Numbers 23:1-8 ▼

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

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

3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offerings while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height.

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

5 The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you must say.”

6 So he returned to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab.

7 Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying: “Balak has brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me; Come, denounce Israel!’

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