1 And Moses explained to the sons of Israel all that the Lord had commanded him.
2 And he said to the leaders of the tribes of the sons of Israel: “This is the word, which the Lord has instructed:
3 If any man makes a vow to the Lord, or binds himself by an oath, he shall not make his word null and void, but all that he has promised, he shall fulfill.
4 If a woman, who is in her father’s house, vows anything, or binds herself by an oath, and she is still in a state of childhood, if her father knew of the vow which she has promised or of the oath by which she has obligated her soul, and he kept silent, she shall be liable to the vow:
5 whatever she has promised or swore, she shall complete in deed.
6 But if her father, as soon as he had heard it, had contradicted it, both her vows and her oaths shall be nullified, neither shall she be held liable to the promise, because her father had contradicted it.
7 If she has a husband, and she has vowed anything, then, once the word has gone out of her mouth, she will have obligated her soul by an oath.
8 On the day that her husband will hear of it, and yet not contradict it, she shall be liable to the vow, and she shall repay whatever she has promised.
9 But if, as soon as he hears it, he contradicts it, then he will have caused her promises, and the words by which she had bound her soul, to be null and void. The Lord will be favorable to her.
10 Widows and divorced women shall repay whatever they have vowed.
11 If a wife in the house of her husband has bound herself by a vow or an oath,
12 if her husband heard it and remained silent, and he did not contradict the promise, she shall repay what she had promised.
13 But if he promptly contradicts it, she shall not be held liable to the promise. For her husband has contradicted it. And the Lord will be favorable to her.
14 If she has vowed or bound herself by oath, in order to afflict her soul by fasting, or by abstaining from other things, it shall be for the arbitration of her husband, as to whether or not she may do it.
15 But if the husband, upon hearing it, remains silent, and he delays judgment until another day, whatever she had vowed or promised, she shall repay, because when he first heard it, he remained silent.
16 And if he contradicted it only sometime after he had known about it, he shall bear his iniquity.”
17 These are the laws which the Lord has appointed to Moses, between a husband and a wife, between a father and a daughter, who is still in the state of childhood or who remains in her father’s house.
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 First, avenge the sons of Israel from the Midianites, and then you shall be gathered to your people.
3 And immediately Moses said: “Arm the men among you for a battle, so that they may be able to fulfill the retribution of the Lord on the Midianites.
4 Let one thousand men be chosen from each tribe of Israel, who shall be sent to war.”
5 And they gave one thousand from each tribe, that is, twelve thousand foot soldiers for battle.
6 And Moses sent them with Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest; also, he delivered to him the holy vessels, and the trumpets to sound.
7 And when they had fought against the Midianites and had prevailed, they killed all the men.
8 And they put to death by the sword their kings: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five leaders of the nation, and also Balaam the son of Beor.
9 And they seized their women and little ones, and all their cattle, and all their goods; whatever they were able to have, they despoiled.
10 Both their cities and their villages, as well as their fortresses, they burned.
11 And they carried away prey from everything that they had seized, both of men and of beasts.
12 And they led these to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to all the multitude of the sons of Israel. But the remainder of the articles they carried to the camp on the plains of Moab, next to the Jordan, opposite Jericho.
13 Then Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the assembly went out to meet them beyond the camp.
14 And Moses, being angry with the leaders of the army, and the tribunes, and the centurions, who had arrived from the battle,
15 said: “Why have you spared the females?
16 Are not these the ones who deceived the sons of Israel at the suggestion of Balaam, and who caused you betray the Lord by the sin of Peor, because of which the people also were struck down?
17 Therefore, put to death all of them: whatever is of the male sex, even among the little ones, and cut the throats of those women who have known men by sexual relations.
18 But the young girls, and all female virgins, reserve for yourselves.
19 And remain beyond the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed a man, or who has touched one that was killed, shall be purified on the third day and on the seventh day.
20 And all of the spoils, whether it is a garment, or a vessel, or another useful thing, made from the pelts or hair of goats, or from wood, shall be expiated.”
21 Likewise, Eleazar the priest spoke in this manner to the men of the army who had fought: “This is the precept of the law, which the Lord has commanded Moses:
22 Gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin,
23 and all that may be able to pass through fire, shall be purified by fire. But whatever is not able to sustain fire shall be sanctified with the waters of expiation.
24 And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and, after having been purified, you shall enter the camp.”
25 And the Lord also said to Moses:
26 Take the sum of those things which were captured, from man even to beast, you and Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the common people.
27 And you shall divide the prey equally, among those who went out to war and fought, and among the remainder of the multitude.
28 And you shall separate a portion for the Lord from the portion of those who fought and were in the battle: one soul out of five hundred, as much from humans, as from oxen and donkeys and sheep.
29 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, because these are the first-fruits of the Lord.
30 Likewise, from the half of the portion belonging to the sons of Israel, you shall receive the fiftieth head of humans, and of oxen, and donkeys, and sheep, and of all living things, and you shall give these to the Levites who stand watch over the care of the tabernacle of the Lord.”
31 And Moses and Eleazar did just as the Lord had instructed.
32 Now the prey which the army had seized was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep,
33 seventy-two thousand oxen,
34 sixty-one thousand donkeys,
35 and thirty-two thousand human lives, of the female sex, who had not known men.
36 And one half of the portion was given to those who had been in the battle: three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep.
