Balaam’s First Oracle
1 And Balaam said to Balak, i“Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam joffered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, k“Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come lto meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4 mand God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5 And the Lord nput a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. 7 And Balaam otook up his discourse and said,
“From pAram Balak has brought me,
the king of Moab qfrom the eastern mountains:
‘Come, rcurse Jacob for me,
and come, denounce Israel!’
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
9 For from the top of the crags sI see him,
from the hills I behold him;
behold, ta people dwelling alone,
and unot counting itself among the nations!
10 vWho can count the dust of Jacob
or number the fourth part1 of Israel?
Let me die wthe death of the upright,
and let my end be like his!”
11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? xI took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, y“Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Balaam’s Second Oracle
13 And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” 14 And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, zand built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 Balaam said to Balak, a“Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord over there.” 16 And the Lord met Balaam and bput a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17 And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” 18 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,
“Rise, Balak, and hear;
give ear to me, O son of Zippor:
19 cGod is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
20 Behold, I received a command to bless:
dhe has blessed, and eI cannot revoke it.
21 fHe has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
22 gGod brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like hthe horns of the wild ox.
23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no idivination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
j‘What has God wrought!’
24 Behold, a people! kAs a lioness it rises up
and as a lion it lifts itself;
lit does not lie down until it has devoured the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.”
25 And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” 26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, m‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?” 27 And Balak said to Balaam, n“Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of oPeor, which overlooks pthe desert.2 29 And Balaam said to Balak, q“Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 rAnd Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Balaam’s Third Oracle
1 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at sother times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel tcamping tribe by tribe. And uthe Spirit of God came upon him, 3 and he vtook up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,3
4 the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
wfalling down with his eyes uncovered:
5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,
your encampments, O Israel!
6 Like palm groves4 that stretch afar,
like gardens beside a river,
xlike aloes ythat the Lord has planted,
like cedar trees beside the waters.
7 Water shall flow from his buckets,
and his seed shall be zin many waters;
his king shall be higher than aAgag,
and bhis kingdom shall be exalted.
8 God brings him out of Egypt
and is for him like the chorns of the wild ox;
he shall deat up the nations, his adversaries,
and shall ebreak their bones in pieces
and fpierce them through with his arrows.
9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion
and glike a lioness; who will rouse him up?
hBlessed are those who bless you,
and cursed are those who curse you.”
10 And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he istruck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, j“I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. 11 Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, k‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.” 12 And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, 13 l‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad mof my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’? 14 And now, behold, I am going to my people. Come, nI will let you know what this people will do to your people oin the latter days.”
Balaam’s Final Oracle
15 pAnd he took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
16 the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
and knows the knowledge of qthe Most High,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
rfalling down with his eyes uncovered:
17 sI see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
ta star shall come out of Jacob,
and ua scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall vcrush the forehead5 of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
18 wEdom shall be dispossessed;
xSeir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed.
Israel is doing valiantly.
19 And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion
and destroy the survivors of cities!”
20 Then he looked on Amalek and ytook up his discourse and said,
“Amalek was the first among the nations,
zbut its end is utter destruction.”
21 And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his discourse and said,
“Enduring is your dwelling place,
and your nest is set in the rock.
22 Nevertheless, Kain shall be burned
when Asshur takes you away captive.”
23 And he took up his discourse and said,
“Alas, who shall live when God does this?
24 But ships shall come from aKittim
and shall afflict Asshur and bEber;
and he too cshall come to utter destruction.”
25 Then Balaam rose and dwent back to his place. And Balak also went his way.
Baal Worship at Peor
1 While Israel lived in eShittim, fthe people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 gThese invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, h“Take all the chiefs of the people and ihang6 them in the sun before the Lord, jthat the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to kthe judges of Israel, l“Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”
6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were mweeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 nWhen Phinehas othe son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, pthose who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
The Zeal of Phinehas
10 And the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he qwas jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in rmy jealousy. 12 Therefore say, s‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, 13 and it shall be to him and to this descendants after him the covenant of ua perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”
14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father’s house belonging to the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of vZur, who was the tribal head of a father’s house in Midian.
16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 w“Harass the Midianites and strike them down, 18 for they have harassed you with their xwiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of yPeor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.”
The Resurrection
1 uvWhen the Sabbath was past, wMary Magdalene, wMary the mother of James, and iSalome xbought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away ythe stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—zit was very large. 5 And aentering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, bdressed in ca white robe, and dthey were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, d“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that ehe is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, ejust as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
[Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9–20.]1
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
9 [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, fhe appeared first to gMary Magdalene, gfrom whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 hShe went and told those who had been with him, ias they jmourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they kwould not believe it.
Jesus Appears to Two Disciples
12 lAfter these things mhe appeared in nanother form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 oAnd they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
The Great Commission
14 Afterward mhe appeared pto the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their qunbelief and rhardness of heart, because sthey had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, t“Go into all the world and uproclaim the gospel to vthe whole creation. 16 wWhoever believes and is xbaptized ywill be saved, but zwhoever wdoes not believe will be condemned. 17 And athese signs will accompany those who believe: bin my name they will cast out demons; cthey will speak in new tongues; 18 dthey will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; ethey will lay their hands fon the sick, and they will recover.”
19 So then the Lord Jesus, gafter he had spoken to them, hwas taken up into heaven and isat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while jthe Lord worked with them and confirmed kthe message lby accompanying signs.]]
