Bible in a Year.

On the seventy-second day, Numbers 24-25 presents the conclusion of Balaam's prophecies and Israel's unfaithfulness at Peor, bringing severe consequences. Deuteronomy 26 describes the ritual of the firstfruits and the renewal of the covenant, emphasizing the recognition of divine provision. Psalm 107 concludes these readings with a hymn of gratitude to those who have been delivered from adversity, celebrating God's goodness and faithfulness in rescuing and sustaining His people.

Chapter 24

1. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord that he should bless Israel. he went not as he had gone before, to seek divination: but setting his face towards the desert,

2. And lifting up his eyes, he saw Israel abiding in their tents by their tribes: and the spirit of God rushing upon him,

3. He took up his parable and said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man hath said, whose eye ire stopped up:

4. The hearer of the words of God hath said, he that hath beheld the vision of the Almighty, he that falleth, and so his eyes are opened:

5. How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel!

6. As woody valleys, as watered gardens near the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched, as cedars by the waterside.

7. Water shall flow out of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters. For Agag his king shall be removed, and his kingdom shall be taken awry.

8. God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros. They shall devour the nations that are his enemies, and break their bones, and pierce them with arrows.

9. Lying down he hath slept as a lion, and as a lioness, whom none shall dare to rouse. He that blesseth thee, shall also himself be blessed: he that curseth thee shall be reckoned accursed.

10. And Balac being angry against Balaam, clapped his hands together and said: I called thee to curse my enemies, and thou on the contrary hast blessed them three times.

11. Return to thy place. I had determined indeed greatly to honour thee, but the Lord hath deprived thee of the honour designed for thee.

12. Balaam made answer to Balac: Did I not say to thy messengers, whom thou sentest to me:

13. If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to utter any thing of my own head either good or evil: but whatsoever the Lord shall say, that I will speak?

14. But yet going to my people, I will give thee counsel, what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.

15. Therefore taking up his parable, again he said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man whose eye is stopped up, hath said:

16. The hearer of the words of God hath said, who knoweth the doctrine of the Highest, and seeth the visions of the Almighty, who falling hath his eyes opened:

17. I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A STAR SHALL RISE out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel: and shall strike the chiefs of Moab, and shall waste all the children of Seth.

18. And he shall possess Idumea: the inheritance of Seir shall come to their enemies, but Israel shall do manfully

19. Out of Jacob shall he come that shall rule, and shall destroy the remains of the city.

20. And when he saw Amalec, he took up his parable, and said: Amalec the beginning of nations, whose latter ends shall be destroyed.

21. He saw also the Cinite: and took up his parable, and said: Thy habitation in- deed is strong: but though thou build thy nest in a rock,

22. And thou be chosen of the stock of Cin, how long shalt thou be able to continue? For Assur shall take thee captive.

23. And taking up his parable, again he said: Alas, who shall live when God shall do these things?

24. They shall come in galleys from Italy, they shall overcome the Assyrians, and shall waste the Hebrews, and at the last they themselves also shall perish.

25. And Balaam rose, and returned to his place: Balac also returned the way that he came.

Chapter 25

1. And Israel at that time abode in Settim, and the people committed fornication with the daughters of Moab,

2. Who called them to their sacrifices. And they ate of them, and adored their gods.

3. And Israel was initiated to Beelphegor: upon which the Lord being angry,

4. Said to Moses: Take all the princes of the people, and hang them up on gibbets against the sun: that my fury may be turned away from Israel.

5. And Moses said to the judges of Israel: Let every man kill his neighbours, that have been initiated to Beelphegor.

6. And behold one of the children of Israel went in before his brethren to a harlot of Madian, in the sight of Moses, and of all the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle.

7. And when Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up from the midst; of the multitude, and taking a dagger,

8. Went in after the Israelite into the brothel house, and thrust both of them through together, to wit, the man and the woman in the genital parts. And the scourge ceased from the children of Israel:

9. And there were slain four and twenty thousand men.

10. And the Lord said to Moses:

11. Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel: because he was moved with my zeal against them, that I myself might not destroy the children of Israel in my zeal.

12. Therefore say to him: Behold I give him the peace of my covenant,

13. And the covenant of the priesthood for ever shall be both to him and his seed, because he hath been zealous for his God, and hath made atonement for the wickedness of the children of Israel.

14. And the name of the Israelite, was slain with the woman of Madian, was Zambri the son of Salu, a prince the kindred and tribe of Simeon.

15. And the Madianite woman, that was slain with him, was called Cozbi the daughter of Sur, a most noble prince among the Madianites.

16. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

17. Let the Madianites find you enemies, and slay you them:

18. Because they also have acted like enemies against you, and have guilefully deceived you by the idol Phogor, and Cozbi their sister, a daughter of a prince of Madian, who was slain in the day the plague for the sacrilege of Phogor.

