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30 Moses also gave the heads of the Israelite tribes these commands from the Lord:[a]
Vows
2 When a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to put himself under an obligation, he must not break his word. He must do everything that has come out of his mouth.
3 When a woman, while living in her father’s house during her youth, makes a vow to the Lord and puts herself under an obligation, 4 and her father hears about her vow and her obligation which she has undertaken, but her father says nothing to her, then all her vows will stand, and every obligation which she has undertaken will stand. 5 But if her father forbids her on the same day that he hears about them, none of her vows nor her obligations which she has undertaken will stand. The Lord will forgive her, because her father has forbidden her.
6 If she marries a husband while she is obligated by a vow or something she spoke rashly, 7 and her husband hears about it but says nothing to her on the same day that he hears about it, then her vows will stand, and her obligations which she has undertaken will be binding. 8 But if her husband forbids her on the same day that he hears about it, he will nullify her vow which obligates her and her responsibility for the things she spoke rashly. The Lord will forgive her.
9 But the vow of a widow or a divorced woman, every obligation which she put herself under, will be binding on her.
10 If, while she is still in her husband’s house, she took a vow or put herself under an obligation with an oath, 11 and her husband hears about it but says nothing to her and does not forbid her, then all her vows will stand, and every obligation under which she has put herself will stand. 12 But if her husband does indeed nullify them on the same day that he hears about them, then whatever came from her lips concerning her vows or her obligation will not stand. Her husband has nullified them. The Lord will forgive her.
13 Her husband may allow or nullify every vow or every oath in which she undertakes an obligation to deny herself.[b] 14 But if her husband indeed says nothing to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all her obligations, which are binding on her. He has allowed them, because he said nothing to her on the day that he hears about them. 15 But if he nullifies them later than the day he hears about them, then he will bear her responsibility.
16 These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses about vows pertaining to a husband and his wife, or a father and his daughter during her youth while she still lives at her father’s house.
Vengeance on the Midianites
31 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Take vengeance against the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
3 Moses spoke to the people, “Equip some of your men for combat. They will go against Midian to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on Midian. 4 Send one thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel into combat.” 5 So out of all the thousands of Israel, a military unit of a thousand was selected from each tribe—a total of twelve thousand men armed for battle. 6 Moses sent them into combat, one thousand from each tribe. Moses sent them and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, into combat. Things from the sanctuary[c] and the trumpets for signaling were in his hand.
7 They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed every male. 8 Along with the others who were slain, they killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. 9 The Israelites took the women of Midian and their children captive. They plundered all their animals, property, and possessions. 10 They burned all their cities where they settled and all their camps. 11 They took all the plunder and all the spoils of war, both people and animals. 12 They brought the captives, the spoils of war, and the plunder to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the Israelite community at the camp on the Plains of Moab, which was by the Jordan across from Jericho.
13 Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the tribal chiefs of the community went out to meet them outside of the camp. 14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds—who were coming back from the military campaign.
15 Moses said to them, “Have you allowed every woman to live? 16 Look, following Balaam’s advice, these women were the ones who incited the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, and so the plague came upon the community of the Lord. 17 Now, kill every male among the children, and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man. 18 But you may keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not had sexual relations with a man.
19 “All of you who have killed a person or touched a slain body shall stay outside of the camp for seven days. Purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. 20 Also purify every garment, every leather item, everything made of goat hair, and every item of wood.”
21 Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “These are the regulations which the Lord has commanded Moses: 22 The gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead 23 (everything that can withstand fire) you must be sure to pass through the fire, and it will be clean. It also is to be purified with the water for removing impurity. Everything that cannot withstand fire, you are to pass through the water. 24 You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you will be clean. After that, you may come into the camp.”
