Numbers 23

1. And Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare here seven oxen and seven rams for me.”

2. And Balak did as Balaam had spoken. And Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.

3. And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me. And whatever He reveals to me I will tell you.” And he went to a high place.

4. And God met Balaam. And he said to Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bull and a ram.”

5. And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

6. And he returned to him. And lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the leaders of Moab.

7. And he took up his parable, and said, “Balak, the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, defy Israel.’

8. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the LORD has not defied?

9. For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I see him. Behold, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be counted among the nations.

10. Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!”

11. And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have kept on blessing them!”

12. And he answered and said, “Must I not be careful to speak that which the LORD has put in my mouth?”

13. And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them. You shall see only the nearest of them, and shall not see them all. And curse them from there for me.”

14. And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on every altar.

15. And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet Him yonder.”

16. And the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go again to Balak and say this.”

17. And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”

18. And he took up his parable and said, “Rise up, Balak, and hear. Listen to me, son of Zippor.

19. God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not fulfill it?

20. Behold, I have received word to bless. And He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

21. He has not seen iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a King among them.

22. God brought them out of Egypt. He has, as it were, the strength of an ox.

23. Surely, there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel. According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘What God has worked!’

24. Behold, the people shall rise up like a great lion, and lift up himself like a young lion. He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey and drinks the blood of the slain.”

25. And Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all.”

26. But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the LORD speaks, that I must do’?”

27. And Balak said to Balaam, “Please, come. I will bring you into another place. Perhaps it will please God that you will curse them for me from there.

28. And Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor that looks toward Jeshimon.

29. And Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars here for me, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams here for me.”

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