¹He said to Balak, “Build seven altars here for me, and bring me seven bulls and seven rams.”

²Balak did as he was told, and he and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I go to see whether or not the Lord will meet me. I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” So he went alone to the top of a hill,

⁴and God met him. Balaam said to him, “I have built the seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each.”

⁵The Lord told Balaam what to say and sent him back to Balak to give him his message.

⁶So he went back and found Balak still standing by his burnt offering with all the leaders of Moab.

⁷Balaam uttered this prophecy: “Balak king of Moab has brought me From Syria, from the eastern mountains. ‘Come speak for me,’ he said. ‘Put a curse on the people of Israel.’

⁸How can I curse what God has not cursed, Or speak of doom when the Lord has not?

⁹From the high rocks I can see them; I can watch them from the hills. They are a nation that lives alone; They know they are blessed more than other nations.

¹⁰The descendants of Israel are like the dust— There are too many of them to be counted. Let me end my days like one of God's people; Let me die in peace like the righteous.”

¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, but all you have done is bless them.”

¹²He answered, “I can say only what the Lord tells me to say.”

Balaam's Second Prophecy

¹³Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come with me to another place from which you can see only some of the Israelites. Curse them for me from there.”

¹⁴He took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Mount Pisgah. There also he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each of them.

¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, and I will meet God over there.”

¹⁶The Lord met Balaam, told him what to say, and sent him back to Balak to give him his message.

¹⁷So he went back and found Balak still standing by his burnt offering, with the leaders of Moab. Balak asked what the Lord had said,

¹⁸and Balaam uttered this prophecy: “Come, Balak son of Zippor, And listen to what I have to say.

¹⁹God is not like people, who lie; He is not a human who changes his mind. Whatever he promises, he does; He speaks, and it is done.

²⁰I have been instructed to bless, And when God blesses, I cannot call it back.

²¹I foresee that Israel's future Will bring her no misfortune or trouble. The Lord their God is with them; They proclaim that he is their king.

²²God has brought them out of Egypt; He fights for them like a wild ox.

²³There is no magic charm, no witchcraft, That can be used against the nation of Israel. Now people will say about Israel, ‘Look what God has done!’

²⁴The nation of Israel is like a mighty lion: It doesn't rest until it has torn and devoured, Until it has drunk the blood of those it has killed.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “You refuse to curse the people of Israel, but at least don't bless them!”

²⁶Balaam answered, “Didn't I tell you that I had to do everything that the Lord told me?”

Balaam's Third Prophecy

²⁷Balak said, “Come with me, and I will take you to another place. Perhaps God will be willing to let you curse them for me from there.”

²⁸So he took Balaam to the top of Mount Peor overlooking the desert.

²⁹Balaam said to him, “Build seven altars for me here and bring me seven bulls and seven rams.”

³⁰Balak did as he was told, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Divorce and Remarriage

¹“Suppose a man marries a woman and later decides that he doesn't want her, because he finds something about her that he doesn't like. So he writes out divorce papers, gives them to her, and sends her away from his home.

²Then suppose she marries another man,

³and he also decides that he doesn't want her, so he also writes out divorce papers, gives them to her, and sends her away from his home. Or suppose her second husband dies.

⁴In either case, her first husband is not to marry her again; he is to consider her defiled. If he married her again, it would be offensive to the Lord. You are not to commit such a terrible sin in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Various Laws

⁵“When a man is newly married, he is not to be drafted into military service or any other public duty; he is to be excused from duty for one year, so that he can stay at home and make his wife happy.

⁶“When you lend someone something, you are not to take as security his millstones used for grinding his grain. This would take away the family's means of preparing food to stay alive.

⁷“If any of you kidnap Israelites and make them your slaves or sell them into slavery, you are to be put to death. In this way your nation will get rid of this evil.

⁸“When you are suffering from a dreaded skin disease, be sure to do exactly what the levitical priests tell you; follow the instructions that I have given them.

⁹Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam as you were coming from Egypt.

¹⁰“When you lend someone something, do not go into his house to get the garment he is going to give you as security;

¹¹wait outside and let him bring it to you himself.

¹²If he is poor, do not keep it overnight;

¹³return it to him each evening, so that he can have it to sleep in. Then he will be grateful, and the Lord your God will be pleased with you.

¹⁴“Do not cheat poor and needy hired servants, whether they are Israelites or foreigners living in one of your towns.

¹⁵Each day before sunset pay them for that day's work; they need the money and have counted on getting it. If you do not pay them, they will cry out against you to the Lord, and you will be guilty of sin.

¹⁶“Parents are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their children, and children are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their parents; people are to be put to death only for a crime they themselves have committed.

¹⁷“Do not deprive foreigners and orphans of their rights; and do not take a widow's garment as security for a loan.

¹⁸Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God set you free; that is why I have given you this command.

¹⁹“When you gather your crops and fail to bring in some of the grain that you have cut, do not go back for it; it is to be left for the foreigners, orphans, and widows, so that the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

²⁰When you have picked your olives once, do not go back and get those that are left; they are for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.

²¹When you have gathered your grapes once, do not go back over the vines a second time; the grapes that are left are for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.

²²Never forget that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I have given you this command.

