Numbers 23

¹ Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me."

² Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

³ Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went off to a barren height.

⁴ God met with him, and Balaam said, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram."

⁵ The LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this word."

⁶ So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the officials of Moab.

⁷ Then Balaam spoke his oracle:
"Balak brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.
'Come,' he said, 'curse Jacob for me;
come, denounce Israel.'

⁸ How can I curse
those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
those whom the LORD has not denounced?

⁹ From the rocky peaks I see them,
from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart
and do not consider themselves one of the nations.

¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
and may my end be like theirs!"

¹¹ Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!"

¹² He answered, "Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?"

¹³ Then Balak said to him, "Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me."

¹⁴ So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there."

¹⁶ The LORD met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this word."

¹⁷ So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the officials of Moab. Balak asked him, "What did the LORD say?"

¹⁸ Then he spoke his oracle:
"Rise up, Balak, and listen;
hear me, son of Zippor.

¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?

²⁰ I have received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

²¹ No misfortune is seen in Jacob,
no misery observed in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them;
the shout of the King is among them.

²² God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox.

²³ There is no divination against Jacob,
no sorcery against Israel.
Now it will be said of Jacob
and of Israel, 'See what God has done!'

²⁴ The people rise like a lioness;
they rouse themselves like a lion
that does not rest till it devours its prey
and drinks the blood of its kill."

²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!"

²⁶ Balaam answered, "Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?"

²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, "Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there."

²⁸ And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.

²⁹ Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me."

³⁰ Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.