Old/New Testament
Balaam’s Oracles
23 Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me this: seven altars. And prepare for me this: seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 And Balak did just as Balaam spoke, and Balak offered Balaam a bull and a ram on the altar. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself at your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell to you.” So he went to a barren height.
4 And God met with Balaam, and he said to him, “I have arranged seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a ram on the altar.” 5 Yahweh put a word in the mouth of Balaam and said, “Return to Balak, and you must speak thus.” 6 So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. 7 And he lifted up his oracle and said,
“From Aram Balak lead me,
from the mountains of the east the king of Moab,
‘Go for me, curse Jacob,
and go, denounce Israel.’
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed,
and how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?
9 Because from the top of the rocks I see him,
from hilltops I watch him.
Behold, a people who dwell alone,
they do not consider themselves among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or as a number the fourth part of Israel?
Let my life die the death of an upright person,
and let my end be like his!”
11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have surely blessed them!” 12 He answered and said, “Should I not speak[a] what Yahweh puts in my mouth?”
13 Then Balak said, “Please walk with me to another place where you will see them, but you will only see part of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.” 14 So he took him to the field of Zophim to the top of Pisgah, and he built seven altars, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 Balaam[b] said to Balak, “Station yourself here at the burnt offering while I myself meet with Yahweh there.” 16 Then Yahweh met with Balaam, and he put a word in his mouth, and he said, “Return to Balak, and you must speak thus.” 17 He came to him, and behold, he was standing at his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?” 18 Then he uttered[c] his oracle, and said,
“Stand up, Balak, and hear;
listen to me, son of Zippor!
19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of humankind,
that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
And has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
20 Behold, I have received a command to bless;
when he has blessed, I cannot cause it to return.
21 He has no regard for evil in Jacob,
and he does not see trouble in Israel;
Yahweh his God is with him,
and a shout[d] of a king is among them.[e]
22 God, who brings them out from Egypt,
is like the strength[f] of a wild ox for them.[g]
23 Because there is no sorcery against Jacob,
and there is no divination against Israel.
Now[h] it will be said to Jacob and Israel,
what God has done!
24 Look! the people will rise like the lion;
he raises himself and will not lie down
until he eats the prey
and drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them[i] at all, nor bless them[j] at all!” 26 But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Whatever Yahweh speaks I will do’?”
27 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please, come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be acceptable to[k] God, and you will curse for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks down on the face of the Jeshimon.[l] 29 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me these seven altars, and prepare for me these seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 Balak did just as Balaam said, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Balaam Continues to Utter Oracles
24 And Balaam saw that it pleased[m] Yahweh to bless Israel, and he did not go as other times[n] to seek out[o] sorcery; instead, he set his face toward the desert. 2 Balaam lift up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to its tribes, and the spirit of God was upon it.[p] 3 He uttered[q] his oracle and said,
“The declaration of Balaam son Beor,
the declaration of the man whose eyes are closed,
4 the declaration of the hearer of God’s words,[r]
who sees the revelation of Shaddai,[s]
falling down but whose eyes are uncovered.
5 How good are your tents, O Jacob,
your dwellings, O Israel!
6 They are spread out like valleys,
like gardens on a river,
like aloes planted by Yahweh,
like cedars at the waters.
7 He will pour water from his buckets,
and his offspring will be like many waters;
his king will be higher than Agag,
and his kingdom will be exalted.
8 God, who brings him out from Egypt,
is like the strength[t] of a wild ox for him.
He will devour the nations who are his enemies;
he will break their bones;
he will pierce them with his arrows.
9 He crouches, he lies down like a lion,
and like a lioness, who will rouse him?
They who bless you will be blessed,
and they who curse you will be cursed.”
10 Then Balak became angry with[u] Balaam, and he clapped his hands and said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but look, you have surely blessed them these three times. 11 Flee[v] to your place now. I said I would richly honor you, but look, Yahweh has withheld honor from you.” 12 Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying, 13 ‘If Balak gave to me the fullness of his house full of silver and gold, I am not able to go beyond the command of Yahweh[w] to do good or evil, from my heart; what Yahweh speaks, I will speak’?[x] 14 And now, look, I am about to go to my people; I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the following days.”[y]
15 And he uttered[z] his oracle and said,
“The declaration of Balaam son of Beor,
and the declaration of the man whose eye is closed,
16 the declaration of the hearer of God’s words,[aa]
and the knower of the knowledge of the Most High,
who sees the vision of Shaddai,[ab]
who is falling, and his eyes are revealed.
