Numbers 23

¹ Balaam said to Balak, ‘Build me seven altars, and bring here to me seven bulls and seven rams’.

² Balak did as Balaam asked and he offered a holocaust of one bull and one ram on each altar.

³ Balaam then said to Balak, ‘Stand beside your holocausts. I will go; perhaps Yahweh will allow me to meet him. Whatever he shows me I shall tell you.’ And he withdrew to a bare hill.

⁴ God came to meet Balaam, who said to him, ‘I have prepared the seven altars and offered a holocaust of one bull and one ram on each altar’.

⁵ Yahweh then put a word into his mouth and said to him, ‘Go back to Balak and that is what you must say to him’.

⁶ So Balaam went back to him, and found him still standing beside his holocaust, with all the chiefs of Moab.

⁷ Then he declaimed his poem. He said: ‘Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the hills of Kedem, “Come, curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel”.

⁸ How shall I curse one when God does not curse? How shall I denounce when God does not denounce?

⁹ Yes, from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I observe him. See, a people dwelling apart, not reckoned among the nations.

¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob? Who can number the cloud of Israel? May I die the death of the just! May my end be one with theirs!’

¹¹ Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and you heap blessings on them!’

¹² Balaam answered, ‘Am I not obliged to say what Yahweh puts into my mouth?’

¹³ Balak said to him, ‘Come with me to another place. What you see from here is only the fringe of this people, you do not see them all. Curse them for me over there.’

¹⁴ He led him to the Field of Spies, towards the summit of Pisgah. There he built seven altars and offered a holocaust of one bull and one ram on each altar.

¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, ‘Stand beside these holocausts. I will wait over there.’

¹⁶ God came to meet Balaam, he put a word into his mouth and said to him, ‘Go back to Balak and that is what you must say to him’.

¹⁷ So Balaam went to him, and found him still standing beside his holocaust and all the chiefs of Moab with him. ‘What did Yahweh say?’ Balak asked him.

¹⁸ Then Balaam declaimed his poem. He said: ‘Arise, Balak, and listen, give ear to me, son of Zippor.

¹⁹ God is no man that he should lie, no son of Adam to draw back. Is it his to say and not to do, to speak and not fulfil?

²⁰ The charge laid on me is to bless, I shall bless and not take it back.

²¹ I have seen no evil in Jacob I marked no suffering in Israel. Yahweh his God is with him; in him sounds the royal acclaim.

²² God brings him out of Egypt, he is like the wild ox’s horns to him.

²³ There is no omen against Jacob, no divination against Israel. Though men say to Jacob, say to Israel, “What wonder has God to show?”

²⁴ here is a people like a lioness rising, poised like a lion to spring; not lying down till he has devoured his prey and drunk the blood of his victims.’

²⁵ Balak said to Balaam, ‘Very well! Do not curse them. But at least do not bless them!’

²⁶ Balaam answered Balak, ‘Have I not told you: whatever Yahweh says, I must do?’

²⁷ Balak said to Balaam, ‘Come then, let me take you somewhere else. From there perhaps it will please God to curse them.’

²⁸ So Balak led Balaam to the summit of Peor, dominating the desert.

²⁹ Then Balaam said to Balak, ‘Build me seven altars here and find me seven bulls and seven rams’.

³⁰ Balak did as Balaam asked, and offered a holocaust of one bull and one ram on each altar.