37 From these, for the portion of the Lord, there were accounted: six hundred seventy-five sheep;
38 and from the thirty-six thousand oxen, seventy-two oxen;
39 from the thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, sixty-one donkeys.
40 From the sixteen thousand human souls, there fell to the portion of the Lord thirty-two souls.
41 And Moses delivered the number of the first-fruits of the Lord to Eleazar the priest, just as had been commanded of him,
42 from the one half portion belonging to the sons of Israel, which he had separated from the portion of those who had been in the battle.
43 Yet truly, from the one half portion which fell to the remainder of the multitude, that is, from the three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,
44 and from the thirty-six thousand oxen,
45 and from the thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,
46 and from the sixteen thousand persons,
47 Moses took the fiftieth head, and gave it to the Levites who stand watch at the tabernacle of the Lord, just as the Lord had instructed.
48 And when the leaders of the army, and the tribunes, and the centurions had approached Moses, they said:
49 We, your servants, have taken a census of the number of the fighting men, whom we had under our hand, and indeed not one was lacking.
50 For this reason, we offer as gifts to the Lord whatever gold each one was able to find amid the spoils, in anklets and arm bands, rings and bracelets, and little chains, so that you may intercede for us to the Lord.”
51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest received all the gold in its various kinds,
52 weighing sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels, from the tribunes and the centurions.
53 For whatever each one had taken away in the spoils was his own.
54 And having been accepted, they took it into the tabernacle of the testimony, as a memorial of the sons of Israel before the Lord.
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1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
2 Thus says the Lord to me: Make bands and chains for yourself. And you shall place them on your neck.
3 And you shall send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, the king of Judah.
4 And you shall instruct them to say to their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You shall say these things to your masters:
5 I made the earth, and the men and beasts which are upon the face of the earth, by my great strength and by my outstretched arm. And I have given it to whomever it was pleasing in my eyes.
6 And now, therefore, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. Moreover, I have given to him also the beasts of the field, so that they may serve him.
7 And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and his son’s son. Many nations and great kings will serve him, until the time arrives for him and his land.
8 But the nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and whoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I consume them by his hand.
9 Therefore, you should not choose to listen to your own prophets, and diviners, and dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, who say to you: ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’
10 For they prophesy lies to you, so that they may cause you to be far from your own country, and may cast you out, and may cause you to perish.
11 Furthermore, the nation which will bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and which will serve him, I will permit them to remain in their own land, says the Lord. And they will cultivate it, and they will live in it.”
12 And I spoke to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, according to all these words, saying: “Subject your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and you will live.
13 Why should you suffer death, you and your people, by the sword, and famine, and pestilence, just as the Lord has spoken against any nation that refuses to serve the king of Babylon?
14 Do not choose to listen to the words of the prophets, saying to you: ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ For they are speaking a lie to you.
15 For I have not sent them, says the Lord. And they prophesy falsely in my name, so that they may cast you out, and so that you may perish, both you and the prophets who make predictions for you.”
16 I spoke also to the priests and to this people, saying: “Thus says the Lord: Do not choose to listen to the words of your prophets, who prophesy to you, saying: ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord will now quickly be returned from Babylon.’ For they are prophesying to you a lie.
17 Therefore, do not choose to listen to them, but instead, serve the king of Babylon, so that you may live. Why should this city be given over into desolation?
18 But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is in them, then let them intercede before the Lord of hosts, so that the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.
19 For thus says the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea of brass, and to the bases, and to the remainder of the vessels that have been left behind in this city,
20 which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, did not take when he carried away Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem into Babylon, with all the nobility of Judah and Jerusalem:
21 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem:
22 They shall be carried away to Babylon, and there they shall be, until the day of their visitation, says the Lord. And then I will cause them to be carried back, and to be restored to this place.
8 But thou hast saved us from them that afflict us: and hast put them to shame that hate us.
9 In God shall we glory all the day long: and in thy name we will give praise for ever.
10 But now thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame: and thou, O God, wilt not go out with our armies.
11 Thou hast made us turn our back to our enemies: and they that hated us plundered for themselves.
12 Thou hast given us up like sheep to be eaten: thou hast scattered us among the nations.
13 Thou hast sold thy people for no price: and there was no reckoning in the exchange of them.
14 Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoff and derision to them that are round about us.
1 And it happened afterwards that he was making a journey through the cities and towns, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,
2 along with certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, who is called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had departed,
3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many other women, who were ministering to him from their resources.
4 Then, when a very numerous crowd was gathering together and hurrying from the cities to him, he spoke using a comparison:
5 The sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell beside the way; and it was trampled and the birds of the air devoured it.
6 And some fell upon rock; and having sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns, rising up with it, suffocated it.
8 And some fell upon good soil; and having sprung up, it produced fruit one hundredfold.” As he said these things, he cried out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 Then his disciples questioned him as to what this parable might mean.
10 And he said to them: “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But to the rest, it is in parables, so that: seeing, they may not perceive, and hearing, they may not understand.
11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
12 And those beside the way are those who hear it, but then the devil comes and takes the word from their heart, lest by believing it they may be saved.
13 Now those upon rock are those who, when they hear it, accept the word with joy, but these have no roots. So they believe for a time, but in a time of testing, they fall away.
14 And those which fell among thorns are those who have heard it, but as they go along, they are suffocated by the concerns and riches and pleasures of this life, and so they do not yield fruit.
