1. Thu: 1 John 1-3
  2. Fri: Obadiah
  3. Sat: Proverbs 7-9
Sunday · Week 41
The Books of the Law

Numbers 29-31

Week 41 · about 15 min
  1. Mon: Acts 1-3
  2. Tue: Jeremiah 34-35
  3. Wed: 2 Chronicles 7-12

Offerings for the feasts, rules about vows, and the war against Midian.

Keep Your Word

If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

Numbers 30:2 (KJV)

Chapter 29 lists the offerings for the fall feasts. At Tabernacles, the number of bulls starts at thirteen on the first day and goes down by one each day. Chapter 30 is about vows. A man must do whatever he promised. In that culture a father or husband could cancel a woman’s vow on the day he heard it, but a widow’s vow stood. Chapter 31 is the judgment on Midian for leading Israel into sin at Peor. Balaam is killed in the battle. It turns out the plan to trap Israel at Peor was his idea. The prophet who couldn’t curse Israel found another way to hurt them.

Reflect: Is there anything you’ve said you’d do that you haven’t done?

Numbers 29

1In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, let there be a holy meeting; on it you may do no field-work; let the day be marked by the blowing of horns;

2And give to the Lord a burned offering for a sweet smell; one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark on them:

3And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep,

4And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs;

5And one he-goat for a sin-offering, to take away your sin:

6In addition to the burned offering of the new moon, and its meal offering, and the regular burned offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings, as they are ordered, for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

7And on the tenth day of this seventh month there will be a holy meeting; keep yourselves from pleasure, and do no sort of work;

8And give to the Lord a burned offering for a sweet smell; one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year: only those without any mark on them may be used:

9And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep,

10A separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs;

11One he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the offering for taking away your sin, and the regular burned offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings.

12And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month let there be a holy meeting; do no field-work, and keep a feast to the Lord for seven days;

13And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord, thirteen oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, all without any mark on them;

14And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for every one of the thirteen oxen, two tenth parts for every male sheep,

15And a separate tenth part for every one of the fourteen lambs;

16And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering.

17On the second day of the feast give an offering of twelve oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark on them;

18And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen and the sheep and the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered:

19And one he-goat for a sin-offering in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and their drink offerings.

20And on the third day eleven oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark;

21And their meal offering and drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered:

22And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering.

23And on the fourth day ten oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

24And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered.

25And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering.

26And on the fifth day nine oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

27And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered:

28And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering.

29And on the sixth day eight oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

30And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered:

31And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink offerings.

32And on the seventh day seven oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

33And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered:

34And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink offering.

35On the eighth day let there be a holy meeting: you may do no field-work;

36And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord: one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

37With the meal offering and the drink offerings for the ox, the male sheep, and the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered:

38And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering.

39These are the offerings which you are to give to the Lord at your regular feasts, in addition to the offerings for an oath, and the free offerings you give, for your burned offerings and your drink offerings and your peace-offerings.

40So Moses gave the children of Israel all these directions as the Lord had given him orders.

Numbers 30

1And Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, This is the order of the Lord.

2When a man takes an oath to the Lord, or gives an undertaking having the force of an oath, let him not go back from his word, but let him do whatever he has said he will do.

3If a woman, being young and under the authority of her father, takes an oath to the Lord or gives an undertaking;

4If her father, hearing of her oath or the undertaking she has given, says nothing to her, then all her oaths and every undertaking she has given will have force.

5But if her father, hearing of it, makes her take back her word, then the oaths or the undertakings she has given will have no force; and she will have forgiveness from the Lord, because her oath was broken by her father.

6And if she is married to a husband at the time when she is under an oath or an undertaking given without thought;

7If her husband, hearing of it, says nothing to her at the time, then the oaths she made and the undertakings she gave will have force.

8But if her husband, hearing of it, makes her take it back, then the oath she made and the undertaking she gave without thought will have no force or effect, and she will have the Lord's forgiveness.

9But an oath made by a widow or one who is no longer married to her husband, and every undertaking she has given, will have force.

10If she made an oath while she was under the authority of her husband,

11And her husband, hearing of it, said nothing to her and did not put a stop to it, then all her oaths and every undertaking she gave will have force.

12But if her husband, on hearing of it, made them without force or effect, then whatever she has said about her oaths or her undertaking has no force: her husband has made them without effect, and she will have the Lord's forgiveness.

13Every oath, and every undertaking which she gives, to keep herself from pleasure, may be supported or broken by her husband.

14But if the days go on, and her husband says nothing whatever to her, then he is giving the support of his authority to her oaths and undertakings, because at the time of hearing them he said nothing to her.

15But if at some time after hearing of them, he makes them without force, then he is responsible for her wrongdoing.

