- 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 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 fulfil?
- 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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