Study Desk

Now, please, you too, stay here tonight; so that I may find out what else Adonai will say to me."

(LY: iii) So Bil‘am got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Mo'av.

The donkey saw the angel of Adonai standing on the road, drawn sword in hand; so the donkey turned off the road into the field; and Bil‘am had to beat the donkey to get it back on the road.

The donkey saw the angel of Adonai and pushed up against the wall, crushing Bil‘am's foot against the wall. So he beat it again.

The angel of Adonai moved ahead and stood in a place so tight that there was no room to turn either right or left.

Again the donkey saw the angel of Adonai and lay down under Bil‘am, which made him so angry that he hit the donkey with his stick.

Then Adonai opened Bil‘am's eyes, so that he could see the angel of Adonai standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, and he bowed his head and fell on his face.

But the angel of Adonai said to Bil‘am, "No, go on with the men; but you are to say only what I tell you to say." So Bil‘am went along with the princes of Balak.

So he made his pronouncement: "This is the speech of Bil‘am, son of B‘or; the speech of the man whose eyes have been opened;

Adonai said to Moshe, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them facing the sun before Adonai , so that the raging fury of Adonai will turn away from Isra'el."

nevertheless, 24,000 died in the plague. Haftarah Balak: Mikhah (Micah) 5:6(7)– 6:8 B'rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Balak: 2 Kefa (2 Peter) 2:1–22; Y'hudah (Jude) 11; Revelation 2:14–15 Adonai said to Moshe, "Pinchas the son of El‘azar, the son of Aharon the cohen, has deflected my anger from the people of Isra'el by being as zealous as I am, so that I didn't destroy them in my own zeal. Therefore say, ‘I am giving him my covenant of shalom, making a covenant with him and his descendants after him that the office of cohen will be theirs forever.' This is because he was zealous on behalf of his God and made atonement for the people of Isra'el." The name of the man from Isra'el who was killed, put to death with the woman from Midyan, was Zimri the son of Salu, leader of one of the clans from the tribe of Shim‘on. The name of the woman from Midyan who was killed was Kozbi the daughter of Tzur, and he was head of the people in one of the clans of Midyan. Adonai said to Moshe, "Treat the Midyanim as enemies and attack them; because they are treating you as enemies by the trickery they used to deceive you in the P‘or incident and in the affair of their sister Kozbi, the daughter of the leader from Midyan, the woman who was killed on the day of the plague in the P‘or incident." After the plague,

"Pinchas the son of El‘azar, the son of Aharon the cohen, has deflected my anger from the people of Isra'el by being as zealous as I am, so that I didn't destroy them in my own zeal.

because Adonai had said of them, "They will surely die in the desert." So there was not left even one of them, except Kalev the son of Y'funeh and Y'hoshua the son of Nun.

to go out and come in ahead of them, to lead them out and bring them in, so that Adonai 's community will not be like sheep without a shepherd."

Delegate to him some of your authority, so that the entire community of Isra'el will obey him.

So out of the thousands of people in Isra'el, a thousand armed men from each tribe, 12,000 altogether, were mustered for war.

Why, these are the ones who — because of Bil‘am's advice — caused the people of Isra'el to rebel, breaking faith with Adonai in the P‘or incident, so that the plague broke out among Adonai 's community!

can all withstand fire, so that you are indeed to purify everything made of these materials by having them pass through fire; nevertheless they must also be purified with the water for purification. Everything that can't withstand fire you are to have go through the water.

For when they went up to the Eshkol Valley and saw the land, they disheartened the people of Isra'el, so that they wouldn't enter the land Adonai had given them.

Thus Adonai 's anger blazed against Isra'el, so that he made them wander here and there in the desert forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of Adonai had died out.