Numbers
Chapter 23
1 Balaam said to Balak, “Make me seven altars here, and get ready seven oxen and seven rams for me here.”
2 Balak did what Balaam said; Balak and Balaam sacrificed a bull and a ram on each altar.
3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay by your burnt offering, and I’ll go; maybe God will meet me. Whatever he shows me, I’ll tell you.” Then he went to a high place.
4 God met Balaam, and Balaam said, “I have set up seven altars and on each altar I have sacrificed a bull and a ram.”
5 God gave Balaam a message and said, “Go back to Balak, and say this.”
6 He went back to him and saw him standing by his burnt offering with all the leaders of Moab.
7 He began his message, saying, “King Balak of Moab brought me from Aram, from the eastern mountains, and said, ‘Come and curse Jacob for me; come and speak against Israel.’”
8 How can I curse someone who God has not cursed? Or how can I condemn someone who God has not condemned?
9 From the high rocks I see him, and from the hills I watch him: look, the people will live apart and will not be counted with other nations.
10 Who can count Jacob’s dust, or know the number of a quarter of Israel’s people? I want to die like good people do, and end my life the same as theirs!
11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but look, you have completely blessed them.”
12 He replied, “Shouldn’t I be careful to say what God has given me to speak?”
13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place. You can see only a part of the people from there, not all of them. Curse them for me from that place.”
14 He took him to Zophim’s field, up on Pisgah peak, made seven altars, and sacrificed a bull and a ram on each one.
15 He told Balak, “Stay here by your burnt offering while I go to meet God over there.”
16 God met Balaam, gave him a message, and said, “Go back to Balak and say this.”
17 When he arrived, he saw him standing by his burnt offering with Moab’s leaders. And Balak asked, “What has God said?”
18 He began his message, saying, “Stand up, Balak, and listen; pay attention to me, son of Zippor:
19 God is not a man who lies, or someone’s son who changes his mind. If He says something, won’t He do it? If He speaks, won’t He make it happen?
20 Look, I have been ordered to bless: God has given a blessing, and I cannot change it.
21 God has not seen any wrong in Jacob, nor has He noticed any evil in Israel; God is with him, and there is the sound of a king among them.
22 God led them out of Egypt; he has the power like a strong wild ox.
23 There is no magic that can harm Jacob, nor any fortune-telling against Israel. Now it will be said about Jacob and Israel, “Look at what God has done!”
24 Look, the people will get up like a strong lion and raise themselves like a young lion: they will not rest until they have eaten their kill and drunk the blood of those they have defeated.
25 Balak told Balaam, “Don’t curse or bless them at all.”
26 But Balaam replied to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you that I must do everything God says?”
27 Balak said to Balaam, “Please come with me to another place; maybe from there you can ask God to curse them for me.”
28 Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, with a view over Jeshimon.
29 Balaam said to Balak, “Make seven altars for me here, and get ready seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
30 Balak did what Balaam told him to do, and sacrificed a bull and a sheep on each altar.