But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, ¹  you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

Aaron said, “Do not let your anger burn hot, my lord; ¹  you know these people, that they tend to evil. ² 

Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ¹  will not produce their fruit.

When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at a city of Moab which was on the border of the Arnon at the boundary of his territory.

Then he uttered this oracle: ¹  “The oracle ²  of Balaam son of Beor; the oracle of the man whose eyes are open; ³ 

So now, go back where you came from! ¹  I said that I would greatly honor you; but now the Lord has stood in the way of your honor.”

And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest. ¹ 

you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ¹  evil from among you.

You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute ¹  or the wage of a male prostitute ²  into the temple of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.

so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ¹ 

The king of Jericho received this report: “Note well! ¹  Israelite men have come here tonight ²  to spy on the land.”

These were the nations the Lord permitted to remain so he could use them to test Israel – he wanted to test all those who had not experienced battle against the Canaanites. ¹ 

He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. ¹ 

They were left to test Israel, so the Lord would know if his people would obey the commands he gave their ancestors through Moses. ¹ 

Now his father and mother did not realize this was the Lord’s doing, ¹  because he was looking for an opportunity to stir up trouble with the Philistines ²  (for at that time the Philistines were ruling Israel).

They stopped there and decided to spend the night ¹  in Gibeah. They came into the city and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them to spend the night. ² 

The Levite, ¹  the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up, “I and my concubine stopped in ²  Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin ³  to spend the night.

The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. ¹  They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

The Israelites regretted what had happened to ¹  their brother Benjamin. They said, “Today we cut off an entire ²  tribe from Israel!

If he should then say, ‘That’s fine,’ ¹  then your servant is safe. But if he becomes very angry, be assured that he has decided to harm me. ²