Numbers 23

Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” Balak did as Balaam had said, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering while I go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me, I will tell you.” Then he went to a bare height. God met Balaam, and he said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.” The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak this way.” He returned to him, and there he stood beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. He took up his oracle and said,
“From Aram Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me;
come, denounce Israel.’ How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced? For from the top of the rocks I see him;
from the hills I behold him.
Look, a people dwelling apart, not counted among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!” Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and look, you have surely blessed them!” He answered, “Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?” Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you can see them. You will see only their outer part, not all of them. Curse them for me from there.” 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. He said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I have an encounter over there.” The LORD met Balaam, put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and speak this way.” He came to him, and there he stood beside his burnt offering, with the leaders of Moab. Balak said to him, “What has the LORD said?” He took up his oracle and said,
“Rise, Balak, and hear;
listen to me, son of Zippor. God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Look, I have received a charge to bless.
He has blessed, and I will not reverse it. He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor seen trouble in Israel.
The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt;
he has strength like a wild ox. For there is no omen against Jacob, no divination against Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘What God has done!’ Look, a people rises like a lioness and lifts itself up like a lion.
It will not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain.” Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all!” Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the LORD says, that I will do’?” Balak said to Balaam, “Please come. I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will be right in God’s eyes for you to curse them for me from there.” Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Rights and attribution