Chapter 23

¹Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams. ²Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. ³Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. He went to a bare height. ⁴God 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. ⁵Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. ⁶He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. ⁷He 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. ⁸How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has not defied? ⁹For 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. ¹⁰Who 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! ¹¹Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether. ¹²He answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth? ¹³Balak 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. ¹⁴He 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. ¹⁵He said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet Yahweh yonder. ¹⁶Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak. ¹⁷He 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? ¹⁸He took up his parable, and said,

Rise up, Balak, and hear;

Listen to me, you son of Zippor:

¹⁹God 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?

²⁰Behold, I have received commandment to bless:

He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.

²¹He 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.

²²God brings them forth out of Egypt;

He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.

²³Surely 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!

²⁴Behold, 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.

²⁵Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all. ²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, Didn’t I tell you, saying, All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do? ²⁷Balak 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. ²⁸Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. ²⁹Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams. ³⁰Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.