Mattot (Tribes) 30:2(1) –32:42

[In regular years read with Parashah 43, in leap years read separately]

^2 (1) Then Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Isra’el. He said, “Here is what Adonai has ordered: ^3 (2) when a man makes a vow to Adonai or formally obligates himself by swearing an oath, he is not to break his word but is to do everything he said he would do.

^4 (3) “When a woman makes a vow to Adonai, formally obligating herself, while she is a minor living in her father’s house; ^5 (4) then, if her father has heard what she vowed or obligated herself to do and holds his peace, then all her vows remain binding — every obligation she has bound herself to will stand. ^6 (5) But if on the day her father hears it, he expresses his disapproval, then none of her vows or obligations she has bound herself to will stand; and Adonai will forgive her, because her father expressed his disapproval.

^7 (6) “If, having made vows or rashly committed herself to an obligation, she gets married; ^8 (7) and her husband hears but holds his peace with her on the day he learns of it, then her vows and obligations she has bound herself to will stand. ^9 (8) But if her husband expresses his disapproval on the day he hears it, he will void the vow which is on her and the obligation to which she has bound herself; and Adonai will forgive her.

^10 (9) “The vow of a widow, however, or of a divorcee, including everything to which she has obligated herself, will stand against her.

^11 (10) “If a woman vowed in her husband’s house or obligated herself with an oath; ^12 (11) and her husband heard it but held his peace with her and did not express disapproval, then all her vows and obligations will stand. ^13 (12) But if her husband makes them null and void on the day he hears them, then whatever she said, vows or binding obligation, will not stand; her husband has voided them; and Adonai will forgive her. ^14 (13) Her husband may let every vow and every binding obligation stand, or he may void it. ^15 (14) But if her husband entirely holds his peace with her day after day, then he confirms all her vows and obligations; he must let them stand, because he held his peace with her on the day he heard them. ^16 (15) If he makes them null and void after he has heard them, then he will bear the consequent guilt.”

^17 (16) These are the laws which Adonai ordered Moshe between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter, if she is a minor living in her father’s house.

31 (LY: ii) Adonai said to Moshe, ² “On behalf of the people of Isra’el, take vengeance on the Midyanim. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

³ Moshe said to the people, “Equip men from among yourselves for war. They are to go and fight Midyan, in order to carry out Adonai’s vengeance on Midyan. ⁴ You are to send to the war a thousand men from every one of Isra’el’s tribes.” ⁵ So out of the thousands of people in Isra’el, a thousand armed men from each tribe, 12,000 altogether, were mustered for war. ⁶ Moshe sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the war; he sent them and Pinchas the son of El‘azar the cohen to the war, with the holy utensils and the trumpets for sounding the alarm in his care.

⁷ They fought against Midyan, as Adonai had ordered Moshe, and killed every male. ⁸ They killed the kings of Midyan along with the others who were slain — Evi, Rekem, Tzur, Hur and Reva, the five kings of Midyan. They also killed Bil‘am the son of B‘or with the sword. ⁹ The people of Isra’el took captive the women of Midyan and their little ones, and they took as booty all their cattle, flocks and other goods. ¹⁰ They set fire to all their cities in the areas where they lived and all their camps. ¹¹ They took all the booty, all the people and animals they had captured, ¹² and brought the captives, booty and spoil to Moshe, El‘azar the cohen and the community of Isra’el in the camp on the plains of Mo’av by the Yarden across from Yericho.

(RY: ii, LY: iii) ¹³ Moshe, El‘azar the cohen and all the community leaders went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ But Moshe was angry with the army officers, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds coming in from the battlefield. ¹⁵ Moshe asked them, “You let the women live? ¹⁶ Why, these are the ones who — because of Bil‘am’s advice — caused the people of Isra’el to rebel, breaking faith with Adonai in the P‘or incident, so that the plague broke out among Adonai’s community! ¹⁷ Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has ever slept with a man. ¹⁸ But the young girls who have never slept with a man, keep alive for yourselves. ¹⁹ Pitch your tents outside the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed a person or touched the corpse of someone slain, purify yourselves on the third and seventh days, you and your captives. ²⁰ Also purify every garment, whether of skin or goat’s hair, and everything made of wood.”

²¹ El‘azar the cohen said to the soldiers who had gone to the front, “This is the regulation from the Torah which Adonai has ordered Moshe. ²² Even though gold, silver, brass, iron, tin and lead ²³ can all withstand fire, so that you are indeed to purify everything made of these materials by having them pass through fire; nevertheless they must also be purified with the water for purification. Everything that can’t withstand fire you are to have go through the water. ²⁴ On the seventh day you are to wash your clothes, and you will be clean; after that you may enter the camp.”

