MatotTribes

1Reading 1 Numbers 30:2–17Chapter page with footnotes →

^30:2And Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying: This is the thing which the LORD commanded. ³A man, when he vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind a bond upon his soul, he shall not break his word; according to all that goes out of his mouth he shall do.

⁴And a woman, when she vows a vow to the LORD, and binds a bond in her father's house in her youth, ⁵and her father hears her vow and her bond which she has bound upon her soul, and her father keeps silent toward her, then all her vows shall stand, and every bond which she has bound upon her soul shall stand. ⁶But if her father forbids her in the day that he hears it, all her vows and her bonds which she has bound upon her soul shall not stand; and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father forbade her. ⁷And if she indeed belongs to a man, and her vows are upon her, or the utterance of her lips with which she has bound upon her soul, ⁸and her husband hears in the day that he hears it, and keeps silent toward her, then her vows shall stand, and her bonds which she has bound upon her soul shall stand. ⁹But if in the day that her husband hears it he forbids her, then he annuls her vow which is upon her, and the utterance of her lips with which she has bound upon her soul; and the LORD shall forgive her.

¹⁰But the vow of a widow and of a divorced woman, all that she has bound upon her soul, shall stand against her.

¹¹And if she vowed in her husband's house, or bound a bond upon her soul by an oath, ¹²and her husband hears, and keeps silent toward her, he does not forbid her, then all her vows shall stand, and every bond which she has bound upon her soul shall stand. ¹³But if her husband indeed annuls them in the day that he hears them, then all that goes out of her lips for her vows and for the bond of her soul shall not stand; her husband has annulled them, and the LORD shall forgive her.

¹⁴Every vow and every binding oath to afflict a soul, her husband may establish it, and her husband may annul it. ¹⁵But if her husband indeed keeps silent toward her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her bonds which are upon her; he has established them, because he kept silent toward her in the day that he heard them. ¹⁶But if he indeed annuls them after his hearing, then he shall bear her iniquity.

¹⁷These are the statutes which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between a father and his daughter, in her youth, in her father's house.

2Reading 2 Numbers 31:1–12Chapter page with footnotes →

Vengeance on Midian

^31:1And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ²Avenge the vengeance of the children of Israel from the Midianites; afterward you shall be gathered to your peoples.

³And Moses spoke to the people, saying: Arm from among you men for the host, that they may be against Midian, to give the vengeance of the LORD on Midian. ⁴A thousand for the tribe, a thousand for the tribe, for all the tribes of Israel, you shall send to the host.

⁵And there were handed over from the thousands of Israel a thousand for the tribe, twelve thousand armed for the host. ⁶And Moses sent them, a thousand for the tribe, to the host, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the host, with the holy vessels and the trumpets of the alarm in his hand.

⁷And they warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and they slew every male. ⁸And the kings of Midian they slew besides their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian; and Balaam the son of Beor they slew with the sword.

⁹And the children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their cattle, and all their livestock, and all their wealth they plundered. ¹⁰And all their cities in their dwellings, and all their encampments, they burned with fire. ¹¹And they took all the spoil and all the prey, of man and of beast.

¹²And they brought to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the children of Israel the captives and the prey and the spoil, to the camp, to the plains of Moab which are by the Jordan of Jericho.

3Reading 3 Numbers 31:13–24Chapter page with footnotes →

^31:13And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the princes of the congregation went out to meet them, to outside the camp.

¹⁴And Moses was angry against the officers of the army, the captains of the thousands and the captains of the hundreds, who came from the host of the war. ¹⁵And Moses said to them: Have you kept alive every female? ¹⁶Behold, these were for the children of Israel, by the word of Balaam, the cause to commit a trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and the plague was among the congregation of the LORD. ¹⁷And now slay every male among the little ones, and every woman who has known a man by the lying of a male, slay. ¹⁸And all the little ones among the women who have not known the lying of a male, keep alive for yourselves.

¹⁹And you, encamp outside the camp seven days; whoever has slain a soul, and whoever has touched a slain one, you shall purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives. ²⁰And every garment, and every vessel of skin, and every work of goats' hair, and every vessel of wood, you shall purify.

