Numbers 23

Balaam’s Oracles

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

2And Balak did just as Balaam spoke, and Balak offered Balaam a bull and a ram on the altar.

3And Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself at your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell to you.” So he went to a barren height.

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

5Yahweh put a word in the mouth of Balaam and said, “Return to Balak, and you must 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 lifted up his oracle and said,

“From Aram Balak lead me,

‘Go for me, curse Jacob,

8How can I curse whom God has not cursed,

9Because from the top of the rocks I see him,

Behold, a people who dwell alone,

10Who can count the dust of Jacob,

Let my life die the death of an upright person,

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

12He answered and said, “Should I not speak what Yahweh puts in my mouth?”[#Literally “Should I not observe to speak”]

13Then Balak said, “Please walk with me to another place where you will see them, but you will only see part 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 he built seven altars, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

15Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself here at the burnt offering while I myself meet with Yahweh there.”[#Hebrew “He”]

16Then Yahweh met with Balaam, and he put a word in his mouth, and he said, “Return to Balak, and you must speak thus.”

17He came to him, and behold, he was standing at his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”

18Then he uttered his oracle, and said,[#Literally “he lifted up”]

“Stand up, Balak, and hear;

19God is not a man, that he should lie,

that he should change his mind.

And has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

when he has blessed, I cannot cause it to return.

and he does not see trouble in Israel;

and a shout of a king is among them.

is like the strength of a wild ox for them.

and there is no divination against Israel.

24Look! the people will rise like the lion;

until he eats the prey

25Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”[#Hebrew “him”; #Hebrew “him”]

26But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Whatever Yahweh speaks I will do’?”

27Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please, come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be acceptable to God, and you will curse for me from there.”[#Literally “it will be right in the eyes of”]

28So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks down on the face of the Jeshimon.[#Or “the wasteland”]

29And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me these seven altars, and prepare for me these seven bulls and seven rams.”

30Balak did just as Balaam said, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

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