Numbers 23

Balaam’s First Oracle

1Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 2Balak did as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will meet me. Whatever the LORD shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height. 4God met Balaam, and Balaam said to God, “I have arranged the seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.” 5The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6So he returned to him, and look—Balak was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab.

7Then Balaam took up his oracle and said:
“From Aram Balak brought me,
the king of Moab from the mountains of the east:
‘Come, curse Jacob for me;
come, denounce Israel.’ 8How can I curse
whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
whom the LORD has not denounced? 9For from the top of the rocks I see them,
and from the hills I behold them.
Look, a people dwelling alone,
not counting itself among the nations. 10Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and let my end be like theirs!”

11Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and look—you have done nothing but bless them!” 12Balaam answered and said, “Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Oracle

13Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them. You will see only the edge of them and will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there.” 14So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there.” 16The LORD met Balaam, put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 17He came to him, and look—he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”

18Then Balaam took up his oracle and said:
“Rise, Balak, and hear;
give ear to me, son of Zippor. 19God is not a man, that God should lie,
or a human being, that God should change his mind.
Has God spoken and not done it?
Or spoken and not brought it to pass? 20Look, I received a command to bless;
God has blessed,
and I cannot reverse it. 21God has not beheld trouble in Jacob,
nor seen misery in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them. 22God brings them out of Egypt;
they have strength like the horns of a wild ox.

23Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,
and no divination against Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘What has God done!’ 24Look, a people rises like a lioness
and lifts itself like a lion.
It does not lie down until it eats prey
and drinks the blood of the slain.”

25Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all!” 26But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘All that the LORD speaks, that I must do’?”

Balak Tries a Third Place

27Balak said to Balaam, “Please come; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will be right in the eyes of God for you to curse them for me from there.” 28So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. 29Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.