2 Meqabyan 10:1-28

¹Fear the Lord who created you and kept you until today; and you, the nobles and the kings, do not walk on the path of Satan.

²Live in the Law and Command of the Lord who rules all; do not walk on the path of Satan.

³As in the time when the children of Israel came toward Amalek to inherit the country of the Hittites, Canaanites, and Perizzites - Balak the son of Zippor and Balaam.

⁴Whom you curse is cursed, and whom you bless is blessed. Do not go on Satan's road.

⁵For Balaam came making his reward for sorcery a motivation, and Balak the son of Zippor showed him the place where the children of Israel camped.

⁶For he performed his divinations, offered his sacrifices, and slaughtered his fattened cows and sheep; for he desired to curse and destroy the children of Israel.

⁷But the curse was returned as a blessing; since the Lord did not wish for him to curse them by His Word, do not walk on the path of Satan.

⁸As you are the people the Lord chose, as you are the Lord's Dwelling that shall come from Heaven, let those who curse you be cursed, and let those who bless you be blessed.

⁹When he blessed them, Balak the son of Zippor was grieved and angry, and he commanded him again to curse them.

¹⁰For the people whom the Lord blessed had come to this country, and Balaam told him, I will not curse Israel, whom the Lord has blessed.

¹¹Balak said to Balaam, I desired that you would curse them for me, but you blessed them before me. If you had cursed them and asked me to give to you, I would have given you a house full of silver and gold. But you blessed them completely; you did nothing good for me, so I will do nothing good for you.

¹²Balaam said, What the Lord tells me to speak with my tongue, I will speak; for I cannot dare to ignore the things of the Lord.

¹³I will not curse a blessed people, for the Lord shall be angry with me if I love money. I do not love money more than my soul.

¹⁴As the Lord told their father Jacob: Let those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed. I will not curse the blessed Jacob; I do not love money more than my soul.

¹⁵And a person who curses you unjustly is cursed. Complete your path and your work so that the Lord might love you.

¹⁶Do not be like those of old who grieved the Lord in their sin and whom He neglected - some of whom He destroyed in the Waters of Destruction.

¹⁷There are those whom He destroyed by the hands of their haters and enemies - evil persons who brought tribulation upon them, capturing their lords, priests, and prophets.

¹⁸They delivered them to a foreign country they did not know; they captured them, plundered their livestock, and destroyed their land.

¹⁹For they demolished the walls and ramparts of the honored city, Jerusalem, and they made Jerusalem like a plowed field.

²⁰The priests were captured, the Law was demolished, and warriors fell in battle.

²¹The widows were captured; as they were taken, they wept for themselves, yet they did not weep for their dead husbands.

²²The children wept and the elders were shamed; they showed no mercy to the grey-haired or the aged.

²³They destroyed all they found in the country; they showed no mercy for beauty or for those in the Law.

²⁴Because they grieved their Creator constantly, the Lord neglected the children of Israel and allowed Jerusalem to be plowed like a field.

²⁵He is kind to them because of their fathers, but He did not destroy them all at once. Because He loved their fathers Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob - who reigned truly and lived firmly in the straight Law before their Creator - it is because of the fathers' kindness, and not their own, that He forgives them.

²⁶And He appointed them to a twofold honor; they found two Kingdoms: on Earth and in Heaven.

²⁷And you, the kings and nobles who live in this passing world: just as your fathers who lived firmly in the required work and preceded you inherited the Kingdom of Heaven - and as their names are beautiful to their children's children - think of them.

²⁸And you, straighten your work, that He might straighten your Kingdom for you, and that your name might be remembered in a goodly way, like the righteous kings who preceded you and served the Lord with their beautiful lifestyles.