So ¹  now, please come and curse this nation ²  for me, for they are too powerful for me. Perhaps I will prevail so that we may conquer them ³  and drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, ⁴  and whoever you curse is cursed.”

Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ¹  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ²  I will go back home.” ³ 

Those of them who were numbered were 23,000, all males from a month old and upward, for they were not numbered among the Israelites; no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.

For the Lord had said of them, “They will surely die in the wilderness.” And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

“You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

“Tell the Israelites, ‘When ¹  a man or a woman commits any sin that people commit, ²  thereby breaking faith ³  with the Lord, and that person is found guilty, ⁴ 

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,

But if you ¹  have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had sexual relations with you….” ² 

“Speak to the Israelites, and tell them, ‘When either a man or a woman ¹  takes a special vow, ²  to take a vow ³  as a Nazirite, ⁴  to separate ⁵  himself to the Lord,

He must not defile himself even ¹  for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister if they die, ²  because the separation ³  for ⁴  his God is on his head.

He must rededicate ¹  to the Lord the days of his separation and bring a male lamb in its first year as a reparation offering, ²  but the former days will not be counted ³  because his separation ⁴  was defiled.

For all the firstborn males among the Israelites are mine, both humans and animals; when I destroyed ¹  all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I set them apart for myself.

Moses ¹  said, “Do not leave us, ²  because you know places for us to camp in the wilderness, and you could be our guide. ³ 

And if you come with us, it is certain ¹  that whatever good things the Lord will favor us with, we will share with you as well.”

From where shall I get ¹  meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat!’ ² 

Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? ¹  I wish that ²  all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, ¹  because there they buried the people that craved different food. ² 

¹ Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against ²  Moses because of the Cushite ³  woman he had married ⁴  (for he had married an Ethiopian woman).

But ¹  the inhabitants ²  are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up ¹  and occupy it, ²  for we are well able to conquer it.” ³