Numbers 29–31

Festival of Trumpets Offerings

29“You are to hold a sacred assembly in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, and you are not to do any daily work. ^fThis will be a day of joyful shouting ^gfor you. ^h2Offer a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord: one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ³with their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, six quarts ⁱwith the bull, four quarts ^jwith the ram, ⁴and two quarts ^kwith each of the seven male lambs. ⁵Also offer one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for yourselves. ⁶These are in addition to the monthly and regular burnt offerings with their prescribed grain offerings and drink offerings. They are a pleasing aroma, a fire offering to the Lord.

Offerings for the Day of Atonement

⁷“You are to hold a sacred assembly on the tenth day of this seventh month and practice self-denial; ^lmyou must not do any work. ⁸Present a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma: one young bull, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old. All your animals are to be unblemished. ⁹Their grain offering is to be of fine flour mixed with oil, six quarts ⁿwith the bull, four quarts ^owith the ram, ¹⁰and two quarts ^pwith each of the seven lambs. ¹¹Offer one male goat for a sin offering. The regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offerings are in addition to the sin offering of atonement.

Offerings for the Festival of Booths

¹²“You are to hold a sacred assembly on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; ^qyou must not do any daily work. You are to celebrate a seven-day festival for the Lord. ¹³Present a burnt offering, a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord: 13 young bulls, two rams, and 14 male lambs a year old. They are to be unblemished. ¹⁴Their grain offering is to be of fine flour mixed with oil, six quarts ^rwith each of the 13 bulls, four quarts ^swith each of the two rams, ¹⁵and two quarts ^twith each of the 14 lambs. ¹⁶Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink offerings.

¹⁷“On the second day present 12 young bulls, two rams, and 14 male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ¹⁸with their grain and drink offerings ^ufor the bulls, rams, and lambs, in proportion to their number. ¹⁹Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink ^vofferings.

²⁰“On the third day present 11 bulls, two rams, 14 male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ²¹with their grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, in proportion to their number. ²²Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink offerings.

²³“On the fourth day present 10 bulls, two rams, 14 male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ²⁴with their grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, in proportion to their number. ²⁵Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink offerings.

²⁶“On the fifth day present nine bulls, two rams, 14 male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ²⁷with their grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, in proportion to their number. ²⁸Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink offerings.

²⁹“On the sixth day present eight bulls, two rams, 14 male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ³⁰with their grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, in proportion to their number. ³¹Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink ^wofferings.

³²“On the seventh day present seven bulls, two rams, and 14 male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ³³with their grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, in proportion to their number. ³⁴Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink offerings.

³⁵“On the eighth day you are to hold a solemn assembly; you are not to do any daily work. ^x36Present a burnt offering, a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old—all unblemished— ³⁷with their grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, in proportion to their number. ³⁸Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. These are in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain and drink offerings.

³⁹“You must offer these to the Lord at your appointed times in addition to your vow and freewill offerings, whether burnt, grain, drink, or fellowship offerings.” ^40ySo Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him.

Regulations about Vows

30Moses told the leaders of the Israelite tribes, ^z“This is what the Lord has commanded: ²When a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to put himself under an obligation, he must not break his word; he must do whatever he has promised. ^a

³“When a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the Lord or puts herself under an obligation, ⁴and her father hears about her vow or the obligation she put herself under, and he says nothing to her, all her vows and every obligation she put herself under are binding. ⁵But if her father prohibits her on the day he hears about it, none of her vows and none of the obligations she put herself under are binding. The Lord will absolve her because her father has prohibited her.

⁶“If a woman marries while her vows or the rash commitment she herself made are binding, ⁷and her husband hears about it and says nothing to her when he finds out, her vows are binding, and the obligations she put herself under are binding. ⁸But if her husband prohibits her when he hears about it, he will cancel her vow that is binding or the rash commitment she herself made, and the Lord will forgive her.

⁹“Every vow a widow or divorced woman puts herself under is binding on her.

¹⁰“If a woman in her husband’s house has made a vow or put herself under an obligation with an oath, ¹¹and her husband hears about it, says nothing to her, and does not prohibit her, all her vows are binding, and every obligation she put herself under is binding. ¹²But if her husband cancels them on the day he hears about it, nothing that came from her lips, whether her vows or her obligation, is binding. Her husband has canceled them, and the Lord will absolve her. ¹³Her husband may confirm or cancel any vow or any sworn obligation to deny herself. ¹⁴If her husband says nothing at all to her from day to day, he confirms all her vows and obligations, which are binding. He has confirmed them because he said nothing to her when he heard about them. ¹⁵But if he cancels them after he hears about them, he will be responsible for her ^bcommitment.” ^c

¹⁶These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the relationship between a man and his wife, or between a father and his daughter in his house during her youth.

War with Midian

31The Lord spoke to Moses, ²“Execute vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.” ^d

³So Moses spoke to the people, “Equip some of your men for war. They will go against Midian to inflict the Lord’s vengeance ^eon them. ⁴Send 1,000 men to war from each Israelite tribe.” ⁵So 1,000 were recruited from each Israelite tribe out of the thousands ^fin Israel—12,000 equipped for war. ⁶Moses sent 1,000 from each tribe to war. They went with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, in whose care were the holy objects and signal trumpets.

⁷They waged war against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male. ^g8Along with the others slain by them, they killed the Midianite kings—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. ^hThey also killed Balaam son of Beor ⁱwith the sword. ⁹The Israelites took the Midianite women and their children captive, and they plundered all their cattle, flocks, and property. ^j10Then they burned all the cities where the Midianites lived, as well as all their encampments, ¹¹and took away all the spoils of war and the captives, both man and beast. ¹²They brought the prisoners, animals, and spoils of war to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the Israelite community at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

¹³Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴But Moses became furious with the officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, who were returning from the military campaign. ¹⁵“Have ^kyou let every female live?” he asked them. ¹⁶“Yet they are the ones who, at Balaam’s advice, incited the Israelites to unfaithfulness against the Lord in the Peor incident, so that the plague came against the Lord’s community. ^l17So now, kill all the male children and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man, ^m18but keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not had sexual relations. ⁿ

¹⁹“You are to remain outside the camp for seven days. All of you and your prisoners who have killed a person or touched the dead are to purify yourselves on the third day and the seventh day. ^o20Also purify everything: garments, leather goods, things made of goat hair, and every article of wood.” ^p

²¹Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone to battle, “This is the legal statute the Lord commanded Moses: ²²Only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead— ²³everything that can withstand fire—you are to pass through fire, and it will be clean. It must still be purified with the purification water. ^qAnything that cannot withstand fire, pass through the water. ²⁴On the seventh day wash your clothes, and you will be clean. ^rAfter that you may enter the camp.”

²⁵The Lord told Moses, ²⁶“You, Eleazar the…