Numbers 23:1-12 ▼

1 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me in this place seven altars, and prepare for me in this place seven bulls and seven rams.”

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

3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps YHWH will come to meet me, and the word of what he shows me I will tell to you.” And he went to a barren height.

4 And God met with Balaam, and he said to Him, “Seven altars I have prepared, and I have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”

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

6 And he returned to him, and behold, he is standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

7 And he lifted up his oracle and said, “Balak has brought me from Aram, the king of Moab, from the mountains of the east: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel.’

8 How shall I curse those whom God has not cursed, and how shall I denounce those whom YHWH has not denounced?

9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Behold, a people dwelling apart, and among the nations not reckoning itself.

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

11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? To curse my enemies I took you, and behold, you have surely blessed them.”

12 And he answered and said, “What YHWH has put in my mouth, is it not that I must guard myself to speak?”