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the congregation, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Jehovah be not as sheep which have no shepherd. And Jehovah said to Moses: Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight. And thou shalt put of thine honor upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey. And Moses did as Jehovah commanded him, and took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation, and laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge.

And Moses called unto all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and observe to do them. Hear, O Israel; thou art to pass over Jordan, to go and drive out nations greater and mightier than thyself, whose cities are great and fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? Know now, that Jehovah thy God goeth before thee as a devouring fire; he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thee; so shalt thou drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Jehovah hath spoken to thee. Speak not thou in thine heart, when Jehovah thy God thrusteth them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations

Jehovah thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may establish the word which he sware to thy fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Know therefore, that Jehovah thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiffnecked people.

And now, Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God ask of thee, but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and to keep the commandments of Jehovah, and his statutes. Behold, to Jehovah thy God belongeth the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that therein is. Only Jehovah had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you out of all peoples, as at this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. For Jehovah your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward; executing the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loving the stranger, to give him food and raiment. Love ye the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; him shall thou serve; and to him shalt thou cleave, and by his name shalt thou swear. is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt seventy souls ; and now Jehovah thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

He

Hear, O Israel: Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone. Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these

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words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.

And Moses went up from the Plains of Moab unto Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, over against Jericho. And Jehovah shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan; and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the western sea; and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm-trees, unto Zoar. Jehovah said to him: This is the land concerning which I sware to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah. And he was buried in the valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor (House of Peor); but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the Plains of Moab thirty days.

And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; because Moses had laid his hands upon him ; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses, and Joshua became their leader. And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses-whom Jehovah knew face to face-to do all the signs and the wonders, which Jeho

vah sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and all his servants, and all his land, and to shew all that mighty power, and all the great terror, which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.

CHAPTER XV.

NUMBERS, xxii.-xxiv.

THE STORY OF BALAAM.

Balak's Embassy - Refusal-A Second Embassy-Consent - The Talking Ass-Feasting and Sacrifice-Balaam's Parables-The Blessing of Numbers-The Blessing of Might The Star of Jacob.

Now when Balak the son of Zippor (the Bird), king of Moab, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, he was sore afraid of the Israelites, because they were many; and all Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab said to the elders of Midian : Surely this multitude will lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. So Balak the son of Zippor sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river Euphrates, to call him, saying: Behold, a people is come out from Egypt; behold, they cover the face of the earth, abiding over against me. Come now, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me. Peradventure, if thou curse them, I shall be able to smite them, and drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.

Then elders of Moab and elders of Midian departed with the wages of divination in their hand, and came unto Balaam, and spake to him the words of Balak. And he said to them: Lodge here this night, and I will