Balaam said to him, “Look, I have come to you, but can I say anything I want? I must speak only the message God puts in my mouth.”

Then the Lord put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”

Balaam’s First Oracle

Balaam proclaimed his poem: Balak brought me from Aram; the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains: “Come, put a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel!”

Who has counted the dust of Jacob or numbered even one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright; let the end of my life be like theirs.

He answered, “Shouldn’t I say exactly what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Oracle

Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp; you won’t see all of them. From there, put a curse on them for me.”

The Lord met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth. Then he said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”

Balaam’s Third Oracle

Again Balak said to Balaam, “Please come. I will take you to another place. Maybe it will be agreeable to God that you can put a curse on them for me there.”

Then Balak became furious with Balaam, struck his hands together, and said to him, “I summoned you to put a curse on my enemies, but instead, you have blessed them these three times.

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 whatever he has promised.

“When a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the Lord or puts herself under an obligation,

and her father hears about her vow or the obligation she put herself under, and he says nothing to her, all her vows and every obligation she put herself under are binding.

But if her father prohibits her on the day he hears about it, none of her vows and none of the obligations she put herself under are binding. The Lord will release her because her father has prohibited her.

and her husband hears about it and says nothing to her when he finds out, her vows are binding, and the obligations she put herself under are binding.

“Every vow a widow or divorced woman puts herself under is binding on her.

“If a woman in her husband’s house has made a vow or put herself under an obligation with an oath,

and her husband hears about it, says nothing to her, and does not prohibit her, all her vows are binding, and every obligation she put herself under is binding.

“If anyone strikes a person with an iron object and death results, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.

If anyone has in his hand a stone capable of causing death and strikes another person and he dies, the murderer must be put to death.

If anyone has in his hand a wooden object capable of causing death and strikes another person and he dies, the murderer must be put to death.

or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood is to kill the murderer when he finds him.

The assembly is to protect the one who kills someone from the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge he fled to, and he must live there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

for the one who killed a person was supposed to live in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the one who has killed a person return to the land he possesses.

“If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death based on the word of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of one witness.

You are not to accept a ransom for the life of someone who is guilty of murder; he must be put to death.