Numbers 23:1-8 ▼

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

2 So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam then offered on each altar a bull and a ram.

3 Balaam said to Balak, |Station yourself by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.| Then he went to a deserted height.

4 Then God met Balaam, who said to him, |I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.|

5 Then the LORD put a message in Balaam's mouth and said, |Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.|

6 So he returned to him, and he was still standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

7 Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying, |Balak, the king of Moab, brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, 'Come, pronounce a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.'

8 How can I curse one whom God has not cursed, or how can I denounce one whom the LORD has not denounced?