Home Master Index
←Prev   Numbers 23 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


23:1  Balaam said, ‘Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.’
23:2  Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
23:3  Then 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.
23:4  God met with him, and Balaam said, ‘I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.’
23:5  The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, ‘Go back to Balak and give him this word.’
23:6  So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.
23:7  Then 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.”
23:8  How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?
23:9  From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
23:10  Who 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!’
23:11  Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!’
23:12  He answered, ‘Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?’
23:13  Then 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.’
23:14  So 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.
23:15  Balaam said to Balak, ‘Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.’
23:16  The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, ‘Go back to Balak and give him this word.’
23:17  So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, ‘What did the Lord say?’
23:18  Then he spoke his message: ‘Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.
23:19  God 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 fulfil?
23:20  I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
23:21  ‘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.
23:22  God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox.
23:23  There 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!”
23:24  The 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.’
23:25  Then Balak said to Balaam, ‘Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!’
23:26  Balaam answered, ‘Did I not tell you I must do whatever the Lord says?’
23:27  Then 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.’
23:28  And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
23:29  Balaam said, ‘Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.’
23:30  Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.