1
Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me."
2
Balak did as Balaam had 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 offerings while I go aside. Perhaps the
7
Then Balaam 2 uttered his oracle, saying:
"Balak has brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
"Come, curse Jacob for me;
Come, denounce Israel!'
8
How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce those whom the
9
For from the top of the crags I see him,
from the hills I behold him.
Here is a people living alone,
and not reckoning itself among the nations!
10
Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or number the dust-cloud 3 of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and let my end be like his!"
11
Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them."
12
He answered, "Must I not take care to say what the
13
So Balak said to him, "Come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only part of them, and shall not see them all; then curse them for me from there."
14
So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15
Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offerings, while I meet the
18
Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying:
"Rise, Balak, and hear;
listen to me, O son of Zippor:
19
God is not a human being, that he should lie,
or a mortal, that he should change his mind.
Has he promised, and will he not do it?
Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
20
See, I received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
21
He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob;
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The
acclaimed as a king among them.
22
God, who brings them out of Egypt,
is like the horns of a wild ox for them.
23
Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
"See what God has done!'
24
Look, a people rising up like a lioness,
and rousing itself like a lion!
It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey
and drunk 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