Then the angel of the Lord stood in a path among the vineyards, where there was a wall on either side.

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?"

And Balaam said to the donkey, "You have made me look stupid; I wish there were a sword in my hand, for I would kill you right now."

The donkey said to Balaam, "Am not I your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted to treat you this way?" And he said, "No."

The angel of the Lord said to him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to oppose you because what you are doing is perverse before me.

Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, "I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. So now, if it is evil in your sight, I will go back home."

But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but you may only speak the word that I will speak to you." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

Balak said to Balaam, "Did I not send again and again to you to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?"

Balaam said to Balak, "Look, I have come to you. Now, am I able to speak just anything? I must speak only the word that God puts in my mouth."

Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."

So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam then offered on each altar a bull and a ram.

Balaam said to Balak, "Station yourself by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went to a deserted height.

Then God met Balaam, who said to him, "I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram."

Then the Lord put a message in Balaam's mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you."

Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but on the contrary you have only blessed them!"

Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place from which you can observe them. You will see only a part of them, but you will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there."

And Balaam said to Balak, "Station yourself here by your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord there.

Then the Lord met Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you."

When Balaam came to him, he was still standing by his burnt offering, along with the princes of Moab. And Balak said to him, "What has the Lord spoken?"

Balaam uttered his oracle, and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, son of Zippor:

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen?

For there is no spell against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel. At this time it must be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'Look at what God has done!'

Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!"

Balak said to Balaam, "Come, please; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there."

Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build seven altars here for me, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams."

So Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at the other times to seek for omens, but he set his face toward the wilderness.

They are like valleys stretched forth, like gardens by the river's side, like aloes that the Lord has planted, and like cedar trees beside the waters.

Then Balak became very angry at Balaam, and he struck his hands together. Balak said to Balaam, "I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have done nothing but bless them these three times!

So now, go back where you came from! I said that I would greatly honor you; but now the Lord has stood in the way of your honor."

Balaam said to Balak, "Did I not also tell your messengers whom you sent to me,

Then he looked on the Kenites and uttered this oracle: "Your dwelling place seems strong, and your nest is set on a rocky cliff.

The Lord said to Moses, "Arrest all the leaders of the people, and hang them up before the Lord in broad daylight, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel."

So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you must execute those of his men who were joined to Baal-peor."

After the plague the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest,

So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River across from Jericho. They said,

For the Lord had said of them, "They will surely die in the wilderness." And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said,

The Lord said to Moses:

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go up this mountain of the Abarim range, and see the land I have given to the Israelites.

set him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him publicly.

So Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community.

In this manner you must offer daily throughout the seven days the food of the sacrifice made by fire as a sweet aroma to the Lord. It is to be offered in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

But you must offer as the burnt offering, as a sweet aroma to the Lord, two young bulls, one ram, seven lambs one year old,

You must offer a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs one year old without blemish.

this is in addition to the monthly burnt offering and its grain offering, and the daily burnt offering with its grain offering and their drink offerings as prescribed, as a sweet aroma, a sacrifice made by fire to the Lord.

Moses said to them, "Have you allowed all the women to live?

Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, "This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:

and said to him, "Your servants have taken a count of the men who were in the battle, who were under our authority, and not one is missing.

the Gadites and the Reubenites came and addressed Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the community. They said,

So they said, "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for our inheritance. Do not have us cross the Jordan River."

Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, "Must your brothers go to war while you remain here?

Then they came very close to him and said, "We will build sheep folds here for our flocks and cities for our families,

For we will not accept any inheritance on the other side of the Jordan River and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this eastern side of the Jordan."

and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be free of your obligation to the Lord and to Israel. This land will then be your possession in the Lord's sight.

So build cities for your descendants and pens for your sheep, but do what you have said you would do."

Moses said to them: "If the Gadites and the Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, each one equipped for battle in the Lord's presence, and you conquer the land, then you must allot them the territory of Gilead as their possession.

We will cross armed in the Lord's presence into the land of Canaan, and then the possession of our inheritance that we inherit will be ours on this side of the Jordan River."

They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the Israelites went out defiantly in plain sight of all the Egyptians.

The Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. He said:

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your side, and will cause you trouble in the land where you will be living.

The border will run down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain, and the border will descend and reach the eastern side of the Sea of Chinnereth.

The two and a half tribes have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, east of Jericho, toward the sunrise."

The Lord said to Moses:

Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the Moabite plains by the Jordan near Jericho. He said:

"You must measure from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards, and on the south side 1,000 yards, and on the west side 1,000 yards, and on the north side 1,000 yards, with the town in the middle. This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns.

"You must give three towns on this side of the Jordan, and you must give three towns in the land of Canaan; they must be towns of refuge.

They said, "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

This is what Moses said to the assembly of Israel in the Transjordanian wastelands, the arid country opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di Zahab

The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, "You have stayed in the area of this mountain long enough.

I also said to you at that time, "I am no longer able to sustain you by myself.

Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you just as he said he would!

You replied to me that what I had said to you was good.

Then I said to you, "You have come to the Amorite hill country which the Lord our God is about to give us.

Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!"

So all of you approached me and said, "Let's send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there."

You complained among yourselves privately and said, "Because the Lord hates us he brought us from Egypt to deliver us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us!

What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage by describing people who are more numerous and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven itself! Moreover, they said they saw Anakites there."

the one who was constantly going before you to find places for you to set up camp. He appeared by fire at night and cloud by day, to show you the way you ought to go.

As for me, the Lord was also angry with me on your account. He said, "You also will not be able to go there.

Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.

At this point the Lord said to me,

Then the Lord said to me, "Do not harass Moab and provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as your territory. This is because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.

the Lord said to me,

The Lord said to me, "Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession."

Next we set out on the route to Bashan, but King Og of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

The Lord, however, said to me, "Don't be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army, and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon."

You must fight until the Lord gives your countrymen victory as he did you and they take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you."

Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River -- this good hill country and the Lebanon!"

But the Lord was angry at me because of you and would not listen to me. Instead, he said to me, "Enough of that! Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

You stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he said to me, "Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children."

This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.

Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them: "Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them!

(I was standing between the Lord and you at that time to reveal to you the message of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said:

The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. Then he inscribed the words on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

You said, "The Lord our God has shown us his great glory and we have heard him speak from the middle of the fire. It is now clear to us that God can speak to human beings and they can keep on living.

When the Lord heard you speaking to me, he said to me, "I have heard what these people have said to you -- they have spoken well.

Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number -- as the Lord, God of your ancestors, said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.

and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.

and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said.