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