Numbers 23

¹ Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” ² Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
³ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.
⁴ God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”
⁵ The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
⁶ So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. ⁷ Then Balaam spoke his message:

“Balak brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.
‘Come,’ he said, ‘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 rocky peaks I see them,
from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart
and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
and may my final end be like theirs!”

¹¹ Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”
¹² He answered, “Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Message

¹³ Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me.” ¹⁴ So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”
¹⁶ The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
¹⁷ So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”
¹⁸ Then he spoke his message:

“Arise, Balak, and listen;
hear me, son of Zippor.
¹⁹ God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
²⁰ I have received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

²¹ “No misfortune is seen in Jacob,
no misery observed in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them;
the shout of the King is among them.
²² God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox.
²³ There is no divination against Jacob,
no evil omens against Israel.
It will now be said of Jacob
and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
²⁴ The people rise like a lioness;
they rouse themselves like a lion
that does not rest till it devours its prey
and drinks the blood of its victims.”

²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”
²⁶ Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the Lord says?”

Balaam’s Third Message

²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.” ²⁸ And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
²⁹ Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” ³⁰ Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.