Numbers 23
1 Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
2 Balak did as Balaam had said, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I go. Perhaps the LORD will meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” Then he went 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 speak like this.”
6 He returned to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt offering with all the princes of Moab.
7 Then he recited his oracle: “Balak, king of Moab, brought me from Aram, from the eastern mountains: ‘Come, 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 top of the cliffs I see them; from the hills I look down on them. This is a people who live apart and are not counted among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number even a quarter 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 look, you have blessed them instead!”
12 He answered, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”
13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, where you can see them. You will see only their outer edge, not all of them. Curse them for me from there.”
14 He took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. He 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 go over there to meet him.”
16 The LORD met Balaam, put a message in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak and speak like this.”
17 He came to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?”
18 Then he recited his oracle: “Rise, Balak, and listen; give me your attention, son of Zippor.
19 God is not a man, that he should lie, or a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he say something and not do it? Does he speak and not fulfill it?
20 Look, I was commissioned to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot take it back.”
21 “He sees no wrongdoing in Jacob and no trouble in Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.
22 God brought them out of Egypt; he is like the horns of a wild ox to them.
23 For there is no omen against Jacob, no divination against Israel. Now it will be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
24 This is a people that rises like a lioness and stands tall like a lion. It will not lie down until it has devoured its prey and drunk the blood of the slain.”
25 Balak said to Balaam, “If you will not curse them, at least do not bless them!”
26 Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘I will do everything the LORD says’?”
27 Balak said to Balaam, “Please come; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will seem right to God for you to curse them for me from there.”
28 Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking Jeshimon.
29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
30 Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
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