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23:1  Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
23:2  So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
23:3  Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering. I will go and perhaps Adonai will meet me. Whatever message He shows me, I will tell you. Then he went to a barren height.
23:4  God met with Balaam and he said to Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I offered a bull and a ram.”
23:5  Adonai put a message into Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and speak this.”
23:6  Balaam went back to him. Behold, he was standing beside his offering with all the princes of Moab.
23:7  Then he uttered his oracle and said, “From Aram, Balak brought me, Moab’s king from the mountains of the east: ‘Come! Curse Jacob for me! ‘Come! Denounce Israel!’
23:8  How can I curse one whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce one whom Adonai has not denounced?
23:9  From the rocky peaks I see him. From the heights I behold him. Look, he lives as a nation apart, and does not consider himself as being like the other nations.
23:10  Who can count Jacob’s dust? Who can number a fourth of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”
23:11  Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but look, you’ve actually blessed them!”
23:12  But in response he said, “Mustn’t I speak whatever Adonai puts into my mouth?”
23:13  Then Balak said to him, “Come now with me to another place where you can see a part of them only, not all of them. Curse them for me from there.”
23:14  He took him to Lookout Field on top of Pisgah. He built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
23:15  “Stay here beside your offering,” he said to Balak, “while I am meeting over there.”
23:16  Adonai met Balaam there and put a message into his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak and speak thus.”
23:17  So he went to him, and behold, he and the princes of Moab were standing beside his offering. Balak asked him, “What did Adonai say?”
23:18  So he uttered his oracle and said: “Rise, Balak! Hear me, son of Zippor!
23:19  God is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes his mind! Does He speak and then not do it, or promise and not fulfill it?
23:20  Look, I received a command to bless. He has blessed—I cannot change it!
23:21  No misfortune is to be seen in Jacob, and no misery in Israel! Adonai their God is with them —the King’s shout is among them!
23:22  God is bringing them from Egypt with the strong horns of the wild ox!
23:23  There is no sorcery effective against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel! Now it will be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
23:24  The people rise like a lioness, like a lion who does not rest until he eats his prey and drinks his victim’s blood!”
23:25  Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them or bless them at all!”
23:26  Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Haven’t I told you, ‘All that Adonai says, I must do?’
23:27  Balak said to Balaam, “Come with me to another place. Perhaps it will be pleasing to God and you may curse them for me from there.”
23:28  So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
23:29  Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
23:30  Balak did just as Balaam said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.