And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.”
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?”
He 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.
God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up and as a lion it lifts itself; it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.”
But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?”
So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert.
When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness.
And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him,
and he took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered:
Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters.
God brings him out of Egypt and is for him like the horns of the wild ox; he shall eat up the nations, his adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces and pierce them through with his arrows.
Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, ‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.”
‘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 of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’?
And now, behold, I am going to my people. Come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days.”
And he took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
the oracle of him who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered:
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.
And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities!”
Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction.”
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.
While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.
These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.”
And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”
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 weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting.
When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand
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.
Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
And the Lord said to Moses,
“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.
and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”
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.
And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father's house in Midian.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
“Harass the Midianites and strike them down,
for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, 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.”
After the plague, the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron, the priest,
“Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers' houses, all in Israel who are able to go to war.”
And Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
“Take a census of the people, from twenty years old and upward,” as the Lord commanded Moses. The people of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt were:
Reuben, the firstborn of Israel; the sons of Reuben: of Hanoch, the clan of the Hanochites; of Pallu, the clan of the Palluites;
of Hezron, the clan of the Hezronites; of Carmi, the clan of the Carmites.
These are the clans of the Reubenites, and those listed were 43,730.
And the sons of Pallu: Eliab.
The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram. These are the Dathan and Abiram, chosen from the congregation, who contended against Moses and Aaron in the company of Korah, when they contended against the Lord
and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, when the fire devoured 250 men, and they became a warning.
But the sons of Korah did not die.
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