You and Aaron are to register those who are 20 years old or more by their military divisions—everyone who can serve in Israel’s army.

“This is the ritual of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the Lord for his consecration, in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes in keeping with the ritual for his consecration.”

“Please don’t leave us,” Moses said, “since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes.

Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying to me: ‘Give us meat to eat!’

I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me.

Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”

But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!”

Balaam said to him, “Look, I have come to you, but can I say anything I want? I must speak only the message God puts in my mouth.”

How can I curse someone God has not cursed?
How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?

Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp; you won’t see all of them. From there, put a curse on them for me.”

Again Balak said to Balaam, “Please come. I will take you to another place. Maybe it will be agreeable to God that you can put a curse on them for me there.”

Once more he proclaimed his poem:

Ah, who can live when God does this?

“Take a census of the entire Israelite community by their ancestral houses of those 20 years old or more who can serve in Israel’s army.”

everything that can withstand fire—you are to pass through fire, and it will be clean. It must still be purified with the purification water. Anything that cannot withstand fire, pass through the water.

“Do not defile the land where you are, for bloodshed defiles the land, and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it.