23:1 Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
23:2 Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
23:3 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.
23:4 God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”
23:5 The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
23:6 So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.
23:7 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.’
23:8 How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?
23:9 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.
23:10 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! ”
23:11 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!”
23:12 He answered, “Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
23:13 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.”
23:14 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.
23:15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”
23:16 The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
23:17 So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”
23:18 Then he spoke his message: “Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.
23:19 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?
23:20 I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
23:21 “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. / *Or He has not looked on Jacob’s offenses or on the wrongs found
23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox.
23:23 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!’ / *Or in
23:24 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.”
23:25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”
23:26 Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the Lord says?”
23:27 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.”
23:28 And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
23:29 Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
23:30 Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.