1Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
2And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
3Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.
4Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.”
5Then the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.”
6So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab.
7And he took up his discourse and said, 8“How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? 9“As I see him from the top of the rocks, 10“Who can count the dust of Jacob, 11Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!” 12And he answered and said, “Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?” 13Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, although you will only see the extreme end of them, and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.”
14So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I myself meet the LORD yonder.”
16Then the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”
17And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”
18Then he took up his discourse and said, 19“God is not a man, that He should lie, 20“Behold, I have received a command to bless; 21“He has not observed misfortune in Jacob; 22“God brings them out of Egypt, 23“For there is no omen against Jacob, 24“Behold, a people rises like a lioness, 25Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” 26But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the LORD speaks, that I must do’?” 27Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be agreeable with God that you curse them for me from there.” 28So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the wasteland. 29And Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30And Balak did just as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org Bible Hub |