16These are the laws which the Lord gave Moses in relation to a man and his wife, or a father and a young daughter who is under his authority.

Numbers 31

1Then the Lord said to Moses,

2Give the Midianites punishment for the wrong they did to the children of Israel: and after that you will go to rest with your people.

3So Moses said to the people, Let men from among you be armed for war to put into effect against Midian the Lord's punishment on them.

4From every tribe of Israel send a thousand to the war.

5So from the thousands of Israel a thousand were taken from every tribe, twelve thousand men armed for war.

6And Moses sent them out to war, a thousand from every tribe, and with them Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, taking in his hands the vessels of the holy place and the horns for sounding the note of war.

7And they made war on Midian, as the Lord gave orders to Moses; and they put to death every male.

8They put the kings of Midian to death with the rest, Evi and Reken and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian: and Balaam, the son of Beor, they put to death with the sword.

9The women of Midian with their little ones the children of Israel took prisoner; and all their cattle and flocks and all their goods they took for themselves;

10And after burning all their towns and all their tent-circles,

11They went away with the goods they had taken, man and beast.

12And the prisoners and the goods and everything they had taken, they took to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the people of Israel, to the tent-circle in the lowlands of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

13Then Moses and Eleazar the priest and the chiefs of the people went out to them before they had come into the tent-circle.

14And Moses was angry with the chiefs of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds who had come back from the war.

15And Moses said to them, Why have you kept all the women safe?

16It was these who, moved by Balaam, were the cause of Israel's sin against the Lord in the question of Peor, because of which disease came on the people of the Lord.

17So now put every male child to death, and every woman who has had sex relations with a man.

18But all the female children who have had no sex relations with men, you may keep for yourselves.

19You yourselves will have to keep outside the tent-circle for seven days, anyone of you who has put any person to death or come near a dead body; and on the third day and on the seventh day make yourselves and your prisoners clean.

20And every bit of clothing, and anything made of leather or goats' hair or wood, you are to make clean.

21Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had been to the fight, This is the rule of the law which the Lord has given to Moses:

22But gold and silver and brass and iron and tin and lead,

23And anything which may be heated, is to go through the fire and be made clean; but in addition it is to be put in the water of cleaning: and anything which may not go through the fire is to be put in the water.

24And on the seventh day, after washing your clothing, you will be clean, and then you may come into the tent-circle.

25And the Lord said to Moses,

26Get an account of everything which was taken in the war, of man and of beast, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of families of the people:

27And let division be made of it into two parts, one for the men of war who went out to the fight, and one for all the people:

28And from the men of war who went out let there be offered to the Lord one out of every five hundred, from the persons, and from the oxen and asses and sheep:

29Take this from their part and give it to Eleazar the priest as an offering to be lifted up to the Lord.

30And from the part given to the children of Israel, take one out of every fifty, from the persons, and from the oxen and asses and sheep, and give it to the Levites who have the care of the House of the Lord.

31So Eleazar and Moses did as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

32Now the beasts taken, in addition to what the fighting-men took for themselves, were six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep,

33And seventy-two thousand oxen,

34And sixty-one thousand asses;

35And thirty-two thousand persons, that is, women who had never had sex relations with a man.

36And the half given as their part to the men who went to the war, was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, five hundred sheep,

37Of which the Lord's part was six hundred and seventy-five.

38The number of oxen was thirty-six thousand, of which the Lord's part was seventy-two;

39The number of asses was thirty thousand, five hundred, of which the Lord's part was sixty-one.

40And the number of persons was sixteen thousand, of which the Lord's part was thirty-two persons.

41And Moses gave the Lord's part, lifted up as an offering, to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

42And from the half given to the children of Israel, which Moses had kept separate from that given to the fighting-men,

43(Now the people's half was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, five hundred sheep,

44And thirty-six thousand oxen,

45And thirty thousand, five hundred asses,

46And sixteen thousand persons;)

47Even from the children of Israel's half, Moses took one out of every fifty, men and beasts, and gave them to the Levites who had the care of the House of the Lord; as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

48Then the men in authority over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, came to Moses,

49And said to him, Your servants have taken note of the number of all the fighting-men under our orders, and every one is present;

50And we have here an offering for the Lord from what every man took in the war, ornaments of gold, leg-chains and arm-rings, finger-rings, ear-rings, and neck-ornaments, to make our souls free from sin before the Lord.

51So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, even all the worked ornaments.

52And the gold which the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds gave, as an offering to be lifted up before the Lord, came to sixteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty shekels.

53(For every man of the army had taken goods for himself in the war.)

54Then Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold given by the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, and took it into the Tent of meeting, to be a sign in memory of the children of Israel before the Lord.

Bible in Basic English (BBE). Bible in Basic English (BBE), public domain in the United States.