Study Desk

God brought them out of Egypt;he is like the horns of a wild ox for them.

There is no magic curse against Jacoband no divination against Israel.It will now be said about Jacob and Israel,“What great things God has done!”

Again Balak said to Balaam, “Please come. I will take you to another place. Maybe it will be agreeable to God that you can put a curse on them for me there.”

When Balaam looked up and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came on him,

the oracle of one who hears the sayings of God,who sees a vision from the Almighty,who falls into a trance with his eyes uncovered:

God brought him out of Egypt;he is like the horns of a wild ox for them.He will feed on enemy nationsand gnaw their bones;he will strike them with his arrows.

It will be a covenant of perpetual priesthood for him and his future descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

“May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all, appoint a man over the community

“The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb: ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough.

The Lord your God has so multiplied you that today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky.

May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times more, and bless you as he promised you.

Do not show partiality when deciding a case; listen to small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.

“We then set out from Horeb and went across all the great and terrible wilderness you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,

I said to you: You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

They took some of the fruit from the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us back a report: ‘The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.’

“But you were not willing to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.

The Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you, just as you saw him do for you in Egypt.

And you saw in the wilderness how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son all along the way you traveled until you reached this place.

But in spite of this you did not trust the Lord your God,