(11). Accordingly, when Balaam had suggested counsel to them, he
went his way.

7. So when the Midianites had sent their daughters,as Balaam had
exhorted them, the Hebrew men were allured by their beauty, and
came with them, and besought them not to grudge them the
enjoyment of their beauty, nor to deny them their conversation.
These daughters of Midianites received their words gladly, and
consented to it, and staid with them; but when they brought them
to be enamored of them, and their inclinations to them were grown
to ripeness, they began to think of departing from them: then it
was that these men became greatly disconsolate at the women's
departure, and they were urgent with them not to leave them, but
begged they would continue there, and become their wives; and
they promised them they should be owned as mistresses all they
had. This they said with an oath, and called God for the
arbitrator of what they promised; and this with tears in their
eyes, and all such marks of concern, as might shew how miserable
they thought themselves without them, and so might move their
compassion for them. So the women, as soon as they perceived they
had made their slaves, and had caught them with their
conservation began to speak thus to them: -

8. "O you illustrious young men! we have of our own at home, and
great plenty of good things there, together with the natural,
affectionate parents and friends; nor is it out of our want of
any such things that we came to discourse with you; nor did we
admit of your invitation with design to prostitute the beauty of
our bodies for gain; but taking you for brave and worthy men, we
agreed to your request, that we might treat you with such honors