The Daily Audio Bible

32 (RY: iii; LY: vi) The descendants of Re’uven and the descendants of Gad had vast quantities of livestock. When they saw that the land of Ya‘zer and the land of Gil‘ad were good for livestock, ² the descendants of Gad and of Re’uven came and spoke to Moshe, El‘azar the cohen and the community leaders. They said, ³ “‘Atarot, Divon, Ya‘zer, Nimrah, Heshbon, El‘aleh, S’vam, N’vo and Be‘on, ⁴ the country that Adonai conquered before the community of Isra’el, is livestock country; and your servants have livestock. ⁵ If you regard us favorably,” they went on, “let this land be given to your servants as their possession; and don’t have us cross the Yarden.”

⁶ Moshe answered the descendants of Gad and of Re’uven: “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? ⁷ Besides, why are you trying to discourage the people of Isra’el from crossing into the land Adonai gave them? ⁸ This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the land. ⁹ For when they went up to the Eshkol Valley and saw the land, they disheartened the people of Isra’el, so that they wouldn’t enter the land Adonai had given them. ¹⁰ Adonai’s anger blazed up on that day; and he swore, ¹¹ ‘None of the people aged twenty or more who came out of Egypt will see the land I swore to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov; because they haven’t followed me unreservedly — ¹² except Kalev the son of Y’funeh the K’nizi and Y’hoshua the son of Nun, because they have followed Adonai unreservedly.’ ¹³ Thus Adonai’s anger blazed against Isra’el, so that he made them wander here and there in the desert forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of Adonai had died out. ¹⁴ Now you, another brood of sinners, have arisen in your fathers’ place to increase still more the fierce anger of Adonai toward Isra’el! ¹⁵ For if you turn away from him, he will leave them in the desert again, and thus you will cause the destruction of all these people!”

¹⁶ But they came up to him and said, “Here we will build enclosures for our livestock and cities for our little ones, ¹⁷ but we ourselves will be armed and ready for action to march at the head of the people of Isra’el, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones will stay in the fortified cities here because of the people now living in the land. ¹⁸ However, we will not return to our own homes until every man in Isra’el has taken possession of his land for inheritance. ¹⁹ We will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Yarden, westward; because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side of the Yarden, eastward.”

(RY: iv, LY: vii) ²⁰ Moshe said to them, “If you will do this — if you will arm yourselves to go before Adonai to the war, ²¹ and if every one of your soldiers will cross the Yarden before Adonai, until he has driven out his enemies ahead of him, ²² and if the land has been conquered before Adonai, and only after that do you return — then you will be clear before Adonai and before Isra’el, and this land here will be yours to possess before Adonai. ²³ But if you will not do this, then you have sinned against Adonai, and you must understand that your sin will find you out. ²⁴ Build cities for your little ones and enclosures for your sheep; then do what you said you would do.”

²⁵ The descendants of Gad and the descendants of Re’uven said to Moshe, “Your servants will do as my lord orders. ²⁶ Our little ones, wives, flocks and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gil‘ad; ²⁷ but your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, before Adonai to do battle, as my lord says.”

²⁸ So Moshe gave orders concerning them to El‘azar the cohen, Y’hoshua the son of Nun and the clan leaders of the tribes of the people of Isra’el. ²⁹ Moshe said to them, “If the descendants of Gad and of Re’uven cross over the Yarden with you, every man armed for battle, before Adonai; and if the land is conquered before you, then you are to give them the land of Gil‘ad as theirs to possess. ³⁰ But if they do not cross with you armed, they are to possess land along with you in Kena‘an.”

³¹ The descendants of Gad and of Re’uven answered, “We will do as Adonai has said to your servants. ³² We will cross over into the land of Kena‘an armed before Adonai, and the land we will possess for inheritance will be on this side of the Yarden.”

³³ So Moshe gave the descendants of Gad and of Re’uven, and also to the half-tribe of M’nasheh the son of Yosef, the kingdom of Sichon king of the Emori and the kingdom of ‘Og king of Bashan — the country and its cities within its borders, along with their surrounding towns.

³⁴ The descendants of Gad built Divon, ‘Atarot, ‘Aro‘er, ³⁵ ‘Atrot-Shofan, Ya‘zer, Yogbehah, ³⁶ Beit-Nimrah and Beit-Haran — fortified cities; and also enclosures for sheep.

³⁷ The descendants of Re’uven built Heshbon, El‘aleh, Kiryatayim, ³⁸ N’vo, Ba‘al-M‘on (these names have been changed) and Sivmah; they renamed the cities they built.

(LY: Maftir) ³⁹ The descendants of Machir the son of M’nasheh went to Gil‘ad and conquered it, dispossessing the Emori who were there. ⁴⁰ Moshe gave Gil‘ad to Machir the son of M’nasheh, and he lived in it. ⁴¹ Ya’ir the son of M’nasheh went and captured its villages and called them Havot-Ya’ir [villages of Ya’ir]. ⁴² Novach went and captured K’nat with its villages and named it Novach after himself.

