So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into our hand, then we will utterly destroy their cities.”

Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not send again and again to you to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?”

Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you. Now, am I able to speak just anything? I must speak only the word that God puts in my mouth.”

Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but on the contrary you have only blessed them!”

And now, I am about to go back to my own people. Come now, and I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in the future.”

“If a young woman who is still living in her father’s house makes a vow to the Lord or places herself under an obligation,

So they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for our inheritance. Do not have us cross the Jordan River.”

or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm,

But the Lord told me: “Tell them this: ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.’”

Sell me food for cash so that I can eat and sell me water to drink. Just allow me to go through on foot,

The Lord said to me, “Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession.”

Be careful, therefore, to do exactly what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn right or left!

Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols.

I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.”

Now pay attention to all the commandments I am giving you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed,

However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself – you must not eat the life with the meat!

When the Lord your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land.

You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him.

If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors and gives you all the land he pledged to them,

then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges who will be in office in those days.