(LY: iv) ²⁵ Adonai said to Moshe, ²⁶ “Take all the booty, both people and animals, you, El‘azar the cohen and the leaders of clans in the community; ²⁷ and divide the booty into two parts: half for the experienced soldiers who went out to battle, and half for the rest of the community. ²⁸ From the portion of the soldiers who went out to battle, levy a tax for Adonai consisting of one-five-hundredth of the persons, cattle, donkeys and sheep; ²⁹ take it from their half and give it to El‘azar the cohen as a portion set apart for Adonai. ³⁰ From the half that goes to the people of Isra’el, you are to take one-fiftieth of the persons, and of the cattle, donkeys and sheep, that is, of all the livestock; and give them to the L’vi’im taking care of the tabernacle of Adonai.” ³¹ Moshe and El‘azar the cohen did as Adonai had ordered Moshe.

³² The booty, over and above the portion which the soldiers took, came to 675,000 sheep, ³³ 72,000 cattle, ³⁴ 61,000 donkeys, ³⁵ and 32,000 persons in all, consisting of the women who had never slept with a man.

³⁶ The half which was the portion of the soldiers who went out to fight, numbered 337,500 sheep, ³⁷ of which Adonai’s tribute was 675; ³⁸ 36,000 cattle, of which Adonai’s tribute was seventy-two; ³⁹ 30,500 donkeys, of which Adonai’s tribute was sixty-one; ⁴⁰ and 16,000 persons, of whom Adonai’s tribute was thirty-two persons. ⁴¹ Moshe gave the tribute set apart for Adonai to El‘azar the cohen, as Adonai had ordered Moshe.

(LY: v) ⁴² From the half that went to people of Isra’el, which Moshe separated from that of the men who had gone to fight — ⁴³ now the community’s half consisted of 337,500 sheep, ⁴⁴ 36,000 cattle, ⁴⁵ 30,500 donkeys ⁴⁶ and 16,000 persons — ⁴⁷ from the people of Isra’el’s half, Moshe took one-fiftieth of the persons and animals and gave them to the L’vi’im taking care of the tabernacle of Adonai, as Adonai had ordered Moshe.

⁴⁸ The officers in charge of the thousands who fought, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, approached Moshe ⁴⁹ and said to him, “Your servants have counted all the soldiers under our command, and not one of us is missing. ⁵⁰ We have brought an offering for Adonai, what every man has obtained in the way of gold jewelry — armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings and belts — to make atonement for ourselves before Adonai.”

⁵¹ Moshe and El‘azar the cohen accepted their gold, all the jewelry. ⁵² All the gold in this gift which the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds set apart for Adonai weighed 420 pounds. ⁵³ For the soldiers had taken booty, every man for himself. ⁵⁴ Moshe and El‘azar the cohen took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a reminder for the people of Isra’el before Adonai.

4 Then Yeshua, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, returned from the Yarden and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days of testing by the Adversary. During that time he ate nothing, and afterwards he was hungry. ³ The Adversary said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order this stone to become bread.” ⁴ Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”^[a]

⁵ The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, ⁶ and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose. ⁷ So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸ Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Worship Adonai your God and serve him only.’”^[b]

⁹ Then he took him to Yerushalayim, set him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, jump from here! ¹⁰ For the Tanakh says,

¹² Yeshua answered him, “It also says, ‘Do not put Adonai your God to the test.’”^{[d] 13} When the Adversary had ended all his testings, he let him alone until an opportune time.

¹⁴ Yeshua returned to the Galil in the power of the Spirit, and reports about him spread throughout the countryside. ¹⁵ He taught in their synagogues, and everyone respected him.

¹⁶ Now when he went to Natzeret, where he had been brought up, on Shabbat he went to the synagogue as usual. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and he was given the scroll of the prophet Yesha‘yahu. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

²⁰ After closing the scroll and returning it to the shammash, he sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ He started to speak to them: “Today, as you heard it read, this passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled!” ²² Everyone was speaking well of him and marvelling that such appealing words were coming from his mouth. They were even asking, “Can this be Yosef’s son?”

²³ Then Yeshua said to them, “No doubt you will quote to me this proverb — ‘“Doctor, cure yourself!” We’ve heard about all the things that have been going on over in K’far-Nachum; now do them here in your home town!’ ²⁴ Yes!” he said, “I tell you that no prophet is accepted in his home town. ²⁵ It’s true, I’m telling you — when Eliyahu was in Isra’el, and the sky was sealed off for three-and-a-half years, so that all the Land suffered a severe famine, there were many widows; ²⁶ but Eliyahu was sent to none of them, only to a widow in Tzarfat in the land of Tzidon. ²⁷ Also there were many people with tzara‘at in Isra’el during the time of the prophet Elisha; but not one of them was healed, only Na‘aman the Syrian.”

²⁸ On hearing this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with fury. ²⁹ They rose up, drove him out of town and dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which their town was built, intending to throw him off. ³⁰ But he walked right through the middle of the crowd and went away.