Bible Reading Plan – Day 46

₁₂Gather for worship on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Celebrate this festival in honour of the LORD for seven days and do no work. ₁₃On this first day offer a food offering to the LORD, a smell pleasing to him: thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. ₁₄Offer the proper grain offering of flour mixed with olive oil: three kilogrammes of flour with each bull, two kilogrammes with each ram, ₁₅and one kilogramme with each lamb, with the required wine offerings. ₁₆Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. Offer these in addition to the daily burnt offering with its grain offering and wine offering.

₁₇On the second day offer twelve young bulls, two rams, and fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. _18-19Offer with them all the other offerings required for the first day.

₂₀On the third day offer eleven young bulls, two rams, and fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. _21-22Offer with them all the other offerings required for the first day.

₂₃On the fourth day offer ten young bulls, two rams, and fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. _24-25Offer with them all the other offerings required for the first day.

₂₆On the fifth day offer nine young bulls, two rams, and fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. _27-28Offer with them all the other offerings required for the first day.

₂₉On the sixth day offer eight young bulls, two rams, and fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. _30-31Offer with them all the other offerings required for the first day.

₃₂On the seventh day offer seven young bulls, two rams, and fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. _33-34Offer with them all the other offerings required for the first day.

₃₅On the eighth day gather for worship and do no work. ₃₆Offer a burnt offering as a food offering to the LORD, a smell pleasing to him: one young bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old male lambs, all without any defects. _37-38Offer with them all the other offerings required for the first day.

₃₉These are the regulations concerning the burnt offerings, grain offerings, wine offerings, and fellowship offerings that you are to make to the LORD at your appointed festivals. These are in addition to the offerings you give in fulfilment of a vow or as freewill offerings.

₄₀So Moses told the people of Israel everything that the LORD had commanded him.

₁Moses gave the following instructions to the leaders of the tribes of Israel. ₂When a man makes a vow to give something to the LORD or takes an oath to abstain from something, he must not break his promise, but must do everything that he said he would.

₃When a young woman still living in her father's house makes a vow to give something to the LORD or promises to abstain from something, ₄she must do everything that she vowed or promised unless her father raises an objection when he hears about it. ₅But if her father forbids her to fulfil the vow when he hears about it, she is not required to keep it. The LORD will forgive her, because her father refused to let her keep it.

₆If an unmarried woman makes a vow, whether deliberately or carelessly, or promises to abstain from something, and then marries, ₇she must do everything that she vowed or promised unless her husband raises an objection when he hears about it. ₈But if her husband forbids her to fulfil the vow when he hears about it, she is not required to keep it. The LORD will forgive her.

₉A widow or a divorced woman must keep every vow she makes and every promise to abstain from something.

₁₀If a married woman makes a vow or promises to abstain from something, ₁₁she must do everything that she vowed or promised unless her husband raises an objection when he hears about it. ₁₂But if her husband forbids her to fulfil the vow when he hears about it, she is not required to keep it. The LORD will forgive her, because her husband prevented her from keeping her vow. ₁₃Her husband has the right to affirm or to annul any vow or promise that she has made. ₁₄But if, by the day after he hears of the vow, he has raised no objection, she must do everything that she has vowed or promised. He has affirmed the vow by not objecting on the day he heard of it. ₁₅But if he later annuls the vow, he must suffer the consequences for the failure to fulfil the vow.

₁₆These are the rules that the LORD gave Moses concerning vows made by an unmarried woman living in her father's house or by a married woman.

₁The LORD said to Moses, ₂“Punish the Midianites for what they did to the people of Israel. After you have done that, you will die.”

₃So Moses said to the people, “Get ready for war, so that you can attack Midian and punish them for what they did to the LORD. ₄From each tribe of Israel send a thousand men to war.”

₅So a thousand men were chosen from each tribe, a total of 12,000 men ready for battle. ₆Moses sent them to war under the command of Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who took charge of the sacred objects and the trumpets for giving signals. ₇They attacked Midian, as the LORD had commanded Moses, and killed all the men, ₈including the five kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. They also killed Balaam son of Beor.

