[1] Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here
seven bulls and seven rams. [2] Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak
and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. [3] Balaam said to
Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure Yahweh
will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. He went to
a bare height. [4] God met Balaam: and he said to him, I have prepared the
seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar. [5]
Yahweh put a word in Balaam`s mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus
you shall speak. [6] He returned to him, and, behold, he was standing by
his burnt- offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. [7] He took up his
parable, and said, From Aram has Balak brought me, The king of Moab from
the mountains of the East: Come, curse me Jacob, Come, defy Israel. [8] How
shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has
not defied? [9] For from the top of the rocks I see him, From the hills I
see him: behold, it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be
reckoned among the nations. [10] Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number
the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my
last end be like his! [11] Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me?
I took you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have blessed them
altogether. [12] He answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that
which Yahweh puts in my mouth? [13] Balak said to him, Please come with me
to another place, from whence you may see them; you shall see but the
utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me them from
there. [14] He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and
built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar. [15] He
said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet [Yahweh]
yonder. [16] Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said,
Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak. [17] He came to him, and,
behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with
him. Balak said to him, What has Yahweh spoken? [18] He took up his
parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, you son of
Zippor: [19] God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man,
that he should repent: Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he
spoken, and will he not make it good? [20] Behold, I have received
[commandment] to bless: He has blessed, and I can`t reverse it. [21] He has
not saw iniquity in Jacob; Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel:
Yahweh his God is with him, The shout of a king is among them. [22] God
brings them forth out of Egypt; He has as it were the strength of the
wild-ox. [23] Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Neither is there
any divination with Israel: Now shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel,
What has God done! [24] Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion
does he lift himself up: He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey,
Drink the blood of the slain. [25] Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them
at all, nor bless them at all. [26] But Balaam answered Balak, Didn`t I
tell you, saying, All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do? [27] Balak said
to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; peradventure it will
please God that you may curse me them from there. [28] Balak took Balaam to
the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. [29] Balaam said to Balak,
Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.
[30] Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every
altar.
