Numbers 23:1-14 ▼

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

2 So Balak did as Balaam directed, and they offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone. Maybe the LORD will meet with me. I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” So he went to a barren hill.

4 God met with him and Balaam said to him, “I have arranged seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”

5 Then the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”

6 So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with all the officials of Moab.

7 Balaam proclaimed his poem: Balak brought me from Aram; the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains: “Come, put a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel! ”

8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed? How can I denounce someone the LORD has not denounced?

9 I see them from the top of rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. There is a people living alone; it does not consider itself among the nations.

10 Who has counted the dust of Jacob or numbered even one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright; let the end of my life be like theirs.

11 “What have you done to me? ” Balak asked Balaam. “I brought you to curse my enemies, but look, you have only blessed them! ”

12 He answered, “Shouldn’t I say exactly what the LORD puts in my mouth? ”

13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp; you won’t see all of them. From there, put a curse on them for me.”

14 So Balak took him to Lookout Field on top of Pisgah, built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.