₉The people of Israel captured the Midianite women and children, took their cattle and their flocks, plundered all their wealth, ₁₀and burnt all their cities and camps. ₁₁They took all the loot that they had captured, including the prisoners and the animals, ₁₂and brought them to Moses and Eleazar and to the community of the people of Israel, who were at the camp on the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho.

₁₃Moses, Eleazar, and all the other leaders of the community went out of the camp to meet the army. ₁₄Moses was angry with the officers, the commanders of battalions and companies, who had returned from the war. ₁₅He asked them, “Why have you kept all the women alive? ₁₆Remember that it was the women who followed Balaam's instructions and at Peor led the people to be unfaithful to the LORD. That was what brought the epidemic on the LORD's people. ₁₇So now kill every boy and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse, ₁₈but keep alive for yourselves all the girls and all the women who are virgins. ₁₉Now all of you who have killed anyone or have touched a corpse must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and on the seventh day purify yourselves and the women you have captured. ₂₀You must also purify every piece of clothing and everything made of leather, goats' hair, or wood.”

₂₁Eleazar the priest said to the men who had returned from battle, “These are the regulations that the LORD has given to Moses. _22-23Everything that will not burn, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead, is to be purified by passing it through fire. Everything else is to be purified by the water for purification. ₂₄On the seventh day you must wash your clothes; then you will be ritually clean and will be permitted to enter the camp.”

₂₅The LORD said to Moses, ₂₆“You and Eleazar, together with the other leaders of the community, are to count everything that has been captured, including the prisoners and the animals. ₂₇Divide what was taken into two equal parts, one part for the soldiers and the other part for the rest of the community. ₂₈From the part that belongs to the soldiers, withhold as a tax for the LORD one out of every 500 prisoners and the same proportion of the cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats. ₂₉Give them to Eleazar the priest as a special contribution to the LORD. ₃₀From the part given to the rest of the people, take one out of every fifty prisoners and the same proportion of the cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats. Give them to the Levites who are in charge of the LORD's Tent.” ₃₁Moses and Eleazar did what the LORD commanded.

_32-35The following is a list of what was captured by the soldiers, in addition to what they kept for themselves: 675,000 sheep and goats, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 virgins. _36-40The half-share of the soldiers was 337,500 sheep and goats, of which 675 were the tax for the LORD; 36,000 cattle for the soldiers, of which 72 were the tax for the LORD; 30,500 donkeys for the soldiers, of which 61 were the tax for the LORD; and 16,000 virgins for the soldiers, of which 32 were the tax for the LORD. ₄₁So Moses gave Eleazar the tax as a special contribution to the LORD, as the LORD had commanded.

_42-46The share of the community was the same as that for the soldiers: 337,500 sheep and goats, 36,000 cattle, 30,500 donkeys, and 16,000 virgins. ₄₇From this share Moses took one out of every fifty prisoners and animals, and as the LORD had commanded, gave them to the Levites who were in charge of the LORD's Tent.

₄₈Then the officers who had commanded the army went to Moses ₄₉and reported, “Sir, we have counted the soldiers under our command and not one of them is missing. ₅₀So we are bringing the gold ornaments, armlets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces that each of us has taken. We offer them to the LORD as a payment for our lives, so that he will protect us.” ₅₁Moses and Eleazar received the gold, all of which was in the form of ornaments. ₅₂The total contribution of the officers weighed nearly 200 kilogrammes. ₅₃Those who were not officers kept the loot they had taken. ₅₄So Moses and Eleazar took the gold to the Tent, so that the LORD would protect the people of Israel.

