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Numbers 23

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1 And Balaam said to Balak, Build for me in this place seven altars, and prepare for me in this place seven bullocks and seven rams.

2 And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered·​·up on every altar a bullock and a ram.

3 And Balaam said to Balak, Stand·​·forth over thy burnt·​·offering, and I will go; perhaps Jehovah will happen to meet me: and what word He shows me I will tell thee. And he went to a slope.

4 And God came* to Balaam; and he said to Him, I have arranged seven altars, and I have offered·​·up on each altar a bullock and a ram.

5 And Jehovah set a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus thou shalt speak.

6 And he returned to him, and, behold, he stood over his burnt·​·offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

7 And he lifted up his enunciation, and said, Balak the king of Moab has led me from Syria, from the mountains of the east, saying, Go, curse Jacob for me, and go, have·​·indignation against Israel.

8 How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? And how shall I be·​·indignant when Jehovah is· not ·indignant?

9 For from the head of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I observe him; behold, the people shall abide alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part* of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my last be like his!

11 And Balak said to Balaam, What hast thou done to me? I took thee to curse my enemies, and, behold, blessing thou hast blessed them.

12 And he answered and said, Must I not keep to speaking that which Jehovah has set in my mouth?

13 And Balak said to him, Go, I pray thee, with me to another place, from whence thou mayest see them; thou shalt see nothing but the edge of them, and shalt not see them all; and curse them for me from thence.

14 And he took him into the field of Zophim, to the head of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered·​·up a bullock and a ram on every altar.

15 And he said to Balak, Stand·​·forth here over thy burnt·​·offering, and there it will befall me.

16 And Jehovah came* to Balaam, and set a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus thou shalt speak.

17 And he came to him, and behold, he stood over his burnt·​·offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has Jehovah spoken?

18 And he lifted·​·up his enunciation, and said, Rise·​·up, Balak, and hear; give·​·ear even·​·to me, thou son of Zippor;

19 God is not a man, that He should lie; neither a son of man, that He should repent Himself. Has He said, and shall He not do? And has He spoken, and shall He not secure it?

20 Behold, a blessing I have received, and He has blessed; and not turned· it ·back.

21 He has not looked on iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen mischief in Israel; Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in him.

22 God brought· them ·out from Egypt; he has as·​·it·​·were the powers of a unicorn.

23 For there is no foretelling against Jacob, neither divination against Israel; according·​·to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God worked!

24 Behold, the people shall rise·​·up as an old·​·lion, and lift· himself ·up as a young* lion; he shall not lie·​·down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.

25 And Balak said to Balaam, Even cursing thou shalt not curse them, even blessing shalt thou not bless them.

26 But Balaam answered and said to Balak, Spoke I not to thee, saying, All that Jehovah speaks, it I will do?

27 And Balak said to Balaam, Go, I pray thee, I will take thee to another place; perhaps it will be·​·upright in the eyes of God, and thou mayest curse them for me from thence.

28 And Balak took Balaam to the head of Peor, that looks·​·out upon the faces of Jeshimon.

29 And Balaam said to Balak, Build for me in this place seven altars, and prepare for me in this place seven bullocks and seven rams.

30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered·​·up a bullock and a ram on every altar.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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1 Chronicles 21

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1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?

4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.

6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.

8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,

10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee

12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.

14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

17 And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.

18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.

20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo,I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.

24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.

25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.

30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.