Dividing the Plunder
25 The Lord spoke to Moses: 26 “You, Eleazar the priest, and the leading fathers[d] of the community are to count the spoils of war—the captives, both people and animals— 27 and divide the spoils of war into two equal parts: one part for the troops who went out for combat and one for all the rest of the community. 28 Raise a tribute to the Lord to be given by the fighting men who went out for battle. Take one out of every five hundred from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks. 29 Take it from the fighting men’s half, and give it to Eleazar the priest as an elevated offering[e] to the Lord. 30 Also from the Israelites’ half, you will take one out of every fifty from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, the flocks, and all the animals, and give them to the Levites, who attend to the duties at the Lord’s Dwelling.”
31 Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. 32 Now the spoils of war remaining from the plunder that the army took was 675,000 animals from the flocks, 33 72,000 cattle, 34 61,000 donkeys, 35 and 32,000 people in all, that is, the women who had not had sexual relations with a man.
36 The half share for those who went out into combat numbered 337,500 animals from the flocks, 37 and the tribute for the Lord from the flocks was 675. 38 The cattle numbered 36,000; the tribute for the Lord was 72. 39 The donkeys numbered 30,500; the tribute for the Lord was 61. 40 The people numbered 16,000; the tribute for the Lord was 32 people. 41 Moses gave the tribute, the elevated offering to the Lord, to Eleazar the priest as the Lord commanded Moses.
42 From the Israelites’ half, which Moses set aside from the share of the men who fought, 43 the community’s half share was 337,500 animals from the flocks, 44 36,000 cattle, 45 30,500 donkeys, 46 and 16,000 people. 47 From the Israelites’ half share Moses took one out of every fifty from the people and the animals and gave them to the Levites, who attended to the duties at the Lord’s Dwelling, as the Lord commanded Moses.
48 The officers who were over the units of a thousand in the army—the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds—approached Moses. 49 They said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a head count of the fighting men who were under our command, and not one of them is missing. 50 So we have brought as an offering to the Lord the gold items which every man acquired—armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”
51 Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from them, all the crafted items. 52 All the gold from the elevated offering that the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds lifted up to the Lord amounted to 16,750 shekels.[f] 53 Each of the soldiers had taken plunder for himself. 54 Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the commanders of thousands and hundreds and brought it into the Tent of Meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.
The Devil Tempts Jesus
4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days. He did not eat anything during those days. When they came to an end, he was hungry. 3 The Devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”[a]
5 The Devil led him up to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 The Devil told him, “I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms, because it has been entrusted to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. 7 So, if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”[b]
9 The Devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here, 10 because it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you.
11 And,
they will lift you up with their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”[c]
12 Jesus answered him, “It says: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’”[d]
13 When the Devil had finished every temptation, he left him until an opportune time.
A Prophet in His Hometown
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues and being honored by everyone.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.[e]
20 He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 They all spoke well of him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from his mouth. And they kept saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23 He told them, “Certainly you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ Do here in your hometown everything we heard you did in Capernaum.” 24 And he said, “Amen[f] I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. 26 Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. 29 They got up and drove him out of the town. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the middle of them and went on his way.
Psalm 63
My Soul Thirsts for You
Heading
A psalm by David. When he was in the wilderness of Judah.[a]
Thirsting for God
1 God, you are my God. Eagerly I seek you.
My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you,
in a dry and dreary land without water.
2 Yes, in the sanctuary I have watched you
to see your power and your glory.
Joy Even in Adversity
3 Because your mercy is better than life,
my lips will worship you.
4 Yes, I will bless you as long as I live.
In your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied with rich food.[b]
My mouth will praise you with lips filled with songs.
6 Whenever I remember you on my bed,
throughout the watches of the night I meditate on you.
7 Because you are a help for me,
I sing for joy under the shade of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you.
Your right hand upholds me.
Destruction for the Defiant
9 But those who seek my life will go to destruction.
They will go into the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the power of the sword.
They will become food for foxes.[c]
11 But the king will rejoice in God.
All who swear by him will praise him,
but the mouths of those speaking lies will be shut.
20 Perverted hearts are disgusting to the Lord,
but his favor rests on those whose way has integrity.
21 Be sure of this: An evil person will not go unpunished,
but the children of the righteous will escape.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.