And Balaam went to inquire of God; and he went straight forward, and God appeared to Balaam. And Balaam said to Him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered a calf and a ram on [every] altar.

Hear now these words, you chiefs of the house of Jacob, and the remnant of the house of Israel, who hate judgment, and pervert all righteousness;

Their heads have judged for gifts, and their priests have answered for hire, and her prophets have divined for silver: and yet they have rested on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us.

Speak to the whole people of the land, and to the priests, saying, Though you fasted or lamented in the fifth or seventh [months] (yea, behold, these seventy years) have you at all fasted to Me?

Are not these the words which the Lord spoke by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and her cities round about her, and the hill country and the low country was inhabited?

You said, He that serves God labors in vain: and what have we gained in that we have kept His ordinances, and in that we have walked as suppliants before the face of the Lord Almighty?

And when they had received it, they began grumbling against the landowner,

saying, 'These last [men] have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.'

So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, so many years I have been serving you and I never transgressed your commandment; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised the others:

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

And this shall be a perpetual statute for you; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls, and shall do no work, the native and the stranger who abides among you.

This shall be to you a most holy Sabbath, a rest, and you shall humble your souls; it is a perpetual ordinance.

Also on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement: it shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall humble your souls, and offer a whole burnt offering to the Lord.

And I bowed down my soul with fasting, and that was made my reproach.

In those days I, Daniel was mourning three full weeks.

I ate no pleasant bread, and no flesh or wine entered into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself with oil, until three whole weeks were accomplished.

And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from off his throne, and took off his robe, and put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.

So men and cattle were clothed with sackcloth, and cried earnestly to God; and they turned everyone from their evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying,

And my heart took counsel within me, and I contended against the nobles, and the princes, and I said to them, Should every man demand of his brother what you demand? And I appointed against them a great assembly,

He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even he has made his prayer abominable.

That every man should set his servant free, and every man his maidservant, the Hebrew man and Hebrew woman, that no one from Judah should be in bondage.

and gave them over to be male and female slaves.

Thus says the Lord: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

And this day they turned to do that which was right in My sight, to proclaim everyone the release of his neighbor; and they had made a covenant before Me, in the house which is called by My name.

Therefore thus said the Lord: You have not hearkened to Me, to proclaim a release everyone to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim a release to you, to the sword, and to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will give you up to dispersion [among] all the kingdoms of the earth.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And taking hold of him, he was choking him, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!'

"But he was not willing, but going off, he cast him into prison till he should pay back what was owed.

Then summoning him, his master said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.

"And being angered, his master handed him over to the tormentors until he should pay all that was owed to him.

I have been provoked with My people; you have defiled My inheritance; I gave them into your hand, but you did not extend mercy to them; you made the yoke of the aged man very heavy,

And in those days after a length of time, the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel groaned because of their tasks, and cried, and their cry because of their tasks went up to God.

And God heard their groanings, and God remembered His covenant [that He] made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.