Numbers 23 - 24 - Legacy Standard Bible

Numbers 23 - 24

Yahweh Speaks Through Balaam

Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 2 So Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill. 4 Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” 5 Then Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.” 6 So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. 7 Then he took up his discourse and said,

“From Aram Balak has brought me,

Moab’s king from the mountains of the East,

‘Come curse Jacob for me,

And come, denounce Israel!’

How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?

And how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?

For I see him from the top of the rocks,

And I look at him from the hills;

Behold, a people who dwells alone,

And will not be reckoned among the nations.

Who can number the dust of Jacob,

Or count the fourth part of Israel?

Let me die the death of the upright,

And let my end be like his!”

11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have blessed them repeatedly!” 12 And he replied, “Must I not be careful to speak what Yahweh puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Discourse

13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, but you will only see the end of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.” 14 So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet Yahweh over there.” 16 Then Yahweh met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 17 So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?” 18 Then he took up his discourse and said,

“Arise, O Balak, and hear;

Give ear to me, O son of Zippor!

God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent;

Has He said, and will He not do it?

Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?

Behold, I have received a command to bless;

When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.

He has not observed misfortune in Jacob;

Nor has He seen trouble in Israel;

Yahweh his God is with him,

And the shout of a king is among them.

God brings them out of Egypt,

He is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

For there is no omen against Jacob,

Nor is there any divination against Israel;

At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob

And to Israel, what God has done!

Behold, a people rises like a lioness,

And as a lion it lifts itself;

It will not lie down until it devours the prey,

And drinks the blood of the slain.”

25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” 26 But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘Whatever Yahweh speaks, that I must do’?” 27 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be right in the eyes of God that you curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the wasteland. 29 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30 And Balak did just as Balaam had said and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

Spirit of God Comes upon Balaam

And Balaam saw that it was good in the eyes of Yahweh to bless Israel, so he did not go as at other times to encounter omens, but he set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel dwelling tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him. 3 Then he took up his discourse and said,

“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,

And the oracle of the man whose eye is uncovered;

The oracle of him who hears the words of God,

Who beholds the vision of the Almighty,

Falling down, yet having his eyes opened,

How fair are your tents, O Jacob,

Your dwellings, O Israel!

Like valleys that stretch out,

Like gardens beside the river,

Like aloes planted by Yahweh,

Like cedars beside the waters.

Water will flow from his buckets,

And his seed will be by many waters,

And his king shall be lifted up higher than Agag,

And his kingdom shall be exalted.

God brings him out of Egypt,

He is for him like the horns of the wild ox.

He will devour the nations who are his adversaries,

And will gnaw their bones in pieces,

And shatter them with his arrows.

He crouches, he lies down as a lion,

And as a lion, who dares rouse him?

Blessed is everyone who blesses you,

And cursed is everyone who curses you.”

10 Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have blessed them repeatedly these three times! 11 So now, flee to your place. I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, Yahweh has held you back from honor.” 12 And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you had sent to me, saying, 13 ‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything to trespass the command of Yahweh, either good or bad, of my own accord. What Yahweh speaks, that I will speak’? 14 So now, behold, I am going to my people; come, and I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the last days.”

Oracle of Balaam

15 Then he took up his discourse and said,

“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,

And the oracle of the man whose eye is uncovered,

The oracle of him who hears the words of God,

And knows the knowledge of the Most High,

Who beholds the vision of the Almighty,

Falling down, yet having his eyes opened.

I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not near;

A star shall come forth from Jacob,

A scepter shall rise from Israel,

And shall crush through the forehead of Moab,

And tear down all the sons of Sheth.

And Edom shall be a possession,

Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession,

While Israel performs valiantly.

And one from Jacob shall have dominion,

And will make the survivor perish from the city.”

20 Then he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said,

“Amalek was the first of the nations,

But his end shall be destruction.”

21 Then he looked at the Kenite and took up his discourse and said,

“Your habitation is enduring,

And your nest is set in the cliff.

Nevertheless Kain will be consumed;

How long will Asshur keep you captive?”

23 Then he took up his discourse and said,

“Woe, who can live except when God has ordained it?

But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim,

And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber;

So they also will come to destruction.”

25 Then Balaam arose and went and returned to his place, and Balak also went his way.

Romans 7

Released from the Law

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. 4 So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law. For I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 Now I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me. 11 For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The Conflict of Two Natures

13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been sold into bondage under sin. 15 For what I am working out, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the Law, that it is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that in me evil is present—in me who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Psalm 100 - 101

Serve Yahweh with Gladness

A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

Make a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth.

Serve Yahweh with gladness;

Come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that Yahweh, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

And His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For Yahweh is good;

His lovingkindness endures forever

And His faithfulness, generation unto generation.

Consider the Way of the Blameless

Of David. A Psalm.

I will sing of lovingkindness and justice,

To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises.

I will consider the way of the blameless.

When will You come to me?

I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

I will set no vile thing before my eyes;

I hate the work of those who fall away;

It shall not cling to me.

A crooked heart shall depart from me;

I will know no evil.

Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy;

Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure.

My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may abide with me;

He who walks in the way of the blameless is the one who will minister to me.

He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;

He who speaks lies shall not be established before my eyes.

Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land,

To cut off from the city of Yahweh all the workers of iniquity.