Numbers 23

23 ¹ Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars 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 Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offering while I go on. Perhaps our Father will come to meet me, and I will tell you whatever he shows me." And he went off to a bare height.

⁴ Our Father met Balaam, and Balaam said to him, "I have arranged the seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a ram on each altar."

⁵ Our Father put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say."

⁶ So he returned to him, and there he was, standing beside his burnt offering with all the princes of Moab. ⁷ Then he took up his oracle and said: "From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east: 'Come, curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel!' ⁸ How can I curse those our Father has not cursed? How can I denounce those our Father has not denounced? ⁹ From the top of the rocks I see them, from the hills I look on them: a people dwelling alone, not counting itself among the nations. ¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die as the upright die and let 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 done nothing but bless them!"

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

Our Father's Word Stands Firm

¹³ Then Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will see only their outer edge and not all of them, and from there curse them for me."

¹⁴ So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offering while I go to meet with him over there."

¹⁶ Our Father met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say."

¹⁷ He came to him, and there he was, standing beside his burnt offering, with the princes of Moab. Balak asked him, "What did our Father say?"

¹⁸ Then he took up his oracle and said: "Rise, Balak, and hear; listen to me, son of Zippor: ¹⁹ Our Father is not a man, that he should lie nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he ever said something and not done it? Has he ever spoken and not fulfilled it? ²⁰ Look, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed and I cannot revoke it. ²¹ He has seen no misfortune in Jacob nor seen trouble in Israel. Our Father is with him and the shout of a King is among them. ²² Our Father, who brought them out of Egypt, is for them like the horns of the wild ox. ²³ There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel. Now it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'See what our Father has done!' ²⁴ Look, a people rising up like a lioness, rousing itself like a lion it will not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks 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 that I must do all that our Father says?"

²⁷ Balak said to Balaam, "Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps God will allow you to 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 here."

³⁰ Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.