²¹And Eleazar the priest said to the men of the host who came to the war: This is the statute of the Torah which the LORD commanded Moses: ²²Only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, ²³every thing that comes into the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean; only with the water of separation it shall be purified; and all that does not come into the fire you shall pass through the water. ²⁴And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be clean, and afterward you shall come into the camp.

4Reading 4 Numbers 31:25–41Chapter page with footnotes →

Division of the Spoils

^31:25And the LORD said to Moses, saying: ²⁶Take the sum of the prey that was captured, of man and of beast, you, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers of the congregation; ²⁷and you shall divide the prey between those who took hold of the war, who went out to the host, and between all the congregation.

²⁸And you shall raise a tribute to the LORD from the men of the war who went out to the host: one soul out of five hundred, from the man, and from the cattle, and from the donkeys, and from the flock. ²⁹From their half you shall take it, and you shall give it to Eleazar the priest as a contribution of the LORD.

³⁰And from the half of the children of Israel you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, from the man, from the cattle, from the donkeys, and from the flock, from all the cattle; and you shall give them to the Levites, who keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.

³¹And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses. ³²And the prey, the remainder of the spoil which the people of the host had plundered, was: flock — six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand;

³³and cattle — two and seventy thousand;

³⁴and donkeys — one and sixty thousand;

³⁵and souls of man from the women who had not known the lying of a male — all the souls were two and thirty thousand.

³⁶And the half, the portion of those who went out in the host, was: the number of the flock was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred; ³⁷and the tribute to the LORD from the flock was six hundred, five and seventy.

³⁸And the cattle were six and thirty thousand, and their tribute to the LORD was two and seventy.

³⁹And the donkeys were thirty thousand and five hundred, and their tribute to the LORD was one and sixty.

⁴⁰And souls of man were sixteen thousand, and their tribute to the LORD was two and thirty souls.

⁴¹And Moses gave the tribute of the contribution of the LORD to Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.

5Reading 5 Numbers 31:42–54Chapter page with footnotes →

^31:42And from the half of the children of Israel, which Moses divided from the men who warred — ⁴³now the half of the congregation was, from the flock, three hundred thousand and thirty thousand, seven thousand and five hundred;

⁴⁴and cattle, six and thirty thousand;

⁴⁵and donkeys, thirty thousand and five hundred;

⁴⁶and souls of man, sixteen thousand —

⁴⁷and Moses took from the half of the children of Israel the one drawn out of every fifty, from the man and from the beast, and gave them to the Levites, who keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.

The Voluntary Offering

⁴⁸And the officers who were over the thousands of the host drew near to Moses, the captains of the thousands and the captains of the hundreds; ⁴⁹and they said to Moses: Your servants have taken the sum of the men of the war who are in our hand, and not a man of us is missing. ⁵⁰And we have brought near the offering of the LORD, each man what he has found — an article of gold, an armlet and a bracelet, a signet ring, an earring, and a girdle — to make atonement for our souls before the LORD.

⁵¹And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all wrought articles. ⁵²And all the gold of the contribution which they raised to the LORD was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, from the captains of the thousands and from the captains of the hundreds. — ⁵³The men of the host had plundered, each man for himself. — ⁵⁴And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the captains of the thousands and the hundreds, and brought it into the tent of appointed time (mo-ed), a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD.

6Reading 6 Numbers 32:1–19Chapter page with footnotes →

The Tribes East of the Jordan

^32:1And much livestock there was for the sons of Reuben and for the sons of Gad, very mighty; and they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place of livestock. ²And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and said to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying: ³"Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon, ⁴the land which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel, it is a land of livestock, and your servants have livestock."

⁵And they said: "If we have found favor in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; do not bring us over the Jordan."