17 I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near;
a star will go out from Jacob,
and a scepter will rise from Israel;
it will crush the foreheads of Moab
and destroy all the children of Seth.
18 Edom will be a captive;
Seir, its enemies, will be a captive,
and Israel will be acting courageously.[ac]
19 Someone[ad] from Jacob will rule
and will destroy a remnant[ae] from the city.”
20 And he looked at Amalek, uttered[af] his oracle, and said,
“Amalek is first[ag] of the nations,
but his future will be forever ruin.”
21 And he looked at the Kenites,[ah] uttered[ai] his oracle, and said,
“Steady is your dwelling place;
in the rock is your nest.
22 Nevertheless, the Kenite will be burned;
how long will Asshur keep[aj] you captive?”
23 Again he uttered[ak] his oracle and said,
“Woe, who will live when God establishes this?[al]
24 The ships will come from the hand of the Kittim,
and they will afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber;
also he will be forever ruin.”
25 Then Balaam got up and went and returned to his place, and Balak also went on his way.
The Plague of Israel
25 When Israel dwelled in Shittim, the people began to prostitute[am] themselves with the daughters of Moab. 2 And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and worshiped their gods. 3 So Israel was joined together to Baal Peor, and Yahweh became angry[an] with Israel. 4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the leaders[ao] of the people and kill them before the sun, so the fierce anger of Yahweh will turn from Israel.” 5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill his men who are joined together with Baal Peor.”
6 And behold, a man from the Israelites[ap] came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of all of the community of the Israelites,[aq] and they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of assembly. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest saw, he got up from the midst of the community and took a spear in his hand. 8 He went after the man of Israel into the woman’s section of the tent, and he drove the two of them, the man of Israel and the woman, into her belly. And the plague among the Israelites[ar] stopped. 9 The ones who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, turned away my anger from among the Israelites[as] when he was jealous with my jealousy in their midst, and I did not destroy the Israelites[at] with my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I am giving to him my covenant of peace, 13 and it will be for him and his offspring[au] after him a covenant of an eternal priesthood because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.’”[av]
14 The name of the man of Israel who was struck with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, a leader of the family[aw] of the Simeonites.[ax] 15 The name of the Midianite woman who was struck was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a leader[ay] of a tribe of the family[az] in Midian.
16 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Attack the Midianites and strike them 18 because they were attacking you with their deception, with which they have deceived you on the matter of Peor and on the matter of Cozbi the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister who was struck on the day of the plague because of the matter of Peor.”
Defilement from Within
14 And summoning the crowd again, he said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside of a person that is able to defile him by[a] going into him. But the things that go out of a person are the things that defile a person.”[b] 17 And when he entered into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “So are you also without understanding? Do you not understand that everything that is outside that goes into a person is not able to defile him? 19 For it does not enter into his heart but into his[c] stomach, and goes out into the latrine”—thus[d] declaring all foods clean. 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person, that defiles a person. 21 For from within, from the heart of people, come evil plans, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, acts of greed, malicious deeds, deceit, licentiousness, envy,[e] abusive speech, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
A Syrophoenician Woman’s Great Faith
24 And from there he set out and[f] went to the region of Tyre. And when he[g] entered into a house, he wanted no one to know, and yet he was not able to escape notice. 25 But immediately a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, when she[h] heard about him, came and[i] fell down at his feet, 26 Now the woman was a Greek—a Syrophoenician by nationality—and she was asking him that he would expel the demon from her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it[j] to the dogs!” 28 But she answered and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “Because of this statement, go! The demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And when she[k] went to her home, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone.
A Man Deaf and Unable to Speak Healed
31 And again he went away from the region of Tyre and[l] came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they were imploring him that he would place his[m] hand on him. 33 And he took him away from the crowd by himself and[n] put his fingers into his ears, and after[o] spitting, he touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 And[p] his ears were opened and his difficulty in speaking was removed[q] and he began to speak normally. 36 And he ordered them that they should say nothing, but as much as he ordered them not to, they proclaimed it[r] even more instead. 37 And they were amazed beyond all measure, saying, “He has done all things well! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
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