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¹ Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."
² And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
³ Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you." So he went to a desolate height.
⁴ And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, "I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram."
⁵ Then the LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."
⁶ So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.
⁷ And he took up his oracle and said: "Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, From the mountains of the east. "Come, curse Jacob for me, And come, denounce Israel!'
⁸ "How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?
⁹ For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, Not reckoning itself among the nations.
¹⁰ "Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!"
¹¹ Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!"
¹² So he answered and said, "Must I not take heed to speak what the LORD has put in my mouth?"
¹³ Then Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there."
¹⁴ So he brought 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.
¹⁵ And he said to Balak, "Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there."
¹⁶ Then the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak."
¹⁷ So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, "What has the LORD spoken?"
¹⁸ Then he took up his oracle and said: "Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, son of Zippor!
¹⁹ "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
²⁰ Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
²¹ "He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them.
²² God brings them out of Egypt; He has strength like a wild ox.
²³ "For there is no sorcery against Jacob, Nor any divination against Israel. It now must be said of Jacob And of Israel, "Oh, what God has done!'
²⁴ Look, a people rises like a lioness, And lifts itself up like a lion; It shall not lie down until it devours the prey, And drinks the blood of the slain."
²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!"
²⁶ So Balaam answered and said to Balak, "Did I not tell you, saying, "All that the LORD speaks, that I must do'?"
²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, "Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there."
²⁸ So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.
²⁹ Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."
³⁰ And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on every altar.