Balaam’s Fifth Message

²⁰ Then Balaam saw Amalek^(A) and spoke his message:

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.^{(A) 17} Completely destroy^[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹⁸ Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods,^(B) and you will sin^(C) against the Lord your God.

¹⁷ The city and all that is in it are to be devoted^[a](A) to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute^(B) and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid^(C) the spies we sent. ¹⁸ But keep away from the devoted things,^(D) so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction^(E) and bring trouble^(F) on it. ¹⁹ All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron^(G) are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”

²⁰ When the trumpets sounded,^(H) the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout,^(I) the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.^{(J) 21} They devoted^(K) the city to the Lord and destroyed^(L) with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.