But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.”

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

On the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai. He said: “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. You and Aaron are to number those who are twenty years of age or older by their divisions—everyone who can serve in Israel’s army. And one man from each tribe, the head of each family, must be there with you. These are the names of the men who are to assist you: From the tribe of Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur; . . .