• 1 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
  • 2 And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
  • 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height.
  • 4 And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”
  • 5 Then the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”
  • 6 So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.
  • 7 And he took up his oracle and said: “Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, From the mountains of the east. ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, And come, denounce Israel!’
  • 8 “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
  • 9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, Not reckoning itself among the nations.
  • 10 “Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!”
  • 11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”
  • 12 So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?”

  • Balaam’s Second Prophecy

  • 13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.”
  • 14 So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
  • 15 And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet the Lord over there.”
  • 16 Then the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”
  • 17 So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”
  • 18 Then he took up his oracle and said: “Rise up, Balak, and hear! 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, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
  • 20 Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
  • 21 “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them.
  • 22 God brings them out of Egypt; He has strength like a wild ox.
  • 23 “For there is no sorcery against Jacob, Nor any divination against Israel. It now must be said of Jacob And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’
  • 24 Look, a people rises like a lioness, And lifts itself up like a lion; It shall not lie down until it devours the prey, And drinks the blood of the slain.”
  • 25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”
  • 26 So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”

  • Balaam’s Third Prophecy

  • 27 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”
  • 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.
  • 29 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
  • 30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on every altar.