Numbers 23

Balaam’s First Message

¹Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” ²Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.

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

⁵The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

⁶So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. ⁷Then Balaam spoke his message:

“Balak brought me from Aram,

the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.

‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;

come, denounce Israel.’

⁸How can I curse

those whom God has not cursed?

How can I denounce

those whom the Lord has not denounced?

⁹From the rocky peaks I see them,

from the heights I view them.

I see a people who live apart

and do not consider themselves one of the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob

or number even a fourth of Israel?

Let me die the death of the righteous,

and may my final end be like theirs!”

¹¹Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”

¹²He answered, “Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Message

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me.” ¹⁴So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”

¹⁶The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

¹⁷So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”

¹⁸Then he spoke his message:

“Arise, Balak, and listen;

hear me, son of Zippor.

¹⁹God is not human, that he should lie,

not a human being, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?

Does he promise and not fulfill?

²⁰I have received a command to bless;

he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

²¹“No misfortune is seen in Jacob,

no misery observed in Israel.

The Lord their God is with them;

the shout of the King is among them.

²²God brought them out of Egypt;

they have the strength of a wild ox.

²³There is no divination against Jacob,

no evil omens against Israel.

It will now be said of Jacob

and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’

²⁴The people rise like a lioness;

they rouse themselves like a lion

that does not rest till it devours its prey

and drinks the blood of its victims.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”

²⁶Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the Lord says?”

Balaam’s Third Message

²⁷Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.” ²⁸And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.

²⁹Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” ³⁰Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.