231 Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. 3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you.”
He went to a bare height. 4 God met Balaam: and he said to him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.” 5 Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. 7 He took up his parable, and said,
“From Aram has Balak brought me,
the king of Moab from the mountains of the East.
Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, defy Israel. 8 How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied? 9 For from the top of the rocks I see him.
From the hills I see him.
Behold, it is a people that dwells alone,
and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous!
Let my last end be like his!” 11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.” 12 He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?”
13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from whence you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me them from there.” 14 He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar. 15 He said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet Yahweh yonder.” 16 Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and say this.” 17 He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?” 18 He took up his parable, and said,
“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, you son of Zippor. 19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor the son of man, that he should repent.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good? 20 Behold, I have received a command to bless.
He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it. 21 He has not seen iniquity in Jacob.
Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.
Yahweh his God is with him.
The shout of a king is among them. 22 God brings them out of Egypt.
He has as it were the strength of the wild ox. 23 Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob;
Neither is there any divination with Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
What has God done! 24 Behold, the people rises up as a lioness,
As a lion he lifts himself up.
He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey,
and drinks the blood of the slain.” 25 Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.” 26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?’” 27 Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse me them from there.” 28 Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. 29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
31 Now this is the history of the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that Yahweh spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai. 2 These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests who were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest’s office. 4 Nadab and Abihu died before Yahweh, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office in the presence of Aaron their father. 5 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. 7 They shall keep his requirements, and the requirements of the whole congregation before the Tent of Meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle. 8 They shall keep all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, and the obligations of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. 9 You shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons. They are wholly given to him on the behalf of the children of Israel. 10 You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.” 11 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine: 13 for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I made holy to me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and animal. They shall be mine. I am Yahweh.”
14 Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, 15 “Count the children of Levi by their fathers’ houses, by their families. You shall count every male from a month old and upward.” 16 Moses numbered them according to the word of Yahweh, as he was commanded. 17 These were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari. 18 These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei. 19 The sons of Kohath by their families: Amram, and Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. 20 The sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi.
These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers’ houses. 21 Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, and the family of the Shimeites: these are the families of the Gershonites. 22 Those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, even those who were numbered of them were seven thousand five hundred. 23 The families of the Gershonites shall encamp behind the tabernacle westward. 24 The prince of the fathers’ house of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael. 25 The duty of the sons of Gershon in the Tent of Meeting shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, its covering, and the screen for the door of the Tent of Meeting, 26 and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the door of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and around the altar, and its cords for all of its service. 27 Of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the families of the Kohathites. 28 According to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, there were eight thousand six hundred, keeping the requirements of the sanctuary. 29 The families of the sons of Kohath shall encamp on the south side of the tabernacle. 30 The prince of the fathers’ house of the families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. 31 Their duty shall be the ark, the table, the lamp stand, the altars, the vessels of the sanctuary with which they minister, and the screen, and all its service. 32 Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be prince of the princes of the Levites, with the oversight of those who keep the requirements of the sanctuary. 33 Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and the family of the Mushites. These are the families of Merari. 34 Those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were six thousand two hundred. 35 The prince of the fathers’ house of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They shall encamp on the north side of the tabernacle. 36 The appointed duty of the sons of Merari shall be the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, all its instruments, all its service, 37 the pillars of the court around it, their sockets, their pins, and their cords. 38 Those who encamp before the tabernacle eastward, in front of the Tent of Meeting toward the sunrise, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the requirements of the sanctuary for the duty of the children of Israel. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death. 39 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of Yahweh, by their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty-two thousand.
40 Yahweh said to Moses, “Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names. 41 You shall take the Levites for me (I am Yahweh) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the livestock of the children of Israel.” 42 Moses numbered, as Yahweh commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel. 43 All the firstborn males according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three. 44 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 45 “Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock; and the Levites shall be mine. I am Yahweh. 46 For the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who exceed the number of the Levites, 47 you shall take five shekels apiece for each one; after the shekel of the sanctuary you shall take them (the shekel is twenty gerahs): 48 and you shall give the money, with which the remainder of them is redeemed, to Aaron and to his sons.” 49 Moses took the redemption money from those who exceeded the number of those who were redeemed by the Levites; 50 from the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, one thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: 51 and Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
