Balaam ¹  uttered ²  his oracle, and said, “Rise up, ³  Balak, and hear; Listen to me, son of Zippor:

¹ Moses told the leaders ²  of the tribes concerning the Israelites, “This is what ³  the Lord has commanded:

Then Moses replied, ¹  “If you will do this thing, and if you will arm yourselves for battle before the Lord,

“But if you do not do this, then look, you will have sinned ¹  against the Lord. And know that your sin will find you out.

“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 

“How long must I bear ¹  with this evil congregation ²  that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me.

Say to them, ‘As I live, ¹  says ²  the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. ³ 

You will by no means enter into the land where ¹  I swore ²  to settle ³  you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

But they dared ¹  to go up to the crest of the hill, although ²  neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.

“All the service of the Gershonites, whether ¹  carrying loads ²  or for any of their work, will be at the direction of ³  Aaron and his sons. You will assign them all their tasks ⁴  as their responsibility.

So Aaron did ¹  as Moses commanded ²  and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people.

Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself ¹  by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me ²  I will tell you.” ³  Then he went to a deserted height. ⁴ 

Then Balaam ¹  uttered ²  his oracle, saying, “Balak, the king of Moab, brought me ³  from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, ‘Come, pronounce a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’ ⁴ 

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, ¹  that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? ² 

They crouch and lie down like a lion, and as a lioness, ¹  who can stir him? Blessed is the one who blesses you, and cursed is the one who curses you!’”

But if her father overrules her when he hears ¹  about it, then none ²  of her vows or her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand. And the Lord will release ³  her from it, because her father overruled her.

When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness – her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

then they will tell it to the inhabitants ¹  of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, ²  that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.