₁The tribes of Reuben and Gad had a lot of livestock. When they saw how suitable the land of Jazer and Gilead was for cattle, ₂they went to Moses, Eleazar, and the other leaders of the community and said, _3-4“This region which the LORD has helped the Israelites to occupy — the towns of Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sibmah, Nebo, and Beon — is good land for livestock, and we have so much livestock. ₅Please give us this land as our property, and do not make us cross the River Jordan and settle there.”

₆Moses replied, “Do you want to stay here while your fellow-Israelites go to war? ₇How dare you try to discourage the people of Israel from crossing the Jordan into the land which the LORD has given them? ₈That is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. ₉They went as far as the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, but when they returned, they discouraged the people from entering the land which the LORD had given them. ₁₀The LORD was angry that day and made a promise: ₁₁‘I swear that because they did not remain loyal to me, none of the men twenty years old or older who came out of Egypt will enter the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ ₁₂This included everyone, except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun; they remained loyal to the LORD. ₁₃The LORD was angry with the people and made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until that whole generation that had displeased him was dead. ₁₄And now you have taken your fathers' place, a new generation of sinful men ready to bring down the fierce anger of the LORD on Israel again. ₁₅If you people of Reuben and Gad refuse to follow him now, he will once again abandon all these people in the wilderness, and you will be responsible for their destruction.”

₁₆They approached Moses and said, “First, allow us to build stone enclosures here for our sheep and fortified towns for our dependants. ₁₇Then we will be ready to go with our fellow-Israelites into battle and lead the attack until we have settled them in the land that will be theirs. In the meantime, our dependants can live here in the fortified towns, safe from the people of this land. ₁₈We will not return to our homes until all the other Israelites have taken possession of the land assigned to them. ₁₉We will not take possession of any property among them on the other side of the Jordan, because we have received our share here east of the Jordan.”

₂₀Moses answered, “If you really mean what you say, then here in the presence of the LORD get ready to go into battle. ₂₁All your fighting men are to cross the Jordan and under the command of the LORD they are to attack our enemies until the LORD defeats them ₂₂and takes possession of the land. After that, you may return, because you will have fulfilled your obligation to the LORD and to your fellow-Israelites. Then the LORD will acknowledge that this land east of the Jordan is yours. ₂₃But if you do not keep your promise, I warn you that you will be sinning against the LORD. Make no mistake about it; you will be punished for your sin. ₂₄So build your towns and the enclosures for your sheep, but do what you have promised!”

₂₅The men of Gad and Reuben said, “Sir, we will do as you command. ₂₆Our wives and children and our cattle and sheep will remain here in the towns of Gilead. ₂₇But all of us are ready to go into battle under the LORD's command. We will cross the Jordan and fight, just as you have said.”

₂₈So Moses gave these commands to Eleazar, Joshua, and the other leaders of Israel: ₂₉“If the men of Gad and Reuben cross the Jordan ready for battle at the LORD's command and if with their help you are able to conquer the land, then give them the land of Gilead as their property. ₃₀But if they do not cross the Jordan and go into battle with you, they are to receive their share of the property in the land of Canaan, as you do.”

₃₁The men of Gad and Reuben answered, “Sir, we will do as the LORD has commanded. ₃₂Under his command we will cross into the land of Canaan and go into battle, so that we can retain our property here east of the Jordan.”

₃₃So Moses assigned to the tribes of Gad and Reuben and to half the tribe of Manasseh all the territory of King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan, including the towns and the country round them. ₃₄The tribe of Gad rebuilt the fortified towns of Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ₃₅Atroth Shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ₃₆Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran. ₃₇The tribe of Reuben rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ₃₈Nebo, Baal Meon (this name was changed), and Sibmah. They gave new names to the towns they rebuilt.

₃₉The clan of Machir son of Manasseh invaded the land of Gilead, occupied it, and drove out the Amorites who were there. ₄₀So Moses gave Gilead to the clan of Machir, and they lived there. ₄₁Jair, of the tribe of Manasseh, attacked and captured some villages and named them “Villages of Jair”. ₄₂Nobah attacked and captured Kenath and its villages, and he renamed it Nobah, after himself.