Numbers 23

23¹ Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me." ² Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ³ Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your burnt offerings while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you." And he went to a bare height. ⁴ Then God met Balaam; and Balaam said to him, "I have arranged the seven altars, and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ⁵ The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and this is what you must say." ⁶ So he returned to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab. ⁷ Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying: "Balak has brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: "Come, curse Jacob for me; Come, denounce Israel!' ⁸ How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? ⁹ For from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him; Here is a people living alone, and not reckoning itself among the nations! ¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the dust-cloud of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!" ¹¹ Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them." ¹² He answered, "Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?"

¹³ So Balak said to him, "Come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only part of them, and shall not see them all; then curse them for me from there." ¹⁴ So 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, "Stand here beside your burnt offerings, while I meet the Lord over there." ¹⁶ The Lord met Balaam, put a word into his mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say." ¹⁷ When he came to him, he was standing beside his burnt offerings with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him, "What has the Lord said?" ¹⁸ Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying: "Rise, Balak, and hear; listen to me, O son of Zippor: ¹⁹ God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it ²⁰ See, I received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. ²¹ He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob; nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, acclaimed as a king among them ²² God, who brings them out of Egypt, is like the horns of a wild ox for them. ²³ Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, "See what God has done!' ²⁴ Look, a people rising up like a lioness, and rousing itself like a lion! It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey and drunk the blood of the slain." ²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, "Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all." ²⁶ But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell you, "Whatever the Lord says, that is what I must do'?" ²⁷ So 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 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. ²⁹ Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me." ³⁰ So Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.