Numbers 23

¹ Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and get ready for me seven bulls and seven rams here."

² Balak did what Balaam asked, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

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

⁴ God met Balaam, and Balaam said to him, "I have set up the seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar."

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

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

⁷ Then Balaam uttered his discourse: "Balak has brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: 'Come, put a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel!'

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

⁹ From the top of the crags I see him; from the hills I watch him. Here is a people that lives apart and does not reckon itself among the nations.

¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? May I die the death of the upright, 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, and instead you have done nothing but bless them!"

¹² He answered, "Must I not be careful to say what the LORD puts in my mouth?"

¹³ Balak said to him, "Come with me, please, to another place where you can see them. You will see only the outer edge of them, not all of them. Curse them for me from there."

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

¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there."

¹⁶ The LORD met Balaam, put a message in his mouth, and said, "Go back to Balak and say this."

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

¹⁸ Then Balaam uttered his discourse: "Get up, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.

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

²⁰ See, I was told to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

²¹ He has not looked on iniquity in Jacob, nor seen trouble in Israel. The LORD his God is with him; the shout of a king is among them.

²² God brought them out of Egypt; he has strength like the horns of the wild ox.

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

²⁴ Look, a people that rises up like a lioness and raises itself like a lion; it does not lie down until it devours its prey and drinks the blood of the slain."

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

²⁶ Balaam answered Balak, "Didn't I tell you, 'Whatever the LORD says, that is what I must do'?"

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

²⁸ So Balak took Balaam to the summit of Peor, which overlooks Jeshimon.

²⁹ Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and get ready for me seven bulls and seven rams here."

³⁰ Balak did what Balaam asked and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.