Numbers 23

1Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”

2Balak did as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on the altar.

3Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” Then he went to a bare height.

4And God met with Balaam, and he said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on the altar.”

5Then Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

6Then he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering—he and all the princes of Moab.

7Then he took up his discourse and said: “From Aram Balak king of Moab has led me, from the mountains of the east: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me; yes, come, denounce Israel.’”

8How can I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?

9For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Look, a people dwelling alone, and not reckoning itself among the nations.

10Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his.

11Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but look, you have done nothing but bless them!”

12He answered and said, “Must I not speak what Yahweh puts in my mouth?”

13Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from where you may see him. You will see only the edge of him, and you will not see all of him; then curse him for me from there.”

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

15And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, and I will go to meet him over there.”

16And Yahweh met Balaam and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

17He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, with the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”

18Then he took up his discourse and said: “Rise, Balak, and hear; listen to me, son of Zippor.”

19God is not a man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not establish it?

20Look, I have received to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

21He has not looked on trouble in Jacob, nor has he seen misery in Israel. The Yahweh his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.

22God brings them out of Egypt; he has for him the horns of a wild ox.

23For there is no divination in Jacob, and no sorcery in Israel; at the proper time it will be said to Jacob and to Israel, ‘What God has done!’

24Look, a people rises like a lioness, and lifts itself up like a lion; it will not lie down until it eats the prey and drinks the blood of the slain.

25And Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse him at all nor bless him at all!”

26Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘All that Yahweh speaks, that I will do’?”

27Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will be right in the eyes of God, and you shall curse him for me from there.”

28Then Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the face of the wasteland.

29Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”

30So Balak did as Balaam had said, and he offered up a bull and a ram on the altar.