Numbers 23

From Aram hath Balak brought me,

The king of Moab from the mountains of the East:

Come, curse me Jacob,

And come, defy Israel.

⁸How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?

And how shall I defy, whom Jehovah hath not defied?

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

And from the hills I behold him:

Lo, it is a people that dwelleth alone,

And shall not be reckoned among the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob,

Or number the fourth part of Israel?

Let me die the death of the righteous,

And let my last end be like his!

¹³And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them; thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence. ¹⁴And he took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar. ¹⁵And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt-offering, while I meet Jehovah yonder. ¹⁶And Jehovah met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak. ¹⁷And he came to him, and, lo, he was standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath Jehovah spoken? ¹⁸And he took up his parable, and said,

Rise up, Balak, and hear;

Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:

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

Neither the son of man, that he should repent:

Hath he said, and will he not do it?

Or hath he spoken, and will he not make it good?

²⁰Behold, I have received commandment to bless:

And he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

²¹He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob;

Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel:

Jehovah his God is with him,

And the shout of a king is among them.

²²God bringeth them forth out of Egypt;

He hath as it were the strength of the wild-ox.

²³Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob;

Neither is there any divination with Israel:

Now shalt it be said of Jacob and of Israel,

What hath God wrought!

²⁴Behold, the people riseth up as a lioness,

And as a lion doth he lift himself up:

He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey,

And drink the blood of the slain.