1. And when thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee to possess, and hast conquered it, and dwellest in it:

2. Thou shalt take the first of all thy fruits, and put then? in a basket, and shalt go to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may be invocated there:

3. And thou shalt go to the priest that shall be in those days, and say to him: I profess this day before the Lord thy God, that I am come into the land, for which he swore to our fathers, that he would give it us.

4. And the priest taking the basket at thy hand, shall set it before the altar of the Lord thy God:

5. And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: The Syrian pursued my father, who went down into Egypt, and sojourned there in a very small number, and grew into a nation great and strong and of an infinite multitude.

6. And the Egyptians afflicted us, and persecuted us, laying on us most grievous burdens :

7. And we cried to the Lord God of our fathers: who heard us, and looked down upon our af

8. 8iction, and labour, and distress:

8. And brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders:

9. And brought us into this place, and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.

10. And therefore now I offer the firstfruits of the land which the Lord hath given me. And thou shalt leave them in the sight of the ford thy God, adoring the Lord thy God.

11. And thou shalt feast in all the good things which the Lord thy God hath given thee, and thy house, thou and the Levite, and the stranger that is with thee.

12. When thou hast made an end of tithing all thy fruits, in the third year of tithes thou shalt give it to the Levite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled:

13. And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: I have taken that which was sanctified out of my house, and I have given it to the Levite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, as thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments nor forgotten thy precepts.

14. I have not eaten of them is my mourning, nor separated them for any uncleanness, nor spent any thing of them in funerals. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all things as thou hast commanded me.

15. Look from thy sanctuary, and thy high habitation of heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

16. This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these commandments and judgments: and to keep and fulfil them with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

17. Thou hast chosen the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways and keep his ceremonies, and precepts, end judgments, and obey his command.

18. And the Lord hath chosen thee this day, to be his peculiar people, as he hath spoken to thee, and to keep all his commandments:

19. And to make thee higher than all nations which he hath created, to his own praise, and name, and glory: that thou mayst be a holy people of the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.

1. Give glory to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

2. Let them say so that have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy: and gathered out of the countries.

3. From the rising and the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea.

4. They wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water: they found not the way of a city for their habitation.

5. They were hungry and thirsty: their soul fainted in them.

6. And they cried to the Lord in their tribulation: and he delivered them out of their distresses.

7. And he led them into the right way: that they might go to a city of habitation.

8. Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him: and his wonderful works to the children of men.

9. For he hath satisfied the empty soul, and hath filled the hungry soul with good things.

10. Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death: bound in want and in iron.

11. Because they had exasperated the words of God: and provoked the counsel of the most High:

12. And their heart was humbled with labours: they were weakened, and their was none to help them.

13. Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction: and he delivered them out of their distresses.

14. And he brought them out of darkness, and the shadow of death; and broke their bonds in sunder.

15. Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.

16. Because he hath broken gates of brass, and burst the iron bars.

17. He took them out of the way of their iniquity: for they were brought low for their injustices.

18. Their soul abhorred all manner of meat: and they drew nigh even to the gates of death.

19. And they cried to the Lord in their affliction: and he delivered them out of their distresses.

20. He sent his word, and healed them: and delivered them from their destructions.

21. Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him: and his wonderful works to the children of men.

22. And let them sacrifice the sacrifice of praise: and declare his works with joy.

23. They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters:

24. These have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.

25. He said the word, and there arose a storm of wind: and the waves thereof were lifted up.

26. They mount up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths: their soul pined away with evils.

27. They were troubled, and reeled like a drunken man; and all their wisdom was swallowed up.

28. And they cried to the Lord in their affliction: and he brought them out of their distresses.

29. And he turned the storm into a breeze: and its waves were still.

30. And they rejoiced because they were still: and he brought them to the haven which they wished for.

31. Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.

32. And let them exalt him in the church of the people: and praise him in the chair of the ancients.

33. He hath turned rivers into a wilderness: and the sources of water into dry ground:

34. A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

35. He hath turned a wilderness into pools of water, and a dry land into water springs.

36. And hath placed there the hungry; and they made a city for their habitation.

37. And they sowed fields, and planted vineyards: and they yielded fruit of birth.

38. And he blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly: and their cattle he suffered not to decrease.

39. Then they were brought to be few: and they were afflicted through the trouble of evils and sorrow.

40. Contempt was poured forth upon their princes: and he caused them to wander where there was no passing, and out of the way.

41. And he helped the poor out of poverty: and made him families like a flock of sheep.

42. The just shall see, and shall rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop their mouth.

43. Who is wise, and will keep these things: and will understand the mercies of the Lord?