Numbers
23
- Balaam said, "Build me seven altars
here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me."
- Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of
them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
- 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.
- God met with him, and Balaam said, "I
have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a
ram."
- The LORD put a message in Balaam's mouth
and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this message."
- So he went back to him and found him standing
beside his offering, with all the princes of Moab.
- Then Balaam uttered his oracle: "Balak
brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. 'Come,'
he said, 'curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.'
- How can I curse those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced ?
- From the rocky peaks I see them, from the
heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves
one of the nations.
- Who can count the dust of Jacob or number
the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may
my end be like theirs !"
- 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 !"
- He answered, "Must I not speak what
the LORD puts in my mouth ?"
- Then Balak said to him, "Come with
me to another place where you can see them; you will see only a part but not
all of them. And from there, curse them for me."
- 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.
- Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside
your offering while I meet with him over there."
- The LORD met with Balaam and put a message
in his mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this message."
- So he went to him and found him standing
beside his offering, with the princes of Moab. Balak asked him, "What
did the LORD say ?"
- Then he uttered his oracle: "Arise,
Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.
- God is not a man, that he should lie, nor
a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill ?
- I have received a command to bless; he has
blessed, and I cannot change it.
- "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.
- God brought them out of Egypt; they have
the strength of a wild ox.
- There is no sorcery against Jacob, no divination
against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'See what God
has done !'
- The people rise like a lioness; they rouse
themselves like a lion that does not rest till he devours his prey and drinks
the blood of his victims."
- Then Balak said to Balaam, "Neither
curse them at all nor bless them at all!"
- Balaam answered, "Did I not tell you
I must do whatever the LORD says ?"
- 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."
- And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor,
overlooking the wasteland.
- Balaam said, "Build me seven altars
here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me."
- Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered
a bull and a ram on each altar.
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