Haftarah Mattot: Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 1:1–2:3

B’rit Hadashah suggested reading for Parashah Mattot: Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:33–37

Parashah 43: Masa‘ei (Stages) 33:1–36:13

[In regular years read with Parashah 42, in leap years read separately]

33 These are the stages in the journey of the people of Isra’el as they left the land of Egypt divided into groups under the leadership of Moshe and Aharon. ² Moshe recorded each of the stages of their journey by order of Adonai ; here are the starting-points of each stage:

³ They began their journey from Ram’ses in the first month. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the morning after the Pesach, the people of Isra’el left proudly in view of all the Egyptians; ⁴ while the Egyptians were burying those among them whom Adonai had killed, all their firstborn; Adonai had also executed judgment on their gods. ⁵ The people of Isra’el moved on from Ram’ses and camped at Sukkot.

⁶ They moved on from Sukkot and camped at Etam, by the edge of the desert. ⁷ They moved on from Etam and turned back to Pi-Hachirot, in front of Ba‘al-Tz’fon, and camped before Migdol. ⁸ They moved on from P’nei-Hachirot, passed through the sea to the desert, continued three days’ journey into the Etam Desert and camped at Marah. ⁹ They moved on from Marah and came to Eilim; in Eilim were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, so they camped there. ¹⁰ They moved on from Eilim and camped by the Sea of Suf.

(LY: ii) ¹¹ They moved on from the Sea of Suf and camped in the Seen Desert. ¹² They moved on from the Seen Desert and camped at Dofkah. ¹³ They moved on from Dofkah and camped at Alush. ¹⁴ They moved on from Alush and camped at Refidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. ¹⁵ They moved on from Refidim and camped in the Sinai Desert. ¹⁶ They moved on from the Sinai Desert and camped at Kivrot-HaTa’avah. ¹⁷ They moved on from Kivrot-HaTa’avah and camped in Hatzerot. ¹⁸ They moved on from Hatzerot and camped at Ritmah. ¹⁹ They moved on from Ritmah and camped at Rimmon-Peretz. ²⁰ They moved on from Rimmon-Peretz and camped at Livnah. ²¹ They moved on from Livnah and camped at Rissah. ²² They moved on from Rissah and camped at K’helah. ²³ They moved on from K’helah and camped at Mount Shefer. ²⁴ They moved on from Mount Shefer and camped at Haradah. ²⁵ They moved on from Haradah and camped at Mak’helot. ²⁶ They moved on from Mak’helot and camped at Tachat. ²⁷ They moved on from Tachat and camped at Terach. ²⁸ They moved on from Terach and camped at Mitkah. ²⁹ They moved on from Mitkah and camped at HaShmonah. ³⁰ They moved on from HaShmonah and camped at Moserot. ³¹ They moved on from Moserot and camped at B’nei-Ya‘akan. ³² They moved on from B’nei-Ya‘akan and camped at Hor-HaGidgad. ³³ They moved on from Hor-HaGidgad and camped at Yotvatah. ³⁴ They moved on from Yotvatah and camped at Avronah. ³⁵ They moved on from Avronah and camped at ‘Etzyon-Gever. ³⁶ They moved on from ‘Etzyon-Gever and camped in the Tzin Desert, that is, Kadesh.

³⁷ They moved on from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, at the border of the land of Edom. ³⁸ At Adonai’s order Aharon the cohen went up on Mount Hor, and he died there on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the people of Isra’el had left the land of Egypt. ³⁹ Aharon was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor.

³¹ He went down to K’far-Nachum, a town in the Galil, and made a practice of teaching them on Shabbat. ³² They were amazed at the way he taught, because his word carried the ring of authority.

³³ In the synagogue there was a man who had an unclean demonic spirit, who shouted in a loud voice, ³⁴ “Yaah! What do you want with us, Yeshua from Natzeret? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” ³⁵ But Yeshua rebuked it: “Be quiet, and come out of him!” The demonic spirit threw the man down in the middle of the crowd and came out of him, having done him no harm. ³⁶ They were all astounded and said to one another, “What kind of teaching is this? Why, he gives orders with power and authority to the unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷ And reports about him went out through the whole surrounding district.

³⁸ Leaving the synagogue, he went to Shim‘on’s house. Shim‘on’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him to do something for her. ³⁹ So, standing over her, he rebuked the fever; and it left her. She immediately got up and began helping them.

⁴⁰ After sunset, all those who had people sick with various diseases brought them to Yeshua, and he put his hands on each one of them and healed them; ⁴¹ also demons came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But, rebuking them, he did not permit them to say that they knew he was the Messiah.

⁴² When day had come, he left and went away to a lonely spot. The people looked for him, came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. ⁴³ But he said to them, “I must announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the other towns too — this is why I was sent.” ⁴⁴ He also spent time preaching in the synagogues of Y’hudah.

5 One day, as Yeshua was standing on the shore of Lake Kinneret, with the people pressing in around him in order to hear the word of God, ² he noticed two boats pulled up on the beach, left there by the fishermen, who were cleaning their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Shim‘on, and asked him to put out a little way from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Shim‘on, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Shim‘on answered, “We’ve worked hard all night long, Rabbi, and haven’t caught a thing! But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” ⁶ They did this and took in so many fish that their nets began to tear. ⁷ So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; and they came and filled both boats to the point of sinking. ⁸ When he saw this, Shim‘on Kefa fell at Yeshua’s knees and said, “Get away from me, sir, because I’m a sinner!” ⁹ For astonishment had seized him and everyone with him at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and likewise both Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Shim‘on’s partners. “Don’t be frightened,” Yeshua said to Shim‘on, “from now on you will be catching men — alive!” ¹¹ And as soon as they had beached their boats, they left everything behind and followed him.