1 Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bullocks and seven rams for me,”
2 Balak did just as Balaam had ordered and Balak and Balaam offered up a bullock and a ram on each altar.
3 Balaam said to Ba lak, “Stand here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps Yahweh will meet me and whatever he lets me see I will tell you.” So he went to a barren hill.
4 God met Balaam who said, “I have pre pared the seven altars and on each al tar I have offered a bullock and a ram.”
5 Yah weh then put a message on Bala am’s lips and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this message.”
6 Balaam re turned and found Balak standing beside his offer ing, together with the leaders of Moab.
7 Then Balaam pronounced his oracle:
“From Aram, Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come, curse Jacob for me!
Come, denounce Israel!
8 How can I curse him whom God has not cursed? How can I de nounce him whom God has not denounced?
9 From the peak of the crags I see him, from the heights I behold him. I see a people that lives apart, a people different from all the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright and may my end be like theirs!”
11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my ene mies and you have actually blessed them.”
12 And Balaam answered, “Must I not take care to say what Yahweh puts on my lips?”
13 Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you will see them. You will not see all of them, only the tail end, and there you shall curse them for me.”
14 So he took him to the field of Zo phim, to the top of Pis gah and built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on each altar.
15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I go and meet Yahweh over there.”
16 Yahweh met Balaam and put words on his lips and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this message.”
17 He re turned and found Balak posted beside his burnt offering with the leaders of Moab. Balak asked, “What did Yahweh say?”
18 Balaam then pronounced his oracle, “Be ready to hear, Balak; 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 he will do something and will not do it? Has he promised something and not fulfilled it?
20 See, I have received a command to bless; when he has blessed I cannot change it.
21 He has not seen misfortune in Jacob or observed misery in Israel. Yahweh, their God is with them, and the shout of a king among them.
22 God has brought them out of Egypt; he is for them like the horns of a wild ox.
23 There are no diviners or magicians in Israel. But it shall be made known to them what God will do with them.
24 Behold a people that rises like a lioness, that rouses itself like a lion. It shall not lie down before it devours its prey and drinks the blood of its victims.”
25 Balak said to Balaam, “Even though you cannot curse them, do not bless them.”
26 But Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you that whatever Yahweh says, I will do?”
27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Come, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it is God’s will that you curse them for me there.”
28 Then Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the wasteland,
29 and Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bullocks and seven rams.”
30 Balak did just as Balaam ordered and offered a bullock and a ram on each altar.