⁶And Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben: "Shall your brothers go to the war, and you sit here? ⁷And why do you turn away the heart of the sons of Israel from passing over to the land which the LORD has given to them? ⁸Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹And they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, and turned away the heart of the sons of Israel, that they should not come to the land which the LORD had given to them. ¹⁰And the anger of the LORD was kindled in that day, and He swore, saying: ¹¹"Surely the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall not see the ground which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; for they have not fully followed after Me; ¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; for they have fully followed after the LORD." ¹³And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that did the evil in the eyes of the LORD was consumed.

¹⁴And behold, you have risen up in the place of your fathers, an increase of sinful men, to add yet to the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel. ¹⁵For if you turn back from after Him, He will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people."

¹⁶And they came near to him and said: "Sheepfolds we will build for our livestock here, and cities for our little ones; ¹⁷and we ourselves will arm ourselves in haste before the sons of Israel, until that we have brought them to their place; and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸We will not return to our houses, until the sons of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. ¹⁹For we will not inherit with them beyond the Jordan and onward, because our inheritance has come to us beyond the Jordan eastward."

7Reading 7 Numbers 32:20–42Chapter page with footnotes →

^32:20And Moses said to them: "If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves before the LORD for the war, ²¹and every armed one of you passes over the Jordan before the LORD, until He has dispossessed His enemies from before Him, ²²and the land is subdued before the LORD, and afterward you return, then you shall be clean from the LORD and from Israel, and this land shall be for you for a possession before the LORD. ²³But if you do not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD; and know your sin which will find you. ²⁴Build for yourselves cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and that which proceeds out of your mouth you shall do."

²⁵And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben said to Moses, saying: "Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead; ²⁷and your servants will pass over, every one armed for the host, before the LORD to the war, as my lord speaks."

²⁸And Moses commanded concerning them Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the sons of Israel. ²⁹And Moses said to them: "If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben pass over with you the Jordan, every one armed for the war, before the LORD, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give to them the land of Gilead for a possession; ³⁰but if they do not pass over armed with you, then they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan."

³¹And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, saying: "That which the LORD has spoken to your servants, so will we do. ³²We ourselves will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, and with us shall be the possession of our inheritance beyond the Jordan."

³³And Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad, and to the sons of Reuben, and to the half tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorite, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land with its cities in the borders, the cities of the land round about.

³⁴And the sons of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer; ³⁵and Atroth-shophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah; ³⁶and Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

³⁷And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim; ³⁸and Nebo, and Baal-meon (their names being changed), and Sibmah; and they called by names the names of the cities which they built.

³⁹And the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and captured it, and dispossessed the Amorite who was in it. ⁴⁰And Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt in it. ⁴¹And Jair the son of Manasseh went and captured their towns, and called them Havvoth-jair. ⁴²And Nobah went and captured Kenath, and its daughter-villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

PJeremiah 1:1–2:3Chapter page with footnotes →

The Call of Jeremiah

^1:1The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

²to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³And it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

⁴And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁵Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

⁶And I said, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth.

⁷And the LORD said to me, Do not say, I am a youth; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.

⁸Do not be afraid before them; for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.

⁹And the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

¹⁰See, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow; to build, and to plant.

¹¹And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

¹²And the LORD said to me, You have seen well; for I am watching over my word to perform it.

¹³And the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, and its face is from the north.

¹⁴And the LORD said to me, Out of the north the evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁵For, behold, I am calling to all the families of the kingdoms of the north, declares the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every man his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶And I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their evil, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and bowed themselves to the works of their own hands.

¹⁷And you, gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you; do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them. ¹⁸And I, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and walls of bronze, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. ¹⁹And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.

Israel Has Forsaken God

^2:1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD: I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, your going after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

³Holy is Israel to the LORD, the firstfruits of his increase; all that devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come upon them, declares the LORD.

AMatthew 5:33–37Chapter page with footnotes →

Oaths and Vows

^5:33Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients: 'You shall not break your oath, but shall fulfill your oaths to the Lord.' ³⁴But I say to you: do not swear at all — neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵nor by earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶Nor shall you swear by your head, for you are not able to make one hair white or black. ³⁷But let your word be 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no' — what goes beyond these is from the evil one.