¹“Suppose two Israelites go to court to settle a dispute, and one is declared innocent and the other guilty.

²If the guilty one is sentenced to be beaten, the judge is to make him lie face downward and have him whipped. The number of lashes will depend on the crime he has committed.

³He may be given as many as forty lashes, but no more; more than that would humiliate him publicly.

⁴“Do not muzzle an ox when you are using it to thresh grain.

Duty to a Dead Brother

⁵“If two brothers live on the same property and one of them dies, leaving no son, then his widow is not to be married to someone outside the family; it is the duty of the dead man's brother to marry her.

⁶The first son that they have will be considered the son of the dead man, so that his family line will continue in Israel.

⁷But if the dead man's brother does not want to marry her, she is to go before the town leaders and say, ‘My husband's brother will not do his duty; he refuses to give his brother a descendant among the people of Israel.’

⁸Then the town leaders are to summon him and speak to him. If he still refuses to marry her,

⁹his brother's widow is to go up to him in the presence of the town leaders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face, and say, ‘This is what happens to the man who refuses to give his brother a descendant.’

¹⁰His family will be known in Israel as ‘the family of the man who had his sandal pulled off.’

Other Laws

¹¹“If two men are having a fight and the wife of one tries to help her husband by grabbing hold of the other man's genitals,

¹²show her no mercy; cut off her hand.

^13-14“Do not cheat when you use weights and measures.

¹⁵Use true and honest weights and measures, so that you may live a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁶The Lord hates people who cheat.

The Command to Kill the Amalekites

¹⁷“Remember what the Amalekites did to you as you were coming from Egypt.

¹⁸They had no fear of God, and so they attacked you from the rear when you were tired and exhausted, and killed all who were straggling behind.

¹⁹So then, when the Lord your God has given you the land and made you safe from all your enemies who live around you, be sure to kill all the Amalekites, so that no one will remember them any longer. Do not forget!

The Lord's Goodness to His People

¹Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good; his love is eternal.

²Who can tell all the great things he has done? Who can praise him enough?

³Happy are those who obey his commands, who always do what is right.

⁴Remember me, Lord, when you help your people; include me when you save them.

⁵Let me see the prosperity of your people and share in the happiness of your nation, in the glad pride of those who belong to you.

⁶We have sinned as our ancestors did; we have been wicked and evil.

⁷Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand God's wonderful acts; they forgot the many times he showed them his love, and they rebelled against the Almighty at the Red Sea.

⁸But he saved them, as he had promised, in order to show his great power.

⁹He gave a command to the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led his people across on dry land.

¹⁰He saved them from those who hated them; he rescued them from their enemies.

¹¹But the water drowned their enemies; not one of them was left.

¹²Then his people believed his promises and sang praises to him.

¹³But they quickly forgot what he had done and acted without waiting for his advice.

¹⁴They were filled with craving in the desert and put God to the test;

¹⁵so he gave them what they asked for, but also sent a terrible disease among them.

¹⁶There in the desert they were jealous of Moses and of Aaron, the Lord's holy servant.

¹⁷Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan and buried Abiram and his family;

¹⁸fire came down on their followers and burned up those wicked people.

¹⁹They made a gold bull-calf at Sinai and worshiped that idol;

²⁰they exchanged the glory of God for the image of an animal that eats grass.

²¹They forgot the God who had saved them by his mighty acts in Egypt.

²²What wonderful things he did there! What amazing things at the Red Sea!

²³When God said that he would destroy his people, his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God and kept his anger from destroying them.

²⁴Then they rejected the pleasant land, because they did not believe God's promise.

²⁵They stayed in their tents and grumbled and would not listen to the Lord.

²⁶So he have them a solemn warning that he would make them die in the desert

²⁷and scatter their descendants among the heathen, letting them die in foreign countries.

²⁸Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.

²⁹They stirred up the Lord's anger by their actions, and a terrible disease broke out among them.

³⁰But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty, and the plague was stopped.

³¹This has been remembered in his favor ever since and will be for all time to come.

³²At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry, and Moses was in trouble on their account.

³³They made him so bitter that he spoke without stopping to think.

³⁴They did not kill the heathen, as the Lord had commanded them to do,

³⁵but they intermarried with them and adopted their pagan ways.

³⁶God's people worshiped idols, and this caused their destruction.

³⁷They offered their own sons and daughters as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.

³⁸They killed those innocent children, and the land was defiled by those murders.

³⁹They made themselves impure by their actions and were unfaithful to God.

⁴⁰So the Lord was angry with his people; he was disgusted with them.

⁴¹He abandoned them to the power of the heathen, and their enemies ruled over them.

⁴²They were oppressed by their enemies and were in complete subjection to them.

⁴³Many times the Lord rescued his people, but they chose to rebel against him and sank deeper into sin.

⁴⁴Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out, and he took notice of their distress.

⁴⁵For their sake he remembered his covenant, and because of his great love he relented.

⁴⁶He made all their oppressors feel sorry for them.

⁴⁷Save us, O Lord our God, and bring us back from among the nations, so that we may be thankful and praise your holy name.

⁴⁸Praise the Lord, the God of Israel; praise him now and forever! Let everyone say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord!