Numbers 24–25

24And when Balaam saw that it pleased Jehovah to bless Israel, he went not, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. ²And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him. ³And he took up his parable, and said,

Balaam the son of Beor saith,

And the man whose eye was closed saith;

⁴He saith, who heareth the words of God,

Who seeth the vision of the Almighty,

Falling down, and having his eyes open:

⁵How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob,

Thy tabernacles, O Israel!

⁶As valleys are they spread forth,

As gardens by the river-side,

As lign-aloes which Jehovah hath planted,

As cedar-trees beside the waters.

⁷Water shall flow from his buckets,

And his seed shall be in many waters,

And his king shall be higher than Agag,

And his kingdom shall be exalted.

⁸God bringeth him forth out of Egypt;

He hath as it were the strength of the wild-ox:

He shall eat up the nations his adversaries,

And shall break their bones in pieces,

And smite them through with his arrows.

⁹He couched, he lay down as a lion,

And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?

Blessed be every one that blesseth thee,

And cursed be every one that curseth thee.

¹⁰And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together; and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. ¹¹Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honor; but, lo, Jehovah hath kept thee back from honor. ¹²And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers that thou sentest unto me, saying, ¹³If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of Jehovah, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; what Jehovah speaketh, that will I speak? ¹⁴And now, behold, I go unto my people: come, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. ¹⁵And he took up his parable, and said,

Balaam the son of Beor saith,

And the man whose eye was closed saith;

¹⁶He saith, who heareth the words of God,

And knoweth the knowledge of the Most High,

Who seeth the vision of the Almighty,

Falling down, and having his eyes open:

¹⁷I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not nigh:

There shall come forth a star out of Jacob,

And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel,

And shall smite through the corners of Moab,

And break down all the sons of tumult.

¹⁸And Edom shall be a possession,

Seir also shall be a possession, who were his enemies;

While Israel doeth valiantly.

¹⁹And out of Jacob shall one have dominion,

And shall destroy the remnant from the city.

²⁰And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, and said,

Amalek was the first of the nations;

But his latter end shall come to destruction.

²¹And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said,

Strong is thy dwelling-place,

And thy nest is set in the rock.

²²Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted,

Until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.

²³And he took up his parable, and said,

Alas, who shall live when God doeth this?

²⁴But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim,

And they shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber;

And he also shall come to destruction.

²⁵And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place; and Balak also went his way.

25And Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab: ²for they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. ³And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel. ⁴And Jehovah said unto Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up unto Jehovah before the sun, that the fierce anger of Jehovah may turn away from Israel. ⁵And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that have joined themselves unto Baal-peor.

⁶And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting. ⁷And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand; ⁸and he went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. ⁹And those that died by the plague were twenty and four thousand.

¹⁰And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, ¹¹Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. ¹²Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: ¹³and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.

¹⁴Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among the Simeonites. ¹⁵And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian.

¹⁶And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, ¹⁷Vex the Midianites, and smite them; ¹⁸for they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.