Num 23
1
And Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks
and seven rams.
2
And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a
bullock and a ram.
3
And Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt-offering, and I will go: peradventure
YHWH will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. And he went to
a bare height.
4
And God met Balaam: and he said to him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have
offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar.
5
And YHWH put a word in Balaam`s mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall
speak.
6
And he returned to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, he, and
all the princes of Moab.
7
And he took up his parable, and said, From Aram has Balak brought me, The king of
Moab from the mountains of the East: Come, curse me Jacob, And come, defy Israel.
8
How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? And how shall I defy, whom YHWH has not
defied?
9
For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him: behold,
it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.
10
Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number 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 mine enemies,
and, behold, you have blessed them altogether.
12
And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which YHWH puts in my
mouth?
13
And Balak said to him, Come, I pray you, with me to another place, from whence you
may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all:
and curse me them from there.
14
And he took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars,
and offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar.
15
And he said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt-offering, while I meet [YHWH] yonder.
16
And YHWH met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus
shall you speak.
17
And he came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes
of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has YHWH spoken?
18
And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Hearken to me, you
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 will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
20
Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: And he has blessed, and I cannot reverse
it.
21
He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob; Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: YHWH
his God is with him, And the shout of a king is among them.
22
God brings them forth out of Egypt; He has as it were the strength of the wild-ox.
23
Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Neither is there any divination with Israel:
Now shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God wrought!
24
Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, And as a lion does he lift himself up: He
shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, And drink 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, Told not I you, saying, All that YHWH speaks,
that I must do?
27
And Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; peradventure
it will please God that you may curse me them from there.
28
And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down upon the desert.
29
And Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks
and seven rams.
30
And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar.