Top of Page
Page Style
Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” 2 So Balak did as Balaam said, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me, and I will tell you whatever He reveals to me.” Then he went off to a barren peak.
4 God met with Balaam, and Balaam said to him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”
5 Then the Lord put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and say what I tell you.”
6 So he returned to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt offering with all the officials of Moab.
7 Then Balaam uttered his oracle:
“Balak brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains:
‘Come, put a curse on Jacob for me;
Come, denounce Israel!’
8 “How can I curse
those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
those whom the Lord has not denounced?
9 For from the top of the rocky peaks I see them,
from the heights I watch them.
Here is a people living alone;
not considering itself one of the nations.
10 “Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or number the dust clouds of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
and let my end be like theirs!”
11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and you have done nothing but bless them.”
12 He answered, “Must I not be careful only to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
13 Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; though you will see only a part but not all of them. From there, you can put a curse on them for me.” 14 So Balak took Balaam 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.
15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I meet with the Lord over there.”
16 The Lord met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth. Then He said, “Go back to Balak and say what I tell you.”
17 So he went back to Balak, and he found him standing beside his burnt offering with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him, “What did the Lord say?”
18 Then Balaam uttered his oracle:
“Arise, Balak, and listen;
hear me, O son of Zippor!
19 “God is not a man, that He should lie,
and not a son of man, that He should change His mind.
Does He speak and then not act?
Does He promise and then not fulfil?
20 I have received a command to bless;
but He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
21 “He considers no misfortune for Jacob;
He sees no misery for Israel.
The Lord their God is with them;
the loud rejoicing for their King is among them.
22 God brought them out of Egypt;
He is like the horns of a wild ox for them.
23 “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!’
24 Look, a people rises up like a lioness;
they rouse themselves like a lion!
He does not lie down until he devours his prey
and drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all!”
26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the Lord says, I must do’?”
27 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you place a curse on them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.
29 Balaam told Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” 30 So Balak did as Balaam said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.