I will send the wild animals ¹  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ²  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ³  so that your roads will become deserted.

(and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and ¹  then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for ²  their iniquity,

and a man has sexual relations ¹  with her ²  without her husband knowing it, ³  and it is hidden that she has defiled herself, since ⁴  there was no witness against her, nor was she caught –

But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, ¹  the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.

With him I will speak face to face, ¹  openly, ²  and not in riddles; and he will see the form ³  of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

And all the Israelites murmured ¹  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ²  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ³  in this wilderness!

Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. ¹  Their protection ²  has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!”

Your dead bodies ¹  will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.

I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!”’”

“Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors, ¹  for he will not enter into the land I have given to the Israelites because both of you ²  rebelled against my word ³  at the waters of Meribah.

¹ When the Canaanite king of Arad ²  who lived in the Negev ³  heard that Israel was approaching along the road to Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner.

For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites. Now he had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all of his land from his control, ¹  as far as the Arnon.

Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan. And King Og of Bashan and all his forces ¹  marched out against them to do battle at Edrei.

And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself into the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he beat her again. ¹ 

Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ¹  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ²  I will go back home.” ³ 

“Our father died in the wilderness, although ¹  he was not part of ²  the company of those that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but he died for his own sin, ³  and he had no sons.

Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!

So the Lord’s anger was kindled against the Israelites, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all that generation that had done wickedly before ¹  the Lord was finished. ² 

but we will maintain ourselves in armed readiness ¹  and go before the Israelites until whenever we have brought them to their place. Our descendants will be living in fortified towns as a protection against ²  the inhabitants of the land.

“Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony ¹  of witnesses; but one witness cannot ²  testify against any person to cause him to be put to death.