Numbers 23

1Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.” 2Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. 3Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” He went to a bare height. 4God met Balaam, and he said to him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.” 5Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. 7the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, defy Israel. “From Aram has Balak brought me, Come, curse Jacob for me. He took up his parable, and said, 8How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied? How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? 9From the hills I see him. and shall not be listed among the nations. For from the top of the rocks I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, 10or number the fourth part of Israel? Let my last end be like his!” Who can count the dust of Jacob, Let me die the death of the righteous! 11Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.” 12He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?” 13Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, where you may see them. You shall see just part of them, and shall not see them all. Curse them from there for me.” 14He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar. 15He said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet over there.” 16Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and say this.” 17He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?” 18Listen to me, you son of Zippor. “Rise up, Balak, and hear! He took up his parable, and said, 19nor the son of man, that he should repent. Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good? God is not a man, that he should lie, Has he said, and will he not do it? 20He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it. Behold, I have received a command to bless. 21Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. The shout of a king is among them. He has not seen iniquity in Jacob. Yahweh his God is with him. 22He has as it were the strength of the wild ox. God brings them out of Egypt. 23Neither is there any divination with Israel. ‘What has God done!’ Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, 24As a lion he lifts himself up. and drinks the blood of the slain.” Behold, the people rises up as a lioness. He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, 25Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.” 26But Balaam answered Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?’” 27Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. 29Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.