Numbers 29–31

29TH CHAPTER

¹⸤The Lord continued,⸥ “On the first day of the seventh month you must have a holy assembly. You must not do any regular work. It is a day for ⸤the trumpets to sound⸥ a fanfare. ²As a burnt offering, a soothing aroma to the Lord, bring one young bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ³Along with them bring grain offerings of flour mixed with olive oil. Bring 24 cups for each bull, 16 cups for each ram, ⁴and 8 cups for each of the seven lambs. ⁵Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin to make peace with the Lord. ⁶Offer these in addition to the monthly burnt offering with its grain offering, and the daily burnt offerings with their proper grain offerings and wine offerings. They are a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord. 

⁷“On the tenth day of the seventh month you must have a holy assembly. You must humble yourselves. You must not do any work. ⁸As a burnt offering, a soothing aroma, bring one young bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old lambs, all of them without defects. ⁹Along with them bring grain offerings of flour mixed with olive oil. Bring 24 cups for each bull, 16 cups for each ram, ¹⁰and 8 cups for each of the seven lambs. ¹¹Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin (in addition to the ⸤other⸥ offering for sin to make peace with the Lord) and the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

¹²“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you must have a holy assembly. You must not do any regular work. Instead, celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days. ¹³As a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a soothing aroma to the Lord, bring 13 young bulls, 2 rams, and 14 one-year-old lambs, all of them without defects. ¹⁴Along with them bring grain offerings of flour mixed with olive oil. Bring 24 cups for each of the 13 bulls, 16 cups for each of the 2 rams, ¹⁵and 8 cups for each of the 14 one-year-old lambs. ¹⁶Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

¹⁷“On the second day bring 12 young bulls, 2 rams, and 14 one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ¹⁸Along with them bring the proper amount of grain offerings and wine offerings for each of the bulls, rams, and lambs. ¹⁹Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

²⁰“On the third day bring 11 bulls, 2 rams, and 14 one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ²¹Along with them bring the proper amount of grain offerings and wine offerings for each of the bulls, rams, and lambs. ²²Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

²³“On the fourth day bring 10 bulls, 2 rams, and 14 one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ²⁴Along with them bring the proper amount of grain offerings and wine offerings for each of the bulls, rams, and lambs. ²⁵Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

²⁶“On the fifth day bring 9 bulls, 2 rams, and 14 one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ²⁷Along with them bring the proper amount of grain offerings and wine offerings for each of the bulls, rams, and lambs. ²⁸Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

²⁹“On the sixth day bring 8 bulls, 2 rams, and 14 one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ³⁰Along with them bring the proper amount of grain offerings and wine offerings for each of the bulls, rams, and lambs. ³¹Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

³²“On the seventh day bring 7 bulls, 2 rams, and 14 one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ³³Along with them bring the proper amount of grain offerings and wine offerings for each of the bulls, rams, and lambs. ³⁴Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

³⁵“On the eighth day you must hold a religious assembly. You must not do any daily work. ³⁶As a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a soothing aroma to the Lord, bring one bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old lambs that have no defects. ³⁷Along with them bring the proper amount of grain offerings and wine offerings for the bull, the ram, and the lambs. ³⁸Also bring one male goat as an offering for sin in addition to the daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and wine offerings. 

³⁹“These are the offerings you must bring to the Lord at your festivals. They are the offerings you must bring in addition to the offerings for anything you vowed to give to the Lord, your freewill offerings, your burnt offerings, your grain offerings, your wine offerings, and your fellowship offerings.”^a

⁴⁰Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him. 

30TH CHAPTER^a

Teachings about Vows

¹Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel, “This is what the Lord has commanded ⸤about vows⸥: ²If a man makes a vow to the Lord that he will do something or swears an oath that he won’t do something, he must not break his word. He must do everything he said he would do. 

³“A young girl, who still lives in her father’s house, might make a vow to the Lord that she will do something or swear an oath that she won’t do something. ⁴If her father says nothing to her when he hears about it, her vow or oath must be kept. ⁵But if her father objects when he hears about it, her vow or oath doesn’t have to be kept. The Lord will free her ⸤from this vow or oath⸥ because her father objected. 

⁶“An unmarried woman might make a vow that she will do something or carelessly promise that she won’t do something. When she marries, ⁷her husband may hear about it but say nothing to her. Then her vow or oath must be kept. ⁸But if her husband objects when he hears about it, he can cancel the vow or promise she made. The Lord will free her ⸤from this vow or promise⸥. 

⁹“But a widow or a divorced woman must keep her vow or her promise. 

¹⁰“A married woman might make a vow that she will do something or swear an oath that she won’t do something. ¹¹Her husband may hear about it but may say nothing and not object. Then her vow or oath must be kept. ¹²But if her husband cancels it when he hears about it, nothing she said in her vow or oath has to be kept. Her husband has canceled it, and the Lord will free her ⸤from this vow or oath⸥. 

¹³“A husband decides whether or not his wife has to keep any vow to do something or any oath to do without something. ¹⁴If he says nothing to her about it day after day, this means he’s decided that she must keep her vow or oath. She must keep it because he said nothing to her when he heard about it. ¹⁵But if he cancels it later, he will suffer the consequences.” 

¹⁶These are the laws the Lord gave Moses for husbands and wives, and for fathers with young daughters still living at home. 

31ST CHAPTER

The Lord Commands Israel to Defeat Midian

¹The Lord said to Moses, ²“Get even with the Midianites for what they did to the Israelites. After that you will join your ancestors ⸤in death⸥.” 

³Moses said to the people, “Some of your men must get ready to go to war against the Midianites. The Lord will use them to get even with Midian. ⁴Send 1,000 men from each of the tribes of Israel.” 

⁵So 1,000 men from each tribe were supplied from the divisions of Israel—12,000 men ready for war. ⁶Then Moses sent them off to war, 1,000 men from each tribe along with Phinehas, son of the priest Eleazar. Phinehas took with him the holy articles and the trumpets for the fanfare. 

⁷They went to war against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. ⁸Among those killed were the five kings of Midian—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. They also killed Balaam, son of Beor, in battle. ⁹The Israelites took the Midianite women and children as prisoners of war. They also took all their animals, their livestock, and their valuables as loot. ¹⁰They burned all the cities where the Midianites lived and all their settlements. ¹¹Then they took everything as loot, including all the people and animals, ¹²and brought the prisoners of war, the loot, and everything to Moses, the priest Eleazar, and the community of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab near the Jordan River across from Jericho. 

¹³Moses, the priest Eleazar, and all the leaders of the community went outside the camp to meet them. ¹⁴Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of the companies and battalions, who were returning from battle. 

¹⁵“Why did you let all the women live?” he asked them. ¹⁶“Remember, they were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and causedthe Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the incident that took place at Peor. The Lord’s community experienced a plague at that time. ¹⁷So kill all the Midianite boys and every Midianite woman who has gone to bed with a man. ¹⁸But save for yourselves every girl who has never gone to bed with a man. 

¹⁹“Everyone who killed a person or touched a dead body must stay outside the camp seven days. You and your prisoners of war must use the ritual water on the third and seventh days in order to take away your sin. ²⁰Do the same for all the clothes and everything made of leather, goats’ hair, or wood.” 

²¹Then the priest Eleazar said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “This is what the Lord’s teachings told Moses to do: ²²Any gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead—²³anything that won’t burn—must be put through fire in order to make it clean.^bThen it must also be put through the ritual water in order to take away its sin. Whatever might burn must ⸤only⸥ be put through the ritual water. ²⁴On the seventh day wash your clothes, and you will be…