<p class="bodytext">So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fee for divination in their hand. They came to Balaam and reported<n id="1" /> to him the words of Balak.

He replied to them, &#8220;Stay<n id="1" /> here tonight, and I will bring back to you whatever word the <sc>Lordsc> may speak to me.&#8221; So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.

<t /><p class="bodytext">When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at a city of Moab which was on the border of the Arnon at the boundary of his territory.

Then Balaam<n id="1" /> uttered<n id="2" /> his oracle, saying,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Balak, the king of Moab, brought me<n id="3" /> from Aram,p> <p class="poetry">out of the mountains of the east, saying,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Come, pronounce a curse on Jacob for me;p> <p class="poetry">come, denounce Israel.&#8217;<n id="4" />p>

When Balaam<n id="1" /> came to him, he was still standing by his burnt offering, along with the princes of Moab. And Balak said to him, &#8220;What has the <sc>Lordsc> spoken?&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the Israelites in the plains of Moab along the Jordan River opposite Jericho.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">These are the commandments and the decisions that the <sc>Lordsc> commanded the Israelites through the authority<n id="1" /> of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River<n id="2" /> opposite Jericho.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">So we turned away from our relatives<n id="1" /> the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route,<n id="2" /> from Elat<n id="3" /> and Ezion Geber,<n id="4" /> and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands.

He<n id="1" /> buried him in the land of Moab near Beth Peor, but no one knows his exact burial place to this very day.

The Israelites mourned for Moses in the deserts of Moab for thirty days; then the days of mourning for Moses ended.p>

Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, launched an attack<n id="1" /> against Israel. He summoned<n id="2" /> Balaam son of Beor to call down judgment<n id="3" /> on you.

That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites<n id="1" /> &#8211; all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped.

and said to him, &#8220;This is what Jephthah says, &#8216;Israel did not steal<n id="1" /> the land of Moab and the land of the Ammonites.

Are you really better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he dare to quarrel with Israel? Did he dare to fight with them?<n id="1" />

So Naomi returned, accompanied by her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who came back with her from the region of Moab.<n id="1" /> (Now they<n id="2" /> arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.)<n id="3" />p>

The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, &#8220;She&#8217;s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;But they forgot the <sc>Lordsc> their God, so he gave<n id="1" /> them into the hand of Sisera, the general in command of Hazor&#8217;s<n id="2" /> army,<n id="3" /> and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.

Furthermore,<n id="1" /> on the hill east of Jerusalem<n id="2" /> Solomon built a high place<n id="3" /> for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh<n id="4" /> and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom.<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder.<n id="1" /> He would send as tribute<n id="2" /> to the king of Israel 100,000 male lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.

The king of Israel said, &#8220;Oh no!<n id="1" /> Certainly the <sc>Lordsc> has summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to the king of Moab!&#8221;